For the first chart of 2014, Pharrell Williams scores his third chart-topping appearance on the ARIA Singles Chart with his up-tempo track “Happy”.
This new No.1 becomes the 1014th chart-leader in Australia (1940 to 2014) and the 452nd for ARIA (1983 to 2014), plus it’s the first solo No.1 for Pharrell, who previously appeared at the top as guest vocalist on the Daft Punk track “Get Happy” (6-May-13) and then a week later with Robin Thicke and T.I. on “Blurred Lines” (13-May to 1-July-13).
The last time that the first week of the year announced a new song at No.1 was back at the start of this decade, when Owl City took the top spot with “Fireflies” (4-Jan-10), and “Happy” is the third song to do achieve first week of the year status this century, as the other was Beyonce with “Irreplaceable” (1-Jan-2007). It’s the fifth title with the word ‘Happy’ in its title to reach the top of the Australian charts, the last one being Bobby McFerrin with “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (Nov 1988).
“Happy” also becomes the 108th No.1 for the Columbia Record label, with the last one being a month ago when John Legend went to the top, and the song is the 664th No.1 sung by an American artist, with the past four chart-topping singles in Australia all being performed by US artists (Eminem, John Legend, Jason DeRulo and now Pharrell). “Happy” is also from the film ‘Despicable Me 2’, and it’s the first time that a song from a soundtrack has been to No.1 this decade, with the last one occurring in April 2009 when The Pussycat Dolls rendition of “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire was at the top for two weeks.
With Pharrell at No.1 again, it takes his tally of weeks at the top to ten weeks, and during the past week I tallied up the acts with two or more No.1’s accumulated weeks at the top so far. So below is the list (No./Artist/No.1’s/Weeks at #1)
1 – Rihanna (#5/28 weeks)
2 – LMFAO (#2/19 weeks)
3 – Flo Rida (#2/14 weeks)
4 – Katy Perry (#2/13 weeks)
5 – Macklemore (#3/12 weeks)
6 – Pharrell Williams (#3/10 weeks)
7 – Eminem (#2/9 weeks)
8 – Guy Sebastian (#2/8 weeks)
9 – Pink (#3/6 weeks)
10 – Snoop Dogg (#2/5 weeks)
11 – Reece Mastin (#2/5 weeks)
12 – Fun. (#2/5 weeks)
13 – Jason DeRulo (#3/4 weeks)
14 – Bruno Mars (#2/4 weeks)
So after a single week at No.1, Jason DeRulo drops back a place to No.2 with “Trumpets”, and then below him the rest of the Top 10 stays stable from last week. Magic and John Legend are at No.3 and No.4 respectively, and then we match the USA chart for this week, as their top two tracks are our No.5 and No.6, both duets; “The Monster” for Eminem and Rihanna and then “Timber” for Pitbull & Ke$ha. Guy Sebastian, Avicii, Katy Perry and then Rudimental with Emeli Sande fill out the rest of the Top 10.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: In mid-December, Imagine Dragons reached No.11 with “Demons”, which this week re-peaks at that position, whilst “Swing” for Joel Fletcher and Savage is up a couple of places to a new peak of No.12. With ‘The Hobbit 2’ claiming the No.1 spot at the Australian box-office last week, the end-credits theme “I See Fire” (HP-10) for Ed Sheeran rebounds twelve places to No.15 this week. MKTO are up a couple of spots to No.16 with “God Only Knows” and Lorde is back-to-back at No.20 and No.21 with “Team” and her EP “The Love Club”, featuring “Royals”, respectively. London Grammar jump up six places to a new peak of No.22 with “Strong”, whilst the older track of “On Top of the World” for Imagine Dragons is back up seven spots to No.29. Beyonce climbs up nine places to No.35 with “XO”, and another couple of last weeks new entries rise too, with “Heart to Heart” for James Blunt up six to No.41 and “Red Lights” by Tiesto jumping eleven places to No.44, becoming his first Top 50 entry. Climbing back into the Top 50 too are “Animals” by Martin Garrix (51 to 47) and “Beautiful” for Jessica Mauboy (53 to 49).
DOWN DOWN: With no dropouts from the Top 10 and a fairly stable chart this week due to the lack of releases, the first significant drop is Redfoo with “Let’s Get Ridiculous” which is down six places to No.25, whilst lower down, “The Fox” for Ylvis is down thirteen places to No.50. The biggest fall of the week though goes to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”, which leaves the Top 100 from last weeks No.33.
Lower 50: “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk and Pharrell is back up eight places to No.53, whilst “My Life” for Bliss N’ Eso with Ceekay Jones is up six to a new peak of No.64. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis jump back up thirteen places to No.63 with “Can’t Hold Us” and they re-enter at No.90 with the No.1 song from this time last year, “Thrift Shop”. The Birds of Tokyo track “Lanterns” benefits (maybe) from being used in the Sydney fireworks display, as its back up eleven places to No.66, whilst Little Mix rise six places to a new peak of No.85 with their new single “Little Me”. Also re-entering this week is “Sail” by Awolnation at No.88; “Show Me” for Kid Ink and Chris Brown at No.94 and Empire of the Sun are back in at No.97 with “Alive”.
There are two new entries to the Top 100 this week, but they are both the same song from the same film, just sung by different people. The song is “Let it Go” from the new Disney film “Frozen” (TW-27), and the first version by Demi Lovato debuts at No.55 and then other version is by Idina Menzel, which is new at No.60. Idina is best known for placing Shelby Corcoran in the TV series Glee, as Rachel’s biological mother, plus she places Queen Else in the film ‘Frozen’, whilst Demi’s version is the official first single released from the soundtrack, and it becomes her sixth Top 100 chart entry.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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