{"id":2962,"date":"2015-03-16T22:50:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T22:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2015-03-16T22:50:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T22:50:39","slug":"charts-15-march-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=2962","title":{"rendered":"Charts &#8211; 15 March 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A week where pretty much all the new releases under perform, except for one&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>35. \u00a0Calvin Harris featuring HAIM &#8211; &#8220;Pray To God&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8FOBxcluXdk?rel=0\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->This has been hovering outside the top 40 for a few weeks, struggling to take off as the single promotion begins. \u00a0Since Haim are\u00a0already a very 80s band, the end result actually sounds like a more primary coloured and bombastic remix of a\u00a0Haim track, as much as\u00a0a Harris record. \u00a0The guitarist even gets to play. \u00a0(The drummer gets to wait in the van.) \u00a0Still, I&#8217;m amazed that this hasn&#8217;t made more progress by this point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>20. \u00a0Mumford &amp; Sons &#8211; &#8220;Believe&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dW6SkvErFEE?rel=0\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This did actually gain momentum and move up the chart between Wednesday and Sunday, but it&#8217;s still a fairly muted debut for the lead single from Mumford &amp; Sons&#8217; third\u00a0album. \u00a0Then again, they&#8217;ve never really been a singles band &#8211; their biggest hit, &#8220;I Will Wait&#8221;, got to 12. \u00a0As advertised, this track backs off from their folk-ish calling cards and spends a couple of minutes being a bit Coldplay before bringing out\u00a0an uncharacteristic\u00a0electric guitar. \u00a0The back half probably has enough of the vaguely Celtic\u00a0anthem to it to remain somewhat recognisable, but\u00a0dumping your signature sound is always a risk.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and that video\u00a0above is officially not a video at all but an &#8220;audio&#8221;. \u00a0YouTube continues to spawn odd little micro-budget videos that ostensibly aren&#8217;t videos at all, a strange little sub-genre all its own.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/nSKUXqJ5l1k\" target=\"_blank\">8. \u00a0Usher featuring Juicy J &#8211; &#8220;I Don&#8217;t Mind&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A romantic ballad in which Usher explains that he&#8217;s cool with his woman\u00a0being a stripper as long as she comes home to\u00a0him, because he appreciates her desire for monetary independence. \u00a0(Also, it suggests she&#8217;ll be a pushover\u00a0on the pre-nup.) \u00a0\u00a0No video for this. \u00a0It was number 3 in the midweeks but obviously tailed off pretty badly as the week went on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. \u00a0Flo Rida featuring Sage the Gemini &#8211; &#8220;GDFR&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F8Cg572dafQ?rel=0\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This was number 1 in the midweeks, but as it turns out, it wouldn&#8217;t have held on even without the Comic Relief single coming along. \u00a0The title stands for &#8220;Get Down For Real&#8221;, and in keeping with the usual Flo\u00a0Rida approach, he&#8217;s\u00a0basically just babbling about partying over a hook he found on a moderately obscure dance record. \u00a0In this case,\u00a0it&#8217;s the\u00a0Lookas remix of the classic <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/F_iJ28iXwo0\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Low Down&#8221;<\/a> by War (number 12 in 1975), which has a rather nice little electric violin hook on it, well suited for hauling over to pop-rap.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bZ94WgCAINo?rel=0\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah,\u00a0Sage The Gemini. \u00a0He&#8217;s a Californian rapper, and this is his chart debut. \u00a0Somewhat ironically, the top hit for his name on YouTube is the video for his single <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-I-YY5p0uq8\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Red Nose&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0(which is nothing too memorable either).<\/p>\n<p><b>34. \u00a0Sam Smith &#8211;\u00a0&#8220;I&#8217;m Not The Only One&#8221;<br \/>\n33. \u00a0Sam Smith &#8211; &#8220;Stay With Me&#8221;<br \/>\n32. \u00a0Sam Smith &#8211; &#8220;Like I Can&#8221;<br \/>\n18. \u00a0Sam Smith &#8211; &#8220;Lay Me Down&#8221;<br \/>\n1. \u00a0Sam Smith featuring\u00a0John Legend &#8211; &#8220;Lay\u00a0Me Down&#8221;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lvJX7OgPYww?rel=0\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Crikey. \u00a0That&#8217;s\u00a0a lot of Sam Smith.