This week's Official UK Singles Chart
1 A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION (Elvis vs JXL)
Against what appeared to be all expectations, particularly at the end of the week, the remixed Presley track clings on for a second week at the top of the charts. In the meantime the list of chart records he can now be credited with grows ever longer, this week now marking his 75th week at the top of the charts, a figure way in excess of anyone else ever, save for The Beatles who managed 69. Even Cliff Richard has only managed to chalk up 44 weeks at the top of the listings. Strangely enough one record that the single did not manage to break was that of the longest gap between Number One singles, the 24 years and 9 months between Way Down and A Little Less Conversation isn't quite enough to beat the 25 years and 259 days managed by the Righteous Brothers in 1990.
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2 STOP CRYING YOUR HEART OUT (Oasis)
So to the track that was widely expected to top the charts this week. The follow-up to the chart-topping Hindu Times is another example of Oasis doing their damnedest to sound every bit as good as they ever have done. Stop Crying Your Heart Out is an epic scarf-waving comfort ballad that has made a great many people realise that the apparent return to form of their last single was by no means a fluke. It makes for a great soundtrack song as well, a fact realised by TV producers on all channels who had the track on standby as the music to use in a montage of England world cup moments should the time come that we were knocked out of the competition. Said moment duly arrived on Friday morning with the 2-1 defeat to Brazil and almost immediately afterwards shops reported a huge surge in demand for the single. Having trailed the Elvis track throughout the week, Oasis began to close the gap on Friday and Saturday and so Sunday afternoon's revelation that they hadn't actually managed to overhaul him can go down as one of the biggest surprises of the week. So instead of being the seventh Number One single for Oasis, Stop Crying Your Heart Out winds up as their 11th Top 3 hit.
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3 WHEN YOU LOOK AT ME (Christina Milian)
Never in contention for a place at the top and at times almost overlooked, Christina Milian makes her mark on the charts this week with an extremely strong debut for her second chart hit. When You Look At Me has already matched the peak of AM to PM which charted at the end of January but may have its work cut out to equal the 11 week chart run of that first hit single.
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Two months after helping 'NSync's Girlfriend to a place in the Top 3, Nelly returns to the UK chart with his first solo hit of the year. Hot In Herre (sic) is his first release with a lead credit since Batter Up reached Number 28 iin conjunction with St Lunatics in September last year although a month later he followed that up with a guest spot on Jagged Edge's Where's The Party At which reached Number 25. Hot In Herre is his second Top 5 hit but falls just short of becoming the biggest, that honour going to Ride Wit Me which made Number 3 in May last year. [Chart positions be damned, this is Nelly's signature track and everyone knows it].
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Breaking any number of chart trends are Scooter who even in this highly competitive week manage a two-place climb up the chart. It means they now have beaten the peak of Supertramp's original version of The Logical Song which could only manage a Number 7 when first released in 1979. The fact that this club hit has more than sustained its audience over the course of the week and appears to be growing more converts by the day makes Scooter's six-year absence from the Top 40 all the harder to explain.
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7 ROLL ON/THIS IS HOW WE DO IT (Mis-Teeq)
After two successive Number 5 hits, Mis-Teeq drop down the charts a little for this release but they still manage to retain their 100% strike rate of Top 10 hits with this, their fifth hit single. Roll On pushes pretty much the same buttons as their previous offerings, even if it lacks a little of the spark of tracks such as All I Want and One Night Stand although attention seems to be equally focused on the double a-side of this single. This Is How We Do It is a retread of the track that gave Montell Jordan his UK chart debut back in 1995, the original version reaching Number 11 and which remains his biggest ever hit.
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13 DEAD STAR/IN YOUR WORLD (Muse)
The first hit of 2002 for Muse, Dead Star/In Your World being their first chart single since last December when they reached Number 24 with another double sided release, Hyper Music and their acclaimed (and dare I say it woefully ignored) cover of Nina Simone's Feeling Good. This new hit is enough to return them to Top 20 status and gives the band the third biggest hit of their career, slotting in just behind Plug In Baby and New Born which made 11 and 12 respectively last year.
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It may not have been the most immediately appealing single she has ever released but there is no doubting that Brandy's last single What About Us will go down as one of the more memorable R&B releases of the year, track that dispensed with much in the way of melody and form during the verses in favour of building up the single line chorus for maximum impact. Odd sounding but it worked, and in the process gave her the second biggest hit of her career. The follow-up performs slightly less impressively sadly and creeps into the Top 20 rather than making a Christina Milian-level impact. Still, her strike rate of 7 Top 20 hits in 9 single releases suggests she deserves more mainstream attention than she usually manages to attract.
