A Peaceful Easter
I don't know if I've ever had cause to tell this story before. In the time during Covid when I wrote the chart analysis pieces for Music Week there was just one overarching restriction I operated under. Each piece must be no more than about 800 words, just so it would fit in the printed format of the page. No matter that I think most of its views were online, 800 words for print formatting was the rule. It took me several weeks to develop the art of hitting that, most of my Friday lunchtimes were taken up with taking a razor blade to some elegantly crafted prose just to wrestle it into an acceptable form.
I share this today because this is one of those enviable weeks when so little takes place I might have actually struggled to get to 800 words on the singles chart in the first place. So let's see how this one pans out.
For the first time since the end of last year a single spends a fifth consecutive week at No.1. Said record is naturally Ordinary by Alex Warren, matching the run notched up by Gracie Abrams' That's So True in December 2024 – notwithstanding the fact that it went on to spend a further three weeks at the top in the new year for eight weeks in total. But at the present time you really would not bet against Ordinary managing to at least match that kind of run. This is no guide of course, but you might imagine the track has peaked, its chart sales slipping slightly from last week's year-to-date high meaning its ACR clock has in turn ticked once. Alhough they are still north of the 70,000 mark.
Egging Them On
Behind him the Top 4 are all locked in place. That does however mean an extraordinary fourth consecutive week at No.2 for Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club, its eighth week at a Top 3 single and tenth as a Top 10 hit. Not bad for a record that began its chart jouney way back in September last year and which was first released five years ago.
Of slightly newer vintage is Ed Sheeran's Azizam (bless you) which remains at No.3, locking Doechii's Anxiety out at No.4 - although it now has an 'official' video appropriately enough rammed with Easter eggs which may provoke a few more streams. The Top 5 is at least rounded off by a mover – Tate McRae's Sports Car which returns to No.5 in its highest chart position for six weeks. There's also a new peak for WizTheMc's Show Me Love which rises two places to No.6.
Teddy Swim's Bad Dreams is the very definition of a yo-yo single, having reversed the direction of its chart journey no fewer than seven times since its post-Christmas chart return. This week it rebounds once more, moving 13-9 to make the Top 10 for what is now the sixth time in all. The biggest irony of all? In all these moves it has still to better the No.6 peak it scaled back in November last year.
Raving About It
I do like it when a single that is deliberately tracked here makes good on its promise. Step forward Love Me Not by Ravyn Lenae which is indeed this week at Top 10 single as it jumps four places to No.10 just shy of the first anniversary of its release. And if nothing else in the Top 10 this week deserves to have its video featured, this one does. Just because it remains utterly gorgeous.
There's an interesting twist in the battle of the two simultaneous Sombr hit singles. Having led the way since they both charted, Back To Friends now slips back into second place (albeit with a climb to No.23). Overtaking it is what was hitherto its lesser twin, Undressed, which takes a far greater leap to a new peak of its own at No.19. In truth either could have stood alone as the means to turn him into a star. But the fact we get to choose between two just makes it even better. And of the two I think Undressed has to be my favourite.
Obsidian
So now let's get to the fun bit. I took my kids to see A Minecraft Movie the day after it opened, so perhaps missing the evolution of the viral cult that has surrounded it, people waiting to cheer for certain moments from the trailer or spotting easter eggs from the game itself. Now that cultdom has invaded the singles chart as well as Jack Black's performance of the Steve's Lava Chicken jingle rockets into the Top 40 to sit sizzling at No.21.
Jack Black has form in this area, just two years ago his role as the voice of Bowser in the Super Mario Brothers movie sent Peaches chartwards (it reached No.28) to land him his first hit single since the glory days of Tenacious D.
But Steve's Lava Chicken writes itself into chart history in a whole new way. At just 34 seconds in length (although technically the music on the track lasts just 31). it sets a new record as the shortest ever Top 40 hit single – clocking in precisely two seconds shorter than The Ladies Bras by Johnny Trunk and Wibsey which reached No.29 in 2007. Black himself is apparently thrilled by this. Social media response incoming I'm told.
It is hard to see how much further this can be beaten – at least not under current regulations. While you can purchase tracks that are shorter (value for money notwithstanding) DSPs such a Spotify only register a "play" and trigger both a royalty payment and a chart return if more than 30 seconds of a song is streamed. How that would translate to something shorter is not clear – would it even be logged?
Mopping Up
Last weekend was Record Store Day meaning some brief chart oddities as physical versions of certain tracks prompted a spike of interest in older singles. That's the reason behind the sudden chart resurgence of two former No.1 singles – Fortnight from Taylor Switft and Guess from Charli XCX which resume life at 29 and 44 respectively.
Brand new to the Top 40 is Shake It To The Max (Fly) from Moliy and Silent Addy, an Afrobeats track that first came out in 2024 but which has now picked up Tik Tok traction thanks to a remix which adds in vocals from Shenseea and Skillibeng to make it an all-star affair. It is a work of true genius if you let it properly inside your head - and it is now well on its way to becoming a huge smash hit as it peeks above the radar at No.35. It is Moliy's second chart single, coming three years after she made No.29 as the guest singer on Amaarae's Girls Love Money.
We can also note the No.30 entry of Lana Del Rey's Henry Come On, the lead track from a forthcoming new album.
So it turns out there was plenty to discuss after all. 1200 words of it. All hail the 34 second hero.
