Single and album sales see boost.(The Market)

The kids were back at school, the Brits effect was waning and the weather was bad but, curiously, both singles and albums sales increased last week. Singles enjoyed a 21% boost week-on-week, not least because the top three--Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl, Jamelia's Thank You and Obvious by Westlife--were all new entries. It is the first time for 14 weeks that the top three have all been debuts, the last time it happened being last November, when Westlife were also involved, topping the charts with Mandy, ahead of Girls Aloud's Jump and Maybe That's What It Takes by Alex Parks. Mandy sold more than 68,000 to earn pole position but Obvious sold a little less than half that tally last week.

Mysterious Girl's arrival at the summit comes over eight years after it was first released, and although its sales last week of 107,870 are pretty good in the current climate--it's only the second record to top the 100,000 sales mark in a week this year, emulating Michelle's All This Time, which sold 117,927 copies seven weeks ago--it is a sobering thought that Mysterious Girl's debut at 53 that week in 1995 was fuelled by sales of 5,394; a similar sale would suffice for a number 20 ...