Singles
The top four singles this week are all by female solo artists, though one features a male.
While Adele holds down the number one and four slots, Price Tag by Jessie J feat. B.o.B. remains at number two (80,568 sales) and Rihanna’s S&M jumps 6-3 (50,543 sales), improving its chart position for the fourth straight week to become her 14th top three single.
Champion by Chipmunk feat. Chris Brown ruins the chance of an all-female top five, by holding at number five (41,826 sales) just ahead of Alexis Jordan’s Good Girl, which is the week’s top debut, arriving at number six (41,109 sales).
It is the follow-up number to Jordan’s number three debut Happiness, which rallies 51-43 on its 17th chart appearance with sales of 7,328 lifting its career tally to 344,342.
The song many felt was a shoe-in for Lady GaGa’s fifth number one, Born This Way, slides to number eight (38,819 sales) after two weeks at number three.
After teetering on the brink three weeks ago, F**Kin’ Perfect finally becomes Pink’s 15th Top 10 hit, climbing 13-10 (27,102 sales).
Fifth in the BBC’s Sound Of 2011 poll and featured on Top 10 albums by Chase & Status and The Streets in the last month, Birmingham singer/songwriter Clare Maguire scores her first Top 75 single with The Last Dance debuting at number 23 (13,941 sales).
It is faring much better than her debut, Ain’t Nobody, which reached number 78 last October, and precedes her debut album, Light After Dark, which was released today (28th).
Four weeks after debuting at number 31 on the strength of downloads, former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye returns to the chart with The Roller, thanks to sales of the newly released 7-inch vinyl format.
Accounting for 3,637 (58.86%) of the track’s 6,179 sales last week, it was nevertheless only enough for the song to re-enter the list at number 51 – the band’s debut album, Different Gear, Still Speeding, which is released today (28th) will doubtless fare much better, having shipped gold (100,000). The Roller debuts at number one on the 7-inch chart, where Come Closer by Miles Kane is a distant runner-up (893 sales).
Singles sales are down 6.01% week-on-week to 3,158,621 – 9.44% above same week 2010 sales of 2,886,214.
1 Adele 114792 (250,000+)
2 Jessie J 80568 (352,764)
3 Rihanna 50543
4 Adele 41917 (342,312)
5 Chipmunk/Chris Brown 41826
6 Alexis Jordan 38319
8 Lady Gaga 38819 (182,754)
10 Pink 27102
21 Glee/Gwyneth Paltrow [SITR/Umbrella] 15807
23 Clare Maguire 13941
31 Glee/Gwyneth Paltrow [FY] 11463
34 Justin Bieber/Jaden Smith 10840
43 Alexis Jordan 7328 (344,342)
51 Beady Eye 6179
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Albums
In an historic week of chart action, Adele becomes the first female ever to have the number one and two albums simultaneously and continues to have two of the top five singles.
Adele’s 21 spends its fifth straight week atop the album chart, selling a further 173,718 copies to lift its 41-day tally to 840,457, while her 2008 debut, 19, jumps 4-2 (45,190 sales).
She becomes only the 10th act ever to have the top two albums in the same week and the first since March 1999, when The Corrs were number one with Talk On Corners and number two with Forgiven, Not Forgotten.
Prior to that, the feat was performed by Bruce Springsteen (1992), Guns ‘N’ Roses (1991), The Kids From Fame (1982), Abba (1977), Mike Oldfield (1974), The Beatles (1964), The George Mitchell Minstrels (1961 and 1962) and Elvis Presley (1958).
21 has sold upwards of 100,000 copies every week thus far. Although 20 previous albums have managed to put together runs of five straight weeks in six figure territory in the 21st century (13 of them by UK acts, five by Irish and two by American) they all did so in November/December when sales are at their highest. For an album to do it in the first quarter of the year is unprecedented not just in the 21st century but any time.
In a market increasingly dominated by the big four (Universal, Sony Music, Warner Music and EMI), Adele’s success also strikes a blow for the indie sector. Issued by XL Recordings, 21 is the first independent album to spend more than four weeks in a row at number one since 2000, when Moby’s Play – on the Mute label – also clocked up five weeks at the summit.
The first two singles from 21 also remain strong. After rocketing 47-1 last week, Someone Like You sells a further 114,792 copies to remain well ahead of the field, while Rolling In The Deep racks up its sixth straight week in the top five, holding at number four (41,917 sales).
After dashing 15-2 last week in the wake of their Brits success, Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More dips to number five – but the London folk/rock band still has reason to celebrate as the album passes a million sales domestically. Selling 27,726 copies last week, it raises its overall sales to 1,024,527. In America, where the album holds at number two, it should pass the million mark later this week – it sold 132,796 copies there last week, increasing its cumulative tally to 947,831.
Another album boosted by the Brits also crosses the million sales mark domestically – Plan B’s second album The Defamation Of Strickland Banks slips 7-8 but sold 18,866 copies to take its 46-week sales to 1,004,848 – that’s 10 times more than Plan B’s debut album, Who Needs Action When You Got Words, has sold since its 2006 release.
54 weeks into their chart career, Glee Cast have their ninth Top 40 album, with Glee – The Music: Season Two - Volume 4 debuting at number four (37,178 sales). They also lift their tally of Top 40 singles to 23, with Singing In The Rain/Umbrella and Forget You debuting at 22 (15,807 sales) and 31 (11,463 sales) respectively. Only one of the songs (Forget You) is on the album and both feature Gwyneth Paltrow as guest vocalist.
Number one in America this week, Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never: The Remixes – actually four remixes, two new tracks and a live recording – debuts here at number 17 (9,158 sales).
Released to accompany his new 3D movie, also called Never Say Never, it follows the number three success of his debut My World which, in various configurations, has sold 611,127 copies to date, and jumps 51-25 (5,972 sales) this week.
Bieber, who turns 17 tomorrow (Tuesday), has also sold nearly 1.2m singles thus far, with top tallies of 372,485 for Baby and 220,565 for Eenie Meenie – his only two Top 10 singles to date. The title track of Never Say Never sprints 49-34 (10,840 sales) and features Jaden Smith, who is making his chart debut at the age of 12, nearly three months after his sister Willow reached number two with Whip My Hair at the age of 10.
Elsewhere in the Top 40 of the artist album chart, there are new entries for Alabama’s singing siblings The Secret Sisters self-titled debut (number 29, 4,961 sales); Hunger, the debut album by retro Sunderland quintet Frankie & The Heartstrings, which is widely available for less than £5 (number 32, 4,652 sales); and We’re New Here by Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX (number 33, 4,631 sales). The latter album is essentially a remix of Scott-Heron’s 2010 album I’m New Here, by Jamie Smith Of The XX.
With new single Sunday getting radio and TV exposure, Manchester duo Hurts’ debut album Happiness rebounds 57-28 (5,393 sales) and racks up its 100,000th sale.
The Brit Awards 2011 sampler continues atop the compilation chart (15,254 sales).
Overall album sales are down 9.10% week-on-week to 1,927,009 – 0.06% above same week 2010 sales of 1,925,786.
1 Adele 178,718 (840,457)
2 Adele [19] 45190
4 Glee Cast 17178
5 Mumford & Sons 27726 (1,024,527)
8 Plan B 18866 (1,004,848)
25 Justin Bieber [My World] 5972 (611,127)
28 Hurts 5393 (100,000)
29 The Secret Sisters 4961
32 Frankie & The Heartstrings 4652
33 Gil Scot-Heron & Jaime xx 4631