Duke Dumont holds Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead from Number 1

Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead is held off Number 1 as Duke Dumont retains the top spot on the Official Singles Chart for a second week running.

Duke Dumont FT 18-year-old Gary Barlow protégé A*M*E’s Need U (100%) sold 58,321 copies in the past week to secure Number 1 on the Official Chart. In doing so, the track held off a challenge from one of the most controversial chart contenders of all time - Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead.

Taken from the soundtrack to the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz, Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead aw a huge surge in sales owing to an online campaign following the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Baroness Thatcher passed away on Monday (April 8) after suffering a stroke. She was 87.

The campaign, which attempted to elevate the track to Number 1, saw the song make its debut on the Official Charts Company’s singles sales flash on Tuesday at Number 54. It then shot up to Number 10 on Wednesday, Number 4 on Thursday, and was at Number 3 by Friday.

But, despite seeing a sales surge of more than 18,000 sales since Friday morning (with the track's profile fuelled by a newspaper furore about the campaign), Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead finishes the week over 5,700 copies behind Duke Dumont and A*M*E’s track, with a final sales tally of 52,605.

It is worth noting that last year was the biggest year on record for singles sales in the UK with 188 million singles sold, and the first quarter of 2013 is tracking even higher still. In turn, the average sale of a Number 1 in 2012 was just under 106,000 copies, so this week has been a relatively quiet one sales wise.

Aside from the controversial and political aspect of the single’s rapid ascent, Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead has now become the shortest Top 10 single of all time. With the most popular version running to just 51 seconds, Ding Dong!... is the only sub-60 second single to ever make the Top 10.

A rival campaign, Notsensibles’ 1979 single, I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher, make its Top 40 debut some 34 years after it was first released. The track, which featured in Meryl Streep’s 2011 Margaret Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, was adopted in the wake of the Ding Dong!... uproar by supporters of the late Prime Minister. I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher is a late new entry on this week’s Official Singles Chart at Number 35 with sales of 8,768.

This week’s Official Singles Chart Top 5 is completed by Just Give Me A Reason by P!nk FT Nate Ruess (3), Pompeii by Bastille (4) and Feel This Moment by Pitbull FT Christina Aguilera (5).

New Entries And High Climbers

Nina Nesbitt scores her first Official Top 40 hit today. The young Scottish singer / songwriter, who has supported the likes of Ed Sheeran and Example on tour, debuts at Number 21 with Stay Out.

Meanwhile, Paramore, whose self-titled fourth album has topped this week’s Official Albums Chart, are this week’s highest climbers; the band’s latest single, Still Into You, soars a massive 57 places to enter the Top 40 at 26. AlunaGeorge’s Attracting Flies climbs 21 places to Number 30, while Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne’s High School is up 34 places to Number 31.

And finally, World Wrestling Entertainment composer Jim Johnston and Gangnam Style legend Psy have missed out on Top 40 placings for their latest singles. Johnston’s Chachalala (Fandango) - the theme song of wrestler Fandango (real name Curtis Hussey) – is new in today at Number 44, while after less then 48 hours on sale Psy’s Gentleman, at Number 61.

This week’s Official Singles Chart Top 10 is as follows. Click here to see the Official Singles Chart Top 100 in full after 7pm today.

© 2013 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.