Chart Watch
The campaign to mark Lemmy’s passing by getting Motörhead‘s Ace of Spades to number 1 didn’t quite achieve its aim, but the song re-enters the singles chart at number 13 this week, two places higher than it reached on its original release in 1980 (and a full ten places higher than the 1993 reissue). For all that, Ace of Spades still isn’t the band’s biggest hit; a live recording of their theme song Motörhead made number 6 in 1981, just after their collaboration St Valentine’s Day Massacre EP with Girlschool reached number 5.
Over on the album chart a live New Year show on the BBC has done wonders for Bryan Adams; his compilation The Best of Me re-enters at 20 ahead of his latest album Get Up which rockets from 87 to 26. Rod Stewart‘s new set Another Country drops two places to 16, but Jeff Lynne’s ELO hang on at 17 with Alone in the Universe outselling their own Best Of album All Over the World at 30. Enya‘s Dark Sky Island holds steady at 25, the latest New Order set Music Complete climbs back up to 54 while Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbot fall to 76 with Wisdom, Laughter & Lines and Simply Red‘s Big Love drops to 83. Other compilations still hanging around the chart include Michael Jackson‘s Number Ones at 40, Whitney Houston‘s The Ultimate Collection at 46 and The Definitive Collection of Lionel Richie and the Commodores at 75. The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac re-enters at 81 while reunion rumours propel Guns n’ Roses‘ Greatest Hits to 89, with Status Quo‘s Accept No Substitute at 96 and Bon Jovi‘s Greatest Hits bringing up the rear at 99. Meanwhile three of the longest running albums on the chart are still hanging around: Legend by Bob Marley & the Wailers at 62 (702 weeks), Queen‘s Greatest Hits at 47 (704 weeks) and the deathless ABBA Gold at 41 on its 734th week on the chart.
New Releases
The one everyone’s talking about this week is David Bowie‘s new album Blackstar, although its seven tracks include both sides of the 2014 single Sue (or In a Season of Crime) and ‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore as well as the recently released singles Blackstar and Lazarus, so you already know all of side one. Also out today is Darkness to Diamond, a companion to Visage‘s final studio album Demons to Diamonds released last November; the new set includes alternate versions and remixes of the songs from last year’s album.
