Friday, October 28, 2005

An illustration of why Candle In The Wind was in Canada's charts for so long

As we've been talking about a record in this top 20 recently, we thought we'd pop by and see what's happening with the Canucks' eccentric single sales chart. Three years in the top ten, Elton managed:

20 Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds
We should explain that the Canadian singles market died completely a few years ago and the majors have only just reactivated the two-track CD market, so in a country of great wide open spaces and 30m people you tend not to get great amounts of movement.

19 The Postal Service - We Will Become Silhouettes
There's a bit of this sort of thing going on too. If you thought this was unlikely outside some semi-mythical OC-land, what would you make of this?



18 Coldplay - Speed Of Sound
17 U2 - Vertigo
16 U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Oh, they're not half finished yet. Presumably this is due to the tour rolling through Toronto in September.

15 Sigur Ros - Untitled No.1
Yes, from (). This, somehow, is its 123rd week in the charts, never going higher than 4. God knows what this is still doing here, or indeed why nothing from the new album is accompanying it.

14 U2 - All Because Of You

13 50 Cent - Outta Control

12 U2 - If God Will Send His Angels

11 Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
In the Guinness Book at Most Successful Virtual Band, apparently. Seriously, it's going to pot since Norris McWhirter passed on. Sidebar facts: two ex-members of Jamiroquai and two fomer Senseless Things have contributed to the band, Phil Cornwell voices Murdoc in interviews and it's Noodle's 15th birthday on Monday.

10 Simply Red - Sunrise
Officially they may well be the biggest indie band in the world. He can still afford to pay all those models in the videos, of course.

9 U2 - City Of Blinding Lights
Bono recently said he has extremely light sensitive eyes. Odd that this only seems to have developed since about 1991.

8 Hedley - On My Own
The band of a Canadian Idol contestant. There are many phrases you don't want to hear at the moment - "another hurricane is approaching the Gulf of Mexico mainland", "bird flu is absolutely going to kill thousands", "good evening, we're Test Icicles" - but surely one of the all-time leaders is "a contestant from Pop Idol is fronting his own band", with all the pretentions to seriousness that suggests.

7 Coldplay - Fix You

6 Bo Bice - Inside Your Heaven
The American Idol runner-up, essentially notable for liking Southern rock. See, even there they get the contestants they deserve. Keep that title in your mind.

5 North American Halloween Prevention Institute - Do They Know It's Halloween
Fair to say it's outdone everything else The Unicorns wrote. Vice Recordings have got their stream working now.

4 Carrie Underwood - Inside Your Heaven
Yes, the same song as the runner-up. Not even Gareth Gates did that. Actually, it's worth pondering why only Kelly Clarkson has had records released outside North America from four series' worth of American Idol contestants. Even Norway's first Idol got international recognition!

3 Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha
Actually a cover of a song by one Tori Alamaze, who released the track she co-wrote and co-produced with Cee-Lo just seven weeks before this version came out, which was just long enough for the single to peak at 58 in the Billboard Hot 100 and Universal, who also released this, to drop her and teach whichever Doll it is that actually does the singing how to impersonate Tori's voice (or so it says here, anyway) While Alamaze goes off to find a burlesque outfitters, we're going to put money on Girls Aloud's 22 Grand Job being the first new number one of 2006.

2 Depeche Mode - Precious
Nobody seems to have noticed this here beyond the huge fanbase, but like The Cure their reputation is kept alive across the rest of the Western musical world. Fashion will probably come round to them within the next thirty months.

1 Melissa O'Neil - Alive
And the Canadian Idol winner, please! O'Neil is the third winner of a show that to us is far more notable for the names of the judges - Jake Gold, Sass Jordan, Zack Werner (the Canuck Cowell) and Farley Flex. Hello, Mrs Flex, is your Farley about? One week the contestants all had to perform a Barenaked Ladies track. We're not making that up.

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