Singles
Number one for the second week in a row, and the fifth time in all – equaling the 2011 record set by Adele’s Someone Like You, which also had two bites of the cherry – We Found Love sold a further 66,941 copies last week for Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris, raising its cumulative sales to 601,132. It is the 12th single to sell more than 600,000 copies so far this year.
For the second time in 10 weeks Swedish DJ Avicii – Tim Bergling – is largely responsible for a top five smash sampling one of his dance hits. In September, Leona Lewis’ Collide reached number four. It was built around a sample from Avicii’s Penguin, whose own title acknowledged its debt to The Penguin Café Orchestra’s Perpetuum Mobile. Avicii was given a joint credit on the Lewis single. Making an even bigger impact this week, Flo Rida’s Good Feeling dashes to a number two debut (61,905 sales), and includes a songwriting credit for Avicii to acknowledge its use of his track Levels. That – and Good Feeling – are both prodded by a vocal sample from the a cappella intro to Etta James’ 1962 recording Something’s Got A Hold On Me, and acknowledge their debt by giving James and her co-writers Leroy Kirkland and Pearl Woods a credit.
Meanwhile, The Saturdays – who collaborated with Flo Rida for Higher, a number 10 hit a year ago – were looking for their 11th Top 10 single in 12 attempts with My Heart Takes Over but can only debut at number 15 (23,073 sales).
Although ahead in the early midweek sales flashes following their performance of it on The X Factor results show eight days ago, One Direction’s second single, Gotta Be You, never looked like matching the impact of their debut hit, What Makes You Beautiful, which arrived nine weeks ago with sales of 153,965 – the highest of any single any week this year. Fading fast throughout the week, Gotta Be You sold 59,461 copies, to debut at number three.
Lady GaGa’s Born This Way album surrenders its sixth Top 40 hit in nine months as Marry The Night debuts at number 18 (19,971 sales).
The Collective debut at number 24 (14,756 sales) with Teardrop. The Massive Attack cover is the official BBC Children In Need song for 2011, and features an all-star ensemble put together by Gary Barlow. Its members include Wretch 32, Ed Sheeran, Labrinth, Tulisa, Tinchy Stryder, Rizzle Kicks, Ms. Dynamite, Chipmunk, Mz Bratt and Dot Rotten. Six of the 19 previous official Children In Need singles have reached number one, including JLS offering Love You More, which topped the list exactly a year ago.
Under the guise of Slow Moving Millie, singer/actress Amelia Warner's cover of The Smiths' Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want is the fourth cover commissioned by high street chain John Lewis to make the Top 40 in two years. Ellie Goulding reached number two last November with her cover of Elton John’s Your Song, specially recorded as a bed for John Lewis’ 2010 Christmas TV campaign; Taken By Trees’ cover version of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine - used for the Christmas 2009 campaign - reached number 23; and Guillemots singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s specially-recorded version of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman To Me reached number seven in May 2010. Slow Moving Millie's Please, Please, Please... debuts at number 36 (8,878 sales) while The Smiths’ original – the flipside of 1985 single William, Is Was Really Nothing – also enters the Top 200 for the first time, at number 121 (2,322 sales).
The title track from Jessie J’s debut album Who You Are is the fifth Top 40 song from the set, and jumps 59-28 (13,142 sales), while the album itself moves 28-20 (15,052 sales).
Despite a flurry of promotional activity, Lighthouse - Westlife's first single since their announcement that they are to disband - fails to shine, debuting at number 32 (11,006 sales). It seems likely to break their string of 25 consecutive Top 10 hits, dating back to their 1999 debut (excluding Back Home album track I'm Already There, which reached number 62 without being accorded full singles release).
Although they are back in the Top 40 for the first time since June, Glee Cast have had very little success with their singles since Glee switched from E4/Channel 4 to Sky, with just two of 29 songs they have released from the six episodes of the current series making the Top 75: You Can't Stop The Beat reached number 70 eight weeks ago, and Adele medley Rumour Has It/Someone Like You debuts at number 35 this week (0,278 sales). Overall, Glee Cast has had 30 Top 40 hits, 95 Top 75 hits and 205 Top 200 entries in a tad under two years, attracting sales of 3,703,819.
Overall single sales are down 0.67% week-on-week at 3,112,103 - just 0.92% above same week 2010 sales of 3,083,653.
1 Rihanna/Calvin Harris 66941 (601,132)
2 Flo Rida 61905
3 One Direction 59461
8 JLS 30996
10 Christina Perri 30441
12 Drake/Rihanna 27666
15 Saturdays 23073
18 Lady Gaga [MTN] 19971
20 Pixie Lott 16553
24 The Collective 14756
28 Jessie J 15052
32 Westlife 11006
35 Glee Cast 10278
36 Slow Moving Millie 8878
121 Smiths 2322
To Date Singles
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars 816,877
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Albums
In a keenly contested battle for chart honours between three acts all chasing their second number one, Snow Patrol took the lead on early sales flashes with Fallen Empires. By Friday JLS were a little ahead with Jukebox but in the end both were overhauled by Michael Buble's Christmas.
