This week's Official UK Singles Chart

Its sales may have taken a sharp tumble after the huge figure it posted last week, but they still hold up well enough to give the Scissor Sisters a second week at Number One with I Don't Feel Like Dancin'. It is interesting to note that they are the first truly mixed sex group to top the charts for some time with all the other groups to have topped the singles chart in 2006 (McFly, Gnarls Barkley, Orson and the Arctic Monkeys) being all-male outfits. To find a mixed sex group we have to go further back, discounting the Pussycat Dolls and Don't Cha as the male voice on the track - Busta Rhymes - was a guest star and can hardly be described as a "doll". Gorillaz with Dareare possibly the next candidates although again there are technicalities as the group officially are just Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Rosie Wilson who sang on Dare was officially just a guest collaborator rather than a full-time group member. We should even discount Band Aid 20 for being a charity collaboration, so the last truly mixed sex group to top the singles charts were 3 Of A Kind with Babycakes way back in 2004. Let the arguments begin...

As was rather more widely expected the big new winner of the shop releases this week is Fergie's London Bridge which soars from 25 last week to land slap bang at Number 3, missing out on a Top 2 slot only thanks to the continuing strong sales of Justin Timberlake with SexyBack. Counting her work with the Black Eyed Peas, it ranks as her 8th Top 10 single although it is, of course, her first ever solo track.

The story of the music industry this autumn is that of eagerly-awaited new albums from some of the big breakthrough groups of the last couple of years. We've already seen the effect this can have on the singles chart with Razorlight storming the Top 3 earlier in the summer with their lead single In The Morning. Now it is the turn of The Killers whose debut album Hot Fuss took a little while to catch alight here but which finally did so in style, eventually spawning a Top 3 hit with the re-released Somebody Told Me in early 2005. New album Sam's Town is set for release at the start of October and to herald it the track When You Were Young has become the first single. To general amazement, the single has flown out of the traps with its online sales helping it to a spectacular Number 5 debut this week. Given that it is a very unusual download indeed that doesn't increase its sales and thus chart position when retail units are added into the equation, there aren't many other places that When You Were Young can go...

This week marks a rare clean sweep of the Top 5 for transatlantic acts with the Scissor Sisters, Justin, Fergie and The Killers hailing from the States and Nelly Furtado flying the flag for Canada. The highest charting UK act this week is Robbie Williams whose Rudebox dips two places to Number 4.

Also squeaking into the Top 10, although rather narrowly than was expected is Jamelia with Something About You which flies 28-10. This may not be totally the end of the story as we've seen in previous weeks, the singles that stand the best chance of climbing further into the Top 10 are those which narrowly miss out the first time around or which land on the very cusp. Nonetheless, for her big comeback single it has not quite made the splash that was expected of it. Hardcore fans will also keenly point out that the first single from her last album was the Number 37 flop Digga in 2003, a single which was swiftly followed by the global smash hit Superstar. She is nothing if not a slow starter.

The second biggest new hit of the week creeps in at Number 21, veteran Irish star Daniel O'Donnell clocking up yet another hit in his long and distinguished yet still very uncool chart career. Crush On You actually marks his Top 40 comeback after almost three years, his last chart single coming at the end of 2003 when You Raise Me Up made Number 22 (beating Westlife's version to the chart by two years). The peak of this latest single means he still lacks a 21st century Top 20 hit, his last entry into the upper reaches coming at Christmas 1999 when A Christmas Kiss reached the magic Number 20. To date, he has only managed one Top 10 single - Give A Little Love climbing to Number 7 in April 1998.

Finally, for this week there is a fun oddity at the very bottom end of the Top 40 in the shape of a single that is about to do some very strange things. When The Night Feels My Song first peaked at Number 24 for Canadian reggae stars Bedouin Soundclash more or less exactly a year ago. It was a disappointing placing for what is let's face it a rather wonderful single. Despite the lack of mainstream success the track remained their defining performance and was earlier this summer picked up by T-Mobile for a TV advert. This exposure, coupled with their well-received festival performances over the last month has sent online sales of the track soaring, and with the single still being within the 52-week limit they have remained chart eligible - hence its appearance at Number 40 this week.

That isn't the end of the story though for the track is actually due for a formal re-release on October 2nd, more or less exactly a year since its original issue. This will mean that no matter where it was the previous week, on the chart covering the week of 24-30 September When The Night Feels My Song will suddenly be listed as a new entry as the online sales take on the catalogue number of the re-released single. You may remember a similar situation occurred in September 2005 when I Predict A Riot by the Kaiser Chiefs re-entered the Top 40 in anticipation of a formal re-issue only to appear as a brand new entry when the new single hit the shops.

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