This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
Nothing lasts forever, not even the Official UK Singles Chart Number One reign of Uptown Funk. It has taken until early February to find a single capable of outselling Mark Ronson's juggernaut, one whose arrival just so happens to coincide with the release of the movie event of the year so far.
Taking pride of place on the soundtrack of the film adaptation of "Fifty Shades Of Grey" is Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do. A breathtaking, haunting and epic ballad which positively drips with intensity and passion the song was written by Max Martin and other collaborators from his Swedish hit factory - amongst them recent Top 10 star Tove Lo. Ellie Goulding was easily the perfect choice to sing the song, her trademark little girl lost vocals blending seamlessly with the intense, atmospheric production. This is an epic record in every sense of the word.
Appropriate then that it makes its chart debut with an epic sale, notching up a combined total of 172,000 copies of which a mere 14,000 are accounted for by the 1.46m streams the single enjoyed during the week. Disregarding the extraordinary sales figures of the Band Aid 30 single and Ben Haenow's X Factor winning week, this is the highest weekly sale achieved by any "normal" hit single since the 266,000 moved by Avicii with Wake Me Up back in July 2013. More notably Love Me Like You Do is the fastest selling single by a female artist since Cheryl Cole's Fight For This Love sold 293,000 in its first week on sale in October 2009. Love Me Like You Do is Ellie Goulding's second Number One single, her first being Burn which fired its way to the top of the charts in August 2014.
Love Me Like You Do is actually the second single from the "Fifty Shades Of Grey" soundtrack to chart, its release having been preceded by that of Earned It by The Weeknd. So far the single has failed to take off and had reached a mere Number 33 last week - in contrast to today which has seen the track take a flying leap to Number 18. Skylar Grey's I Know You has also been showing up on live charts during the last seven days, but the single is, for now, chart ineligible due to being made available as the second instant grat track from the soundtrack album.
Hozier's Take Me To Church slips down a place to Number 3 this week, for now unable to reach a new chart peak in its 23rd week as a Top 75 single. To clarify one point from last week - White Lines does indeed hold the record for the slowest continuous climb up the Top 75 chart with a 25 week wait to reach its chart peak, but if total Top 75 weeks are taken into account the record was actually shattered in late 2013 by A Thousand Years by Christina Perri which reached its eventual Number 11 peak on what was its 39th week as a Top 75 hit single thanks to a series of runs which dated back over two years.
Back to present day matters and the second highest debuting single of the week is Outlines by Mike Mago and Dragonette which flies into Number 8. It is the first ever chart single for the Dutch producer but a welcome chart return for Canadian electropop duo Dragonette whose last chart single was Hello on which they participated alongside Martin Solveig, the single spending its second week at a chart peak of Number 13 exactly four years ago this week.
Maroon 5's Sugar continues to climb, the single now the group's ninth Top 20 hit single thanks to a 22-14 climb. The only other new arrival this week is Honest from Kodaline which charts at Number 39. It is the lead single from the Irish group's second album Coming Up For Air which drops this week. Sadly the lead single looks unlikely to match the Number 16 peak of their biggest hit single High Hopes from March 2013.
Having naturally enough been the most talked about release of the week it should come as no surprise to see Shadows In The Night by Bob Dylan perched comfortably at the top of the Official UK Album chart. It is the legendary performer's eighth Number One album, his first to reach the top since Together Through Life in May 2009. Coming as it does 3 months and 10 days before his 74th birthday, this means he wrestles back the honour of being the oldest solo artist ever to have a Number One album of brand new recordings, one he first set with the aforementioned album six years ago at the age of 67. He was latterly eclipsed by Rod Stewart in May 2013 who landed a Number One album at the age of 68, meaning it will be at least 2019 before he has the opportunity to claim the record back.