Buble previously topped the chart with 2009 release Crazy Love, which reached pole position for the first and last time on its 10th week on the chart. Christmas has taken less time to reach number one, moving 3-5-2-1 since its release last month. It achieved best yet sales of 85,787 copies last week - a 39.41% increase week-on-week. Its advantage over Jukebox, which finished second, was a slender 0.67% - 569 sales. It's the smallest margin of victory, ironically, since Buble's Crazy Love was denied a return to number one in June 2010, when its tally of 27,094 sales was 160 fewer than Jack Johnson's debuting To The Sea, which thus held a lead of 0.59%.
While becoming JLS' third straight top two album, Jukebox makes a considerably smaller first impression than its predecessors. Their self-titled debut opened at number one this week in 2009 on sales of 239,643, while Outta This World sold 152,473 copies debuting at number two a year ago. Although Jukebox's first single She Makes Me Wanna (feat. Dev) reached number one, follow-up Take A Chance On Me suffers a second week 2-8 decline (30,996 sales), so barring a miracle Jukebox will be the first JLS album not to have its first two singles go to number one.
After initially looking set to top the chart, Snow Patrol Fallen Empires settles for a number three debut on sales of 80,072 copies - the highest for that position by any album this year. The Irish/Scottish band’s seventh album, including 2009 compilation Up To Now, secures its third best first week sales, trailing only A Hundred Million Suns, which opened at number two in 2008 on sales of 100,303, and Eyes Open, an instant 2006 chart-topper with first week sales of 126,809. The latter album contributed 2,332,639 on the 5,712,032 sales Snow Patrol albums had logged prior to Fallen Empires’ release, and is home to their biggest-selling single, Chasing Cars, which has sold 816,877 copies to date, from total Snow Patrol singles sales of 2,514,726.
Although Justin Bieber’s Under The Mistletoe falls tumbles 36-52 (5,719 sales) Michael Buble is joined in the Top 10 by another Canadian – rapper Drake, whose second album, Take Care surpasses the number 15 peak of his 2010 debut Thank Me Later, arriving at number five (36,980 sales), despite the fact that first two singles – Headlines and Nicki Minaj collaboration Make Me Proud peaked at 57 and 49, respectively. A third song from the album, Take Care, surpasses them both this week. Debuting at number 12 (27,666 sales) it features Rihanna, paying Drake back for his role on her hit What’s My Name, which reached number one earlier this year.
Pixie Lott topped the singles chart in September with All About Tonight, the first single from her second album, Young Foolish Happy – but second single What Do You Take Me For (feat. Pusha T) has had a lesser reception, and suffers a 10-20 decline (16,553 sales) on its second week on the chart. It likely impacted the album itself, which makes a modest number 18 debut (18,503 sales), whereas Lott’s 2008 debut album Turn It Up debuted more strongly at number six.
Other new arrivals in the Top 40 this week: Andrea Bocelli’s New York live set Concerto: One Night In Central Park (number 17, 19.798 sales); R.E.M’s career-spanning compilation Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011 (number 19, 15,470 sales); Summon The Heroes by The Band Of HM Marines (number 21, 13,080 sales); and Sinatra: The Best Of The Best by Frank Sinatra (number 31, 9,540 sales). The R.E.M. set’s slow start may have something to do with the fact that In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 topped the chart and sold 1,697,004 copies, and contains much of what is on the new set by the now moribund band. The new Sinatra album is his 68th chart entry: he topped the first ever album chart on 28 July 1956 with Songs For Swingin' Lovers, and his latest success extends his span to more than 55 years. With much of Sinatra's catalogue out of copyright, this is bumper year for fans of the man - at least 108 Sinatra albums have been released this year.
A week after debuting at number one, Susan Boyle’s Someone To Watch Over Me dives to number six (35,782 sales). Two old albums heading even faster in the opposite direction are Lady GaGa’s Born This Way, which bounces 43-14 (22,093 sales) as the singer continues to publicise new single Marry The Night; and Christina Perri’s Lovestrong, which rallies 40-22 (13,068 sales), after the singer’s appearance on the Strictly Come Dancing results show, on which she sang her introductory smash Jar Of Hearts which responds by jumping 17-10 (30,441 sales) to commence its third run in the Top 10.
Although overall album sales are up 10.23% week-on-week to 2,441,226 – their highest level for 33 weeks - they are a massive 30.76% below same week 2010 sales of 3,192,027, a total buoyed by first week sales of 518,601 copies of Progress, Take That's Robbie Williams reunion album
1 Michael Buble 85787
2 JLS 85218
3 Snow Patrol 80072
5 Drake 36980
6 Susan Boyle 35782
14 Lady Gaga 22093
17 Andrea Bocelli 19798
18 Pixie Lott 18503
19 REM 15470
20 Jessie J 15052
21 The Royal Band of HM Marines 13080
22 Christina Perri 13068
31 Frank Sinatra 9540
52 Justin Bieber 5719
omg, now that you say that. LOL. But his body though.
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