14/11/2010 - The Gift is early Christmas present for Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle, the forty-nine-year-old Scottish singing sensation who shot to prominence in last year’s Britain’s Got Talent, is back at the top of the Official Albums Chart this week as her Christmas themed album The Gift leap straight to number one, the Official Charts Company confirms today.
The Gift features tracks as diverse as Lou Reed’s Perfect Day and the traditional Christmas carol Away In A Manger. The album also features Do You Hear What I Hear a duet with thirty-three year old single mother of three and paramedic Amber Stassi from upstate New York, the winner of a worldwide ‘Susan-Search’ on YouTube in which unknown singers were encouraged to send in videos of themselves singing.
“Amber’s been struggling to bring up her family,” says Boyle, “I wanted so much to give her the opportunity for people to see what she can do.”
Boyle herself started 2009 as an unknown and ended the year with her debut album I Dreamed A Dream recording the biggest first week sales for a debut album in chart history and becoming the fastest-selling global debut of all time. I Dreamed A Dream was number one in no less than 21 countries and was he UK’s biggest album of the year after just six weeks in the shops. Worldwide sales are now some 10 million.
Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says, “It is a great achievement by Susan Boyle, who has now scored two Official number one albums in the UK in less than 12 months – not bad for someone who was unknown outside of her home village little over 18 months ago. The Gift is one of the first big albums of Christmas, which is now just a few weeks away, and is sure to sell right the way through the festive period.”
A delighted Susan Boyle said: “Thank you to everyone who has supported me all this time – my dreams just keep coming true.”
There are just two other new entries in this week’s Official Albums Chart Top 10: James Blunt’s third album Some Kind Of Trouble, which follows his previous number one albums All The Lost Souls (2007) and Back To Bedlam (2005), is straight in at number four and Cee Lo Green’s solo debut album The Lady Killer, which includes his recent number one single Forget You (Oct 2010), is straight in at number ten. Cee Lo had two previous hit albums as one half of Gnarls Berkley, the number one St Elsewhere (2006) and the Top 20 The Odd Couple (2008).
In the Official Singles Chart, Rihanna holds firm at number one for a second week with Only Girl (In The World) denying Take That a twelfth number one single with The Flood, which is a new entry at number two and the band’s sixteenth Top 5 hit single. The Flood is Take That’s first single for over fifteen years with their original line-up complete and comes from forthcoming album Progress which is released next week. Earlier this month, ticket sales for next year’s Progress tour broke all records to secure Progress as the fastest and biggest selling tour in UK history.
Elsewhere in the Official Singles Chart Top 10, McFly secure their fifteenth Top 5 hit with Shine A Light feat Taio Cruz straight in at number four while Adele’s Make You Feel My Love is a re-entry at number nine this week, up from last week’s number nineteen, having featured on last weekend’s X Factor, performed by Rebecca Ferguson. The track which first entered the Official Singles Chart at number twenty-six in 2008, peaked at number four in October this year, again having been featured on X Factor.
Source: OCC
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Singles
Five weeks after reaching number two with Shame, Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams are singles chart runners-up again – this time with their Take That colleagues on The Flood, the introductory single from their new album Progress, which drops today (Monday).
After nosing ahead of the first midweek sales flash, The Flood dipped to number two behind reigning champ Rihanna’s Only Girl (In The World), eventually selling 69,483 copies, compared to its rival’s 93,426. With Take That’s Robbie reunion album Progress and Rihanna’s Loud both released today (15th), expect the same two acts to be battling for album chart supremacy a week hence.
McFly have seven number one singles to their credit, Taio Cruz has two – but the combination of the two acts delivers only a number four debut (51,236 sales) for Shine A Light, the introductory single from McFly’s fifth album, Above The Noise, which is out today (15th).
Katy Perry’s Firework looked like it might fizzle out early when it dipped 5-6 on its second week on the chart but it has since recovered, climbing first to number four, then to number three. It sold 55,627 copies last week, lifting its career tally to 216,051. Parent album Teenage Dream rebounds 12-9, with sales of 23,523 – its best return for nine weeks. It has sold 234,655 copies since its release in September.
X Factor exposure helps second season winner Shayne Ward’s Gotta Be Somebody to debut at number 12 (35,928 sales), while current contestant Rebecca Ferguson’s performance of Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love – a song also performed in the current run by Katie Waissel, Gamu Nhengu and Anastassia Baker – on the show eight days ago provide a further boost for Adele’s version, which rebounds 19-9 (43,842 sales), while Matt Cardle’s performance of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face brings Roberta Flack’s version of the song – number 14 in 1972 – back at number 47 (6,202 sales).
More surprisingly, despite a guest slot on the Sunday X Factor results show eight days ago, Kylie Minogue makes a lowly number 67 debut (3,324 sales) with Better Than Today, the third single from current album Aphrodite. In its defence, the song is only just beginning to pick up airplay (it debuts at number 131 on the radio airplay chart this week) and is still three weeks away from physical release.
The Time (Dirty Bit), Black Eyed Peas’ bast*rdisation of I’ve Had The Time Of My Life, debuts at number 11 (37,563 sales), while Pink’s 21st hit, Raise Your Glass is new at number 13 (33,201 sales), and Jamaican reggae singer Gyptian’s first hit, Hold You, enters at number 16 (23,638 sales).
The Royal British Legion’s 2 Minutes Silence – ‘released’ to mark Remembrance Sunday – debuts this week at number 20 (16,057 sales). Although the first hit to feature neither words or music, it isn’t technically silent - it contains ambient background noise.
