World of Chig   

15.10.06

Blimey! Didn't see that one coming. My Chemical Romance, with a rise of Captain Sensible-esque* proportions, are number one. Their single 'Welcome To The Black Parade' has jumped from last week's downloads-only entry position of #23 to nudge Razorlight off the top after only one week (by a small margin). My Chemical Romance have never been higher than #19 before. In fact, they've had four other hit singles, all last year, which all peaked within the narrow range of 19 to 28, on a downward slide (19, 20, 27, 28), so to call this an improvement would be a substantial understatement. I'm loving the way the new chart rules have made the singles chart unpredictable and exciting again. All we need now is for a decent presenter on the Radio 1 chart show.

There's a nice little trivia connection here too. Within a month of Helena Paparizou winning Eurovision last year, My Chemical Romance had a #20 hit here with 'Helena', which was the closest we got to seeing Helena in the UK chart, as her winning song wasn't released here. Helena's song was 'My Number One' and now MCR have had their own. Sweet.

I had some other chart trivia rattling round my head after Razorlight made number one seven days ago, but retirement to my sick bed has put it on hold. I'd better write it up soon before I forget...

*Captain Sensible jumped from #33 to #1 with Happy Talk in 1982. It's still the biggest leap to the top from within the chart, if you ignore import versions charting lower down before a domestic release enters at #1 (DJ Otzi and Christina Aguilera) and 'leaked' sales in the week before official release (Westlife - Mandy, from #200 to #1).

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