This week’s number 1 is still Cee Lo Green, for the second week.  I covered that single in the previous post, if you haven’t read it yet.  It’s an odd race for the top, with the number 2 slot going to Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are” – another former number one, and according to the midweeks, currently likely to return to the top on Sunday.

This is also the first chart to come with something of an asterisk attached.  We are now into the X Factor live finals, and this year, the performances are available for download on iTunes.  But the record company has opted to exclude from the chart.  (More accurately, you need to register a single with the Official Chart Company to opt in.  But same difference.)  From Simon Cowell’s point of view, there are good reasons for this.  If it becomes clear that somebody’s a runaway leader, there’s no tension going into the final.

But we know that songs can re-enter the charts on the strength of X Factor performances; and we know that even Sky One’s Must Be The Music was able to propel three singles into the top ten, with a much lower audience.  The chances are good, then, that if the X Factor downloads were eligible for the charts, several of them would have made it in – even with the first week giving audiences sixteen tracks to choose from.  (They’re doing double eliminations in the first few weeks to get the numbers down to a more sensible level.)

Would any of these tracks have made number 1?  My guess is, probably not.  X Factor winners inevitably get to number 1 (Joe McElderry made it on his second week of release), but their singles are part of a grand narrative.  These ones aren’t.  The audience is split between sixteen acts.  They’re released on Saturday nights, so the sales will be split between two chart weeks.  And as we’ll see shortly, there’s a limit to the promotional power of a single performance on the show.

Meanwhile, this week’s highest new entry…

…is “Barbra Streisand” by Duck Sauce at number 3.  Bouncy, isn’t it?  The radio edit is actually even shorter than the video, clocking in at 2:20, perhaps reflecting how long you really want to listen to that sample looping.  Those made of sterner stuff will be pleased to know that iTunes also has a five minute version available.

The sample is from “Gotta Go Home” by Boney M, which was a number 12 hit in 1979.

To be honest, Duck Sauce have a point.  It’s a song with a great hook and… some other stuff to bridge the gaps.  Now it’s just a great hook on loop.  As for Barbra Streisand, she has no obvious connection to the song at all.  We haven’t actually seen her name on the charts since 1999, when a duet with Vince Gill called “If You Ever Leave Me” got to number 26.  Her biggest hit was “Woman in Love”, a number 1 for three weeks in 1980.  (It’s very musical theatre, but I’ve always liked it.)

This is the second hit for Duck Sauce, following “aNYway” which just missed the top 20 last November.  Duck Sauce are Armand van Helden (13 hits to his credit dating back to 1997, plus some high profile remixes) and A-Trak (a Canadian producer who hasn’t charted in his own right).

That’s the highest new entry.  But perhaps the bigger news is the first “proper” single by 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry, “Ambitions”.  Despite several weeks of promotion and an appearance on the X Factor results show, it stumbles in at number 6 – and the midweeks show it crashing to 20.

The YouTube video isn’t embeddable, which is perhaps a mercy, because the choreography is truly abysmal.  It’s like a flash mob aerobics class or something.

It’s an inferior cover version of a mid-paced pop song by a band called Donkeyboy, which was a huge hit last year in their native Norway.  Their version was number 1 for 12 weeks, and it was only replaced at the top by the band’s own next single.  So to be fair, you can see why Simon Cowell would think it had some wider appeal.

But the cover version hasn’t attracted much attention.  Entering at six, dropping to number 20 in week two… that’s really bad for the follow-up single by an X Factor winner.  Granted, it’s unlikely that any future winner will equal the record set in 2005 by Steve Brookstein, who got dropped after his first single.  On the strength of this, the future isn’t looking too good for Joe McElderry.  Chances are he’s already on his way to being airbrushed out of history, in favour of playing up  the show’s successes Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke.  Nobody really wants to be reminded that ITV’s flagship talent show can ultimately just be Who Wants to be Leon Jackson?.

Other new entries this week:

• “Broken Arrows” by Pixie Lott at number 12.  Forgettable sixth hit for the much-hyped singer who, after two initial number ones, seems to have settled down to consistently just missing the top 10.  Judging from the midweeks, this will be no different.  It’s the lead single for the obligatory “special edition” reissue of her album.
• “Hollywood” by Michael Buble at number 17.  The MOR singer is more of an albums act, but this is nonetheless his sixth hit single.  A complete throwback, but it’s got a decent chorus, and Buble comes across as somebody who makes this sort of music because he genuinely likes it.
• “Mad World” by Michael Andrews featuring Gary Jules at number 26.  This is the version from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, which was the Christmas number 1 in 2003, over a year after the film was released.  As if you couldn’t guess, it’s back in the chart because it was covered in the X Factor finals by Aiden Grimshaw, in a performance hovering somewhere between “excessively intense” and “should we get him a doctor”.  It’s interesting to bear in mind that most people who bought this could have got Aiden’s version, but presumably chose not to.  (Though of course there will be some X Factor viewers who have no truck with iTunes, which has an exclusive on the downloads.)  I recall the video used in 2003 being a rather dull exercise in cheap CGI, but apparently this Michel Gondry clip is the official version
• “Hands” by the Ting Tings at number 29.  And another indie band rediscovers synthpop.  Their fifth hit, and one of the smaller ones, but then their chart positions have always been wildly erratic.
• “Magic” by B.o.B. featuring Rivers Cuomo at number 34.  There was me thinking the lead singer of Paramore was an unlikely collaborator.  Now we’ve got the lead singer of Weezer.  B.o.B.’s other two hits went to number 1, but this is climbing in the midweeks, so you never know.  First solo credit for Cuomo; Weezer have had eight UK hits.