Continuing the oddball theme, 46 years after Um Um Um Um Um Um was a hit for Major Lance (number 40) and Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders (number five), there’s a new champion in the category of most repetitive title of a hit – it’s Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na), the 11th hit by US rockers My Chemical Romance, which debuts this week at number 31 (9,722 sales).
Overall singles sales dip 1.55% week-on-week to 2,808,757 – 7.32% above same week 2009 sales of 2,617,259.
1 Rihanna 93426 (Total: 354,579)
2 Take That 69484
3 Katy Perry 55627
4 McFly 51236
5 Alexis Jordan 45503 (Total: 105,656)
9 Adele 43842
10 Cee Lo Green 38439 (395,105)
11 Black Eyed Peas 37654
12 Shayne Ward 35928
13 P!nk 33201
16 Gyptian 23638
20 The Royal British Legion 16057
26 James Blunt 11463
31 My Chemical Romance 9722
46 Roll Deep/Alesha Dixon 6602
47 Roberta Flack 6202
50 Nadine 5288
67 Kylie Minogue 3324
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Albums
Female solo stars top the charts for the second week in a row, with Rihanna’s Only Girl (In The World) remaining atop the singles chart, while Susan Boyle secures her second number one album in less than a year, as The Gift succeeds Cheryl Cole’s Messy Little Raindrops.
Although first week sales of 102,993 are barely a quarter of the 411,820 sales that earned 49-year-old Boyle’s debut, I Dreamed A Dream, pole position 50 weeks ago, The Gift easily defeated Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits, which holds at number two on sales of 59,267 copies. Containing covers of Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over, The Gift otherwise concentrates on covers of Christmas and New Year favourites.
After debuting last week at number one, Messy Little Raindrops, dips to number three (52,402 sales) for Cheryl Cole – but it sold considerably better than her Girls Aloud colleague Nadine Coyle’s debut solo album, Insatiable. That album, which is available physically only from Tesco, arrives at number 47 (5,450 sales), while its title track dips 26-50 (5,289 sales).
James Blunt’s debut album, Back To Bedlam, racked up just 482 copies and failed to chart the week it was released in 2004 - but it reached number one 37 weeks later and is the number one album of the 21st century, with 3,211,040 sales to close of business on Saturday. Blunt’s follow-up, All The Lost Souls, debuted at number one on sales of 117,966 in 2007, and has thus far sold 756,845 copies. With introductory single Stay The Night improving 32-26 (11,463 sales), Blunt’s third album, Some Kind Of Trouble, debuts at number four (40,637 sales).
Arriving five weeks after introductory single Forget You topped the chart, Cee Lo Green’s album The Lady Killer debuts at number 10 (22,208 sales). Forget You slips 6-10, though sales of 38,439 lift its overall tally to 395,105
See My Friends is the title of Ray Davies’ latest album, and on it The Kinks’ leader is joined on versions of his group’s songs by contemporary and classic collaborators, including Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Jackson Browne, Mumford & Sons and Paloma Faith. Coming a year after The Kinks Choral Collection - a number 28 album on which he also performed Kinks classics with The Crouch End Festival Chorus - it debuts at number 12 (20,523 sales) to earn him his highest chart placing since The Kinks’ Sunny Afternoon reached number nine in 1967.
33 years after his death, Elvis Presley racks up his second Top 20 album of the year, debuting at number 19 (14,088 sales) with Viva Elvis. The album, which puts classic Presley vocals in new settings, is the soundtrack to Cirque Du Soleil’s Las Vegas show about the late rocker, and provides his 109th chart entry – a record for any act.
There are simultaneous debuts this week for both the oldest male and female groups ever to chart. Calling them ‘groups’ is probably actionable, but the seven man Chelsea Pensioners, who debut at number 14 (16,524 sales) with Men In Scarlet, have an average age of 78, while the 24 singing nuns, who make up The Benedictine Nuns Of Abbaye Notre Dame De L’Annonciation, are more coy about their ages. Although their Mother Superior is only 44, some of them are over 80, and their average age is evidently over 60. Their Gregorian chants album Voices: Chant From Avignon debuts at number 24 (10,282 sales).
Elsewhere in a busy week for debuts, disparate compilations from Jay-Z (The Hits Collection Volume 1) and Tom Jones (Greatest Hits Rediscovered) debut at 20 (12,970 sales) and 49 (5,357 sales) respectively, while an expanded version of The Jam’s 1980 classic number two album Sound Affects charts at number 53 (4,355 sales).
Roll Deep return to the chart courtesy of fourth studio album Winner Stays On but they might have expected it to debut higher than number 55 (4,870 sales). Good Times and Green Light - the first two singles from the album – both reached number one earlier this year and sold more than 500,000 copies between them but the album’s subdued arrival reflects the misfiring third single, Take Control (feat. Alesha Dixon), which dips 29-46 (6,602 sales) on its second chart week.
On the compilation chart, the new number one is Clubland 18 – the 21st number one for the AATW/UMTV series since its inception eight years ago – on sales of 30,481 copies.
Overall album sales are up 2.35% week-on-week at 2,325,778 – their highest level for 35 weeks, but, worryingly, 20.23% below same week 2009 sales of 2,915,592.
1 Susan Boyle 102993
2 Bon Jovi 59266
3 Cheryl Cole 52403
4 James Blunt 40637
5 Michael Buble 32713
10 Cee Lo Green 22208
12 Ray Davies 20523
14 Chelsea Pensioners 16524
19 Elvis Presley 14088
20 Jay-Z 12970
24 The Benedictine Nuns 10282
47 Nadine 5288
49 Tom Jones 5357
55 Roll Deep 4870
63 Jam 4355
To Date Albums
James Blunt - Back To Bedlam 3,211,040
