Boost for singles.(The Market)

Helped by the half term holidays and the arrival often new entries in the Top 20, the singles market registers a week-on-week increase of 13.9%, though to a still low tally of 457,143 sales. Eric Prydz's Call On Me, which has been number one practically by default in recent weeks increased its sales by 4.1% from the previous week's all-time low for a number one of 21,749 to 22,641--but loses its chart title for the second time, this time to Ja Rule's Wonderful.

The latter disc sold 23,706 copies last week, more than Call On Me's chart-topping tallies for the two previous weeks but the lowest ever for a number one debut, falling well below the previous record of 29,918 set in 1991 by Iron Maiden's only number one single, Bring Your Daughter ... To The Slaughter.

The run of low sales for recent number ones--especially evident in the last three weeks--has dragged the year-to-date average sales for number ones to a tad over 57,000, a far cry from the all-time record of 218,300 in 1997--a total which, to be fair, was artificially inflated by enormous sales for Candle In the Wind 97.

There has been a ...