Don’t get too comfortable, this probably won’t take long.  It’s a week of almost total inactivity on the singles chart, at least where new entries are concerned.

We do, however, have a new number one, because “Twilight” by Cover Drive has dropped to 6 in its second week.  That should have left the way clear for the week’s only major chart-eligible new release, which was indeed at the top of the midweek chart – but as it turns out, sales tailed off in the second half.  (Madonna also released a new single last week, but because it’s being offered as an advance download for people pre-ordering her new album, and the chart compilers can’t tell the two types of purchase part, it’s not eligible to chart.)

The somewhat unexpected result is that our new number 1 is “Titanium” by David Guetta ft Sia.

“Titanium” was originally released in August as one of several tracks from Guetta’s then-upcoming album “Nothing But The Beat”, all of which were fired onto the market in successive weeks without any specific promotion behind them.  It reached 16 that time round, before swiftly dropping out of the chart, only to return at the start of the year when the video came out and the record company started promoting it as a proper single.  It’s been on the chart for four weeks in this run, and six weeks in total, which is a pretty lengthy climb to the top.

Guetta gets his fifth UK number one – the others are “When Love Takes Over” with Kelly Rowland (2009),  “Sexy Chick” with Akon (2009), “Getting’ Over You” with Chris Willis, Fergie and LMFAO (2010), and “Club Can’t Handle Me” with Flo Rida (2010).  This is the best of the bunch by a long way.  There’s also a re-entry at number 33 this week for “Turn Me On” with Nicki Minaj, which made number 20 as a pre-release track in September, and is now also being promoted as a full single; the video came out last week.

Sia naturally gets her first number one.  Between this record and the Flo Rida collaboration “Wild Ones”, currently at number 5, Sia has staged a remarkable career comeback; until recently, her chart career looked to have started and ended with “Taken for Granted”, which reached number 10 in 2000.  (Yes, twelve years ago.)

So much for the actual number one.  What about the single it thwarted?  Well, let’s all be thankful to David Guetta, because without him, this would be number one – “Alone Again” by Alyssa Reid ft Jump Smokers.

This song went double platinum in Reid’s native Canada last year.  Mind you, the follow-up single “The Game” only made number 35 over there, and her album peaked at 25, so it seems to be a bit of an anomaly in her career.  Large chunks of the song are taken from “Alone” by Heart, which reached number 3 in 1987.

Attentative Canadians will have spotted that the UK label has swapped in a different rapper.  (For, yes, Alyssa Reid considered that what “Alone” was missing was some rap.)  The original version had a chap called P Reign.  Quite what the Jump Smokers are doing on this record is a bit of a mystery.  They’ve never charted in the UK before, so it’s not as if they have an established following.  And their own material bears no resemblance whatsoever to this record – they’re an electro act from Chicago, though they’ve also knocked out remixes for pop acts before.  Even their own YouTube channel bashfully describes the single as “obviously a very different sound for us to be a part of”.  Left to their own devices, they make records (and extraordinarily cheap videos) like this one here:

Since they’re also appearing on the US release of “Alone Again”, I can only assume that this is a naked bid to raise their profile – and one that probably generated some fairly vigorous discussion with their management.

And that’s pretty much it for major news.  Notable climbers this week: “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye ft Kimbra is now up to 3; “Born to Die” by Lana Del Rey moved 14-9 in its second week out; “Drunk” by Ed Sheeran leaps from 29 to 15; and “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri (yes, it’s still around) rebounds from 37 to 22 on the strength of an appearance on the Dancing on Ice results show.  And down at number 36, there’s the only other new entry for the week – “Turn This Club Around” by R.I.O. featuring U-Jean, a forgettable autotune electropop track.