Singles:
No other French recording artist has had more than one number one single in the UK, but 44 year old David Guetta racks up his fifth this week, with Sia collaboration Titanium increasing sales 30.22% week-on-week to 85,985 as it jumps 2-1. Guetta previously topped the chart in 2009 with When Love Takes Over (feat. Kelly Rowland) and Sexy Chick (feat. Akon), and added another couple in 2010: Gettin' Over You (David Guetta and Chris Willis feat. Fergie and LMFAO) and Club Can't Handle Me (Flo Rida feat. David Guetta).
Titanium originally debuted and peaked at number 16 as an album track last August but made the Top 10 for the first time last month after being granted official single status. Its latest surge boost its cumulative sales to 284,526. It is the 11th single by Guetta to sell more than a quarter of a million copies. The 12th is likely to be Nicki Minaj collaboration Turn Me On which, likewise, peaked as an album track last Autumn when it reached number 20. However, a video of Turn Me On has now been serviced. and the track rallies 120-33 this week, with sales up 386.72% to 10,429, lifting its career sales to 71,392. With six Top 20 hits taken from it thus far, Guetta's latest album Nothing But The Beat climbs for the fourth week in a row, and is in the Top 10 for the first time in 18 weeks. Improving 63-49-38-16-9 since reaching its lowest point in January, the former number two album increased sales 14.95% last week to 9,113, and has sold 290,865 copies since its release 22 weeks ago.
18 year old Alyssa Reid's first single, Alone Again, topped the midweek sales flashes before surrendering to Guetta, and ends up at number two on first week sales of 76,758. Based on Heart's 1987 number three smash Alone, the track reached number 11 in Canada last year for the singer, and also features Jump Smokers, from Chicago.
Completing a unique top three, all made up of collaborations by acts from overseas, Somebody That I Used To Know is by an Australian-based duo - but Gotye is from Belgium and Kimbra is from New Zealand. A global smash - it has been huge all over Europe, Oceania and North America - Somebody That I Used To Know started fairly slowly here but has moved 36-21-7-3 so far. It sold 58,264 copies last week - an increase of 85.90% week-on-week.
Rounding out the top five, Jessie J's Domino falls 3-4 (51,823 sales), while Wild Ones holds at number five for Flo Rida feat. Sia (46,037 sales) - all of which means there is no place in the top five for last week's number one, Twilight, which dips to number six (45.955 sales) for Cover Drive. It is the biggest drop from number one since The X Factor Finalists' Heroes slumped 1-7 in December 2010.
Welsh rockers Feeder fell short of the Top 75 with their last five singles but an unusual (for 2012) four format release strategy brings them career hit number 25, as Borders debuts at number 52 (4,663 sales). The introductory single from the band's eighth studio album Generation Freakshow, which is released next month, Borders sold 2,978 copies digitally last week, plus
644 on CD,
574 on 7-inch and
467 on...
cassette. It is the first Top 75 hit to include sales from a cassette since Elton John's Are You Ready For Love topped the chart in 2003. As the biggest-selling cassette of 2011 - 'N Sync's I'll Never Stop - sold only 11 copies all year, it will come as no surprise that Borders was the nation's number one cassette last week. It was also the number one 7-inch and the number two CD (behind Wherever You Are by The Military Wives) but not among the Top 75 downloads. Incidentally, it is something of a mystery why I'll Never Stop was the biggest selling cassette not only in 2011 but also in 2010 (13 sales) and 2009 (24 sales) - it was only a number 11 hit when released in 2000. Admittedly its cassette sales are very modest but is it possible that there's just one retailer who, for some reason, had a large number of copies of the release, and is selling the occasional copy from his bargain bin?
Overall singles sales are down 0.74% week-on-week at 3,441,554 - 8.96% above same week 2011 sales of 3,158,446.
1 David Guetta/Sia 85,985 (284,526)
2 Alyssa Reid/Jump Smokers 76,758
3 Gotye/Kimbra 58,264
4 Jessie J 51,823
5 Flo Rida/Sia 46,037
6 Cover Drive 45,955
9 Lana Del Rey [BTD] 28,090
15 Ed Sheeran [Drunk] 20,670
17 Lana Del Rey [VG] 19,990
22 Christina Perri 13,634 (724,817)
33 David Guetta/Nicki Minaj 10,429 (71,392)
92 Christina Perri [ATY] 2,710 (71,854)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Albums:
Lana Del Rey's debut UK album Born To Die storms to the top of the album chart, becoming the first 2012 release to top the list. With first week sales of 116,745 - more than the six next most popular albums added together, and the highest weekly sale yet in 2011 - Born To Die is home to the current Top 20 hits Video Games, which rallies 20-17 (19,990 sales) and the title track, which jumps 14-9 (28,090 sales) on its second appearance in the chart.
