Sunday, September 18, 2011

UK Singles Chart, September 24, 2011


1.(NEW) What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction

The field of new hit boybands dominated so far by JLS and The Wanted just got a new contender in One Direction. Like JLS, they originated on The X Factor, placing third in last year's contest. Their first #1 hit is a big one--over 150,000 copies sold--the biggest #1 sales tally so far this year. The production on this has more of a "California" sound to my ears--along the lines of something from McFly or Busted. Not a bad song actually.

4.(6) Heart Skips a Beat - Olly Murs (feat. Rizzle Kicks)
9.(12) Jealousy - Will Young

Both of these tracks climb back up a bit this week, including a return to the top 10 for Will Young. I'm surprised, but pleased, to see the turnaround. Was a reality show performance responsible for this?

15.(26) Cheers (Drink to That) - Rihanna

Rihanna climbs 11 notches this week but misses the top 10 with "Cheers (Drink to That)," the latest single from her album Loud. Never fear--Rihanna has announced she'll put out her next (sixth) album before the end of the year. So a new Rihanna single is all but certain to be coming in just a few weeks.

20.(NEW) AKA...What a Life - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Lots of head-scratchers on the chart this week. Here's another--the second top 20 in a month's time from former Oasis-man Noel Gallagher and his new band. The album is due October 17, and a third single is forthcoming before that. Did this even get much promotion? It's not on Radio 1's playlist.

28.(NEW) Days Are Forgotten - Kasabian

British rockers Kasabian scores their 12th top 40, the first single from their new album Velociraptor!, out this week. This is a much quieter launch than what their last album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, enjoyed, when its first single, "Fire" hit #3 just over 2 years ago.

31.(NEW) Without You - David Guetta (feat. Usher)

Doesn't it feel like David Guetta puts out a new single every week? He's put out lots of tracks from Nothing But the Beat album as promotional releases, following the official release from earlier this year--"Where My Girls At" and "Little Bad Girl"--both of which reached the top 5. So I'm a bit surprised to see this apparently official single charting so low, as it's actually a decent release and featuring one of the biggest guest vocalists he's ever had. Perhaps it's fallen victim to overkill.

38.(NEW) You and I - Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga scores her 13th top 40, the fifth track from her album Born This Way to do so. The single is out this week, so I expect a good climb on next weekend's chart.

40.(NEW) Body & Soul - Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse

I'd have thought this, the last recording by Amy Winehouse, would have charted higher. The track is from Tony Bennett's new album Duets II, out this week. It's a remake of the '30s-era jazz standard covered many times, although as far as I can tell, it's never been in the top 40 before (a song called "Body and Soul" by Mai Tai hit #10 in 1985, but it's not the same song).

This is Tony Bennett's first top 40 hit in quite a long time. He had string of hits in the '50s and '60s, including the #1 hit "Stranger in Paradise." Bennett's career revived quite nicely in the U.S. in the mid '90s with the release of the live album MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. His 2006 Duets album was also a decent hit.

This the 9th top 40 for Bennett and the 7th for Winehouse.

??? Paradise - Coldplay

If you expected to see Coldplay in the top 40 this week, you'll be disappointed, because they aren't there. Apparently, since "Paradise" was offered as a "freebie" for pre-ordering their album, the song's sales weren't tracked for the chart, even though it was also sold as a standalone download. Seems a bit ridiculous to me, as this would possibly have been a top 10 hit otherwise.

3 comments:

J.Mensah said...

Andrew, you're blog lights up my world like nobody else
The way that you type your words get me overwhelmed...
Something, something,
You don't know you're blog's beautiful.

Project Mobius said...

@J.Mensah 3rd line: "But when your words hit the page it ain't hard to tell." ;)

Also, I do think that "Paradise" was ripped off quite a bit. Whatever the reason may be, "Paradise" is a great song, and deserves the recognition of being on the chart.

Also, why doesn't America have any good boybands? You shouldn't have to have a hip-hop curve to be a good male artist.

Cook In / Dine Out said...

You guys are quite amusing. I wonder if American boybands are on the way. Back in 1995-1996, Take That and Boyzone were huge in Britain, but the US had yet to experience its boyband explosion of Backstreet and NSYNC.