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Jul 17

Charts – 16 July 2021

Posted on Saturday, July 17, 2021 by Paul in Music

Sometimes the lag in a weekly chart is more noticeable than normal…

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

Three weeks at number one. It’s still growing, too.

3. Dave featuring Stormzy – “Clash”

First-time collaboration by two of the big names of UK rap, so it was bound to do well. It’s musically compelling even if you have no idea what they’re going on about (I don’t pretend to pick up references to trainers without resorting to the annotations, and I have no idea where Jeremy Corbyn fits into anything). I’m sure he’s a big fan of Aston Martins too.

5. Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber – “Stay”

Sure, why not. This is Kid Laroi’s first hit since his breakthrough “Without You” reached number 2 (he’d previously had another track scrape a week at number 38). It’s perky enough as a piece of songwriting but the vocals are forgettable.

14. Atomic Kitten – “Southgate You’re The One (Football’s Coming Home Again)”

So the Euros have been over for nearly a week now, but the frenzy of English excitement over making the finals last weekend still qualifies for this top 40 period. So we have “3 Lions” by Baddiel & Skinner at number 4 – it must have been dominant at the start of the week – and… well, this.

Atomic Kitten were a girl group who had some decent success around the turn of the century, not just in the UK, but in other European countries too. Most of their big hits were mid-pace ballads – the name is a hangover from their rather perkier early releases. The band were initially formed as a vehicle for songwriter Andy McCluskey, best known as a member of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. He co-wrote the original version of “Whole Again”, which was a number one across Europe in 2001, and was probably their best single, at least when in ballad mode. The group split in 2004, having notched up three numbers and a total of thirteen top ten hits – most of them didn’t hang around for that long, but they were bigger than you might remember.

They play reunion shows and so they’ve decided they may as well capitalise on the adoption of “Whole Again” as a terrace chant (based on the fact that everyone in Britain knows the tune, and there’s a workable play on “coming home again” to reference “Three Lions”). Why not?

16. BTS – “Permission to Dance”

That’s on the low side for a BTS single these days. “Dynamite” and “Butter” both debuted at number 3. Not sure that post-Covid freedom-day video is going to quite catch the mood in all territories, too.

20. Neil Diamond – “Sweet Caroline”

First released in 1969, first a UK hit in 1971 when it reached number 8. It’s a terrace chant and that’s why it’s here. It’ll be gone next week.

I believe this is the first time Neil Diamond has been in the UK top 40 since 1992, when his version of “Morning Has Broken” got to 36.

23. Billie Eilish – “NDA”

This is a more typical Billie Eilish song, after “Lost Cause” entered at number 14 and failed to progress further. It enters… lower. Hmm.

33. Post Malone – “Motley Crew”

This is the first time we’ve seen Post Malone on the chart as the lead artist since 2019; he had a guest appearance on a Justin Bieber single last year, which made 29. This is certainly a not a video aimed at the international market.

36. Fredo featuring Headie One – “Wandsworth to Bullingdon”

This is Fredo’s seventh top 40 hit of 2021 – he was the lead artist on six of them.

40. Rain Radio & DJ Craig Gorman – “Talk About”

Craig Gorman is an Irish producer. The name “Rain Radio” doesn’t seem to mean anything to anyone, beyond being some sort of anonymous collective who have never attached their name to anything else. It’s basically a remix of Nelly Furtado’s “Big Hoops” – her final hit, which reached number 14 in 2012, three years after its predecessor. The original was a bit of a dirge, if we’re being honest. This is more fun.

This week’s climbers… are largely non-existent. That’ll happen when there are four football singles on the charts, helping to push things down:

  • “Black Magic” by Jonasu climbs 14-11.
  • “Vindaloo” by Fat Les climbs 36-28, and will doubtless be gone next week.

On the album chart:

1. Inhaler – “It Won’t Always Be Like This”

Irish indie rock. It’s their debut album. Lead singer Elijah Hewson is Bono’s son, which sounds like a mixed blessing careerwise.

4. Tom Odell – “Monsters”

His fourth album, all of which have reached the top 5.

6. Muse – “Origin of Symmetry”

Officially classed by the chart compilers as a re-entry, this is in fact a remixed version of Muse’s second album, which reached number 3 on release 20 years ago. It’s not radically remixed, but there’s a degree of cleaning up the sound, moving elements to the foreground and so on that goes beyond just remastering it.

35. S Club 7 – “Essential”

I assume it’s on discount somewhere. S Club 7 were one hit wonders in America, where the show did air on children’s TV, but their only hit was “Never Had A Dream Come True”. Todd In The Shadows has a very good video with the US perspective on S Club 7.

37. Turin Brakes – “The Optimist”

Another 20-year anniversary re-release, which seems ambitious –  the album only got to number 27 the first time round, and its biggest hit single got to 31. Turin Brakes are still going, and their last album, 2018’s “Invisible Storm”, also got to 37.

Bring on the comments

  1. Mark Coale says:

    Sweet Caroline was first at staple at Red Sox baseball game and was transplanted in the last year to Arsenal and now the England football team.

  2. Taibak says:

    I’m a little surprised it showed up with Arsenal first, given that Liverpool is owned by the same group that owns the Red Sox.

  3. Mark Coale says:

    Yeah, forgot toentiom that. Of course, that club already has a signature song, admittedly played before the match and not after.

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