This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

First, a correction, as last week whilst discussing the Gym Class Heroes single Ass Back Home I claimed that it had become their first ever UK Top 10 hit single - which is far from the case. Quite the reverse in fact as the single last week maintained their 100% strike rate of Top 10 hits, being their fifth in a sporadic career which stretches back to 2007. Given that their last single was Stereo Hearts which became their joint biggest hit ever, peaking at Number 3 in October last year you would have though I'd remember it somehow.

Anyway, they are Top 10 no longer, one of three singles making way for others to arrive in the upper reaches of the British charts. The biggest of these was a single which was regarded by many as a contender to top the charts with ease given that it was following up an instant Number One hit by the artist in question. In the event it was not to be, Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know coming from behind midweek to land a third week at the top of the charts and its second in a row. With a further strong sale of around 85,000 copies the track is well on its way to half a million sold and is comfortably 2012s biggest seller so far.

What then of its failed rival. Well that single was Rockstar, the second solo track from N-Dubz rapper Dappy, the follow-up to his chart-topping No Regrets from October last year. Not even the rather wonderful novelty of a co-credit for no less a musical legend than Queen guitarist Brian May who supplies the guitar licks on the track could give it the boost it required. Not that he or any of us should complain at a second straight Top 3 single of course, and the hit is another step along the road to the forthcoming release of his debut solo album.

The other Top 10 arrivals are a rebounding Stronger which sees Kelly Clarkson vault 13-8 as the single reclaims the chart peak it last occupied for two weeks over a month ago. Ed Sheeran continues to reap the benefits of his post-Brits bounce with a 11-9 climb for Drunk which now becomes the fourth Top 10 single to be taken from his acclaimed album +.

Lower down the chart it is something of a busy week for new singles although the second highest new entry of the week comes from a rather unlikely source. Demonstrating once more the power of community spirit Christian recording star Matt Redman lands himself his first ever mainstream chart single with Twenty Seven Million arriving at Number 12. The title is a reference to the A21 campaign which aims to raise awareness of the plight of the victims of modern day slavery. Redman is joined on the track by fellow spiritual performers LZ7 who themselves are no strangers to hits created by mass fan power, having reached Number 26 with This Little Light in October 2010. Naturally the circumstances behind such hits mean the single is an inevitable one week wonder as far as the charts are concerned but it makes the achievement of even getting this far no less notable.

Making for a rather interesting study in contrasts, one place below Redman at Number 13 are Philadelphia rappers Chiddy Bang who have the second Top 20 hit of their career with Ray Charles. They made their chart debut back in March 2010 with Opposite Of Adults, having found British audiences to be far more receptive to their sound than record labels back home. Their debut album Breakfast has been some time coming, originally scheduled for 2011 it was pushed back to this spring, but with another hit single under their belt, the prospects for it being a strong seller as it hits British stores this week are looking pretty good.

Also of particular note on the Top 40 chart this week is the arrival at Number 28 of a brand new remix of a club track which is now more than 20 years old. What Can You Do For Me was originally a Number 10 hit for Leeds-based Utah Saints in the summer of 1991. Assembled from vocal samples of both Gwen Guthrie and Annie Lennox, the infectious track was the first of what would be three Top 10 singles from the duo. Now a generation on the track is back on the chart thanks to a reworking by Drumsound and Bassline Smith which cleverly retains the beating heart of the original whilst cranking up the BPM for a uniquely 21st century twist on the classic. The only negative is the loss of the Guthrie vocals from the original, replaced by a soundalike. Rather curiously this is the second Utah Saints classic to be reworked for a new generation, coming a leisurely four years after its original follow-up Something Good returned to the Top 10 in a 2008 remix.

Emeli Sande's Next To Me may have slipped back a place on the singles chart but her album Our Version Of Events moves in the opposite direction to reclaim the Number One position it surrendered to 21 last week. The highest debuting album of the week is the work of another veteran, Meat Loaf whose latest offering Hell In A Handbasket storms the chart at Number 5, his sixth studio album in a row to comfortably make the Top 10 in a run which stretches back to the release of Bat Out Of Hell II back in 1993. All told this is the veteran rock star's 10th Top 10 album.