Charts – 20 April 2018
Well, so much for Drake having another mammoth run at number 1.
1. Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”
We’re ready for summer, then? Calvin Harris has been around for over a decade now, and he’s been placing consistently in the top ten the whole time. This is his ninth number one hit, following “Dance Wiv Me” (2008), “I’m Not Alone” (2009), “We Found Love” (2011), “Sweet Nothing” (2012), “Under Control” (2013), “Summer” (2014), “Blame” (2014), and “Feels” (2017). Okay, a couple of those were guest appearances, but that’s still seven with top billing. It’s an impressive haul, but you don’t think of Calvin Harris as that level of celebrity, perhaps because he’s more of a background figure in the way he promotes his own records.
Charts – 13 April 2018
It’s an epic this week. But first, do you miss the heady days of three weeks ago when Drake was at number 1 with “God’s Plan”? Well, good news, because…
1. Drake – “Nice For What”
This is Drake’s fourth number one. True, one of them was his guest appearance on Rihanna’s “What’s My Name” back in 2010, and he wasn’t the draw on that one. But the others were “One Dance”, which spent fifteen weeks at number one, and “God’s Plan”, which managed nine. So we could be here for a while. This one’s a bit different in tone, though, since it’s built around a more uplifting sample. It’s a sped-up lift from Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” (number 4 in 1999) – which, by a weird coincidence, also crops up as a sample on another new entry this week. (more…)
Charts – 6 April 2018
Another week with everything still in mid-storyline, if you’re wondering about reviews. From reading it, you’d think this week’s X-Men Gold was the last part of “Cruel and Unusual”, but the solicitations assure me it isn’t, so we’ll take that on trust. In the meantime…
1. Lil Dicky featuring Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
Oh. Really? Oh.
So this has moved 16-5-1 and let’s say I’m no more enamoured of it than I was last week or the week before. Chris Brown has had a total of fifteen top 10 hits over twelve years, but this is only his second number one, following six years after “Turn Up The Music”. It also adds Lil Dicky to the one hit wonder list (for now, at least).
Charts – 30 March 2018
Apparently guitars are back in this week.
1. Rudimental featuring Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen – “These Days”
Number one with… well, with an asterisk, let’s be honest. As foreshadowed in last week’s post, “God’s Plan” by Drake has now been around for ten weeks and is far enough past its peak to have its streams downweighted under the chart rules. As a result, its nine week run at the top comes to a screeching halt with a drop directly to number 10. How you feel about this depends on what weight you think the chart should be giving to repeat plays by the same people – but on any view there ought to be subtler ways of designing the rule to avoid such blatantly technicality-driven artefacts as a chart run of 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-10.
Without the rule, Drake would have clung on for a tenth week, but by a razor-thin margin, equivalent to fifty-one sales. So we’d have had a change next week anyway. And since “These Days” is actually still growing in sales, there’s a fair chance it will purge the asterisk with a less contentious second week at the top.
Charts – 23 March 2018
So, those rule changes last year that were planned to speed up the chart – how are those working out for you?
1. Drake – “God’s Plan”
“God’s Plan” heads up a static top four, with Rudimental spending their seventh week at number 2. It now shares the record for the longest run at number 2 – the unlucky co-champions are “I Swear” by All-4-One and “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5.
Drake gets nine weeks at number one, though we’ve still got another four weeks to go before he matches Ed Sheeran’s interminable run this time last year. But that almost certainly isn’t going to happen, for several reasons. It’s only kept a marginal lead for the last couple of weeks. It peaked several weeks ago. And next week it will be ten weeks old. And ten-week-old tracks which are several weeks past their prime get their streams downweighted.
Charts – 16 March 2018
Well. At least it was close.
1. Drake – “God’s Plan”
That’s eight weeks, but Drake only beat Rudimental by 937 sales (or sales-equivalents, what with streaming and all), which is nothing, really. The end is probably nigh. Though poor Rudimental have been stuck at number 2 for six weeks now, so they’ll be hoping it comes soon. Further down the top 40, it’s a quiet week – four new entries, and two of them on a technicality.
22. Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman & Michelle Williams – “A Million Dreams”
24. Loren Allred – “Never Enough”
Charts – 9 March 2018
Oh lord, he’s going to be here forever, isn’t he…?
1. Drake – “God’s Plan”
Seven weeks, which means it overtakes “Perfect” and “Despocito” to be the longest-running number one since “Shape of You” managed a soul-destroying 14 weeks at the start of last year. The previous Drake number one, “One Dance”, lasted for 15. Pray for us. It heads up a static top three, for the second week in a row – Rudimental’s “These Days” has now been stuck at 2 for five weeks.
26. XXXTentacion – “Sad!”
Charts – 2 March 2018
Charts – 23 February 2018
It’s the week of the Brit Awards, and you know what that means… very little, because the promotional efforts are elsewhere, and the Brit Awards themselves only come midway through the week. So its only visible impact is over on the album chart, where it gives a boost to a bunch of already-released albums. This means a very, very, very quiet chart…
1. Drake – “God’s Plan”
Five weeks, and it could be here for a while to come. Streams are still growing, and lead the market by a mile. This seems to answer the theory that “One Dance” spent an age at number one because it didn’t have a video, meaning that people who would otherwise have watched it on YouTube (which doesn’t count towards the chart) went instead to the audio streaming services (which do). “God’s Plan” got a video last week, and it only helped. Apparently any diversion effect is more than outweighed by the publicity.
Our highest new entry this week is…
37. Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey – “The Middle”
Charts – 16 February 2018
Well, this isn’t shifting…
1. Drake – “God’s Plan”
Four weeks, and hey, Drake’s made a video! It’s basically him giving away loads of money to people in Florida. The video kind of frames it as spending the label’s money, but to be honest, the publicity is probably a better return on their money than a high-budget video. And it’s not like the video they made looks especially shoestring – it comes across as optimistic rather than just sentimental.
