This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

It has been a funny sort of week, one which started out with the prospect that very little new movement would take place on the singles chart, but which turned out to have its fair share of surprises - and needless to say TV was a factor once more.

We'll start at the top of the singles chart and with a three way battle that ended with a rather unexpected result. Although it started the week strongly, last week's Number One single Dirtee Disco from Dizzee Rascal began to fade fast, leaving it looking extremely likely that the B.o.B. single Nothin' On You would make a triumphant return to the top. In the event the American rapper is beaten to the punch himself by a Frenchman who for most of the week appeared to be contending for a Top 5 place at the very best.

So step forward then David Guetta who makes a flying leap to the very top of the charts with Gettin' Over You, a track whose genesis is as strange as the path the single has taken to the top of the table. To explain: the single began life as Gettin' Over, featuring on Guetta's 2009 album One Love and featuring the vocals of Chris Willis. Released as a digital single last summer the track failed to catch fire in the UK, mainly due to the fact that When Love Takes Over and Sexy Chick had become the hit singles instead, with both riding high in the charts at the time. Its surprise reappearance comes thanks to a new version (now retitled Gettin' Over You) which adds vocals from both Fergie and LMFAO to the still intact Chris Willis chorus line and ahead of its inclusion on a new deluxe version of One Love, the single has now shot to the top of the UK charts.

However there is a fun twist. Such was the anticipation for the new version of the single that enough downloads of the original version were made to ensure the single popped up at Number 41 on the chart last week, a far cry from the Number 86 which it originally peaked at back in August 2009. Due to the chart rules which count remixes as alternative versions of the same musical product, Gettin' Over You is not listed as the new entry it theoretically should have been, but instead inherits the chart history of the original mix - hence the rather startling 41-1 leap made by the single this week. In years gone by such a feat would have been a headline maker, but as regular readers of these pages will be aware, the 73-1 leap by Pixie Lott's Girls And Boys in September last year has kind of rewritten the chart records for huge climbs to Number One. Nonetheless it is worth noting that Gettin' Over You is only the third single in chart history to climb to Number One from outside the Top 40, and perhaps technically only the second given the debate that still rages over DJ Otzi's Hey Baby in September 2001.

It means that Gettin' Over You is the third Number One single for the French producer, following his brace of chart-toppers last year with the aforementioned When Love Takes Over and Sexy Chick. Longtime Guetta collaborator Chris Willis has seen his patience rewarded - Gettin' Over You is no less than the fourth Guetta single on which he has received a vocal credit and indeed his fifth chart hit in collaboration with the Frenchman thanks to his turn on 2003 single Just A Little More Love for which he supplied an uncredited vocal line. Fergie can finally claim a Number One single outside of the Black Eyed Peas, this track beating the Number 2 peak scaled by her own Big Girls Don't Cry in June 2007 whilst LMFAO has the biggest hit of his [no, it's a 'they'] own brief chart career to date, the rapper having previously charted alongside Chucky on Let The Bass Kick In Miami Girl which made Number 9 in December 2009.

So what of the big chart influencing TV event of the week. Well it wasn't so much Eurovision - we'll come to that later - but instead the week-long run of the live finals of Britain's Got Talent which has in the past spawned some rather unexpected spin off hit singles thanks to the competing performers. What counted most this week however were the interval acts, those star guests who performed on the show whilst the results were being verified, with several of the guests during the week experiencing dramatic surges in sales for the singles that they performed.

Leading the chart was Alicia Keys whose current single Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart had not been doing so badly up until now but which last week spent a second locked at Number 13, apparently with little chance of making the Top 10. That was until she appeared on the second semi final show on Tuesday, performing the single and watching its sales experience a sudden spike. It was enough to lift Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart out of the doldrums and the single this week sits pretty at Number 7, her fifth Top 10 single in a row and the 8th of her career.

Also appearing was Miley Cyrus who was Thursday night's guest and so did not have quite as much time for her single to make an impact. Nonetheless the change in her fortunes during the week was quite dramatic. By the midweek update on Wednesday lunchtime her new single Can't Be Tamed was languishing just outside the Top 20 but her BGT appearance a day later sent her sales soaring, enough to ensure the single spent the rest of the week tucked inside the iTunes Top 10 and enough to land her the 13th biggest selling single of the week. All eyes are now on whether the track can go one stage further and give the permanently chirpy teen star her first ever Top 10 hit single. To date she has peaked at Number 11 on three separate occasions, most recently with Party In The USA at the tail end of last year.

