Sunday, November 20, 2011

UK Singles Chart, November 26, 2011

1.(1) We Found Love - Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris)

Rihanna spends a fifth week at #1 with "We Found Love," tying Adele's "Someone Like You" as the year's longest-running #1 hit.

2.(NEW) Good Feeling - Flo Rida

Rapper Flo Rida lands at #2 with his new single "Good Feeling." It's the second top 10 hit in the last few months to sample an Avicii track that itself samples another track. Flo Rida's Avicii sample is "Levels," which gets a single release next week, and features elements of soul singer Etta James's song "Something's Got a Hold on Me." In September, Leona Lewis hit #4 with "Collide," featuring a sample of Avicii's "Penguins" (aka "Fade Into Darkness"), which sampled Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Perpetuum Mobile."

3.(NEW) Gotta Be You - One Direction

This looked a surefire #1 hit this week and led midweek reports through Thursday. Well, something must have gone horribly wrong over the weekend, as it lands instead at #3 on the eve of the group's release of their debut album. Not a bad song, but not a stunner, so #3 is probably really quite appropriate for this.

5.(5) Lego House - Ed Sheeran

This week marks the "official" release of "Lego House," which has been available as a download ever since the album came out. So it looks like it's going to peak at #5, following the #3 peak of "A Team" and #4 peak of "You Need Me, I Don't Need You."

7.(9) Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5 (feat. Christina Aguilera)

Maroon 5 climbs back up a couple notches this week with "Moves Like Jagger," a song that never reached #1 but spent an amazing 7 consecutive weeks at #1 (while #1 turned over each week). Although it never topped the singles chart, the song is the year's fourth best-selling single, and, as of this week, has spent 10 weeks at #1 on the UK airplay chart.

12.(NEW) Take Care - Drake (feat. Rihanna)

The UK response to Drake's "Take Care," a track from his new album out this week, appears similar to that in the US, where this song will most surely debut in the top 10 on next week's Hot 100 chart. This placement is much higher than that of his "official" singles "Headlines" (#57) and "Make Me Proud" (#49), and is, in fact, Drake's highest charting single yet in the UK. it's success is likely owed to the appearance of Rihanna as guest vocalist.

13.(20) Paradise - Coldplay

Speaking of Rihanna guest appearances, although her turn on Coldplay's "Princess of China" threatened to overshadow proper single "Paradise," at threat appears to have waned as "Paradise" reaches a new peak of #13 this week.

15.(NEW) My Heart Takes Over - The Saturdays

The Saturday's new ballad misses the top 10, becoming only their second single to do so after "Work" peaked at #22. If this never reaches the top 10, which I doubt it will, this ends their streak of 6 consecutive top 10 hits.

18.(NEW) Marry the Night - Lady Gaga

The official release of this is 2 weeks away, so a #18 bow this week hopefully tees this up for the top 10. "Marry the Night" is the fifth single released from "Born This Way," after "Born This Way" (#3), "Judas" (#8), "The Edge of Glory" (#6) and "You and I" (#23), as well as promotional release "Hair," which hit #13.

28.(59) Who You Are - Jessie J

The law of diminishing returns means that despite being a brilliant pop song, Jessie J's fifth release from album Who You Are, manages to reach only #28. Really loving this song though.

32.(NEW) Lighthouse - Westlife

Speaking of diminishing returns. Used to be a time when Westlife was a major chart powerhouse. The group had 14 #1 hits (including their first 7 singles) and never knew anything other than a top 5 hit until "Us Against the World" hit #8 a few years ago. These days though, the best they can do is #32, a sure sign that the apparent decision to release a greatest hits set and call it quits is surely a wise one.

35.(NEW) Rumour Has It/Someone Like You - Glee Cast

Speaking of once powerful chart forces. Used to be a time when Glee regularly produced top 40 hits: season 1 produced 17 top 40 hits (topped by #2 signature single "Don't Stop Believin'"), season 2 produced 12 top 10 hits, although notably none that reached the top 10. This third season has seen the hits dry up. So far this season, nothing has reached the top 40 (goes for the US singles chart as well). Honestly, nothing has really been that deserving until this brilliant mash-up of Adele's "Rumour Has It" and "Someone Like You" came along, putting the show back on the chart.

2 comments:

J.Mensah said...

It's sad to see Pixie Lott only at 18 with her album :( I love how Michael Buble came out of nowhere and stopped JLS from getting a #1 album... Which I thought was something Snow Patrol were gonna do.

Cook In / Dine Out said...

That is really low for Pixie. I think they misfired with "What Do You Take Me For" as the second single. It's not very distinctive. I'm not surprised JLS didn't get #1--their last album didn't--and I don't see youth-oriented pop really being a strong force on the albums chart these days. The Wanted's new album debuted at #5, for example. As for Snow Patrol, I think their 15 minutes are over. I'm not planning on getting their new album.