In which the run of high-selling number one singles continues.  Plus – back catalogue debris washed up on the shores of reality TV!

39.  Ellie Goulding – “Anything Could Happen”
37.  The Script – “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”

Back catalogue downloads sparked by Britain’s Got Talent, I believe.

35.  Bruno Mars – “Treasure”

The scheduled third single from Mars’ “Unorthodox Jukebox” album, which one suspects was plucked from the track listing on the logic that it sounds the most like Daft Punk’s highly successful funk/disco direction.  Expect a tidal wave of this stuff in the wake of “Get Lucky”.  As with most Bruno Mars tracks, I find it very hard to react to it as anything other than a highly polished pastiche.  It’s going to climb, though.

Previous single “When I Was Your Man” is still on the chart at 23.

29.  Daniel Merriweather – “Red” 

This was performed on The Voice UK last week.  The original made number 5 in 2009, since when Merriweather seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.  His biggest hit was as the guest vocalist on Mark Ronson’s “Stop Me”, which was a number 2 hit in 2007.

18.  Stylo G – “Soundbwoy”

Well, this is different – UK dancehall.  It’s the first full-scale single release Stylo G, who’s been releasing mixtapes for a while.  He’s Jamaican by birth but lives in London.  I don’t think anyone would mistake this for a Jamaican release, but it’s not so much a watered down version as a dancehall record under the heavy influence of UK rap.  Eminently radio friendly, and Radio 1 are very much behind it.

17.  Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull – “Live It Up”

It’s a RedOne production with seven credited songwriters behind it, and it’s pretty much the same as every other song that fits that description.  You could charitably call it pedestrian.  She performed it on Britain’s Got Talent last week, which pretty much guarantees sales – but it doesn’t appear to be moving any further up the iTunes chart as of right now.

This is the third time Pitbull has appeared on a Jennifer Lopez single, following the 2011 number one “On The Floor”, and last year’s “Dance Again”.

13.  Of Monsters And Men – “Little Talks”

More reality TV. This was the only UK hit single for the Icelandic group, and it originally made number 12 last year.  It’s presumably here because it was performed on The Voice UK a week previously.

That will give some comfort to this year’s contestants, who at least know that The Voice UK can sell somebody’s records.  It didn’t do any good for last year’s winner Leanne Mitchell, though.  Her album came out this week and lands at an excruciating number 134, which is dismal.  Not that anyone was exactly bending over backwards to promote it – it seems to have been bashed out as a contractual obligation in the hope that nobody would notice, rather than have the show suffer the greater embarrassment of promoting it and seeing it make the lower end of the top 40.

5.  Jessie J featuring Big Sean & Dizzee Rascal – “Wild”

The lead single from her upcoming third album.  She seems to be the latest artist to go for the Diplo influence, even though it never really seems to be a crowd pleaser on the charts.  But she’s watered it down a bit (for once, probably a good idea if you’re aiming for mainstream pop), and it does have a good chorus.

Still, Jessie J’s hitherto been presented as a pop songwriter.  And this isn’t a song, it’s a production job with two guest rappers on it.  It doesn’t play to her strengths, and it makes her less distinctive as an act.  I think it’s a misfire – and the number 5 placing tends to support that view.

It’s Big Sean’s biggest UK hit, mind you.  Both his previous top 40 appearances (as guest rapper) made number 22 – “As Long As You Love Me” by Justin Bieber, and “Clique” by Kanye West & Jay-Z.  Unsurprisingly, there’s also a version which has him as the only guest, presumably for the American market.

1.  Robin Thicke (featuring T.I. & Pharrell) – “Blurred Lines”

That there is the all-ages version of the video.  There’s also a shamelessly controversy-baiting version where the women are topless, which you can find on Vevo if you really want.  Both versions share the obnoxiously prominent hashtags, which seems to be the fashionable way of marking yourself as a #wanker.

Leave that aside – does the “banned video” gimmick really still work in the internet era? – it’s a pretty catchy Pharrell Williams production, and it’s flying off the download stores.  We’ve had a string of very high selling number ones – Daft Punk remained above the 100K mark for its entire run at the top, and Naughty Boy was up there too.  But with 190,000 sales, it’s the highest first week sale of the year.

Admittedly, that comes with two asterisks.  First, “Get Lucky” had a midweek release, so it’s out of the running for this record.  And second, “Blurred Lines” has (unusually) been floating around the iTunes chart as a pre-order for a couple of weeks now.  All those sales are counted on this week’s chart.  But it’s still at the top on iTunes now, and looks comfortably set for a second week at the top.

Williams returns to number 1 only two weeks after his guest appearance with Daft Punk.  T.I. gets his first number one; his previous best was number 2, when he guested on “My Love” by Justin Timberlake back in 2006.  But I know what you’re asking.

Robin Thicke?  Who the hell is Robin Thicke?

Or rather, if you’re not asking that, then you’re probably North American.  He’s an American R&B singer who’s been releasing records since 2003, and has had a degree of success in the US, but very little internationally.  He was a judge on an ABC reality show.  That kind of thing.  Somewhat surprisingly, though, he has had a solitary previous UK hit – “Lost Without U”, which made number 11 in 2007.

No, I don’t recognise it either.

On the album chart:

• Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” is still number 1.
  
• “Once I Was An Eagle” by Laura Marling is the highest new entry at 3.  Her highest chart position to date, and her third straight top 5 album.
• “London With The Lights On” by Stooshe at number 8, which is way lower than their initial momentum would have led you to expect.  But that’s what happens when a project goes horrendously off the rails.
• “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” by Alice in Chains at 22.  Their second album since reforming in 2005.  They haven’t been on the singles chart since 1996.
• “All Hell Breaks Loose” by Black Star Riders at 25.  This is a name used for new material by the current touring line-up of Thin Lizzy, in deference to the fact that it’s not really a Thin Lizzy album without Phil Lynott, who died in 1986.
• “Wings Over America” by Wings at 36.  A remaster of the 1977 live album.