Good weather, desirable new releases, new sales initiatives from Virgin and MVC, a VAT-free weekend at Tesco and payday for monthly wage earners helped both singles and albums markets register double digit gains last week, writes Alan Jones.
Albums enjoyed a 17.7% sales hike to 2,568,998 - their highest level for three weeks and their 15th best tally in 34 trading weeks so far in 2005 - while overall singles sales jumped by 14% to 900,611, their highest figure for 12 weeks. Physical singles sales were also at a 12 week high at 405,627, while downloads reached a three week best of 494,984.
Bucking the trend - understandably given its massive recent sales - James Blunt's Back To Bedlam album suffered a 6.1% dip in sales week-on-week to 66,321, taking its cumulative sales to 1,209,919. The album has now spent eight straight weeks at number one, the longest run for any album since The Beatles' hits set 1 reigned for nine weeks in 2000/1, and the longest by an album of new material since The Spice Girls' Spice in 1997/8. It's also the longest reign for a Warner Music album since Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill in 1997. And Back To Bedlam has sold more than 60,000 copies for 12 weeks in a row - a very impressive statistic at any time of the year but even more so in the somewhat slow summer season.
Goldfrapp's Supernature nabs second place behind Blunt, ending Coldplay's four week stranglehold on runners-up slot with X&Y. However, with upcoming single Fix You moving to the top of the airplay chart, X&Y upped its sales 14.4% week-on-week to 49,116 - its highest level for six weeks - and its cumulative total to 1,308,177.
Supernature - Goldfrapp's third album - sold 52,976 copies to earn its number two debut, Alison Goldfrapp, who makes up the duo with Will Gregory, says the album is "an electronic/glam cross between Berlin, New York and North-East Somerset". Home to the recent number four single Ooh La La, it slaughters the first week sales of Goldfrapp's first album Felt Mountain (number 144, 914 sales in 2000) and follow-up Black Cherry (number 19, 14,859 buyers in 2003). Felt Mountain eventually got to number 57 and sold 177,096 copies, while Black Cherry climbed no higher but has sold 256,703 copies.
Aside from Goldfrapp, the only other album chart Top 10 debut comes from Craig David. Though its first week sales don't match his debut album Born To Do It, which sold 225,320 copies when debuting at number one in 2000, or follow-up Slicker Than Your Average - number four with sales of 53,921 in 2002 - David's third album, The Story Goes, makes a very respectable debut at number five, after selling 38,315 copies. The album's first offcut, All The Way, reached number three on the singles chart three weeks ago for the 24-year old from Southampton.
Although given a warm critical reception, and described as more accessible than their previous album, San Francisco band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's introductory Echo label release Howl falls short of the Top 10 this week, debuting at number 14 on sales of 17,886. The band's last album Take Them On Your Own arrived exactly two years ago and debuted at number three with 28,502 sales. Despite its fast start, however, it has sold only 89,304 copies to date, whereas the band's self-titled 2001 album never charted higher than number 25 but has sold 202,404 copies.
Meanwhile, after an impressive 14 consecutive weeks in the Top 5, Forever Faithless - The Greatest Hits slips 4-6. Its sales were barely down, however, falling just 3% to 25,687 last week, while its cumulative total of 627,284 make it the year's eighth biggest selling artist album.
ITV1 screened tribute shows Elvis Mania and Elvis Forever and documentary Elvis By The Presleys on 20 August 20, four days after the 28th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, and provided fresh stimulus to his enormous back catalogue, in particular the compilation Elv1s - 30 Number 1 Hits, which responds by re-entering the Top 75 at number 47. It sold 5,025 copies last week - a 115% increase over the previous frame - to take its cumulative sales to a lofty 1,267,706 copies.
On the singles chart, there are seven new entries to the Top 10, and also debuts at 11 and 12, with Oasis winning the race for chart honours with their 21st single, The Importance Of Being Idle from the album Don't Believe The Truth.
Don't Believe The Truth is Oasis' sixth regular album but the first from which the first two singles have both reached number one, achieving that accolade this week with The Importance Of Being Idle debuting in pole position 14 weeks after first single Lyla. Oasis' eighth number one in all, The Importance Of Being Idle sold 47,235 copies last week. Lyla opened with sale of 75,124. Don't Believe The Truth has sold 563,229 copies in 13 weeks - just 134 copies more than last album Heathen Chemistry sold in its first quarter.
Matching the peak it achieved on the US Hot 100, Rihanna's debut single Pon De Replay - a catchy mix of R&B and dancehall - enters the chart at number two with sales of 29,631. The 17 year old from Barbados, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, releases her debut album Music Of The Sun today (29th), Rupee - number 44 with Tempted To Touch last October - was the last Barbadian to chart, while other islanders who have made good include old school rappers Doug E. Fresh and Grandmaster Flash.
On the basis of the performance of their first solo singles, honours are even between former Blue boys Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe. Ryan's single had the higher debut, charting at number three five weeks ago but sold only 20,879 copies to do so. Webbe's single, which he describes as "urban folk", debuts a place lower but sold more (23,465) copies. Details of Webbe's album have yet to be announced but Ryan's continues its fast decline. Falling 6-24-42-59 since release, it sold 3,735 copies last week taking its cume to 42,297.
Their ninth hit in under three years, Girls Aloud debut at number seven with Long Hot Summer on sales of 18,451. Requiring the input of no fewer than seven songwriters, it is their first single to fall short of the top five. Last single Wake Me Up was their first to fail to go top three but had the excuse of being from the band's What Will The Neighbours Say album, which had already sold 500,000 copies thus reducing the single's potential audience. Long Hot Summer, though, is a brand new song, otherwise unavailable, and was expected to fare better.
A double negative yields positive results for Black Eyed Peas, who follow-up number three hit Don't Phunk With My Heart with Don't Lie, which debuts at number six this week on sales of 22,656. Both singles are from the band's Monkey Business album which sold its 200,000th copy on Saturday, and holds at number 17 this week after selling a further 15,892 copies - 27.4% more than the previous week and its highest tally for 10 weeks.
Top 10 singles chart debuts not mentioned above come from The Kaiser Chiefs' I Predict A Riot/Sink That Ship at number nine and My Doorbell by The White Stripes at number 10, with sales of 16,424 and 12,821 respectively.
As the Kaiser Chiefs and White Stripes figures suggest, the improved market made the level of sales required to gain admittance to the Top 10 of the singles chart last week a massive 50.8% higher than the previous week, when Akon's Belly Dancer limboed into anchor position with sales of 8,505. The last time the benchmark was set higher than this week was 12 weeks ago, when Audio Bullys' Shot You Down was in tenth place with sales of 14,927.
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