Sales
Singles
London – specifically East London – rules the charts this week, with Roll Deep taking pole position on the singles chart with Good Times, while Plan B returns to the album summit.
With Plan B, Chipmunk, Professor Green, Taio Cruz and Tinie Tempah already waving the banner for the capital’s urban music scene in the singles Top 20, Cockney collective Roll Deep sail to the summit with Good Times.
Evolving since 2005, Roll Deep’s current and past members include Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Skepta and Wiley. Their only previous chart placings came in 2005, when The Avenue peaked at number 11 and Shake A Leg got to number 24. Their last album, Return Of The Big Money Sound, climbed no higher than number 138 in 2008, selling 6,000 copies while singles Do Me Wrong and Movin’ In Circles sold even fewer copies and fell short of the Top 200.
Good Times sold 66,523 copies last week, defeating OMG by Usher feat. will.i.am by just 2.09%. Increasing sales for the fifth week in a row, OMG sold 65,161 copies to lift its career tally to 279,736 – enough to place it fourth in Usher’s all-time best sellers list behind Love In This Club (283,192), You Make Me Wanna (335,622) and Yeah! (434,739).
After debuting at number one last week, Diana Vickers’ debut hit Once dips to number four (39,412 sales).
As well as powering the mini album itself to a high debut, all seven songs from Glee Cast’s new release, Glee – The Music: The Power Of Madonna, show up on the Top 200. Like A Prayer leads the way (number 16, 13,960 sales), followed by 4 Minutes (number 42, 5,765 sales), while their All American Rejects cover Gives You Hell – their highest new entry last week – holds at number 14 (15,778 sales). They have now charted 55 songs in the Top 200 this year, 27 of them in the Top 75.
Last November, Taken By Trees’ cover version of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine reached number 23 and sold 60,000 copies when selected by John Lewis department store as a pad for its Christmas TV advertising campaign.
The store’s latest advert employs Guillemots singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s specially-recorded version of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman To Me. Rush-released on Friday, Dangerfield’s recording debuts at number 99 (2,352 sales). Given a free run for much of the week, Joel’s original charts at number 29 (9,297 sales). Recorded in 1977, it was an uncharted single for Joel the following year but eventually charted in 1986, when it reached number 53 when a double A-sided reissue with Just The Way You Are. Its new lease of life returns Joel to the Top 40 for the first time since 1993, and also restores his Piano Man compilation to the album chart at number 101 (1,490 sales).
Country trio Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now single has sold nearly 3.5m copies in America thus far, and launches the act’s UK chart career this week, debuting at number 28 on sales of 9,375 copies.
After returning to the chart last week, the club anthems of Glasgow football rivals Rangers and Celtic slump dramatically. Tina Turner’s The Best – Rangers’ anthem – dives 9-63 (3,623 sales), while the Celtic song, You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry & The Pacemakers slumps 33-182 (1,149 sales). In Scotland, The Best slides 1-10, You’ll Never Walk Alone 10-84.
Overall singles sales are up 4.13% week-on-week, at 2,653,759 – 5.56% above same week 2009 sales of 2,513,864.
1 Roll Deep 66,523
2 Usher 65,161 (TD: 279,736)
4 Diana 39,412
14 Glee [GYH] 15,778
16 Glee [LAP] 13,960
29 Billy Joel 9,297
42 Glee [4m] 5,765
63 Tina Turner 3,623
99 Fyfe Dangerfield 2,352
182 Gerry & The Pacemakers 1,149
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Albums
With introductory single OMG proving to be a major hit, Usher’s Raymond V. Raymond was expected to debut atop the artist album chart, especially after first midweek sales flashes showed it 20% ahead of its nearest challenger. In the end, however, the 31-year-old R&B star was denied his fourth consecutive number one in the UK, with the album’s first week sales of 40,788 placing it second behind Plan B’s The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, which returns to the summit on sales of 41,001.
Last week’s number one – AC/DC’s Iron Man 2 soundtrack completes an extraordinarily tight top three, on sales of 40,272 copies. The 213 sales differential between the top two albums is the smallest since the chart for 17 September 2005, when James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam sold 43,477 copies and prevented the Rolling Stones from landing their 11th number one album with A Bigger Bang by a margin of just 11 sales.
Raymond V. Raymond had the lowest first week sales yet for Usher, following Here I Stand, which opened at number one in 2008 on sales of 56,897; Confessions (2004, 98,272 sales) and 2001’2 8701 (42,706).
With Glee’s Madonna tribute episode picking up excellent ratings for E4 and Channel 4, Glee – The Music: The Power Of Madonna makes a big debut, entering at number four (30,934 sales).
It is the Glee Cast’s third top five album thus far this year. Glee – The Music: Season One – Volume 1 topped the chart and has sold 279,294 copies, while Glee – The Music: Season One – Volume 2 reached number two, and has sold 151,150 copies. Glee also delivers a major boost to Madonna’s latest compilation, Celebration, which revives 93-15, securing its highest chart position for 27 weeks, with sales increasing 796.9% to 13,024. The album has sold 370,231 copies since its release 32 weeks ago.
Four other albums debut inside the Top 20 this week – and they could hardly be more diverse, with new albums from Welsh heavy metal band Bullet For My Valentine and a first time entry of seas shanties from Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends joining new compilations of pop/R&B hits from Billy Ocean and MOR instrumentals from James Last.
Bullet For My Valentine’s third album, Scream Aim Fire, gave the quartet from Bridgend its first ever Top 20 entry, reaching number five in 2008 on first-week sales of 23,476. Follow-up Fever matches that position on sales of 21,965. Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends’ last album, Home From The Sea, was a very low-profile 2004 release, which has sold just 915 copies to date – but with the might of Universal behind them, the Cornish octet, whose members include fishermen, coastguards, a hotelier, a shop keeper and a builder – debut at number nine (17,053 sales) with their self-titled new set.
Although its more than six years since his last Top 75 appearance, German orchestra leader James Last has had more album chart entries than any other act, bar Elvis Presley. Last chalks up his 65th chart entry in a 43 year chart career with Eighty Not Out, a triple CD set, which debuts at number 12 (14,948 sales). Despite the album’s title, Last is actually 81.
Billy Ocean is a comparative spring chicken of 60 but also has a long album chart career, stretching back to 1984. His new Very Best Of set is his eighth chart success, and debuts at number 17 (10,666 sales).
The Fall fell short of the Top 75 with 10 studio albums in a row until Imperial Wax Solvent reached number 35 in 2008. They make it two in a row, and 17 overall with new set Your Future, Our Clutter, which debuts at number 38 (5,279 sales), extending the chart career of Mark E. Smith’s band to 28 years.
Album sales improve for the third week in a row, climbing 11.56% week-on-week to 1,822,280 – 7.84% above same week 2009 sales of 1,689,782.
1 Plan B 41,001
2 Usher 40,788
3 AC/DC 40,272
4 Glee 30,934
5 Bullet For.. 21,965
9 Port Iaaac 17,053
12 James Last 14,948
15 Madonna 13,024
17 Billy Ocean 10,666
38 The Fall 5,279
101 Billy Joel 1,490
To Date Albums
Alicia Keys - The Element Of Freedom 572,392
Natalie Imbruglia - Counting Down The Days 206,860
Chipmunk - I Am Chipmunk 191,189
Hole - Celebrity Skin 124,221
Disturbed - Indestructible 82,698
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist 29,811
Lady Antebellum - Lady Antebellum 1,049