UK Chart Notes

• It's a surprise #1 this week for Katie Melua and Eva Cassidy's remake of "What a Wonderful World," a charity release to benefit the British branch of the Red Cross. The story behind this single is rather remarkable. Eva Cassidy was an American singer from Bowie, Maryland, that according to Wikipedia, was mostly unknown outside the Washington, D.C. area when she died of cancer in 1996. In 1998, a posthumous release of her tracks called Songbird was released in the UK, and 3 years later became at #1 hit after promotion of the video for "Somewhere Out There" on the BBC television show Top of the Pops 2. Katie Melua is a british pop singer, frequently noted as the British version of Norah Jones, who first hit the top 10 in 2003 with "The Closest Thing to Crazy," followed by four other top 40 hits. The song "What a Wonderful World" was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and became a #1 hit in the UK in 1968. Almost 40 years later it becomes by far the biggest single by either Katie Melua or Eva Cassidy, knocking Leona Lewis from her 7-week run at #1 with "Bleeding Love."
• Katie and Eva dash any hope of Soulja Boy sneaking in a #1 hit before the big Christmas week. "Crank That" moves up seven spots to #3.
• Christmas favorites continue their charge up the UK chart. Leading the pack of 10 entries--a whole fourth of the top 40--is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," up four to #4, followed by the Pogues at #8 with Fairytale of New York, Wham! at #14 with "Last Christmas," the Wizzard at #16 with "I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday," Andy Williams at #21 with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," Slade at #22 with "Merry Xmas Everybody" and the similarly titled Shakin' Stevens track "Merry Christmas Everyone" at #23, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas at #27, Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" at #35, and finally John and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band at #40, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)."
• German dance act Cascada scores its fourth top 10 hit at #10 with "What Hurts the Most," the remake of the single popularized in American by Rascal Flatts.
• Following the successful run in 2005 of re-releases of Elvis Presley's #1 hits, another run of singles was released one per week over the last 18 weeks--this time singles that did not hit #1. The last of which, "Burning Love," hit #13 last week, so in theory, this should have been our first Elvis-free week in some time. But coming along nicely to prove there is no such thing as popular music without Elvis, Scouting for Girls enters the top 40 at #33 with "Elvis Ain't Dead."
• So next week is the big Christmas week. Leading the pack is the X Factor winner Leon Jackson, with his remake of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's 1998 single, "When You Believe." Anything is possible, but realistically new singles by Sugababes, Filo & Peri, Kate Nash, and The Killers really don't have a chance. Expect "When You Believe" to easily top the chart this weekend.