Respectable UK singles and album sales defy worldwide downturn.

Atomic Kitten and the UK singles chart have been hit with more premature obituaries than Mark Twain, John Stonehouse and Paul McCartney combined, so it was rather fitting that their resurrections should coincide in quarter one.

It was widely speculated that the Kittens were rapidly heading towards the exit door at Virgin Records before they surprised the entire music industry -- including many at their own record company -- by securing four consecutive weeks at number one with Whole Again. It was the first of several singles issued during 2001's opening period whose sales went through the roof, thereby returning some credibility to the singles countdown.

Whole Again sold 760,00 copies over the counter during the first three months of the year, a total that a year earlier would have made it the biggest-selling single by a margin of around 140,000 sales, but in 2001 that was only good enough to place it third. Beating the Kitten single were the Universal Island-issued It Wasn't Me by Shaggy and Polydor's Pure And Simple by Hear'Say, which both smashed through the 850,000 mark before easing their way past 1m sales, the first to do so since Jive's Britney Spears in 1999.

There were healthy totals, too, for several other releases such as RCA act Westlife's Uptown Girl and the Columbia-issued Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, as unit shipments during the quarter rose year-on-year by a welcome 10.9% to 17.6m. At first glance, the picture looks even better on value with BPI figures showing a 12.3% increase as the singles market reversed its decline to be worth 32.0m [pounds sterling] in quarter one.

However, the sector's apparent revival in fortunes after a year in which unit shipments fell by 17.5m to 66.1.m -- their lowest annual level since 1994 -- should be viewed with some caution as sales have since already started to slip back below 2001's level. "The industry should still be concerned about singles," warns Virgin Megastores head of music product Jim Batchelor. "Clearly there are reasons why people are not buying singles, with the odd exception like Shaggy."

Batchelor remains concerned about the narrow pricing gap between singles and continually-discounted albums which make singles appear like relatively poor value for money, but he believes simply changing their price will not cure the problem. "I don't think price is the only reason. Radio play is a key factor. If stuff is being played six to eight weeks up front, people might get sick of it. There is also more availability of things such as The Box, MTV and specialist channels like Kiss TV and Kerrang!, meaning people can access singles more so maybe don't feel they need to buy them," he says.

However, BMG sales director Richard Corps is confident singles sales will improve in the coming months as the release schedule brightens, including the likes of Faithless and Natalie Imbruglia from his own company. "I think we'll make the numbers up," he predicts. "Last year there were a lot of big singles coming up around this time so we've got to compete against that. It's a quiet time at the moment for singles but there are a number of big releases coming out over the next few weeks and months."