Gary Barlow’s Jubilee-inspired “Sing” project started a third week atop the U.K. album chart yesterday as Cheryl Cole’s “Call My Name” became the market’s fastest-selling single of 2012 to date, with first-week sales of 152,000.
The news comes soon after the announcement of Barlow’s M.B.E. award in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List. “Sing,” his album with the Commonwealth Band, sold 28,000 copies last week, according to the Official Charts Company, outdoing Scottish singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald by some 1200 units and holding her to a No. 2 entry with “Life In A Beautiful Light.” Usher‘s “Looking 4 Myself” arrived at No. 3, also with just under 27,000 sales and precisely 16 copies behind Macdonald. Its single “Scream” takes a second-week 5-8 dip, but “Climax” opens in the top 75 at No. 62.
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Usher’s ‘Looking 4 Myself’: Track-By-Track Review
The other top ten album debut, at No. 9, was Fleetwood Mac’s “25 Years – The Chain,” a reissue of the four-CD career retrospective first issued in 1992. British bands Maximo Park and Hot Chip had top 20 entries with “The National Health” and “In Our Heads,” at Nos. 13 and 14 respectively.
Bruce Springsteen‘s “Wrecking Ball” and Bob Marley and the Wailers’ venerable “Legend” compilation, promoted like the Fleetwood Mac set as potential Father’s Day gifts, were also on the rise, Springsteen 52-16 and Marley 28-20. A new Johnny Cash collection from Sony Music, “The Classics,” charted at No. 22. On the multi-artist compilation chart, one EMI TV/Universal Music TV album replaced another at the top, as “Dreamboats & Petticoats – Three Steps” climbed 2-1 to end the ten-week supremacy of “Now That’s What I Call Music 81.”
The record-breaking singles week for Cole (now described as a recording artist simply as Cheryl) comes with the lead song from her new album “A Million Lights,” out in the U.K. today (18). With Flo Rida’s “Whistle” steady at No. 2, the title track of Barlow’s album fell two places from No. 1.
Coldplay’s “Princess of China,” featuring Rihanna, climbed 8-4, as Rihanna’s own “Where Have You Been” dipped 9-11. There was an impressive No. 9 debut for “Payphone,” a cover of the track by Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa by British band Precision Tunes.