Looks like we’re heading into another fallow period on the singles chart.  There are only three new entries on the current chart, and judging from the midweeks, it’ll be the same on Sunday.

In fact, the big event this week is on the album chart, where Lady Gaga is unsurprisingly number one with “Born This Way.”  Perhaps nobody else feels like releasing records in the face of that juggernaut.  And with the release of the album, sales on the four singles have also tailed off a bit; “Hair” surprisingly crashes straight out of the top 40 after just one week.

With nothing much in the way of competition, it’s a second week at number 1 for “Give Me Everything” by (deep breath) Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer.  In fact, the midweeks have it hanging on for three.  I’d kind of figured this for a middling single making it to number 1 in a quiet week, but maybe I’m missing something.

Number 2 is “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars, which has been number 1 already, so the main challenger right now seems to be “I Need a Dollar” by Aloe Blacc, currently at 3, and climbing on the midweeks.  The marvellously titled “Mr Saxobeat” by Alexandra Stan is still climbing too, reaching 5 this week.

The highest new entry is “Notorious” by the Saturdays at number 8, though since it crashes to 22 in the midweeks, we probably needn’t waste too much time on it.  It’s the lead single from their third album.  Britain’s third biggest girl band have never had a number 1, but they tend to do better than this with a new release.  I’m glad to see they’ve dialled back on the autotune (except when they’re deliberately going way over the top with it) and gone back to the electro-pop style of their earlier singles.

But… “I’m a gangsta on the dancefloor”?  That’s a tough sell for the Saturdays, who are about as gangsta as a freshly laundered tea cosy.  In all fairness to them, the operative words in that lyric are “on the dancefloor”, but there’s still a pretty clear effort here to reposition them as slightly more edgy (compared, admittedly, to Not Very Edgy At All).  We’ll see how they get on with that.

Number 13 is “I’m Into You” by Jennifer Lopez, which still isn’t officially a single yet, but climbs eight places anyway.  Nicole Scherzinger’s mediocre “Right There” climbs 12 to number 15, although judging from the midweeks, that could be as far as it gets for now.  And Rihanna’s bid for AOR radio airplay, “California King Bed”, climbs 16 to number 20.  It’s set to make the top 10 next week.

We finally reach another new entry at number 24: “One Big Family” by Templecloud.

Templecloud are a band from Bath, and presumably they’re named after the nearby town of Temple Cloud, although Wikipedia doesn’t even seem sure about that. This is their first single, it is rather beautiful, but it’s charting because it’s in an advert – for KFC, of all people, who seem to think that anything John Lewis can do, they can do better.  I venture to say there is a certain detachment between brand and advert, but evidently their creatives like a challenge.

It’s a stripped down cover of Embrace’s second single, which spent one week on the chart in 1997.  The original is more of an indie anthem, and while it works pretty well on the choruses, I’m not so sure about the rest.  Mind you, fans of the original will be pleased to know it reached number 21, slightly ahead of the KFC version.

And this week’s other new entry, at number 31, is “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj. It’s the lead single for the “deluxe edition” of her album, and it’s a grower, actually.  Wasn’t sure about it at first, but the chorus is surprisingly hard to shift.

It’s her sixth hit, and her third as lead artist – which is pretty impressive considering her chart record only goes back to last October. Since the first two singles from her album missed the top 40, there’s actually a better case than usual for re-promoting her album.

Next week: er, well, Alex Gaudino’s got a single out…