Hello,
Some of my fellow countrymen have already reported the big news from the Dutch charts, so here I try to give some more background info and maybe some new stats. And yes, bla bla, yadda yadda compiled by the Mega Charts (
http://www.megacharts.nl), with the single sales only chart being published by Top 40 Web (
http://www.top40web.nl).
Well, the big news has been reported already. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is back at #1! After an absence of 9 weeks, the album is back at the top of the charts. The main reason for this return is the fact that tickets to the 3 U2 concerts went on sale on 5 February. The Dutch media gave a lot of attention to this, which often went accompanied with a U2 song. Some radio stations also gave away tickets and played more U2 than usual. Oh, and the Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own single was released (sorta... but more about that later).
This isn't the first time an U2 album returned to the top, nor the second. In 1998/1999 The Best Of 1980-1990 was at the top for 8 weeks when it had to step down for George Michael's best of collection for a week after which it returned to the top for another 2 weeks. And again, with the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind the album stayed at the top for 5 weeks, left that position for 13 weeks, after which it returned again for another week at the top. IIRC, this was also after tickets for the Dutch concerts went on sale.
By rising to #1 again, an U2 album has been #1 for 42 weeks now. This ties them with the Rolling Stones in 3rd position on the Most Weeks At #1 Artists list (Queen is #1), AFAIK. And oh, HTDAAB displaced Robbie Williams' Greatest Hits on the chart (selling 22% more than that record), just like it did when it debuted on the chart.
Here is the chart run for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (27-11-2004)
1-1-2-3-4-4-5-6-7-8
6-1
Last week I noted that Vertigo had dropped out of the Mega Top 50 chart (which is a combination of sales and airplay on a select radio station and MTV), although it did return to the top 40 of the sales-only chart. Well, that return was a brief one, as the single has dropped out of that chart again. And I don't think we will see it rebounce again, now that there is a new single.
So here is the chart run of the Vertigo single on the sales-only chart (13-11-2004):
2-3-5-12-14-20-23-25-23-31
39-out-40-out of charts
As I have alluded a couple of times already, there is a new single out. Last week I had some scepticism about SYCMIOYO debuting on the chart. I couldn't find it that weekend, so if it was only properly released on the Monday, that would mean it would miss the weekend sales. It does debut this week in the Mega Top 50, but only at a low #36. The reason for this is clear. Somewhere, somebody fucked up with the release of this single. I thought it was supposed to be released on 7 February, but I couldn't find it in the weekend prior. I heard from some people they bought the single during the week. But when I went to look for it this weekend, I found almost no shop selling it. At the end I could find the 2 singles (but not the DVD-single as the shop already sold out of those) but it took a lot of looking around. And when I saw a whole lot of them behind the counter of another shop, I was told they weren't allowed to sell those until Monday.
This was in a shop of the largest record chain in the Netherlands. So not only did they get the single a week later than scheduled originally, they apparently weren't allowed to sell them until after the weekend. Hence, the low debut (and the absence on the top 40 portion of the sales only chart). Will the single reach the top on next week's chart? Well, my reservations from last week still stand, because in many stores the single wasn't on sale until after the weekend...
Here is the chart run of Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own on the Mega Top 50 (12-2-2005):
36
The charity single for the victims of the tsunami isn't #1 anymore, the new #1 is a Carnival novelty single called Das Kleine Krokodil by the act Schnappi (yes, it is a German single). Trust me, you don't want to hear it.
C ya!
Marty