This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
Three weeks and three brand new Number One singles with three also being the number of new entries in the Top 3 of the UK singles chart this week as an uncharacteristically strong week of new releases see several big names colliding with each other in the race to top the charts.
Leading the way, as he did for all but the very start of the week is a returning Ne-Yo who maintains an impressive record in topping the British charts with the premiere single from almost every one of his albums. New single Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself) is his fourth Number One as lead artist in this country - fifth in total -, following in the footsteps of So Sick in 2006, Closer in 2008 and Beautiful Monster in 2010, each the lead singles from his albums In My Own Words, Year Of The Gentleman and Libra Scale respectively. His only album to date not to open its campaign with a chart-topping single is 2007 release Because Of You whose title track could only reach Number 4 in April of that year.
The single is taken from his new album R.E.D. which hits stores worldwide at the end of September and those paying close attention will note that although the two songs are musically and lyrically quite disparate its title is oddly similar to the Mario track Let Me Love You which peaked at Number 2 in this country in 2005 and whose composition is credited to one 'Shaffer Smith' - better known professionally as Ne-Yo.
Few would argue that Moves Like Jagger was one of the defining singles of 2011, but perhaps rather fewer people in Britain realise that the unique collaboration between Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera was born of lead singer Adam Levine having worked alongside the Ms Aguilera on the first US series of The Voice. In one of those wonderful "history repeating" moments, the second biggest hit of the week is a musical collaboration which owes everything to the artists in question meeting as judges on the UK version of the series. Few would have known Danny O'Donoghue before the show aired earlier this year but by the end he was readily identifiable as the personable lead singer of The Script, best known for their 2008 Number 2 hit The Man Who Can't Be Moved but who also reached Number 4 in 2010 with For The First Time. Now his band have their third Top 10 hit, a startlingly energetic track called Hall of Fame which features the distinctive tones of fellow The Voice UK judge will.i.am who injects the single with his own trademark sense of fun to make this - dare I say it - far and away the best The Script single of their career. It charges into the charts at Number 2 this week, matching the peak of "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" to equal their best chart placing ever.
Bringing up the rear in this trio of brand new smashes despite an early week lead is Pink who storms to Number 3 with Blow Me (One Last Kiss), the lead single from her sixth studio album The Truth About Love which will be her first album of entirely new material since 2008 release Funhouse. Ever the musical chameleon, the new single sees the star plug in to the prevailing sound of American pop music at present and hence is an out and out electropop stormer, mixed to sound loud and frantic and exciting, if rather unsubtle. Not that she needed any kind of chart comeback really, but this Number 3 single is her highest charting release since So What stormed to Number One in October 2008 and is only the fifth Top 3 hit of her career as a primary artist.
Also new to the Top 10 are Fun whose latest single Some Nights has been on a steady climb for the last six weeks and which now reaches a new peak of Number 10 as the follow-up to Number One hit We Are Young.
Just missing out on the Top 10 this week is Flo Rida who enters at Number 11 with his latest release I Cry. His fourth chart hit from current album Wild Ones, the single has more in common with the first than might at first appear. Just like Good Feeling before it this new single is based around a sample of someone else's record which itself in turn was based on an even older hit. In this case I Cry is directly inspired by Cry (Just A Little) by Bingo Players which itself is an interpolation of Brenda Russell's 1988 single Piano In The Dark. Russell's original original (if that makes sense) was a slow burner in the true sense of the word during that year, released in mid-February but only peaking at Number 23 in early May.
Meanwhile speaking of slow burners, keep a close eye on Cheryl (Cole)'s latest single Under The Sun which in a manner quite uncharacteristic of her previous releases is having to climb the singles charts little by little. The follow-up to Number One single Call My Name, the track rebounds to a new peak of Number 15 after having last week slipped back a place to Number 24. A timely TV performance plus a discounting of the single on iTunes can be credited for this otherwise unexplained turnaround. At the very least this avoids it the ignominy of becoming her lowest charting solo single to date, an honour still reserved for The Flood which limped to Number 18 in early 2011.
On the album chart it is the turn of some rather serious rock acts who for whatever reason are shut out of mainstream singles success to dominate the top end of the market. Flying in at Number One are The Vaccines with Come Of Age. Their second album, and the follow-up to 2011 release What Did You Expect From The Vaccines, it is home to the singles No Hope which peaked at Number 37 in July and Teenage Icon which sits at Number 39 this week. One place behind are Northern Ireland indie rock band Two Door Cinema Club who chart with second album Beacon, a dramatic improvement for them on the chart performance of their first release Tourist History which peaked at Number 24 in March 2010.
