This week's Official UK Singles Chart

"Kate Nash, set to hit Number One this Sunday with her single Foundations…" wrote just about every showbiz columnist in the land during last week. Wonderful thing hindsight. In actual fact the sales patterns at the top end of the chart pretty much mirrored those of seven days ago, Kate Nash maintaining a slender lead over the competition before finally relinquishing bragging rights to Timbaland come the weekend. So it is that The Way I Are notches up a second week at Number One with Foundations reduced to yet another week in the runners up slot. For the benefit of those who missed last weeks column due to Yahoo's ftp servers electing to sit on it until late in the week, I'll restate the point that in this writer's humble opinion this is actually the correct state of affairs. For all its charm, Foundations is a great Number 2 record and thoroughly deserves that status. The Way I Are on the other hand has Number One smash written all over it, a far far better track than Give It To Me and one which works both as an R&B anthem but also as an incredibly good pop record that continues to sound great no matter how many car stereos you hear it blasting from.

With Umbrella sliding a further place to Number 4, it is left to Fergie and Big Girls Don't Cry to make up the Top 3, her single moving back up one place after a fortnight at Number 4. The single peaked at Number 2 three weeks ago and you would not put it past equalling that peak again given the lack of immediate competition.

That said, we do have a genuine new chart contender in the shape of a smash hit single entering at Number 5 on the singles chart this week. Those of us who have spent the summer waiting for a release for the likes of Lucky Twice and Sonny Jim will take some joy in noting that just for a change Popjustice have tipped a record which has turned into the massive hit it deserved to be.

Swedish star Robyn isn't a total unknown on these shores. She had a brief flowering of fame in the late 90s, scoring her biggest hit in March 1998 when Show Me Love reached Number 8. After that her career went into the usual pop star freefall, recording material that was beyond her, finding the label losing interest and dropping her etc. She also fell back on the usual final desperate throw of the dice, the do it yourself "self-released label" method, but amazingly on this occasion, the tactic has worked a treat and she finds herself once again one of Europe's hottest names in music. The source of this is her latest album Robyn which was first released in her home country two years ago and now finds itself promoted internationally in a slightly revised version. Her first UK single in almost a decade Konichiwa Bitches stiffed miserably back in the spring but now the sparkling club anthem With Every Heartbeat storms to Number 5 on download sales to become her biggest ever hit single. In a chart which has seemed frustratingly stagnant for the last few weeks, it arrives as a breath of fresh air, its nagging, insistent rhythm and under the skin lyrics making it a grower in every sense of the word. With physical sales set to be added to the mix next week, Number One looks a strong possibility if not a racing certainty.

Mind you, she isn't the only Top 10 new arrival. On the climb is Newton Faulkner who moves 16-7 with Dream Catch Me, thus completely blowing out the water my theory that the release of his album would kill off the chances of the single. Said album Hand Built By Robots debuts at Number 3 this week and also spawns a second chart single, Track 7 Teardrop selling enough in its own right to register at Number 75. Also on the rise are American balladeers Plain White T's with Hey There Delilah which is now a Top 10 single at Number 10 after a 16 place climb. Number One in the States, the single is still charting here on download sales alone and for the moment remains locked in for a September 3rd physical release by which time you suspect it will be Top 3.

Now it wouldn't be August without a summertime dance smash and one is duly provided by Yves Larock. Rise Up crept to Number 39 on download sales last week and now with a physical release soars to Number 13 where I suspect it will end up peaking. Still, the single is well worth checking out, not least for the skipping rope choreography in the video.

"New" at Number 17 (although it actually reached Number 77 digitally last week) is Beyonce's latest single Green Light. Officially the follow-up to Number One smash Beautiful Liar it is, for those keeping count the fifth single to be taken from the B'Day album (the run of singles being interrupted earlier this year by Listen which was taken from the Dreamgirls soundtrack). For this reason, the rather lowly chart placing of the single isn't too much of a surprise and perhaps sensibly it will not be a full physical release, this chart surge being as a result of a digital bundle which arrived online last week. Although you cannot rule out the single creeping still further up the Top 20, for the moment it will rank as her smallest ever solo hit single, landing, for now, one place below the Number 16 peak of Listen back in March.

The new entry at Number 22 on physical sales Pussyole (Old Skool) returns Dizzee Rascal to the chart for the second time this year, the single the follow-up to Sirens which made Number 20 back in June. His third album Maths And English is currently holding a nomination for this year's Mercury Music Prize, his career thus following the usual pattern of widespread critical acclaim without ever quite managing full blown mainstream success. He'll continue to win praise for the depth of his material and the quality of his work but with singles hovering just around the Top 20 he seems to lack the final push that will turn him into a full blown star, which is actually something of a pity.

Now at this point, things get a little weird. Last week of course Green Day landed themselves a Top 30 hit single with their short but sweet rendition of the Simpsons theme as a result of exposure in the newly released film of the legendary cartoon series, along the way landing themselves the honour of having one of the shortest hit singles of all time. This week the Simpsons film spawns a hit single that shatters that record once and for all. Best known for his soundtracks to the 'Pirates Of The Carribbean' franchise, composer Hans Zimmer was engaged to produce a series of musical cues for the film and these are compiled together on the official soundtrack album for the film. Bizarrely it is one of those which as a result of mass downloading now arrives on the singles chart. Track 14, Spider Pig is just 64 seconds long but this week lands at Number 24 to become far and away the briefest track ever to become a UK hit. I've yet to discern just why this particular track has become such a cult favourite, but given that the film has been 18 years in the making and is breaking box office records all over the place, it seems only appropriate that its influence should be felt outside the visual world. Heck, Spider Pig even outsells the Green Day track which slips to Number 26.

So what is your guess for Number One next week? Timbaland? Robyn? Or will the masses of Simpsons fans online club together and send Bart's Doodle towards the top of the chart? That's Track 11 by the way, and it is only 61 seconds long.