Military Wives receive gift of a Number 1 album this Mother’s Day

Military Wives receive the ultimate Mother’s Day gift today as debut album In My Dreams lands at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart, less than three months after the surprise Christmas Number 1 campaign that captured the hearts of the nation. 

The Wives topple US rocker Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball to take the albums crown by a margin of nearly 8,000 copies on a very special Mothering Sunday for all involved.  Most of the 247 choir members from five different Military Wives Choirs across the country have children of their own.  The choirs boast over 400 children between them and several more pregnancies in progress.

In My Dreams was recorded earlier this year following their whirlwind Christmas success and includes versions of classics such as Coldplay’s Fix You and U2’s With Or Without You.  It also includes Paul Mealor’s Official Christmas Number 1 hit Wherever You Are and the new title song that Mealor wrote especially for this album – In My Dreams. The title track is sung by the choir with X Factor finalist Jonjo Kerr who is currently serving in Afghanistan as a Private in 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. 

“It’s unbelievably magical to have achieved this – again!” says Paul Mealor. “The legacy of this is the creation of Military Wives Choirs all over the country.  It was brilliant to work again with the Military Wives Choir on In My Dreams, and how poignant to bring a serving soldier into the music with Jonjo Kerr. I feel proud and humble to be a part of this.”

The album was released last Monday but was pipped to the post by Springsteen in the race for Number 1, finishing the week in a second place. However, with the momentum of the Mother’s Day shopping period on their side this week, UK shoppers have been out in force adding copies of the album to their shopping baskets nationwide. 

Military Wives debut single Wherever You Are became the fastest selling charity single since Elton John’s Candle In The Wind upon its December 2011 release, and went on to raise over £500,000 for charity.  The album will help to establish further military choirs across the country, providing support to those left at home.  A donation of £1 per album sold at full price in the UK will be paid to a charitable foundation for Military Wives Choirs, to be administered by SSAFA Forces Help.

Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says: “It has been amazing few months for the Military Wives. Beating X Factor to the title of Official Christmas Number 1 is one thing – but to now topple Bruce Springsteen from the top of the Official Albums Chart and thus score the album of choice in Mothers’ Day week (traditionally one of the biggest sales weeks of the year) is some achievement.”

New entries

Winner of the BBC Sound of 2012 list Michael Kiwanuka released his debut offering this week. The 25 year old soul singer from North London scored his first Top 40 hit with the title track Home Again upon its release in January and now the album of the same name flies straight into the Top 10 at Number 4.

Marcus Collins, of X Factor 2011 fame, follows up last week’s Top 10 single with his eponymous debut album.  After bagging a Number 9 in the Official Singles Chart with his cover of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army last Sunday, Marcus’s album today delivers another Top 10 for the Liverpudlian, Marcus Collins lands at Number 7.

US soft rocker Michael Bolton’s Gems – The Very Best Of is a new entry at 11, a new double album of the singer’s greatest hits with a second CD of duets with the likes of Rascal Flatts, Eva Cassidy, and Delta Goodrem.

80s/90s pop hero Jason Donovan is back this week with new album Sign Of Your Love (36).  Inspired by the swinging sounds of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, the album features covers of classics such as That’s Life and Every Time We Say Goodbye, as well as Bewitched – one of the songs Jason and his dance partner Kristina Rihanoff performed to on Strictly Come Dancing.

See this week's Official Album Chart Top 100 here after 7PM.

Official Charts - Military Wives interview 06/02/2012 on MUZU.TV.