This week's Official UK Singles Chart
The physical release of some long-standing chart hits causes a minor upheaval on the singles chart this week as the currents of change finally start to ripple through the Top 10. Most significantly it results finally in a changing of the guard at the very top as Mika's five week run with Grace Kelly' is brought to a halt. As expected his conquerors are the Kaiser Chiefs who after a fortnight at Number 2 finally get the surge they needed to see Ruby become the UK's Number One single. Two years and three months after they first made the Top 40, the Leeds band get their first ever chart topping single, setting them up nicely for the release this week of their second album Yours Truly, Angry Mob from which Ruby is the lead track. Ruby has of course been available on CD for a couple of weeks now and indeed it was only a seven-inch vinyl format that hit the shops this week. Although the single increased its sales slightly, its rise to Number One comes thanks to Grace Kelly running out of steam rather than a dramatic boost in sales. Whilst the most notable effect of the 2007 chart rules has been to see a slew of singles make good old fashioned steady climbs up the chart, it is rather surprising to note that the only two singles to top the charts since the rules were introduced both began their chart careers inside the Top 3.
The arrival of their physicals plays nicely into the hands of Kelis and Cee Lo as they make a flying leap up the chart. Having slipped a couple of places to Number 15 last week, Lil Star surges back up the charts with the assistance of CD sales and reaches a brand new peak of Number 3. The single is Kelis' fourth Top 3 hit, her first to climb this high since she hit Number 3 with the Andre 3000 duet Millionaire at the end of 2004. That single came at the end of a year when both Milkshake and Trick Me had also both made Number 2 to make it her most successful year to date. Her partner in crime on this single is Gnarls Barkley singer Cee Lo who thus has his biggest chart hit since he performed on Crazy last year.
The Fray's album How To Save A Life was finally given a physical re-release last week and it arrives at Number 4 on the album chart as the highest new entry of the week. This has done nothing to dent the upward progress of its title track on the singles chart though and it reverses the fall it experienced last week to move 7-5 to notch up its highest chart placing to date.
Indeed reversing of previous falls appears to be something of a chart theme this week. The highest climber on the Top 40 is Sophie Ellis-Bextor with Catch You. A CD release helps her comeback single soar 24-8 after a wobble which saw its download sales drop sufficiently to dump the single out of the Top 20. Panic over, it becomes her biggest hit single since Mixed Up World made Number 7 in late 2003 and becomes her sixth Top 10 hit single solo, her seventh if you count her uncredited lead vocal on Groovejet by Spiller which topped the chart in the summer of 2000. It seems like another lifetime away.
Take That's former Number One Patience is finally outsold by its follow-up this week as Shine moves 11-10 to give the "boy" band their 14th straight Top 10 single and the 15th of their career. Needless to say, a jump into the Top 3 is more or less assured next week as the physical version of the single finally arrives in the shops.
One place behind them is Justin Timberlake with What Goes Around Comes Around which has now moved 59-44-29-14-11 since it first appeared on the Top 75. The single still has one more week of download-only sales before it appears physically and Top 10 is a fairly safe bet for next week.
Standing In The Way Of Control spends its final week as a download only single by moving 17-13 to register its highest peak to date. No doubt boosted by its sudden popularity as a backing track for TV promos (thank you Channel 4 and your 'Skins' promos) it too looks a safe bet for a Top 10 placing next week.
The release of a CD single finally helps to turn Beyonce's Listen into something approximating a respectable hit single. After a promising start, the track had seen its online sales slip away somewhat and indeed last week the track tumbled out of the Top 40 altogether, slipping to Number 51. This week the single soars to Number 16, effectively becoming the highest new entry on the Top 40 but it will still rank as Beyonce's worst performing solo single to date. Her only other solo release to miss the Top 10 was Me Myself And I which hit Number 11 in early 2004.
The highest "new" entry (as opposed to a re-entry) inside the Top 40 this week lands at Number 20. A rare example of an act reworking his own track, Belgian-Italian producer Junior Jack first released Stupidisco back in 2004. A sizeable club hit at the time, the single only reached Number 26 and was at the time just another in a long line of rather middling chart hits the producer had created. His only real success had come a year earlier when as Room 5 he had topped the chart with Make Luv. Nonetheless, Stupidisco lived on as a turntable hit, prompting the artist to have another go at the track. Now with a brand new vocal from Shena (previously the voice of Michael Gray's The Weekend) and retitled Dare Me (Stupidisco) the single arrives in the Top 20 with a physical release after landing at Number 64 on downloads last week. Not that the door is totally closed to club hits at the moment, but despite the word of mouth praise, this is as far as Junior Jack is going to get with what is at the very least his first ever Top 20 single under this particular alias.
Into the category of "future hits to watch out for" we can put Fergie and Glamorous. The single is actually only her second solo Top 40 hit after the massive London Bridge last year. Fergalicious was made into a single but was download-only in this country and thus under the old rules was never eligible for the main chart. This new single will hit the shops on March 19 which should hopefully mean its Number 27 placing this week is just the start of better things to come. Also new are The Killers with Read My Mind, the third single lifted from the Sam's Town album (although since the release of Bones they have also released the one-off Christmas song A Great Big Sled which was a download only single last December). Read My Mind enters the Top 40 at Number 29 just ahead of its CD version which arrives in the shops this week.
As if to prove just how far the market has swung away from big sales for brand new hits, the highest brand new chart entry arrives as low down as Number 36. This Is A Song from the Magic Numbers has that particular honour although as a combined release it stands little chance of moving any further. The same can be said for What Would Steve Do by Mumm-Ra which is the second biggest new single of the week - all the way down at Number 40.
