{"id":150,"date":"2009-12-28T18:43:38","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T18:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=150"},"modified":"2009-12-28T18:43:38","modified_gmt":"2009-12-28T18:43:38","slug":"number-1s-of-2009-27-december-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":"Number 1s of 2009 – 27 December 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final chart of the year is traditionally a dead week, with the race for the Christmas Number One over, and the shops closed for at least a day.\u00a0 This year, it’s slightly different, because Rage Against The Machine reached number one on the strength of a targetted one-week buying campaign which was never meant to be sustained.\u00a0 X Factor<\/em> coronation singles, on the other hand, tend to stick at the top for a while.<\/p>\n

And so it is that, with the inevitability of death and taxes, “The Climb” by Joe McElderry <\/strong>ascends to the number one position.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

That’s his performance from the X Factor<\/em> live final; the hastily-made official video isn’t embeddable, but frankly, you’ve seen these things before and you know the drill.\u00a0 Here’s the link<\/a>, if you really want to see the usual clipshow for the fifth year running.\u00a0 To be honest, he sings it better on the live version anyway.<\/p>\n

McElderry has a decent voice, although I have a sneaking suspicion that he really belongs in musical theatre.\u00a0 According to the voting figures<\/a>, he broke from the pack in the last four weeks of the competition.\u00a0 His main limitation may prove to be that he’s rather bland as a personality, and doesn’t really have a distinctive persona.\u00a0 His interviews since winning suggest he’s determined to be as inoffensive as possible.\u00a0 Obviously there’s a place for nice young boys, especially in MOR balladry, but it’s not really a common formula in pop stars these days.\u00a0 They might want to work on that.<\/p>\n

Still, his coronation single has sold perfectly well in the end.\u00a0 Contrary to popular belief, although X Factor<\/em> singles always steamroller the competition at Christmas, the sales do vary significantly from year to year, with Leon Jackson selling about half as much as Leona Lewis.\u00a0 Joe’s sales were nearer to Leona’s, so he has nothing to worry about just yet.<\/p>\n

“The Climb” is a cover version of a Miley Cyrus song taken from the soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

The Miley Cyrus version is miles better, but then it wasn’t knocked up in a studio as a generic backing track for whoever turned out to win the show.\u00a0 It peaked at number 11 earlier in the year, making it an odd choice to cover.\u00a0 Then again, it didn’t make much impact at the time.\u00a0 Miley Cyrus is clearly keen to make the transition from children’s entertainer to mainstream pop star, but so far she hasn’t quite managed it in Britain; she’s yet to make the top ten, in fact.<\/p>\n

Frankly, “The Climb” isn’t even the best song from the Hannah Montana<\/em> soundtrack album.\u00a0 “Hoedown Throwdown” is plainly miles better.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

I like to imagine that somewhere in a parallel universe, Joe ended up doing that song, possibly due to an administrative error.<\/p>\n

As for Rage Against The Machine, “Killing in the Name” held up better than expected in its second week, hanging on at number 2. Since the campaign is over, presumably a lot of people just bought it this week because they actually liked it. It’s also possible that quite a few people raced to buy it last Sunday, not realising that the chart cut-off point is midnight. It certainly started dropping steeply down the iTunes chart over the course of the week. Still, those who were predicting a precipitous dive down the chart will be disappointed.<\/p>\n

And so, the X Factor<\/em> domination recedes for another nine months.\u00a0 Otherwise, as you’d expect, there’s not much in the way of activity on this week’s chart.\u00a0 The handful of new arrivals are all re-entries:<\/p>\n