This week's Official UK Singles Chart
Week number two for the bouncy one, her continuing chart dominance comes at the end of a week when she hit this country with a vengeance for promotional purposes, taking centre stage at the Party In The Park and fluttering her eyelashes at Graham Norton being just two of the highlights. It all serves to keep Crazy In Love firmly atop the bestsellers list, beating even Madonna and the theme to the big film of the moment. Not bad for a song that is criticised by some for being a track built from the ground up around the sample rather than being based on any kind of original inspiration. Bitchy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
So it is that the third single from Madonna's American Life album charges into the chart to land her yet another Top 3 hit single, although agonisingly not another Number One hit. To find the last time Madonna released as many as three singles from an album without seeing a single one of them hit the top you have to go back to her mid-90s career nadir and the Bedtime Stories album which did not even contain a Top 3 single, the title track being as good as it got when that reached Number 4 in February 1995. Still at least with her current releases she is making it into the Top 3 even if both Die Another Day and American Life both shot straight out of the Top 10 after a single week. All eyes on the chart next week to see if Hollywood is destined to suffer the same fate.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 FEEL GOOD TIME (Pink featuring William Orbit)
By a spooky coincidence, it was the theme to the first Charlies Angels movie in 2000, Independent Women, that confirmed Destiny's Child as superstars, the single charging straight to the top of the chart in December of that year. Now in the same week that one of the members of the group consolidates her position as a solo superstar with a second week at the top, the theme to the follow-up film arrives in the chart. Feel Good Time actually deserves to take the honours as the best pop hit of the week, a storming party track that, well, commands you to feel a good time. Pink is the artist of choice, lending her tones to the track and in the process being rewarded with her first hit of 2003 and her first Top 10 single since the chart-topping Just Like A Pill charted in September last year. Also receiving a co-credit is producer William Orbit who appears to have dropped off the radar somewhat since his purple patch in early 2000 when he was producing chart-topping singles for the likes of Madonna and All Saints plus charting with his own club remakes of classical tracks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As well as the celestial Girls Aloud and the somewhat less appealing One True Voice, the TV talent show Popstars - The Rivals has managed to spawn a third chart story out of the most controversial circumstances of all. Javine Hilton was easily one of the standout wannabes in the series, a natural performer with stunning looks and a voice that easily put everyone else in the building to shame. It seemed almost a certainty that she would end up as one of the final members of the band. Jaws hit the floor all around the country then when she found herself in one of the final elimination votes and lost. Nobody could understand it, even when the phone company handling the vote insisted that nothing untoward had gone on. For whatever reason the British public had voted the most talented singer in the bunch out of the band. Of course immediately after that the offers of solo record deals began to pour in and it was almost a given that Javine would find herself in the charts in her own right if not as a member of the girl group. So here she is, although in truth her debut single is something of a disappointment being little more than a rather weak four minutes of faux R&B and a far cry from the sort of track her television performances eight months ago suggested she was capable of. Maybe greater things are to come and at the very least her presence on the singles chart is to be welcomed. Just as you could not have seen Darius as one of the members of Hear'Say, so too you feel that Javine's talents would have been wasted as one of the members of a girl group. At least here her natural talents have the opportunity to shine. Here's hoping they are given better opportunities to do so.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another Eminem single and yet another Top 10 hit single, his 11th in total and the follow-up to Sing For The Moment which hit Number 6 back in March. The only concern really is that he may be losing his ability to shock. Will there be anything in some new material that will have people foaming at the mouth in quite the same way? You can bet he is relishing the challenge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of TV created superstars, here is Kym Marsh with her second solo hit single, this the direct follow-up to the impressive Cry which hit Number 2 back in April. Come On Over doesn't quite make the same kind of splash and barely manages to make the Top 10, possibly due to the inescapable fact that it doesn't quite have the same kind of magic that Cry possessed. The sit up and pay attention factor is sorely missing here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK so apparently 50 Cent is no longer hip-hop's Next Big Thing (tm). This of course due to the fact that he is the current big thing. No, next big thing is Joe Budden and to demonstrate this, here he is with his first ever hit single. As well as coming from his forthcoming debut album the single has also benefitted from exposure on the soundtrack of 2 Fast 2 Furious. As with most rap singles, the production counts for a great deal when determining what kind of commercial hit it will become and with more than half an eye on the dancefloor, Pump It Up has just the right spark to stand out from the crowd. Even if it didn't make the Top 10 placing that was widely predicted.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you remember the time when Blur were one of the biggest bands on the planet? When their every release was eagerly anticipated as the next stage in the musical legacy that they were carving for themselves? When the mere fact that they released a single on the same day as Oasis was headline news in the papers? You have to wonder just how a band copes with the fact that they barely seem to matter any more. Would the casual observer have known that there was a new Blur single in the shops this week? I doubt it. What matters of course is that the still loyal fans of the group did and this has meant that Blur do at least have their second hit single of the year, following on from Out Of Time which hit Number 5 back in April.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 TOUR DE FRANCE 2003 (Kraftwerk)
Well it is a good thing that you can operate a synthesiser from a bath chair as it seems that Kraftwerk are going to be around forever. The German act can boast a sporadic legacy of hits that stretches back to 1975 and the release of their seminal masterpiece Autobahn. Their last appearance in the charts was in March 2000 when Expo2000, a track in celebration of the World Fair in Hanover hit Number 27. Three years on and they storm back into the Top 20 for the first time in 12 years with a new version of one of their own classics. Tour De France is, as the name suggests, a track written in tribute to the famous bicycle race that takes place every year in and around the French countryside. In the 1980s it was used in this country by Channel 4 as the obvious theme to their coverage of the cycle race and hit Number 22 in August 1983. A year later the track was back in the Top 30 in a slightly reworked form following its use in the film Flashdance and it charted once again in late 1999, hitting Number 61. Now with the 2003 race in full swing the track is back in the charts in yet another remixed form although still retaining its trademark melody at the very heart. The last Top 20 hit for Kraftwerk came in 1991 when a remixed version of another old track The Robots made also made Number 20. Just one place further up and the single would have become their biggest hit single since The Model famously topped the charts in early 1982.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us be honest here, Sunrise was one of the best singles of the year so far. Simply Red's Number 7 hit single from back in March proved that there was life in the old dog yet, mixing an old Hall and Oates riff into a brand new song delivered with perfection. Their second single from their latest album maybe doesn't have quite the same level of inspiration and this is possibly reflected in this slightly lesser chart ranking. However good their singles may be, Simply Red just aren't quite the mainstream pop act they once were and further big hit singles may be harder to come by - unless inspiration strikes in a big way once more.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 LOSING GRIP (Avril Lavigne)
Is this the law of diminishing returns in operation or simply a reflection on the fact that Losing Grip is Avril Lavigne's weakest single to date? The shouty track performs poorly in comparison to the three Top 10 hits that have preceded it and needless to say that this won't go down as one of her greatest ever releases.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looks like this is old school 70s synth revival week. First we have Kraftwerk back in the Top 20 (admittedly with an 80s track) and now this new version of an instrumental track that was first a hit for Space back in 1977. Chances are you will be familiar with the central theme of the track already, even if you never knew what it was before. This reworking from Minimalistix drags the track kicking and screaming onto the dancefloor - and may I add to quite brilliant effect.
