5 random chart facts of the week that might surprise you
Punctuation in pop, Bonnie Tyler vs Jennifer Saunders and getting lucky in our roundup of chart highlights.
There's a lot going on in the chart this week, so if you need a quick digest, here are five highlights to keep you busy over the weekend.
1. Camila climbs even more
Not content with being the highest climber last week, Camila Cabello is at it again. She's scaling new heights with single Havana, feat Young Thug – they go up 13 places to Number 11. Chart geeks will be thrilled to learn this is the first time Havana – better known as the capital of Cuba or a type of cigar – has made the Top 40 in a song title.
2. Ready for some grammar lessons?
Oh look what you made her do again! Taylor Swift scores the highest new entry with …Ready For It?, which will be the first track on her forthcoming album Reputation. Songs with punctuation in the title are pretty rare, and …Ready For It? is quite the treat, with both an ellipsis at the start and a question mark at the end. You're really spoiling us grammar nerds, Taylor! The bestselling single with a question mark at the end is Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? from 1984. The bestselling song with an ellipsis? Oh, baby, baby, you should know this one – it's …Baby One More Time, from Britney Spears in 1999.
MORE: The UK's million-selling singles
3. Who's the biggest hero of them all?
No question is too big or small for us, so when Twitter buddy Dylan asked us this, shall we say, very niche question, we simply had to know the answer. (Even though we kind of already knew, because, y'know.)
@officialcharts #ChartFact What version of Holding Out For a Hero gets more streams? Bonnie Tyler's or Jennifer Saunders Sherk 2 version?
— Dylan (@DylCampbell) September 2, 2017
Bonnie Tyler's rousing version of the anthem to toxic masculinity reached Number 2 in 1985 and isn't done too badly – it's sold 225,000 downloads. As for its streams, since we started counting in 2014, Holding Out For a Hero has amassed 7.99 million plays, of which 2.69 million were from this year. Comic genius Jennifer's, erm, spirited version from Shrek 2 will always have a special place in our hearts, but it can't compete with Bonnie's. Jen's rendition scores 909,000 listens, with 306,000 of those from this year. Never mind, Jennifer, you're still our hero…
4. Lucky lucky us
Jason Derulo's back in the charts this week with new single Lucky. It's only the second time a song called Lucky has gone Top 40 – the first being Britney Spears' hot take on the pitfalls of celebrity, which peaked at 5 in 2000 – but there have been 22 songs altogether to feature "lucky" in the title. Only two have made the Number 1: first was Kylie Minogue's debut hit I Should Be So Lucky in 1988, and the second was, of course, Daft Punk's Get Lucky from 2013, which is a million-seller. On the flipside, only one song featuring "unlucky" has made the Top 100 – Dig's Unlucky Friend. :(
MORE: Every single Top 100 hit to ever contain the word "lucky"
5. Baby he lights up our world like nobody else
Zayn is back. Back! BACK! New single Dusk Till Dawn (feat Sia) is out now, and given that we love to nosey through the archives, we thought we'd check in on Zayn's very first hit, with One Direction, What Makes You Beautiful. The Number 1 from 2011 boasts just over a MILLION copies sold, with 6,300 downloads this year alone. It's got 13.34 million streams to its name, 3.78 million of those this year, which goes to show the way that it flips its hair has still got us overwhelmed.
MORE: See all One Direction's UK hit singles and albums
Got a chart fact you've been dying to know? Fancy seeing it right here? Tweet us using #ChartFact (funnily enough) and we might just pick yours!
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LM
Lee Moore
You talk about grammar with Taylor Swift's latest hit.. then how come the grammatically correct spelling is not shown in the singles chart?
Cosma Cosina Gensi
times and plays? good numbers! 😉