3February

For fun, a chart commentary from this week ten years ago, when Fly Away Home was on release, microcredit and the ONDIGITAL consortium were launched, Victor Ubogu was Gotchaed, England beat Scotland and Ireland bettered Wales.

Fourteen new entries onto the top 40; amongst the acts leaving us for good this week are Bally Sagoo, who has had two one-week wonders in the past three months; the Outhere Brothers, twice chart-toppers in 1995; Cyndi Lauper, her biggest hits came over a decade earlier, though she bows out with a career-best run of seven straight top 40 hits; and Shaquille O'Neal, the basketball star whose entire top 40 career consisted of one week. At number 40. Missing the top end of the hit week are KRS-One, These Animal Men, Chrissy Ward, Pavement, and Juno Reactor. None of them will ever amount to much, at least on the singles list, and for Juno Reactor, the first week is the last.

New entries beneath the top 20 for Donna Lewis, following up the very successful I love you always forever (5 last autumn) with the remarkably unsuccessful Without love (39). She'll not be back. One-week wonders from Partizan (Drive me crazy, 36), Candyskins (Monday morning, 34) and Sub Merge (Take me by the hand, 28) are their only appearances in the top 40. The biggest hits lie in the future for Tintinout (All I wanna do, 31), while Geneva (Into the blue, 26) and the Supernaturals (The day before yesterday's man, 25) never came close to living up to their promise. Nuyorican Soul (Runaway, 24) was an entertaining jazz-funk-fusion-type-thingummy, and as surprising a hit as it was entertaining. The Alexander Lemming award for Plummet of the Week goes to Babybird; Candy girl suffers from Follow That Syndrome, dropping from 14 to 38.

Anchoring the top 20 is 808 State, Lopez is the Manchester dance act's first hit of any note in six years. Skunk Anansie's Hedonism drops six to 19. After weeks of being pushed down by new entries, the Spice Girls' Two become one holds: its chart run now 1-1-1-6-11-18-18. The record that dethroned them, Tori Amos's Professional Widow comes down nine to 17, and the Backstreet Boys' Quit playing games drops five to 16.

A new entry at 15 for Amen UK, Passion will turn out to be their only hit of note. David Bowie, still trying and failing to be credible; Little wonder is new at 14, but has no staying power. Blueboy's Remember me drops just four to 13, outpacing Gabrielle's cover of Walk on by (down five at 12) and George Michael's Older, down eight to 11.

New at number 10 is a duet between Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams; I've finally found someone is Babs's biggest hit in donkey's years, and Boring Bryan's fifth top ten hit of the decade. Down five at 9 for Placebo; Nancy boy was their mainstream breakthrough, generating a TOTP appearance last Friday that upset fathers across the land; the group won't miss the top 30 with full releases until 2006. Being championed by Radio 1's breakfast host is a double-edged sword, Texas's Say what you want slips two to 8 after Cliff Evans resigned a couple of weeks back.

Last week's number one is this week's number 7, as Blur's Beetlebum turns tail. New at 6 is Michelle Gayle with Do you know?, another shaft of sunlight into a cold winter, though the driest of the century. En Vogue are this week's fastest climbers, up five at 5 with Don't let go (love). The benefits of massive airplay bring them back to the chart entry position of a month ago - their run so far is 5-9-9-10-5.

A career peak for The Orb, new at 4 with the wonderfully catchy Toxygene. Your woman, the former number one from White Town, continues its stately decline, down another one place at number 3. By the end of next week, No Mercy will have best-selling single of the year so far, Where do you go? has tracked 10-5-5-2, and will remain in the upper echelons until Easter.

Another week, another number one single. LL Cool J is this week's best-seller, with a bizarre cover of Ain't nobody. What has this song done to upset him so? Good question. Anyhew, it's LL's career highlight, something he'll never achieve again.

Music