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THE OFFICIAL UK SINGLES CHART TOP 75.
CHART COMMENTARY
After a couple of weeks in the doldrums, the singles market improved by 32% last week, heralding the simultaneous arrival of six new entries to the Top 10. These include only one established act (Radiohead), one developing act (Dido) and no fewer than four debut acts (DJ Pied Piper, Blue, 3LW and Sunshine Anderson).
It is the first time this year that we have had so many new acts make their debut simultaneously in the Top 10 and, well though they have done, the three R&B acts (Blue, 3LW and Sunshine Anderson) are easily overshadowed by new garage sensation DJ Pied Piper, whose Do You Really Like It snared more than 148,500 buyers last week.
The record is the first release on the Relentless label to reach number one and gives further hope that the recently faltering garage scene may yet be on the up again. After a fairly quiet spell for the genre, Oxide & Neutrino's Up Middle Finger debuted at number seven last week to give them their third straight Top 10 hit. That is the longest current sequence of any garage act, as the previously 100% Top 10 records of Artful Dodger and DJ Luck & MC Neat both came to a halt the same week in February when they debuted at 11 and 12 with Think About Me and Piano Loco respectively.
After being sampled on Eminem's chart-topping Stan, Dido's Thank You makes the chart in its own right this week, debuting at number three after selling more than 51,000 copies. It therefore eclipses the number four peak position of the previous Dido single Here With Me, although the latter title sold nearly 63,000 copies on its first week.
The Offspring single Want You Bad debuted at number 15 back in March and proceeded to decline, eventually dropping out of the Top 75 four weeks ago. Since then it has made a recovery, bounding 78-71-49-34, with sales up 82% a fortnight ago and 103% last week. We usually give reasons for things like this, but in this case, we have to admit we just don't know.
* Contrary to what was reported in this column last week, S Club 7's number one hit Don't Stop Movin' has not been added to their 7 album.