I Eat Music

So, I thought Jay-Z might be able to hold on to the number one slot for more than one week. But no, that position does seem to be very slippery of late and he’s dropped down to number three, making way for Pixie Lott to have a crack at grasping on to the top. There are a couple of new entries vying for position, too. Mika is at four with ‘We Are Golden’, Mini Viva are at seven with ‘Left My Heart In Tokyo’ and Muse are at eight with ‘Uprising’.

Outside the top ten there’s less going on. Shakira is the next new entry at 25, with ‘She Wolf’, while U2 are at 32 with ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy’, and Livvi Franc closes proceedings, coming in at 40 with ‘Now I’m That Chick (feat. Pitbull)’.

The album chart is just weird this week. Vera Lynn has done what she failed to do last week and knocked Arctic Monkeys of the number one spot. Just in case you didn’t get that: Vera Lynn is at number one. Vera Lyn. Vera. Lynn. At number one. At 92 years old, she is the oldest person to ever hold the position – a full 25 years older than the previous holder, Bob Dylan, who went to the top of the chart at the sprightly age of 67 in May this year.

And if that wasn’t weird enough, The Beatles have four albums in the top ten. Not to allow Vera Lynn to take all the glory, they’ve broken two records, racking up the most number of albums by a group simultaneously in the top ten, which has been held by The Monkees since 1967 (when they had three), and also the most number of albums by an act in the top 60, with sixteen. The previous holder of that record was Elvis, who had 14 albums in the top 60 in 1977, thanks to a Michael Jackson-style mass purchase of his back catalogue following his death.

It’s not all old stuff in the album chart, though. Jamie T’s second album, ‘Kings & Queens’, goes straight in at number two, and The Cribs’ latest offering, ‘Ignore The Ignorant’, their first with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, is also new at eight.

Further down the chart, there are a few non-Beatles new entries in the top 40 (though they do have a further six in addition to the four in the top ten). Beverley Knight is in at 17 with ‘100%’, Frank Turner is at 36 with ‘Poetry Of The Deed’, and Prefab Sprout (still relative newbies compared to The Beatles and Vera Lynn) are in at 39 with ‘Let’s Change The World With Music’.

And I wouldn’t be doing this properly is I didn’t keep you up to date with Mercury nominees’ chart movements. There’s little activity on that front yet, though it’s still less than a week since the award winner was announced. In reverse order, La Roux is at 34, Friendly Fires are at 32, Kasabian are at 16, are Florence And The Machine are at 12, all of which are drops from their positions last week.

The charts are compiled by the understandably quite excited Official Charts Company.

It seems no one can keep hold of that number one spot in the singles chart at the moment. Still, Dizzee Rascal shouldn’t feel too down about only managing a week at the top. If you’re going to be knocked off the top by anyone, there are worse people than a team consisting of Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West. Oh, and Sugababes, who are a new entry at number two. And David Guetta, who is at three. But fourth is still good, Dizzee. Well done.

Still, if it’s a real chart success story you want, look no further than Kings Of Leon, who are back in the top ten again with ‘Sex On Fire’ this week, at number six. Presumably this sudden leap in sales means that the track is now close to toppling Lady Gaga’s position at the top of the all-time highest download sales chart, which was only published yesterday.

Anyway, moving on. And speaking of Lady Gaga, as we were, she features on Wale’s ‘Chillin’, which is new at 12 this week. A short step down at 16, Booty Luv have another new entry, with ‘Say It’, while Jamie T’s ‘Chaka Demus EP’ is new at 23, and Friendly Fires go in at 30 with ‘Kiss Of Life’.

In the album chart, it seems that talk of chickens and dickheads was enough to keep Arctic Monkeys at number one, fending off a sustained attack from Vera Lynn. There’s something you don’t get to write very often. Yep, it looked for a while like all the kids rushing out to buy ‘We’ll Meet Again: The Very Best Of Vera Lynn’ would outnumber the more aged folk shuffling down to HMV to buy the new Arctic Monkeys album, but it was not to be. Vera did knock David Guetta down to number three, though. So that’s something to be pleased with.

At number four, it’s only those bloody Kings Of Leon again. After fifty weeks on the chart, their fourth album, ‘Only By The Night’, has jumped from 22 to number four this week. It’s probably about time they let someone else have a go. Someone like Noah And The Whale, maybe, who are this week’s highest new entry at 16. Okay, maybe not them. What about Just Jack, who’s also new at 22? Or Sean Paul at 38? Come on Kings Of Leon, get out of the chart and make space for someone else.

In fact, while we’re at it, why don’t we clear out everyone who’s been on the chart for 40 or more weeks? I’m looking at you James Morrison, Beyonce, Pink, Elbow and Abba. And Duffy. Duffy! You’ve been in the top 40 for 70 weeks now. It’s just greedy. Get out.

The charts are reported as cold hard facts and not even changed a little bit to look nicer by the Official Charts Company.

If this keeps up, they’re going to have to rename the charts the Michael Jackson Memorial List because, following the first full week after his death, the singer’s music has yet again made up a significant amount of record sales.

With ‘Man In The Mirror’ rising to number two in the singles chart, Jackson also managed to get five singles in the top 20, 13 in the top 40, 27 in the top 75 and a staggering 49 in the top 200. Albums-wise, he still holds the number one spot, although this week it’s with ‘The Essential Michael Jackson’, rather than ‘Number Ones’, which this week is at number three. In total, there are five Jackson albums in the top ten, eight in the top 40, and twelve in the top 200. Collectively, Jackson accounts for 600,000 record sales last week.

Of course, this means that the album which had been set for the number one spot in the midweeks, La Roux’s eponymous debut, is at number two. However, despite the number of people rushing out to spend their money on Michael Jackson, the duo still managed to gain the highest number of first week sales for a debut album this year. La Roux’s latest single, ‘Bulletproof’, drops from number one to number three this week, replaced at the top by Cascada with ‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’.

New entries in the top 40 singles chart this week come from Cascade, Jamie T with ‘Sticks N Stones’, Pitbull with ‘I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)’, Black Eyed Peas with ‘I Gotta Feeling’, and Michael Jackson with ‘Black Or White’, ‘Dirty Diana’, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘You Are Not Alone’, ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’, and ‘Bad’.

New entries in the albums top 40 are La Roux, Ali Campbell with ‘Flying High’, The Kenyan Boys Choir with ‘Spirit Of Africa’, Killswitch Engage with ‘Killswitch Engage’, and Michael Jackson with ‘The Very Best of Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five’ and ‘HIStory: Past, Present & Future Book 1′.

With the continued focus on Michael Jackson this week, particularly around his memorial service at the Staples Centre on Tuesday, the surge in sales of his music looks like it may increase again this week. It’s entirely possible that there will be even more Jacko records in the charts this Sunday.

The charts are compilated by The Official Charts Company.