It’s late in the week, but still time enough to get this done!

1.  Sam & The Womp – “Bom Bom”

Ooh, a summer novelty record!  More to the point, a record that’s apparently being used in an advert for Southern Comfort.

This is the debut single by Sam & The Womp, who are in fact a real band – they’ve been doing gigs for a few years now.  Their other main claim to fame is that their members include Aaron, the son of legendary producer Trevor Horn.  Trevor had a number 1 back in 1979 as a member of the Buggles with “Video Killed The Radio Star”, so that’ll give them something to talk about at the next family get together.

It’s number 2 in the midweeks (against the debut proper single from last year’s X Factor winners Little Mix), so it’s quite likely to stick around for a bit.

5.  Taylor Swift – “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Officially, that’s just the lyric video, though it’s had more spent on it than most “proper” videos. Interesting choice.

Taylor Swift is a pretty high-profile act in America.  In Britain, she’s the girl who reached number 2 with the rather good “Love Story” back in 2009 and hasn’t done anything memorable since.  A couple of her later singles scraped the lower end of the top 40, but in the real world, that ain’t memorable.  Part of her problem is that she’s been designed as a US country-pop crossover artist, and the rest of the world couldn’t care less about country.  Which is fine as long as you’re not looking for international hits, but the record company evidently are – hence this record lacking any hint of country music, and being pushed heavily to overseas territories.   It drops to 9 on the midweeks, but it’s still the biggest hit she’s had in this country in years.

7.  Devlin (featuring Ed Sheeran) – “Watchtower”

I’d call this a bold choice of cover, but really, it’s not as if the fans of Devlin (or Ed Sheeran) are of the generation to put the original on that much of a pedestal.

Yes, Dagenham’s foremost rapper has indeed elected to rhyme over a version of “All Along The Watchtower”, performed for him by Ed Sheeran.  The original is by Bob Dylan, but the better known version is by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which reached number 5 in 1968.  And that’s the version they’re obviously referencing here.

This is Devlin’s first top ten hit; he had a couple of middling hits in 2010 but nothing since.  Evidently he can hope for an improvement with his next album.

11.  Public Enemy – “Harder Than You Think”

It’s back – and this time it’s climbing, reaching number 6 in the midweeks.  This makes it Public Enemy’s biggest UK hit, beating the previous number 16 peak of “He Got Game.”

The single charted a few weeks back after Channel 4 used it in their pre-Olympic promotion for the Paralympic Games, but with the Paralympics themselves now under way, it’s back on TV rotation.

The other reason why it’s sticking in people’s minds is because the video it’s attached to – entitled “Meet The Superhumans” – is really very good.  This is how you sell people the Paralympics as something they actually want to see.  It’s not embeddable, but if you haven’t seen it, I really do recommend you take the time to click.

EDIT: Ah, hold on.  The YouTube version is not embeddable, but the Vimeo one is.  But of course.

Anyway, here it is.

Meet the Superhumans from STITCH on Vimeo.

The brass sample, by the way, comes from Shirley Bassey’s 1972 album track “Jezahel”.

12.  Simple Plan (featuring Sean Paul) – “Summer Paradise”

Seemingly Random Collaboration #1.  Simple Plan are a Canadian guitar pop outfit whose only previous UK hit was “When I’m Gone” (number 26 in 2008).  This summer, they’ve apparently decided they’re some sort of ska group, and have roped in the much more successful Sean Paul to give his stamp of approval.  It’s going to drop.

17.  Owl City (featuring Carlie Rae Jepsen) – “Good Time”

Seemingly Random Collaboration #2.  Remember Owl City?  He was, until now, a true one hit wonder – one number one hit single and nothing else, ever.  The single in question was 2010’s “Fireflies”, but his electro-twee tendencies wear thin rather quickly.  Judging from this single, he’s still a bit twee, but hey, at least he’s not cloning The Postal Service any more.  He’s making party singles instead.

He also now has the help of Carly Rae Jepsen, whose single “Call Me Maybe” was number 1 earlier this year and is still on the chart after 22 weeks.

This is going to be a big hit.  It’s at number 3 in the midweeks.

24.  fun. – “Some Nights”

The follow-up to “We Are Young”, their number 1 hit from earlier in the year.  As an indie band who’d written a radio hit, there was always a question about what they’d put out for a follow-up.  Not a bad choice, actually.  It isn’t a copy of the earlier single, it’s still radio friendly, it’s pretty catchy, and it’s fairly distinctive (at least in the current market).  It does climb slightly in the midweeks, so you never know – it might build momentum.

30.  Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”

What, again?  It’s nowhere on the midweeks, so I’m guessing somebody did it as an X Factor audition.

35.  Muse – “Madness”

A rather low-profile new single from their upcoming album.  Muse don’t need hit singles, though.