An interesting day for the charts, as the BBC has just announced that streaming services are going to be incorporated into the top 40.  There are obvious questions of weighting here, but the basic idea of counting audiences on streaming services is plainly right.  Judging from the OCC’s existing streaming chart, the main impact will be to slow the charts down; it’ll be interesting to see how they do the weighting.

As for this week’s chart, we may be a first – a top 40 with two records deemed completely unbroadcastable by the Radio 1 chart show.

40.  Nina Nesbitt – “Selfies”

At least the title doesn’t feature a hashtag.  It’s not exactly heavy on subtext, but on the other hand it’s surprising nobody’s done the subject before.  Seems like Scouting for Girls’ territory.

This is Nesbitt’s second hit, following “Stay Out”, which made 21 last April.  The two follow-up singles didn’t make the top 40, but at least this is a second hit (however marginal) before the album comes out.

36.  Ellie Goulding – “Goodness Gracious”

Vaguely rambling verse, rousing bridge, anthemic chorus – yes, you can recognise a Nate Ruess song even when it’s been arranged in something approaching the style of Chrvches.  A surprisingly low entry given that her last three singles all made the top 5 and that this is actually pretty good.  It doesn’t seem to be moving much higher on iTunes, either.  While it’s charting as an album track download, they’ve been promoting it as an upcoming single since the start of the year.  But for the public, it’s evidently overshadowed by her cover of “How Long Will I Love You”, which has now been on the chart for four months, and has only just left the top 20 – making it perhaps the most successful charity single in years, even if everyone’s forgotten it was a charity single in the first place.

34.  American Authors – “Best Day of my Life”

A (very slightly) alt-rock outfit from Brooklyn, getting their first UK hit.  This came out in America the better part of a year ago, but it’s being promoted here on the strength of being used in a Hyundai advert.

33.  The Irish Brigade – “Roll of Honour”

The first of this week’s two unbroadcastable records.  This is a pro-IRA song from the early eighties.  Specifically, it’s a tribute to prisoners who died in the 1981 hunger strike.  A group of Celtic fans are being prosecuted for singing it at football matches, on the grounds that it’s sectarian behaviour likely to incite disorder; that will be going to trial later in the year.  The record is in the charts now because of a campaign from a Celtic supporters group opposed to the Scottish Government’s anti-sectarian behaviour legislation, partly as a fundraiser for legal costs, and partly as a publicity stunt.

Playing this would have been widely regarded as deeply inflammatory, which is no doubt why the BBC skipped it.  Interestingly, they offered no explanation of why they weren’t playing it, beyond a couple of bland sentences about a campaign opposing the anti-sectarianism laws.  This may have left some listeners with the impression that the producers simply didn’t much care for folk music.

28.  John Legend – “All of Me”

Aside from a re-entry of “Ordinary People” in 2012, sparked by a cover on The Voice, Legend hasn’t been seen on the chart since 2008.  This piano ballad about his wife doesn’t immediately seem like an obvious track to break that duck, but it is coming out in time for Valentine’s Day, and it’s been a hit internationally – this made number 1 in Australia and New Zealand, for example.

15.  Dapper Laughs – “Proper Moist”

Unbroadcastable record number 2 is a novelty record by an ex-cruise ship comedian who switched to posting rude videos on Vine and seems to have build up some degree of following there.  By the standards of actual rap, it’s pretty mild, but it’s not really susceptible of radio editing unless you’re going to rip it to smithereens, and evidently the BBC decided to just not bother.

There’s been some coverage of this talking about how impressive it is that he managed to get a record high up the chart with no airplay, conventional promotion, or even a video.  To put it in perspective, though, it had a surge of sales at the start of the week and had dropped out of the iTunes top 40 by Sunday.  That really puts him in the ballpark of Alex Day.

11.  Le Youth featuring Dominique Young Unique – “Dance With Me”

Second hit for the house/electro DJ, following “Cool”, which made 26 last autumn.  Dominique Young Unique previously appeared on DJ Fresh’s “Earthquake”.  Though she gets the co-credit, she’s actually only on this for the bridge, and the rest of the vocals are assembled from distorted samples of TLC’s “No Scrubs” (a number 3 hit in 1999).

4.  David Guetta featuring Skylar Grey – “Shot Me Down”

Er… okay.  This doesn’t seem to be officially on YouTube, which is odd.  It’s a rather pointless remix/cover of “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”, originally a number 3 hit for Cher in 1966, but these days – which is to say, post-Kill Bill – better known in the rather superior cover version by Nancy Sinatra.  That version wasn’t a hit in Britain, but it was heavily sampled on “Bang Bang” by the Audio Bullys, a number 3 hit in 2005.

Even though his own additions sound totally different from the Audio Bullys’ interpolations, it’s pretty obvious that Guetta is reusing the same central idea.  And bluntly, they did it better.

This is the third chart credit for Skylar Grey, who previously cropped up as a guest vocalist on “Coming Home” by Diddy and “I Need a Doctor” by Dr Dre in 2011, but has never landed a single of her own in the UK chart.

2.  Zedd featuring Hayley Williams – “Stay the Night”

Finally getting a UK release in Britain months after the rest of the world.  We had a knock-off cover of this in the chart last week, which naturally drops off the face of the earth now that the real version is available.  This is Zedd’s second UK hit, following “Clarity”, which made number 29 this time last year.  Hayley Williams is best known as the lead singer of Paramore (even if she’s hammered into a rather generic diva role here), but she did previously appear as a guest singer of B.o.B.’s “Airplanes”, a number 1 in 2010.

This was widely tipped as a number 1, and it was ahead in the midweeks, but ends up falling slightly short.

1.  Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne – “Rather Be”

Four weeks at the top – the longest consecutive run since “Blurred Lines” last year.  (It managed a total of 5, but four of them were in a row.)

Looks like it’s come to the end of the road, though.

Album chart:

• “Little Red” by Katy B at 1.  Follow-up to 2011’s “Katy On A Mission”, which got to number 2.  The rather good single “Crying for No Reason” climbs to 5 this week.
• “Sun Structures” by Temples at 7.  Psychedelic rock outfit endorsed by the likes of Noel Gallagher.  Single: “Mesmerise”.
• “Seven” by Lisa Stansfield at 13.  A comeback album after ten years (in which time she’s been acting).  Though obviously best known for her 1989 number 1 “All Around The World”, she had 17 hits between 1989-97.  Single: “Carry On”.
• “Dizzy Heights” by Neil Finn at 22.  Interesting – the frontman of Crowded House has released four previous solo studio albums, but only two of them have charted in this country, and the last one of those was 13 years ago.  Finn’s solo albums tend to be much less commercial than his Crowded House work – the first one was even called “Try Whistling This” – and the single “Divebomber” suggests this is no different.
• “The River and the Thread” by Rosanne Cash at 25.  Another surprise, and probably another selection of the narrowing base of album buyers.  Rosanne Cash, daughter of Johnny, has been making albums since 1978, but none of them have previously charted in this country.  Lyric video: “A Feather’s not a Bird”.