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s Comic Relief fundraiser single was a midweek release, and it has no comedy or novelty content at all &#8211; it\u00a0is simply Sam Smith and John Legend with a\u00a0piano doing a version of Smith&#8217;s current single &#8220;Lay Me Down&#8221;. \u00a0The song itself has nothing in particular to do with the charity either, but on the principle that nobody really pays attention to the verses, it has enough in the chorus that could be taken as a suitably vague, all-purpose\u00a0expression of support. \u00a0It&#8217;s a perfectly decent rendition of the song, and their voices go well together.<\/p>\n<p>The normal chart rule is that multiple versions of the same song by the same artist are counted together, whether or not some of them have different &#8220;featuring&#8221; credits. \u00a0For whatever reason, that isn&#8217;t being applied here &#8211; perhaps because it&#8217;s a charity release &#8211; and so we have the unusual sight\u00a0of Smith being listed twice on the same chart with the same song. \u00a0It does happen occasionally,\u00a0and it was more common back in the days when there was a limit on the number of formats that could count towards\u00a0a chart position &#8211;\u00a0once in a while, a remix 12&#8243; would chart in its own right. \u00a0Two versions of &#8220;Pompeii&#8221; by Bastille charted at the same time last year, one being a Brit Awards live performance that was listed separately because it was\u00a0part of a medley.<\/p>\n<p>This also gives Smith five concurrent listings on the singles chart. \u00a0Again, not unprecedented, but extremely rare. \u00a0The record for the most concurrent top 40 hit singles is nine,\u00a0but that was set by Michael Jackson in the week he died, which is obviously a special case. \u00a0In terms of\u00a0regular releases, the record is\u00a0seven, and it&#8217;s been held by Elvis Presley since 1957. \u00a0(Particularly impressive when you bear in mind that the chart only went down to 30 in those days.)<\/p>\n<p>John Legend gets his first number 1 single, beating the number 2 peak of &#8220;All Of Me&#8221;. \u00a0Of course, that record\u00a0has spent over a year (non-consecutive) in the top 40, so it&#8217;s still his\u00a0<em>real<\/em> biggest hit. \u00a0His first UK hit came with &#8220;Used To Love U&#8221; in 2005, so it&#8217;s been an unusually slow\u00a0progress to a first number one hit.<\/p>\n<p>With the release schedule for this week looking absolutely dead,\u00a0the Smith\/Legend single seems to have every prospect of holding on for a second week.<\/p>\n<p>On the album chart:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;In the Lonely Hour&#8221; by Sam Smith<\/strong>\u00a0at 1. \u00a0The British just can&#8217;t get enough of him, it seems. \u00a0This is Smith&#8217;s fifth stint at\u00a0number 1 on the albums chart, and his eighth week in total. \u00a0The album has now spent 42 weeks inside the top 10, which is impressive even in the current market. \u00a0(And boy, the revamped Official Charts website makes it a thousand times easier to look this stuff up.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Rebel Heart&#8221; by Madonna<\/strong> enters at 2, which is a surprise, because she&#8217;s got weeks of pre-orders behind her. \u00a0If it doesn&#8217;t go further (and it probably won&#8217;t), it&#8217;ll be her first studio album to miss number 1 since 1994. \u00a0In fact, it&#8217;s actually quicker to list the Madonna studio albums that\u00a0<em>didn&#8217;t<\/em> go to number 1 &#8211; &#8220;Madonna&#8221;, &#8220;You Can Dance&#8221;, &#8220;I&#8217;m Breathless&#8221;, &#8220;Erotica&#8221; and &#8220;Bedtime Stories&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Lady Sings\u00a0the Blues&#8221; by Rebecca Ferguson<\/strong> at 7. \u00a0Third album by the\u00a0<em>X Factor<\/em> contestant. \u00a0They&#8217;ve all made the top 10. \u00a0This one is a collection of Billie Holliday covers. \u00a0Single: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/AAO2qvTYUMU\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Get Happy&#8221;<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Colours&#8221; by Blue<\/strong> at 13. \u00a0The B-list turn of the century boy band&#8217;s\u00a0second album since reforming a few years ago. \u00a0The last one sold passably in Germany as well, which is\u00a0presumably why we&#8217;re getting another one. \u00a0Single: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/djKCduzKlPc\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;King of the World&#8221;<\/a>. \u00a0(And boy, they really pushed the boat out on the video budget there, didn&#8217;t they?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week where pretty much all the new releases under perform, except for one&#8230; 35. \u00a0Calvin Harris featuring HAIM &#8211; &#8220;Pray To God&#8221;<\/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-2962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","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=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2967,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions\/2967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}