Curiously Miley Cyrus still fared better than the lady who preceded her on the show during the week - Pixie Lott being the Wednesday night special guest performing her own single Turn It Up. Already two weeks old, the track had so far struggled to gain a Top 40 toehold and had sat at Number 48 last week. Her Britain's Got Talent appearance has helped the single to a new peak of Number 25 from where it seems likely to wind up as her lowest charting hit to date.

Turning to the album chart briefly and although it looked at one stage that Michael Buble's Crazy Love might be set for a return to the top of the charts for the first time since Christmas, he eventually loses out to the hottest new release of the week - To The Sea from Jack Johnson. It is the third Number One album from the Hawaiian singer-songwriter, adding to his debut In Between Dreams in 2005 and his last offering from 2008 Sleep Through The Static. Johnson is one of those strange acts who shifts a respectable amount of album product but who remains a virtual unknown as far as the singles charts are concerned. He has just two Top 40 hits to his name to date, the biggest of which was 2006 single Better Together which peaked at Number 24.

With the anniversary of D-Day upon us once again this week it comes as little surprise to see that military and Second World War themed albums made some of the biggest sales moves of the week. Military band the RAF Squadronaires have the second highest new entry of the week with In The Mood, a collection of their recordings from the Glenn Miller songbook. In direct competition was the late bandleader himself with a new The Very Best Of compilation landing just behind at Number 12. A quick look back at some of the Miller compilations to have charted in the past indicates that he has seen collections of his music released under just about every name possible. Thus The Very Best Of joins past works such as The Best Of, The Unforgettable, The Ultimate and indeed his last chart album from 2003 - The Definitive Collection. The Very Best of this week is the highest charting Glenn Miller album since The Ultimate Glenn Miller made Number 11 back in March 1993.

Also new on the album chart is B.o.B. with his long player The Adventures Of Bobby Ray (Bobby Ray being his real name), its appearance helping enormously the singles chart fortunes of Nothin' On You and its near return to the top of the charts. The album also sees its second most popular track Airplanes make a strong debut at Number 23 this week. Featuring the vocals of Paramore star and celebrated Twitpic contributor Hayley Williams, the track has already been a radio hit in America and is almost certain to become the album's second commercially released single on these shores.

So what then of Eurovision? Well in truth the chart impact of the annual pan-European song contest broadcast the weekend before last has been rather more muted this year than in the past. As you might expect the biggest splash is made by the winning song Satellite from German singer Lena which debuts at Number 30 - short by some considerable distance of the Number 10 scaled by 2009 winner Alexander Rybak with Fairytale. The next highest charting Eurovision song is the French entry Allez Ole Ole which languishes at Number 81 for its performer Jessy Matator, with Belgian entry Me And My Guitar from Tom Dice next in line at Number 85. Of the British entry That Sounds Good To Me from Josh Dubovie there is no sign in the Top 100, the last placed track receiving even less love from British record buyers than it did the voters of Europe. Heck, even Andy Abraham's Even If which also came dead last in 2008 made Number 67 that year.

Anticipation for the World Cup may be reaching fever pitch amongst football fans but music buyers appear lukewarm about the tournament for the moment. As the new 2010 version of 3 Lions continues to plummet down the charts and even K'Naan's waving flag stalls at Number 16, it is left to some golden oldies to show the most chart momentum. 1990 World Cup song World In Motion (now oddly credited just to New Order rather than the EnglandNewOrder contraction that was originally attached to the single) sits at Number 46 this week whilst what I presume is the original 1996 version of 3 Lions charts at Number 53. Things could well change over the next couple of weeks as the tournament gets underway, with several more semi-official England supporting songs set to be released, but nonetheless the lack of any "official" World Cup track has meant a lack of promotional focus. Every man and his dog may have attempted to make a World Cup song this time around, but for now it seems less than likely that any will make any significant chart impact.

Finally for this week what about two older singles which make odd comebacks towards the bottom end of the Top 75? TV commercials strike again here, with 1970s Dutch Prog Rock group Focus back on the chart with their 1973 single Hocus Pocus at Number 57 thanks to its use as the soundtrack to the Nike "write the future" TV commercial. One place below at Number 58 is Beggin from Madcon which bizarrely seems to have charted thanks to its use in trailers for a new ITV1 World Cup show starring James Corden. By an odd concidence Madcon have two chart entries this week with maybe the biggest surprise being that Glow is only on the chart at Number 70. The track was performed by the duo during the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest in a seven minute version which featured dancing flashmobs from all over Europe. Call me strange if you like, but I came away with the impression that Glow was the best song performed during the whole show. Odd then that it did not wind up as a bigger hit - it worked wonders for the Hothouse Flowers back in 1988 after all.