When I was younger and interested in the music charts, it was incredibly rare for a single to go straight in at number one. Usually a single would enter the charts lower down and move upwards over the newxt few weeks. A single going straight in at number one was something for the record books. When The Jam did it three times it was unprecedented.
Of course all that has changed now. Singles generally enter at their highest position in their first week of release and then fall. It’s rare that a single moves up the chart to number one. But I didn’t realise just how rare it was until I saw some discussion about the single that reached number one last week.
Apparently the single (Cha Cha Slide by someone called DJ Casper – whoever that is) was number two last week and has now moved up to number one. It’s the first single to move up to number one since January 2002. The last one was apparently More That A Woman by Aaliyah. Since then there has been an unbroken run of 58(!) singles that have gone straight in at number one.
A number of things contribute to this situation. The most important two seem to be the fact that singles sales are down dramatically on twenty years ago and the relentless promotion of singles for a month before they are released. This means that most singles sales are in the first week of release.
Of course, hardly anyone takes any notice of the singles charts these days.