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16 WE'RE ON THE BALL (Ant and Dec)
The football fever that gripped the nation whilst England pressed forward in the World Cup may well be about to come to an end but it is worth commenting on the fact that after the initial flood of football-themed singles, very few of them actually made a huge cultural impact. Indeed almost by default Ant and Dec's much-maligned official anthem ended up being the biggest of them all, going Top 3 when first released four weeks ago. Could it have been anything to do with the lack of a song that could truly have become an alternative national anthem for the period, or is it just that the mainstream appeal of football records was a mid-90s fad that has long since worn away? Even the TV themes have not had a sniff of chart action.
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A low chart placing for this single may come as something of a surprise given the amount of airplay it has received and the amount of effort Basement Jaxx have put into promoting this release. Then again maybe everyone already has the album but there is no doubting that this is another impressive single, catchy, infectious and with a slightly rude lyric. Everything it should be then, and it does at least avoid by one place the ignominy of becoming their smallest hit ever, that honour falling to the criminally ignored Jus' 1 Kiss which could only reach Number 23 in October last year.
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23 CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU (Andy Williams/Denise Van Outen)
73 years old he may be but veteran crooner Andy Williams is still touring with relentless energy. To promote his current series of UK dates, he even has a single out to prove it. Cabaret standard Can't Take My Eyes Off You was first written for the Four Seasons in 1967 and has been recorded by countless other artists ever since. Strangely enough there have until now only ever been two and a half chart versions. Andy Williams was the first to have a hit with the song, taking it to Number 5 in 1968. He was followed by the Boystown Gang and their high camp rendition which made Number 4 in 1982 and then the Pet Shop Boys who fused the song with U2s Where The Streets Have No Name in 1991 to also reach Number 4. Therefore this new version sadly has to rank as the smallest ever hit version of the song, although its presence in the chart is still something worth celebrating. It is the first chart appearance for Andy Williams since March 1999 when a re-released of Music To Watch Girls By made Number 9 after being used in a TV commercial. Also it is his first new recording to chart since The Other Side Of Me made Number 42 in 1976 but his chart career can be traced back to 1957 when he topped the charts with his debut Butterfly - three months before Elvis Presley hit the top for the very first time. Andy Williams isn't quite the oldest man to have a Top 40 hit though, at 73 years of age he is still six years younger than John Lee Hooker was when Baby Lee hit the chart back in 1996. Mention of course must also be made of the female singer on this track, TV presenter Denise Van Outen. Although best known for her work in front of the camera and on stage she does have a small chart pedigree of her own. In 1998 she made Number 3 with her Big Breakfast co-host Johnny Vaughan on a remake of Kylie and Jason's Especially For You whilst before her TV career she was a member of failed pop hopefuls Those 2 Girls who made Number 36 in March 1995 with the woefully underrated All I Want.
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A second hit single and a move up the chart for the Vines, a group who are not without their fans in the dotmusic offices. Best described as a more shouty version of Oasis, they made their Top 40 debut back in April with Highly Evolved which made Number 32 and now they move into Top 30 territory with this similarly energetic single. They are set to play Finsbury Park in July and I get the feeling I'm going to hear them three miles up the road in Seven Sisters.
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32 IT'S WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT (Sum 41)
The law of diminishing returns kicks in big style for Sum 41 as their fourth single release cannot even reach the Top 30, a far cry from the heady Number 8 heights reached by Fat Lip in October last year. Move on and give us a new album guys, we'll be waiting.
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33 AMERICAN GIRLS (Counting Crows)
Well just to show that all good things come to those who wait, 2002 will go down as the year that Counting Crows finally had a second Top 40 hit single - over eight years after their first. Said single was their chart debut, the quite engaging Mr Jones which limped to Number 28 in April 1994 and which was taken from their acclaimed album August And Everything After. Everything after turned out to be a succession of singles that all resolutely missed out on a place in the upper reaches. Indeed the closest they have come since to being mentioned in these lines was in 1996 when Angels Of The Silences made Number 41.
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36 643 (LOVE'S ON FIRE) (DJ Tiesto featuring Suzanne Palmer)
A second chart single of the year for DJ Tiesto, this the slightly smaller follow-up to Lethal Industry which made Number 25. Suzanne Palmer supplies the vocals here having in the past contributed to club tracks such as Absolute's I Believe in 1997 and Club 69's Alright in 1998.
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37 YOU GOT THE STYLE (Athlete)
A not altogether unappealing chart debut for Joel, Steve, Kerry and Tim who collectively are known as Athlete. Who knows, if this turns out to be their smallest ever hit it could well become known as Athlete's foot. Let's move on...
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Bringing up the rear this week amongst the 14 (count them!) new entries is this re-release from Jaheim. Just In Case was the second of two hits he had during the course of 2001, reaching Number 34. This reappearance comes thanks to an engaging two-step remix that turns the single from a so-so US import into a track that deserves to take dancefloors by storm. Even if it hasn't done the same to the charts.
