Michael Bublé and his festive album “Christmas” returns to the top of the ARIA Albums chart this week, and in doing so for the fourth time in four years, creates history as the first album EVER to return to the No.1 spot (after leaving the chart) four separate times.
“Christmas” for Michael and the “Grease” soundtrack were the only two albums ever to go back to No.1 in three occasions (Grease in 1978, 1990 and 1998), but Michael’s album goes one better by doing it four years in a row, first reaching the top on the 5th of December in 2011 for five weeks, then on 10th of December in 2011 it went back thanks to a re-packaged edition for four weeks, whilst this week last year on 16th of December, 2013 it re-ascended back to the top for three weeks, now it notches up a thirteenth week at No.1, which funnily enough is the same amount of time that the ‘Grease’ soundtrack racked up with its three runs at No.1. Two other albums have also notched up thirteen weeks at No.1, the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack in 1978 and in 2010 Pink and her collection “Greatest Hits… So Far” did the same amount of time at the top of the Albums chart.
Michael Buble’s overall albums tally at No.1 is now up to 31 weeks from his five No.1’s, moving him from equal twelfth to now equal ninth on the list of ‘Most Weeks at No.1: Albums’ alongside the thirty-one weeks that Delta Goodrem notched up with her three chart-topping albums, and now one place less that Jimmy Barnes (32 weeks) and Pink (34 weeks). Another chartifact worth noting too is that is the ONLY Christmas/Festive Season album to ever have hit No.1 in Australia.
It’s under a 1000 sales between the top two albums this week, as Taylor Swift holds at No.2 with “1989”, which is newly certified 2x ▲Platinum in sales, whilst Ed Sheeran is back up one place to No.3 with “x” and last weeks No.1 debut of “Rock or Bust” for AC/DC drops down three places to No.4, which is their second (of five) worst drop from the top, as their 1995 set “Ballbreaker” fell to No.5 in its second week on the charts.
Swapping places at No.5 and No.6 are Human Nature with “Jukebox” (6 to 5) and One Direction with “Four” (5 to 6), whilst returning for a 41st week within the Top 10 is the “Frozen” Soundtrack, back up four places to No.7, becoming the third longest running Top 10 album after ‘Grease” (64 weeks) and ‘Sound of Music” (two years). Foo Fighters’ “Sonic Highways” is back up one place to No.8 and another album returning to the Top 10, up six to No.9 is Sam Smith with “In the Lonely Hour” for a 18th week within the Top 10 and down two to No.10 are The Veronicas with their self-titled album.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “Walking Under Stars” for The Hilltop Hoods is back up five spots to No.11 and with the DVD and BR now out for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, the soundtrack is back up eight spots to No.15, whilst the “Triple J Like a Version 10” is back up five to No.19 and newly certified Gold (●) in sales. With the recent re-screening of the INXS tele-movie ‘Never Tear us Apart’, “The Very Best” for INXS is back up thirteen places to No.22 and another collection “Selected Works 1972-1999” for The Eagles jumps up seventeen spots to No.30. “Cheek to Cheek” for Tony Bennett and Lady GaGa jumps back up seventeen places too to No.31, Ariana Grande is up five to No.41 with “My Everything” and returning to the Top 40, up six to No.47 is Ed Sheeran with “+”.
DOWN DOWN: Nickelback with “No Fixed Address” (HP-3) is down four places to No.14 and newly certified Gold (●) in sales after three weeks within the Top 10, whilst last weeks No.7 debut of “Live by the Words” for Justice Crew drops sixteen to No.23 this week. Guy Sebastian is down four to No.18 with “Madness” and down nine to No.28 is Chet Faker with “Built on Glass”. The self-titled album for Marlisa drops eight to No.29 and down seven to No.32 is the compilation “Sounds of the 80s”, with “Listen” for David Guetta down five to No.33. “Goin’ Your Way” for Neil Finn and Paul Kelly is down twenty places to No.50 and leaving from last weeks Top 50 are Sheppard, Sia, Chet Faker’s iTunes Sessions, Dan Sultan and leaving the hundred from last weeks Top 50 are the Wu-Tang Clan with “A Better Tomorrow” (#49).
CHRISTMAS ALBUMS: With Michael Buble back at the top of the ARIA Albums chart, it is joined within the Top 20 by Human Nature’s “The Christmas Album” which is back up seven spots to No.20, whilst claiming a new peak this week by jumping up fifteen spots to No.21 are Pentatonix with “That’s Christmas to Me”, with the cover-act also debuting at No.87 with their 2012 festive album “PTXmas”. Mariah Carey is up two places to No.24 with “Merry Christmas” and Andre Rieu debuts at No.46 with the compilation “Best of Christmas”. In the lower fifty Lee Kernaghan is up five to No.51 with “Driving Home for Christmas” and after sneaking in at No.97 last week, Idina Menzel leaps up forty-two places to No.55 with her seasonal set “Holiday Wishes”, helped possibly by her duet with current No.1 artist Michael Buble on her album.
Landing the highest new entry of the week at No.35 is local DJ Will Sparks with his debut album “Another Land”, which features the current No.11 single “Ah Yeah So What” (HP-4), and coming in at No.40 is the third studio album for US hip hop artist J. Cole entitled “2014 Forest Hills Drive”, which is his childhood home address, and becomes his third chart entry in Australia, having previously charted with “Cole World” (HP-52, Oct 2011) and “Born Sinner” (HP-14, July 2013).
Lower 50: “Red” for Taylor Swift is back up a spot to No.54, but it’s also newly certified 4x▲Platinum, whilst the compilation “We Love Disney” is up seven places to a new peak of No.59 and returning at a new peak of No.60 is Andre Rieu with “Love in Venice”, whilst a newly repackaged edition of the John Legend album “Love in the Future” is back in at No.64. Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories” was also repackaged with the bonus live DVD, and helps the album back up sixteen spots this week to No.71, with the self-titled album for Royal Blood back up eighteen spots to No.82. Further returning albums this week include the self-titled set for Hozier at No.75, “The Best of” for Neil Diamond at No.84, Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” at No.86, Royksopp with “The Inevitable End” at No.95 and “Popular Problems” for Leonard Cohen at No.97.
‘New Girl’ actress Zooey Deschanel is the ‘she’ in the band She & Him, who debut at No.77 with their album of covers entitled “Classics”, which features tracks from Dusty Springfield, Righteous Brothers, and many other 40s to 60s tunes. This is the duos fourth album to chart after “Volume 2” (HP-49, March 2010), “A Very She & Him Christmas” (HP-91, Dec 2011) and “Volume 3” (HP-53, May 2013).
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
