{"id":1168,"date":"2011-12-05T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2011-12-04T19:37:14","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T19:37:14","slug":"charts-4-december-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=1168","title":{"rendered":"Charts – 4 December 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took them long enough. \u00a0But after all those weeks stuck behind Rihanna, The X Factor<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>finally gets a number one single again. \u00a0Yes, they’ve brought out the big guns – it’s the annual charity single by the finalists. \u00a0When Remembrance Sunday came and went without a charity single, I wondered whether they were giving it a miss this year. \u00a0Turns out, they’ve just moved on from soldiers. \u00a0It’s children this year. \u00a0You like children, don’t you? \u00a0And to make extra specially sure that it definitely goes to Number 1, the single also features X Factor<\/em>\u00a0alumni JLS and One Direction.<\/p>\n

The song this year is “Wishing On A Star”<\/strong>. \u00a0The video is the same as every year, except with children this time. \u00a0In a year’s time, when this shows up on the “every number one of the 2010s” marathons on the music channels, we’ll be able to play “who was that again?”<\/p>\n

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It goes without saying that it’s not very good – charity singles rarely are – but by the standards of X Factor<\/em>\u00a0charity releases, I guess it’s one of the better ones. \u00a0Frankly, though, charity singles don’t exist to be bought on merit. \u00a0They’re intended as social events. \u00a0You buy them as a token of support. \u00a0Judging them by conventional standards misses the point.<\/p>\n

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Thanks to their featured artist credits, this technically gives One Direction their second number 1, and JLS their sixth. \u00a0Since both have recent singles out (and One Direction’s debut is also still on the chart), they have four hits this week between them.<\/p>\n

“Wishing on a Star” is a bit of a pop standard, judging from the number of people who’ve covered it. \u00a0The X Factor <\/em>finalists are the sixth act to chart with it. \u00a0The original version is by Rose Royce from 1978; it failed to chart in America, but reached number 3 in Britain. \u00a0In this video, singer Gwen Dickey wonders why she invited Dr Seuss to design her wardrobe.<\/p>\n

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Less often heard these days is the 1989 version by one-hit wonders Fresh 4 featuring Lizz E, which reached number 10. \u00a0As if you couldn’t guess, they were contemporaries of Soul II Soul. \u00a0I can’t help thinking this sounded more in tune when it first came out.<\/p>\n

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In 1992, the Cover Girls<\/a> had a stab at it. \u00a0This version reached number 9 in America, and scraped the chart in Britain, where it peaked at 38. \u00a0It’s, well, it’s polished. \u00a0And in 1998, Jay-Z did a semi-cover (with Gwen Dickey as featured singer).<\/p>\n

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Perhaps most improbably, in 2004 it reached number 11 for Paul Weller. That turns out to be a better match than you’d probably expect.<\/p>\n

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Naturally, nobody is releasing major new singles against the X Factor<\/em>\u00a0charity record. \u00a0You have to go some way down the chart to find the next new entry, though before we do that, it’s worth mentioning that “Who You Are” by Jessie J<\/a><\/strong> has suddenly leapfrogged to 37 to 8. \u00a0It’s been out for a while, so I can only assume this is because she performed it on the X Factor<\/em>\u00a0results show.<\/p>\n

But back to proper new entries. \u00a0At number 15, “Fight For You” by Jason DeRulo<\/a><\/strong>, which is one of those songs that interpolates the chorus of a better song, and then surrounds it with formula blandness. \u00a0Still, at least it means there’s something in his singles to keep you awake. \u00a0The source material this time is “Africa” by Toto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Number 21 is “Daddy” by Emeli Sande<\/strong>, who seems to be slowly turning into Adele crossed with Massive Attack. \u00a0Nothing wrong with that. \u00a0Her previous single “Heaven”<\/a> reached number 2, and hopefully this one will go higher, because it certainly deserves to. She’s also on Professor Green’s current single “Read All About It”<\/a>, which is still on the chart.<\/p>\n

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It’s the first week of December, so number 23 heralds the now obligatory re-entry for “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty McCall.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s charted every Christmas since 2005 (and probably would have charted every Christmas before that if only digital downloads had been around). \u00a0Seriously, who doesn’t own it yet? \u00a0Just behind it, at number 27, is “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s charted every year since 2007. Both were significantly lower in the midweeks, so they’re gaining momentum. (Well, obviously.)<\/p>\n

Number 28 is Beyonce<\/strong>‘s 80s throwback “Love On Top”<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0It’s got six key changes, apparently! \u00a0And number 36 is “Midnight Run” by Example<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0It’s currently charting as an album track download, and it’ll probably shoot up next week when the single version is released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took them long enough. \u00a0But after all those weeks stuck behind Rihanna, The X Factor\u00a0finally gets a number one single again. \u00a0Yes, they’ve brought out the big guns – it’s the annual charity single by the finalists. \u00a0When Remembrance Sunday came and went without a charity single, I wondered whether they were giving it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}