UK Chart Notes

• Leona Lewis adds another feather to her cap, spending a 6th week at #1 on the singles chart with "Bleeding Love." The track is still #1 at radio, and despite competition from new Shayne Ward and Kylie Minogue releases, her album Spirit remains atop the albums chart for a third week. Her run is sure to end by Christmas week, at which point her successor--the next X Factor winner--will very likely score a Christmas #1. But there's still two weeks between then and now. Is there room for another #1 hit this year? More later...
• Girls Aloud vault up to #3 on physical release sales of "Call the Shots," the second single from their recent fourth album, Tangled Up. This is their 14th top 5 hit and 5th in a row, a run interrupted by three of the singles from their third album, Chemistry, although all 17 of the band's singles have been top 10 hits. Midweek this looked like it could hit #2, but it was in close competition with dance group T2's "Heartbroken," which remains in pole position.
• Not much else of note on the chart this week, which is surprisingly slow for the first weekend of December. Soulja Boy's "Crank That" continues to rise in its pre-release download sales, up ten spots to #14. "The Racing Rats," The Editors' third single from their current album debuts at #26, which is one spot higher than their last single, "An End Has a Start," achieved.
• So who, if anyone, can unseat Leona before the big Christmas chart? Not much in tomorrow's release list looks very promising, although there could be some top 10 debuts. New singles are out from Arctic Monkeys ("Teddy Picker,") Babyshambles ("You Talk"), James Blunt ("Same Mistake"), Peter Gelderblom ("Waiting 4"). Next week looks about the same, with new releases from Amy Winehouse ("Love Is a Losing Game"), Cascada ("What Hurts the Most"), David Guetta ("Baby When the Light"), Lee Ryan ("Reinforce Love"), Plain White T's ("Hate"), Newton Faulkner ("Teardrop," a remake of the Massive Attack classic), and the just in time re-release of the Pogues and Kirsty Macoll's "Fairytale of New York." I think the best bet is if Soulja Boy can climb to the top on downloads.