This week's Official UK Singles Chart

1 I TURN TO YOU (Melanie C) 

It says a great deal for the strength of the Robbie Williams single that most writers were prepared to write off the chances of the biggest new release of the week usurping him at the top of the charts. As it turns out, even the phenomenal popularity of Rock DJ could not stop it sliding down and leaving the way open for Melanie C to grab her second Number One single. I Turn To You is yet another track lifted from her Northern Star album but for single release it has been dramatically remixed. Although a track with one eye on the dancefloor to begin with, the single version of I Turn To You has been transformed into a storming floor filler, a stark contrast to anything she has released before but no less deserving of a place at the top of the charts for all that. One of the co-writers of the track is none other than Rick Nowels who thus pens his second UK Number One inside a month after having already topped the charts with Ronan Keating's Life Is A Rollercoaster. Prior to this year the only Nowels composition to hit the top had been Belinda Carlisle's Heaven Is A Place On Earth in January 1988. As for Ms Chisholm herself, this second solo Number One (following April's Never Be The Same Again) can be added to her 8 chart-toppers with the Spice Girls which gives her a grand total of 10 different Number One singles. Geri Halliwell is the most successful solo Spice with three Number Ones to her credit but as she only featured on 7 of the Spice Girls' Number One singles, the two former bandmates are locked together as the women who have featured on the most Number One singles.

2 ROCK DJ (Robbie Williams) 

Actually whilst we are on that subject, it is worth clarifying Robbie's status on the list of men who have sang on the most Number Ones. Counting his seven Number One hits with Take That, Rock DJ was his tenth chart-topper overall and I mentioned last week that only Cliff, Elvis and The Beatles could beat that total. As several writers were keen to point out this ignored the achievements of George Michael who has topped the chart four times with Wham, four times solo and once each with Aretha Franklin, Elton John and Queen - a grand total of eleven. Mind you technically the list should also include Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch of The Shadows. The Shadows had five Number One hits of their own back in the early 1960s whilst as backing group to Cliff Richard (often with co-billing) they appeared on seven chart-topping singles to give them a grand total of 12 spells at the top of the charts.

5 DOESN'T REALLY MATTER (Janet Jackson) 

Sweepstakes time. How many singles will wind up being lifted from Janet Jackson's forthcoming new album given that we ended up with five from 1997s The Velvet Rope? As has been documented in many places already, Doesn't Really Matter is taken from the soundtrack of the new Eddie Murphy film The Klumps in which she also has a starring role. Although collaborations last year with Blackstreet and Busta Rhymes kept her name in the charts, this is Janet Jackson's first single release since Every Time became her first single since 1987 to miss the Top 40 when it peaked at Number 46 in December 1998. A Number 5 placing for this single means she can now boast 14 Top 10 hit singles although she has never had a Number One hit in this country, coming close twice with The Best Things In Life Are Free and That's The Way Love Goes which both reached Number 2.

9 I FEEL FOR YOU (Bob Sinclair) 

This is, believe it or not, the first ever Top 40 hit single for French star Bob Sinclair, almost two years since he created a Number One hit only to see it performed by somebody else. Gym Tonic was the single, the Jane Fonda-sampling track from his 1998 album Paradise which became a monster club hit late that year but for a variety of reasons which nobody has ever been able to make sense of ended up being released in this country in a cover version by 'Spacedust'. The note for note copy of the song topped the chart and I suspect leaving Sinclair to wonder what might have been. Now the man himself can grab some chart glory after having watched his only other UK chart hit My Only Love wimp out at Number 56 in March 1999. I Feel For You isn't that much to write home about it must be said, some by the book continental dance that almost certainly deserved to peak at Number 9. So no complaints there then.

11 NO MORE (Ruff Endz) 

From the same stable that brought us Donell Jones' U Know What's Up comes this rather smooth piece of stateside soul which marks the first ever hit single for Ruff Endz. Resist its seductiveness if you dare.

16 CALIFORNICATION (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) 

A year after it was first released, the title track from the RHCPs current album becomes its fourth single. Perhaps curiously it becomes one of the biggest as well, this Number 16 entry just one place behind the Number 15 peak of the first single Scar Tissue which was released in June last year. For a band which ten years ago were struggling to make the Top 40 and whose fans despaired that they would ever be discovered by the mainstream, the group aren't doing too badly all things considered. Californication is now their sixth Top 20 hit.

21 I WANNA BE WITH YOU (Mandy Moore) 

Marketing twists ahoy. I Wanna Be With You wasn't included on the first US release of Mandy Moore's album but was added when the long player was re-released after Candy became a hit. Consequently the UK version was named after the track and released as a single the lavish mid-tempo ballad now creeps into the UK chart to give Mandy Moore her second Top 40 hit. The chart position of the single tells its own story and despite Candy having reached Number 6 back in May it appears that Mandy Moore is very much in the second division of bright eyed bushy tailed US hitmaking teenagers. For now.

23 I WOULDN'T WANNA HAPPEN TO YOU (Embrace) 

Hit single Number 3 from Embrace's Drawn From The Memory album. The chart fortunes of the Huddersfield lads improve slightly after the Number 29 peak of Save Me back in June even if they haven't yet returned to Top 20 hitmaking ways or even the level of popularity that saw them manage three successive Top 10 hits in 1998. Acoustic guitars are to the fore on this single, although it winds up no less anthemic than any of their other releases. Here's hoping they keep at it until they come back into fashion.

37 OVER MY HEAD (Lit) 

The first Top 40 appearance for Lit after they reached Number 16 with My Own Worst Enemy in June last year, their last single Zip-Lock only reaching Number 60 in September. Over My Head is taken from the soundtrack of the film Titan AE which has been on release here for a few weeks but has thus far failed to emulate its phenomenal US success. Similarly Over My Head lacks just a little of the instant appeal that helped My Own Worst Enemy into the Top 20 and this minor chart entry is probably all that could have been expected of it.

39 ARE YOU READY TO PARTY (Shrink) 

No, due impartiality be damned. I've had far too bad a week to have any patience for having to write creatively about incredibly bad dance records suffice it to say that 30,000bpm and the sound of a bird trapped in a chimney for three minutes is the order of the day here. Shrink are from Holland and first charted in October 1998 with Nervous Breakdown which peaked at Number 42 so in a small sense this is something of an improvement for them. I've now got seven days to work out why everyone is so excited about the Posh Spice single...