It is a charity single which tops the chart this week, it is the song ‘Wake Me Up’ by Gareth Malones All Star Choir.
‘Wake Me Up is a cover version of last year’s Number 1 single by Avicci featuring Aloe Blacc on vocals, the song is this year’s official Children In Need song and features an all star choir which includes broadcaster John Craven , comedienne Jo brand and actor Larry Lamb amongst others. Gareth Malone OBE is the main musical influence behind this version and it is his 3rd Number 1 single after having the Xmas Number 1 song back in 2011 with the Military Wives with ‘Wherever You Are’ and once again he performed with the Military Wives choir for the Diamond Jubilee commemoration in 2012 with Gary Barlow on ‘Sing’. The other official Children In Need single for this year is one of two re-entries on this week’s chart at Number 39 for Brian Wilson with his re-recording of ‘God Only Knows’.
Staying put at Number 2 is Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and One Direction climb to Number 3 with ‘Steal My Girl’, while last week’s Number 1 from Cheryl is down 3 places to Number 4. In total there are 5 new entries and 2 re-entries. The 2nd highest new entry is at Number 8 for Australian identical twins The Veronicas, Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, this is the lead single from their soon to be released third Album to be called ‘The Veronicas’, in total they have now had 3 UK top 20 singles, this current hit called ‘You Ruin Me’ has already topped the chart in their native Australia.
Sam Smith now has a total of 4 songs in this week’s top 40 as the 5th single to be taken from his debut Album In ‘The Lonely Hour’ called ‘Like I Can’ charts at Number 9 a place lower at 10 is ‘I’m Not The Only One’ and at 16 is his ex Number 1 ‘Stay With Me’, he also features as one of the guest artists on the Brian Wilson song ‘God Only Knows’.
Taylor swift now has 2 songs in the top 20 ‘Blank Space’ charts at Number 11 one place higher than the current placing of ‘Shake It Off’, ‘Welcome To New York’ was released as a promotional single peaking at Number 39 so there have now been 3 top 40 singles from Swifts current Album ‘1989’.
27 year old American rapper from Compton , California Kendrick Lamar achieves his 1st ever UK hit single as lead artist with the song ‘I’, he has 3 previous chart hits as guest artist rapping on hits from Robin Thicke , Imagine Dragons and Alicia Keys. ‘I ‘heavily samples the Isley Brothers classic ‘That Lady’ (Number 14 -1973), elements of which were re-recorded rather than being directly sampled from the original record.
The other re-entry this week is at Number 28 for Idina Menzel with ‘Let It Go’, she has now spent 44 weeks in the top 40 this year.
Finally we said goodbye to a song that has spent every one of the 46 weeks this year on the chart as ‘Happy’ from Pharrell Williams drops out of the 40 to Number 43.
As always enjoy the music.