Chart Bite - Sunday May 24th 2009
It's a rap double on the UK charts this week.
First in singles as after one week the Black Eyed Peas surrender their crown in favour of Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden who storm to the top with a huge sale for 'Bonkers'. It's a huge triumph for Dizzee Rascal who has taken more than his fair share of flak for abandoning the more hardcore street style which won him so many plaudits earlier in his career and instead going for the unashamed commercial pop market. The single gives him a second straight Number One following 'Dance Wiv Me' which had a four week run at the top last summer.
Armand Van Helden gets a co-credit, the track being his inspiration to begin with. Depending on your point of view it is either his second or third chart-topper. Officially it is his second, and the first since 'You Don't Know Me' shot to Number One in February 1999 - giving him a gap of over ten years between chart-topping hits. Technically he topped the charts two years before that, thanks to his remix of Tori Armos' 'Professional Widow' which for contractual reasons was credited to her alone, in spite of the fact the record used just a few vocal samples of her original track and was in truth a brand new track created by the producer.
On the album chart as you might expect the crown is taken by Eminem and his comeback album 'Relapse'. It maintains his near 100% strike rate of chart-topping releases, his only album since his 1999 mainstream breakthrough to miss the top being his commercial debut 'The Slim Shady LP' which has never charted higher than Number 10 in this country.
Chart Watch UK has all the inside info on these hits and the other big new records of the week, including details of just how the Eurovision records fared. Check back here Monday morning for the full story.
These were:
(1) Shaggy - Oh Carolina
(2) Snow - Informer
(3) Shabba Ranks - Mr Loverman.
And now 16 years on we have another top 3 of RAP hits:
1. Dizzee Rascal - bonkers
2. Black Eyed Peas - boom booom pow
3. Tinchy Stryder/N-Dubz - number 1
Congratulations to all of these performers for another chart milestone.
In 1993 records were still mainly vinyl. CD singles and downloads had not yet appeared. Dizzee Rascal was 8 years old and Tinchy Styder was only 5 years old.
Not strictly true. The CD single overtook vinyl sales in 1992 & therefore was the dominant format, although most outlets were still selling vinyl. Got this info from the Guiness Book of Hit Singles. :-)
The cd single also has some remixes on it.