Downloads accounted for 42.83% of sales of Del Rey's album last week, compared to a market average of 31.79%. In finite terms, that means it sold 50,007 copies on download. Only four albums have previously sold upwards of 50,000 copies in a week digitally: Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (83,675, week 43, 2011), Take That's Progress (79,807, week 46, 2010), Adele's 21 (76,447, week 4, 2011) and Lady GaGa's Born This Way (56,937, week 4, 2011). Born To Die is the first debut album to top the 50,000 mark on its debut week or, indeed, any week (nitpickers note: the low-key Lana Del Rey AKA Lizzy Grant album issued in America in 2010 didn't get issued here).
Del Rey's success sadly denies Leonard Cohen the honour of becoming the oldest male solo artist to have a number one album. Cohen's 12th studio set in a recording career spanning more than 44 years, his latest album Old Ideas scores his best ever first week sale of 38,029 copies, and equals the number two chart peak of his previous highest charting set, 1969's Songs From A Room, which served as runner-up first to The Best Of The Seekers and then to The Moody Blues' On The Threshold Of A Dream. Old Ideas is Cohen's first album of new material since Dear Heather debuted and peaked at number 34 in 2004, and likely benefitted from being his first release since his song Hallelujah simultaneously topped the chart for Alexandra Burke and reached number two for Jeff Buckley in 2008. It will most certainly have had an uplift from the track Darkness getting considerable support from Radio Two in the last few weeks. Whatever the cause, its sales would have made it number one by some distance in any of the last four weeks, and 77-year old Cohen would have become the oldest male solo artist to top the chart, replacing another folk hero, Bob Dylan, who was 67 when he topped with Together Through Life in 2009.
Although Del Rey and Cohen's albums are poles apart musically, they both including songs co-written by men who paired to help write a Top 10 single for Madonna. Del Rey's album has two songs she penned with Rick Nowels, while Cohen co-authored four of his with Patrick Leonard. Nowels and Leonard - together with William Orbit and Madonna herself - are both credited as writers of her 1998 number six hit The Power Of Good-Bye.
The simultaneous arrival of Del Rey and Cohen spells the end of Ed Sheeran's third spell at number one with +, even though his album increases sales week-on-week by 10.40% to 22,750, thanks in part to the continuing advance of fourth single Drunk, which climbs 29-15 (20,670 sales). To continue the Madonna theme, the + track Kiss Me was written by Sheeran with Julie Frost, who also co-wrote Madonna's recent Golden Globe winning song Masterpiece, from the movie W./E. The only reason Masterpiece hasn't charted is that it is exclusive to the soundtrack album, although every other track on it can be downloaded separately.
Coldplay's fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto, has emulated its predecessors by selling its millionth copy. The album dips 2-5, but the 14,625 copies it sold last week raise its 15 week sales tally to 1,000,181. It stands a chance of eventually surpassing its immediate predecessor, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which has sold 1,413,762 copies since its 2008 release - but lags far behind 2005's X&Y (2,666,980 sales), 2002's A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2,804,606 sales) and 2000 debut Parachutes (2,559,678 sales).
Dancing On Ice hosts Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean returned to the rink to the strains of Christina Perri's Jar Of Hearts eight days ago, triggering a big upturn in sales of her debut album Lovestrong, which jumps 37-15 (7,089 sales) as a result. The album peaked at number nine last September. Jar Of Hearts itself is also resurgent, climbing 37-22 (13,634 sales) on its 27th week in the Top 40, while increasing its career sales to 724,817. Perri's follow-up, A Thousand Years, was much less successful, reaching number 32 in December, and spending only three weeks in the Top 40. It bounces 97-92 this week (2,710 sales) but has thus far sold only 71,854 copies.
London/Edinburgh indie/dance quartet Django Django's self-titled debut album enters at number 33 (4,265 sales) and London alternative/dance/urban duo The 2 Bears' first full length album, Be Strong follows close behind, debuting at number 35 (4,016 sales).
Two black music greats return to the chart posthumously with new compilations. They are jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who died in 1971 at the age of 69, and Etta James, who died last month. Armstrong has charted a dozen previous albums, dating back as far as 1956, and adds to his total with The Best Of, which debuts at number 30 (4,508 sales). Etta James didn't chart in her lifetime, and is the subject of so many compilations that her sales were spread around immediately after her death. However, attention is now focused on new compilation At Last - The Best, which debuts at number 47 (3,032 sales).
After falling for each of the last five weeks, overall album sales finally bounce back thanks largely to Lana Del Rey, climbing 8.67% week-on-week to 1,705,829 - but that's still 11.98% down on same week 2011 sales of 1,937,905.
1 Lana Del Rey 116,745
2 Leonard Cohen 38,029
3 Ed Sheeran 22,730
5 Coldplay 14,625 (1,000,181)
9 David Guetta 9,113 (290,865)
15 Christina Perri 7,089
30 Louis Armstrong 4,508
33 Django Django 4,265
35 2 Bears 4,016
47 Etta James 3,032
To Date Albums
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood... 2,804,606
Coldplay - X&Y 2,666,890
Coldplay - Parachutes 2,559,678
Coldplay - Viva La Vida... 1,413,762
