Well, well, well! A surprise number one in both charts today, as Steve Brookstein, against all odds (geddit?!) climbs a place to the top spot, ending the Band Aid 20 run after 4 weeks. He therefore claims the 998th UK number one, coincidentally allowing us to use the name of one of his X Factor rivals as the title for this post, as we await the one thousandth. Neat, huh?! Album-wise, the kids have been spending their Chr*stm*s vouchers on 'real music' by bands, partly due to the price reductions in the sales. This means spectacular rises for The Zutons (up 30 to #6) and The Killers (up 19 to #5), with Green Day zooming up 12 places to number one!

Band Aid 20 now slot in nicely between the original 1984 version (5 weeks at number one) and 1989's Band Aid II (3 weeks), giving 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' a total of 12 weeks at number one. It's an impressive total for one song, but still fewer than many songs by just one artist (Frankie Laine's 'I Believe' (18 weeks), Bryan Adams' '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' (16), Wet Wet Wet's 'Love Is All Around' (15), for example). 'Unchained Melody' has spent 18 weeks at number one, as it's the only song to be a UK number one for four different artists. Band Aid 20 is also, of course, the biggest-selling single of 2004 in the UK, knocking Eamon down to number 2.

So, the 1,000th number one is within sight. Hopefuls for the 999th, in the shops tomorrow, include Blue, Kasabian, Scissor Sisters, Manic Street Preachers, Iron Maiden and Erasure, but my money's on Elvis's second number one returning to the top in 7 days' time; Jailhouse Rock. Elvis's first number one, All Shook Up, also goes on sale tomorrow, but it won't count for the chart because it's being sold with a big box, in which to keep all 18 of Elvis's re-released number ones over the coming weeks. This makes it ineligible for the chart. So, in order to have a chart entry the day after what would have been Elvis's 70th birthday next Saturday (8th), the record company are re-releasing his second number one at the same time as the first.

All of this makes it quite likely that the 1,000th number one will now be two weeks today, and that it will be Elvis's 1959 double A-side, 'One Night' and 'I Got Stung', originally the 80th number one (and perhaps two of Presley's least well-known chart-toppers). Time to get to the betting shop before people realise this. Don't tell anyone I told you...

UPDATE: Tuesday 04/01/05. My local Asda isn't stocking the Elvis box with 'All Shook Up' in it, the twonkers, so it's just as well it doesn't qualify for the chart. Interesting to note though, that they had completely sold out of 'Jailhouse Rock' today, despite only putting it at #3 in their prediction chart (behind Brookstein still at #1 and Blue new at two).
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