I Eat Music

Oh yeah, Sunday might seem like a distant memory now, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to examine the latest changes in the single and album charts, does it? Er, I’m not sure. Let’s do it anyway though. It might be fun.

There’s a new number one single, which is nice. At the moment, everyone is swapping stories about what they did on holiday, and Dizzee Rascal is no exception. You’d think everyone would be bored of hearing holiday stories by now, but obviously not in rap form. I’m sure if everyone started rapping about what they got up to during their week away, Dizzee would struggle to get to number one, Calvin Harris production or not.

Also new in the top ten this week are Biffy Clyro with ‘That Golden Rule’, the first single from their fifth album, ‘Only Revolutions’, which is due out in November. Further down, there’s another new entry from Nigerian pop star Nneka at 23, with ‘Heartbeat’, and TI just slips in right before the end with ‘Remember Me’ at 34. A couple of former number ones also re-entered the chart this week, with Kings Of Leon’s ode to sexy pirates, ‘Sex On Fire’, back in the top 40 at 33, and Calvin Harris’ ‘I’m Not Alone’ at 40.

Over in the album chart, number one and number two are both new entries. How exciting. Right up at the very top are Arctic Monkeys with their third album, ‘Humbug’. I like that album mainly because it contains the line, “What came first, the chicken or the dickhead?” And, yes, I am aware that’s a rubbish lyric. It’s the fact that it’s so prominent, arguably the most audible line on the whole album, and yet so rubbish that makes me like it all the more. I’m not sure it’s enough to keep the album at the top for a second week, though. And the word of mouth disappointment that seems to be going around probably won’t help, either. Although the songs did come alive during their Reading (and also, I would imagine, Leeds) performance at the weekend. So maybe that will help.

Anyway, I’ve said too much about the Arctic Monkeys now. Let’s move on the number two, David Guetta, with his new album, ‘One Love’. I’m not sure if that album mentions chickens or dickheads at any point.

There are four other new entries further down the chart. Neil Diamond goes in at 14 with his live album ‘Hot August Night/NYC’, Athlete are at 18 with ‘Black Swan’, and ‘The Very Best Of Vera Lynn’ is entertaining troops everywhere at 20. Bringing up the rear is the woman in charge of the internet, Imogen Heap, who goes in at 39 with ‘Ellipse’.

The charts are created from a grain of sand and then worshiped as a new god (to whom they sacrifice the previous week’s god) by The Official Charts Company.

Songwriter Ellie Greenwich has died aged 68 from a heart attack, following a bout of pneumonia, her niece told reporters yesterday.

Born in Brooklyn in 1940, Greenwich, with her husband Jeff Barry, became known as one of the most successful pop songwriters of the 60s, working out of the Brill Building in Manhattan, which also provided working space for other songwriters, including Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Hal David and Phil Spector.

Amongst a string of hits, she and Barry penned songs such as ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Then He Kissed Me’ for The Crystals, ‘Chapel Of Love’ for The Ronettes (written with Phil Spector), ‘Doo Wah Diddy Diddy’ for Manfred Mann, and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ for Ike & Tina Turner. One of the couple’s most famous songs was ‘Leader Of The Pack, a collaboration with producer Gordon ‘Shadow’ Morton, which was a hit for The Shangri-Las in 1965. The couple were inducted into the US Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1991.

Greenwich had begun writing songs as a teenager, and her first commercially released work was ‘Silly Isn’t It’ in 1958, which she performed herself under the name Ellie Gaye for RCA. She released her first solo album, ‘Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces And Sings’ ten years later, as an early project for Pineywood Music, the writing and production company she set up with Mike Kashkow in 1967, following her divorce from Barry. She also provided backing vocals for artists such as Dusty Springfield, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra in the 60s and 70s and continued to produce other artists, including Neil Diamond.

In 1984, many of her 60s songs were given a new lease of life by the musical ‘Leader Of The Pack’, written by Anne Beatts, with a story based on Greenwich’s life. It transferred to Broadway’s Ambassador Theater in 1985 and ran for 120 performances.

Greenwich is survived by a sister.

LIMP BIZKIT TO TEAM UP WITH NEIL DIAMOND?
Okay, here’s one to file under ‘WHAAAAAAAAAT?!’, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Neil Diamond have been discussing working together after getting in touch via Twitter.

Prolific Twitterer Fred Durst fired off a message to Neil Diamond last month, saying: “I am a huge fan of yours. We should do a collaboration – Neil Diamond meets my band Limp Bizkit. Sounds fresh”.

Yeah right, you think to yourself, but back came the reply: “I’d love to, where and when?”.

Before moving to a private conversation, Durst said: “FANTASTIC!!!!! Incredible!! What a dream come true thanks to Twitter!!”

Assuming both Twitter-ers are the real deal, which I think we are, it remains to be seen if anything will come of this. I mean, what could be bad about a collaboration between a 68 year old singer-songwriter and a man who writes messages on Twitter like this: “It’s Freddy D. I’m gonna attack this. No slack. Flip you like a mattress. Yall’s tactics need practice. Who’s actor? Who’s actress? – morning”.

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PATRICK WOLF TO TEAM UP WITH THE CHEEKY GIRLS?
Here’s another one for the file mentioned above. Patrick Wolf is apparently trying to team up with Transylvanian double act The Cheeky Girls.

Wolf told The Quietus: “I once asked AQA [Any Question Answered] who should I duet with next, and they said ‘Patrick Wolf would benefit in his career by dueting with the Cheeky Girls. A friend of mine was a PA for Mama Cheeky once, so I think there’s connections there. I’m on the hunt for the Cheeky Girls”.

Asked what form that collaboration might take, he said: “I’ve been exploring a lot of Dracular mythology, not sixth form goth project, but things like Vlad The Impaler and the history of it, and I really wanted to do a Transylvanian-themed section on [new album] ‘Bachelor’. Dracula and vampires were great to illustrate the idea of addiction, the idea that when you’re bitten by this thing you’re addicted to blood. I thought it was a metaphor for a great many things. So I was thinking of getting The Cheeky Girls in to do some spoken-word Transylvanian on it”.

These articles originally appeared in CMU Daily on 9 Apr 2009