Kudos to Madonna for scoring a triple crown this week -- #1 single, album, and airplay.
UK Singles:
1. "Hung Up" - Madonna
Madonna spends a second week at #1 with "Hung Up," fending off an amazing week of new entries--six in the top 10 alone. The release of her album this week, Confessions on a Dancefloor, could have sent the single tumbling down the chart, but it's considerable popularity keeps it at the top. It's the first Madonna #1 to spend more than a week at the top since 1990's "Vogue." Of her 11 #1s, "Hung Up" is the 6th to spend a second week at the top. Her longest run at the top is 4 weeks, achieved by both "Vogue" and 1985's "Into the Groove."
3. "My Humps" - Black Eyed Peas
The highest new entry of the week is a bit of a surprise. Highly anticipated new entries from forthcoming albums by Will Young and the Darkness have been overshadowed by this--the third release from an album that has been out for months. After a #6 entry for previous single, "Don't Lie," Black Eyed Peas match the peak of their current albums first single, "Don't Phunk With My Heart." I can't pretent to like this song--I think it's quite atrocious, and as a fan of both Will and the Darkness (and Girls Aloud and the White Stripes to a lesser degree), this is a personal disappointment.
4. "Biology" - Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are the second-highest new entry this week with "Biology," their 10th top 40 single and second released from their forthcoming album Chemistry. Girls Aloud hit #7 in August with "Long Hot Summer," a disappointing chart performance (particularly for a then "album-less" single), causing pundits to predict their impending fall from popular grace. The #4 placing reverses this a bit, although it's still shy of their initial chart success--seven consecutive top 3 hits (including two #1s).
5. "Switch it On" - Will Young
Now this is a disappointment, both personally and for Will Young, who scores his lowest-charting single yet for "Switch it On." Yes, it was a crowded week, but this was the first release from the man who won Pop Idol 3 years ago, scored the highest first week sales ever for a debut artist's single, (for "Evergreen"), and sent three more singles to the top spot, including his last album's first single "Leave Right Now." It seemed an easy call for #1, but consumers have apparently rejected the somewhat experimental track (and its clever gay Top Gun spoof of a video). Expect safe balladry for single number two. Album Keep On is out tomorrow.
6. "A Night to Remember" - Liberty X
Midweek, this was outside the top 10, so credit its charity-cred for kicking the single up into the top 10 by week's end. Yes, this is the annual Children in Need single, a perennial bestseller (last year it was the #1 "I'll Stand By You" by Girls Aloud, in 2002 it was Will Young's #2 "You and I"). It's the 7th top 10 hit for the former popstars runner-up group. Surely we can consider them the winner now, since they are, in fact, pop stars, while the winner, Hear'say, is no more. Oddly, this track was not included on their recent album, X, released only a month ago.
8. "One Way Ticket" - The Darkness
The Darkness' lead single and title track from their forthcoming album manages a disappointing #8 placing. The group amassed a considerable following with their first album, Permission to Land, and hit #2 with its feature track "I Believe in a Thing Called Love." They also had a serious challenge for Christmas #1 in 2003, with the #2 "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)." New track is campy, wild, and fun, and therefore surprising that it didn't go top 5.
10. "The Denial Twist" - The White Stripes
The White Stripes continue their chart consistency, landing at #10 with their third single from Get Behind Me Satan. it matches the performance of their last single, "My Doorbell," which itself entered only 1 place below first single "Blue Orchid." Might we expect a fourth release?
17 "Jesus of Suburbia" - Green Day
Green Day's fifth and reportedly final American Idiot single caps a very successful 14 months for the band. Three of the album's singles went top 10, a feat they had scored only once before in their 11-year career (with their first single, the #8 "Basket Case"). "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (#5 in December '04) became their greatest hit. Of the political voices we heard in rock music (which sadly, there were too few), theirs was the loudest. "Jesus of Suburbia," fully titled "Jesus of Suburbia/City of the Damned/I Don't Care/Dearly Beloved/Tales of Another Broken Home," is a 9-minute 5-part opus, which was not edited down for the single. American Idiot will be hard to top.
42 "Twenty Four Hours" - Athlete
The law of diminishing returns (it's the fourth single from Tourist) conquered the power of massive airplay (it was #6 last week) in attracting consumers' attention for this track. It's no "wires," but decent enough.
UK Albums:
1. Confessions on a Dancefloor - Madonna
Madonna scores another #1 album the same week her single remains at #1 as well. Confessions on a Dancefloor is her 11th album of new material, of which it becomes her 7th to top the chart. She also has had #1 albums with The Immaculate Collection greatest hits collection and the Evita soundtrack.
2. Never Forget: The Ultimate Collection - Take That
Second biggest new entry is an entirely unnecessary greatest hits collection for Take That, the infamous boyband where Robbie Williams cut his teeth (and his taste for trouble) and which racked up 16 top 40 hits (including 8 #1s) between 1991 and 1996. All 16 hits were previously packaged together in their 1996 Greatest Hits collection; the only new business here then is a live version of "Pray" a new remix of "Relight My Fire," and an previously unreleased track. The only thing motivating this release is greed.
The other entries in the top 10 are Green Day at #6 with their live album Bullet in a Bible and Babyshambles' Down in Albion at #10. The pre-Christmas greatest hits cash-ins continue at #25 with Savage Garden's lamely titled Truly Madly Completely and at #44 with Alanis Morissette's disappointingly incomplete The Collection. Simon Webbe also limps onto the chart at #28 with Sanctuary, his debut solo album. Webbe's singles may be faring well (both debuted at #4), but former Blue bandmate Lee Ryan's solo album made much more of an impact when it debuted at #6 in August.
UK Airplay:
Madonna remains the airplay champ for a third week with "Hung Up."
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