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Aug 14

Charts – 13 August 2021

Posted on Saturday, August 14, 2021 by Paul in Music

It’s a good week for new entries.

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

Seven weeks at number 1. I can’t say it’s growing on me, but there it is. It still needs another two weeks to match “Drivers License”. The top three is static, with Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber at 2 and Jonasu at 3.

13. The Weeknd – “Take My Breath”

This is the lead single from the Weeknd’s fifth album, and it’s firmly in his 80s epic disco mode. Weeknd hits tend to be slow burners that take a couple of months to reach their peak position, so number 13 is fine as a debut. Bear in mind that “Save Your Tears”, from the last album, is still at number 10 – it’s been in the top 40 for 31 weeks, and took nearly six months to reach its peak position of number 2.

By the way, this  video has an epilepsy warning due to the strobe lighting (which is apparently why planned showings before the Suicide Squad film were cancelled). It’s not that strobe-heavy but I can see why someone might have had second thoughts about showing it to people without warning on a large screen in a darkened room.

18. KSI & Lil Wayne – “Lose”

This is not a track from the album “All Over the Place” that KSI released just last month, but according to Genius it’s the lead single from the deluxe edition of that album. Not to be confused with the Platinum edition, which is already out, or the Platinum VIP edition, which is also already out. Hmm. The song itself is actually pretty decent.

35. Wizkid featuring Tems – “Essence”

Wizkid is one of the biggest artists in Nigeria; his biggest UK hit was his appearance on Drake’s “One Dance”, which was number 1 forever back in 2016, but he already got his name off the one-hit-wonders list by appearing on a mid-table Krept & Konan single in 2019. This is the first time he’s chanted as the lead artist, though. It’s a track from last year’s album “Made in Lagos”. Making her UK chart debut is Tems, a Nigerian singer – which means this is not an international collaboration, it’s an actual Nigerian pop song making the UK chart. And it’s very good, too.

There is a version which has Justin Bieber on it, which is not an improvement. But that only came out on Friday, too late to have any impact on the chart. It’s the Nigerian original charting here.

36. Olivia Rodrigo – “Jealousy Jealousy”

This is just an album track from “Sour” – the video above is an excerpt from her “Sour Prom” live performance film. As best as I can tell, it’s charting now simply because it happens to have swapped places with “Favorite Crime” as the third-most-streamed track from the album; “Traitor” and “Good 4 U” are still at 16 and 17 respectively. It’s another very good song.

40. Fredo – “Flowers and the Snow”

This is another single from Fredo’s album “Independence Day”, which enters the album chart at 9 – his fourth top ten album, though technically one of those is meant to be a mixtape.

This week’s climbers:

  • “Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish climbs 6-4, which is her highest position this year.
  • “Remember” by Becky Hill & David Guetta climbs 7-5.
  • “Talk About” by Rain Radio & DJ Craig Gorman climbs 17-14.
  • “Need to Know” by Doja Cat climbs 22-21.
  • “Let Them Know” by Mabel, which has been hanging around the 30s and 40s for two months, suddenly jumps 31-23.
  • “You for Me” by Sigala & Rita Ora climbs 29-28.
  • “2055” by Sleepy Hallow climbs 39-30.

On the album chart, “We’re All Alone in This Together” by Dave returns to number 1 for a second week (knocking Billie Eilish down to 2).

3. Will Young – “Crying on the Bathroom Floor”

Nineteen years after winning Pop Idol, he’s still here, and he’s never missed the top three with a studio album. (A couple of compilations landed lower.) This is an album of covers of songs by female artists, but he’s not exactly going for the obvious standards – above, for example, we have his take on “Daniel” by Bat For Lashes, a number 36 hit from 2009.

5. Barbra Streisand – “Release Me 2”

A second album of unreleased rarities. It’s her fifteenth top ten album; the official single is the track above, a collaboration with Willie Nelson rejected from her 2014 duets album “Partners”. Among the odder inclusions is a version of “Rainbow Connection” with Kermit the Frog, apparently recorded in all seriousness for her 1979 water-themed album, “Wet”.

6. George Harrison – “All Things Must Pass”

Reissue of George Harrison’s third solo album, originally a number 1 for eight weeks in 1971. Well, sort of. This is one of the oddities of chart history: Back in 1971, the sales charts were compiled from data manually recorded by record stores and submitted by post to the chart compilers. Unfortunately for George, his whole eight-week reign at the top coinciding with a postal strike that prevented the data being collected, and so none of those charts were published at the time. For years, official chart histories simply treated those album charts as eight solid weeks of non-movers, with the result that “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel was listed as the number 1 throughout. The surviving data was eventually analysed in 2006 and the official chart history was changed retrospectively to reflect it.

7. Brian May – “Back to the Light”

This is a remastered version of May’s 1992 solo album, which reached number 6 at the time. It may or may not count as his first solo album, depending on how you feel about 1983’s “Star Fleet Project”, credited to Brian May And Friends, which was basically a jam session with some celebrity mates.

Number 9 is Fredo, but we’ve done him. And finally…

20. Nas – “King’s Disease II”

That’s actually four places higher than last year’s “King’s Disease” – Nas does surprisingly badly on the album chart for someone of his profile. His only top ten album in the UK was 2012’s “Life is Good”, and even that only reached number 8.

 

Bring on the comments

  1. Si says:

    I’m shocked to discover that the one song that I like on my wife’s favoured radio station is done by Ed Sheeran. Mr Granny-Pop for kids.

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