Chart Review 30th May 2005 with DJ Chris Plant (2/4)	(1/4), (2/4), (3/4), (4/4).

Axel F began life as the theme to the movie Beverley Hills Cop and hit Number 2 in the summer of 1985. The track returned to the Top 10 in 1995 thanks to a club remake from Clock, that version hitting Number 7. Ten years further on and the catchy synth riff winds up with its biggest chart position yet, this time to the annoyance of half the nation. No, we haven't got a ringtone at the top of the charts. We've a naff club track inspired by a ringtone at Number One. Love or hate the single (and in truth there isn't much here to get excited about), you have to marvel at the marketing effort that put it there in the first place. Although it is shit and the makers need a good slap around the chops!!!

The runners up in this most curious of chart battles could not present more of a contrast if they tried. Thanks to the way they have spellbound America, Coldplay are well on their way to legendary status, even if their career is only three albums old. The eagerly awaited follow-up to 2002s A Rush Of Blood To The Head spawns its first single this week, one which it was hoped would give Chris Martin a long overdue Number One hit. Sadly fate has other ideas and so Speed Of Sound is left to join 2002 single In My Place as their joint biggest hit to date by slotting in at Number 2.

There is an argument to be made that Coldplay are more of an albums act (single that never was God Put A Smile On Your Face is proof enough of that) but their record of five successive Top 10 hits and more than their fair share of classics is enough to persuade you otherwise, even if Speed Of Sound doesn't suggest they are in any hurry to move on from the melancholy formula that plenty have tried to emulate in their wake but which few have managed to nail. In a way the chart duel this week has given us a nice balance with Coldplay as the Yin to Crazy Frog's Yang. Ask yourself this though, which is really the more creative. Bass Bumpers serving us up a remake of a 20 year old instrumental hit or Chris Martin rewriting Clocks and serving it up as their exciting new single?

Third biggest hit of the week, and one that is almost lost in the shuffle it seems is 1 Thing, the first ever solo hit single proper from Amerie. The sultry hip-hop soul star has until now been more used to appearing as the featured artist on hits by others. Her chart debut came at the end of 2002 when Why Don't We Fall In Love from her debut album made Number 40, the single being given a small leg-up thanks to the appearance of Ludacris on guest vocals.

She is perhaps best known here for her starring role alongside LL Cool J on his Number 18 hit single Paradise from early 2003. Now the time is right for her to emerge as a genuine star in her own right and this sparking new single from her forthcoming second album is just the ticket, the club friendly track blasting its way into the Top 5. The much heralded arrival of download singles has it seems for the moment failed to affect the shape of the singles market or the way most singles behave upon release. Indeed looking at the singles chart this week you would be hard pressed to spot anything that has changed, the table characterised by a string of high new entries and older hits gradually slipping down - no climbers whatsoever feature on the chart this week.

Continued ... next page

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