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Sep 5

Charts – 6 September 2020

Posted on Saturday, September 5, 2020 by Paul in Music

The singles chart is quiet; the album chart, not so much.

1 Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion – “WAP”

Climbing to number 1 in its fourth week out, and the first time either Cardi B or Megan Thee Stallion has reached number one. These things are subjective, but it surely has to be the most explicit record ever to reach number one. The chart compilers, who would naturally prefer to talk about the statistics than the lyrics, are pushing it as “the first ever female rap collaboration to go to Number 1 in the UK”. I did wonder whether the word “collaboration” was doing some heavy lifting there, but no, Salt-N-Pepa never made it higher than number 2 – twice, with “Push It” in 1988 and “Let’s Talk About Sex” in 1991.

Further down the singles chart we have… not very much, really. “Mood” by 24KGoldn featuring Iann Dior climbs 11-4. “Looking for Me” by Paul Woolford & Diplo featuring Kareen Lomax climbs 15-12. “Take You Dancing” by Jason Derulo climbs 16-15 (passing his previous single “Savage Love” on its way down).

More significantly, “Tick Tock” by Clean Bandit & Mabel featuring 24KGoldn climbs notable 36-20, so it was just off to a slow start. And “You Broke Me First” by Tate McRae climbs 31-22; there’s a performance of it from the VMAs, which can’t have hurt.

25. Nines featuring NSG – “Airplane Mode”

This is the single from Nines’ album “Crabs in a Bucket”, which enters the album chart at number 1. It’s only his second hit single, and the first barely counts – “I See You Shining” managed a week at number 37 in 2018. But he’s had a solid albums career, with his first two albums placing at 4 and 5. Getting to number 1 is all the more impressive considering he was up against a big release in the form of the new Metallica album.

NSG has had hits before, most notably “Options”, which made the top 10 last year.

30. Calvin Harris & The Weeknd – “Over Now”

Now I’d have expected that to do much better. It’s the first Calvin Harris release in over a year, and the Weeknd is a big name. Harris is evidently sticking with his R&B direction.

39. Blackpink & Selena Gomez – “Ice Cream”

Huh. BTS made the top 10 last week, and they’re still hanging in there at 13. Blackpink have made the top 20 twice before, and here they are at 39 with a reasonably big name in tow. The video suffers from the fact that (for the obvious reasons) they couldn’t actually film Gomez on the same continent as the group.

On the album chart… We’ve already had “Crabs in a Bucket” by Nines at number 1.

2. Metallica – “S&M2”

This is a live album recorded with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; it’s the follow-up to the original “S&M” album, with the same concept, which only got to number 33 back in 1999. Perhaps surprisingly, Metallica have only had three number 1 albums: “Metallica” from 1991, “Load” from 1996, and “Death Magnetic” from 2008. Since then, they’ve reached number 2 twice…

3. Gregory Porter – “All Rise”

That’s his joint-highest chart position, matching 2017’s “Nat King Cole & Me” album. Rather charming, this.

4. Disclosure – “Energy”

Disclosure’s first two albums, in 2013 and 2015, both got to number 1. After a five year gap, number 4 is… not so bad. The single “Know Your Worth” reached number 27 in February, though in the end it only makes the deluxe version of the albm.

5. Katy Perry – “Smile”

Her fourth consecutive top 10 album (top six, in fact). The single “Daisies” did make the top 40, though it only managed a week at number 37 – which tends to suggest we may have seen the last of her as a singles chart act, and she’s graduating to the album chart afterlife.

14. Pvris – “Use Me”

Their previous album in 2017 reached number 4, so this’ll be a bit disappointing, even in a busy week – particularly as the reviews have been strong.

16. The Magic Gang – “Death of the Party”

Their previous album got to number 12, so in a busy week, this is pretty comparable. The single above is more fun than the video still makes it look.

17. David Bowie – “ChangesNowBowie”
18. David Bowie – “I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour ’74)”

Two limited edition releases for Record Store Day. “ChangesNowBowie” is a BBC session recorded in 1997; “I’m Only Dancing” is taken from live performances in Detroit and Nashville. According to the chart compilers, Bowie now has 60 top 40 albums, though that seems to involve double-counting some reissued albums.

28. Status Quo – “Essential”

A 3-CD budget compilation, not to be confused with 2013’s “Pictures – The Essential Collection” or 2017’s “Whatever You Want – The Essential Status Quo”. I’m not sure what the market is for this – can there be anyone out there who likes Status Quo enough to want a three-CD compilation but not enough to own one already, or just to look them up on Spotify? – but evidently someone is buying it.

34. Rick Wakeman – “The Red Planet”

This album came out digitally in June and failed to chart, so evidently Rick Wakeman’s audience really prefer their albums in physical form. Wakeman’s album chart history is all over the place – sometimes he makes the top 10, sometimes he misses the top 75. This is, well, somewhere in between.

Bring on the comments

  1. Rob says:

    Katy Parry’s “Never Really Over” hit #12 last year, so she may still have some singles chart life in her yet.

  2. Taibak says:

    I’m still amazed Status Quo were that big in the UK, considering they were just one hit wonders over here.

  3. Nu-D says:

    Rick Wakeman is still cutting albums?! And by the sound of that video, it still all sounds exactly like The Six Wives of Henry VII, Which surprisingly has held up quite well, if you’re into that kind of thing.

    ———

    I don’t know or care if Cardi B’s video is the most explicit or provocative ever. I do know that if anyone’s ever going to top that, it’s going to have to include full frontal nudity, without even the pretense of pasties, body paint, or skin-colored Lycra.

    I could care less about its sexual content. But it sure is an ugly video. Wretched bubble-gum color scheme, and low-quality CGI and green screen filming. And holy hell, what’s up with the snakes! Isn’t she the one who did the Anaconda song? I have no problem with snakes in the wild, but it sure as hell isn’t sexy to see them in the bed.

  4. Paul says:

    It’s certainly not the most explicit *video* ever made – there are plenty more explicit videos that were made in the hope of getting late-night airplay in the pre-internet era.

  5. Karl_H says:

    It seems that the raunchier the original lyrics, the more nonsensical the ‘clean’ version for YouTube is. But for those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s Gilbert Gottfried reading the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaF6NfyVqqs

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