This week's Official UK Singles Chart
Naturally, there is this week an underlying theme to the singles chart, best described as "what happens when you perform/appear/win at the Brits". Let's see if we can't get through it all without making a single Joss Stone reference.
One man whose moment of awards glory is destined to come next year is Mika but he makes up for it by spending a fifth week at Number One, Grace Kelly beating off the challenge of the Kaiser Chiefs with Ruby (or is that RubyRubyRuby) who hold firm at Number 2. Of all the singles in the Top 10, they still stand the best chance of bringing Mika's reign to an end, not least with the CD version of Ruby arriving in the shops this week. Meanwhile, the Top 3 is rounded off by Akon and Snoop Dogg who soar six places with I Wanna Love You as after seven weeks on the chart the single finally arrives in the shops. I Wanna Love You is now Snoop's third Number 3 hit. He appeared on Dr Dre's The Next Episode in February 2001 and of course Buttons from the Pussycat Dolls last year. His only chart appearance to go higher was his own Signs which nicked a week at Number 2 in the summer of 2005.
The big Brits winners line up on the edge of the Top 10 this week. Returning to the upper reaches with a 27-10 rebound is the last but one Number One single Patience. Winner of the "Best British Single" award and performed by the boys at the award ceremony, it hardly comes as a surprise that the track now occupies its highest chart placing since it fell out of the Top 10 four weeks ago. One place below is their "new" single as the delicious ELO pastiche Shine continues its upward trajectory moving 17-11. This suggests it should be easily in the Top 5 by the time it hits the shops for real at the end of the month. The practice of deleting older singles came about when record companies worried that older tracks hanging around the charts would eclipse the rise of newer product. Take That's two hit singles appear to be working hand in hand to compliment each other nicely.
Also up for "Best Single" and also performed on the night was Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars and that too makes a leap moving 23-12. In actual fact, the single that refuses to die had seen its sales soar at the start of the week even before the Brit awards on Wednesday night, thanks, I suspect to its use as the soundtrack for a routine in Dancing On Ice. Sadly the same can't be said for their real "current" single Open Your Eyes which despite a CD release this week limps to Number 26. Maybe Take That are the exception which proves the rule.
Justin Timberlake's What Goes Around Comes Around is still two weeks away from shop release but makes a big move soaring 29-14 to become a Top 20 hit for the first time. Also making a welcome more are The Gossip who fell back slightly with Standing In The Way Of Control last week but who now make a more reassuring move 27-17. They too will hit the shops on March 5th.
The highest Top 40 new entry lands at Number 19 as Ice Box gives Omarion his first ever Top 40 hit. A former member of US R&B boy band B2K, he featured on their Top 10 single Girlfriend in 2003 as well as the better remembered Bump Bump Bump which alongside P Diddy topped the US charts and made Number 11 here. His first solo album O came out in 2005 and its title track had a minor chart run that summer, hitting Number 47. His only other Top 40 hit to date came at the end of 2005 when he was the guest star on Bow Wow's Let Me Hold You, a Number 27 hit. The radio friendly and naggingly catchy Ice Box stands a very good chance of giving him his biggest hit to date, and you never know may even be the track that allows him to finally put the "pray for him" debacle and his resultant role as an internet figure of fun behind him.
Back to the Brits then and after she performed the track at the ceremony, Amy Winehouse moves back into the Top 30 with Rehab rising 49-22. Also performing on the night were the Red Hot Chili Peppers and although their track of choice Dani California only limps to Number 88 as a result, the band do see their new CD single Desecration Smile enter the chart at Number 27. The fourth single to be taken from the album, it is hardly likely to climb much further.
My own favourite single of the week is the one that enters the Top 75 at Number 49. Lily Allen may have hit a slight bump in the road with the strange choice of Littlest Things as her last single (it peaked at Number 21 just before Christmas) but can hardly fail with her latest. Easily the cutest track from the album, 'Alfie' takes its cue from the 60s hit Puppet On A String as Lily recounts the tale of trying to persuade her (real life) brother to emerge from his room and get a life. Even those who after her first hits wanted to slap her for being smug and annoying will change their tune and want to give her a hug after just the first few bars of Alfie. Top 10 within weeks or there is just no justice left in the world.
Finally for this week, the one track which based on its Brit awards performance should have charged enthusiastically up the chart is the one that in the end only shifts slightly. Former Number One I Don't Feel Like Dancing by the Scissor Sisters merely moves 39-33 after their show-stealing performance last week. Could it be that just about everyone owns a copy already?
