Charts analysis: Olivia Rodrigo racks up huge streaming numbers in second week at summit

Dominating proceedings in a manner we haven’t seen for almost two years, Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo is by some considerable distance No.1 for a second week. Once more the single posts numbers that are simply unbeatable, 4,124 downloads and a massive 13.7m streams equating to 116,748 chart sales. Drivers License is only the seventh track in the last five years to post a weekly sale in excess of six figures. The appeal of her smash hit has further rebounded onto Rodrigo’s earlier work, specifically All I Want as performed by the singer in her role in High School Musical: The Music: The Series. Originally released by Disney in November 2019, the track crept to a lowly No.72 in February last year before sinking out of sight. It now rebounds in quite spectacular fashion to sit at No.32 (10,124 sales) giving Rodrigo simultaneous hits. The biggest new single of the week, Don’t Play sees Anne-Marie team up with KSI and Digital Farm Animals. The result is another effortlessly instant pop single. It is the most-downloaded track of the past seven days and this week’s No.2, with a strong sale of 37,335. It is the highest chart position to date for all three acts. Completing a fresh-looking Top 3 is Ariana Grande’s 34+35, which climbs back into the Top 10 for the fourth time in its 12-week career to date, surging this time to a brand new peak of No.3 (30,124 sales), thanks to the release of a new mix adding vocals from Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat. It is Grande’s 11th Top 3 single. The Top 5 is rounded off by Little Mix’s Sweet Melody at No.4 (28,169 sales) and The Kid Laroi’s Without You, which still has upward momentum, sales climbing 16.6% to lift it to a new peak of No.5 with 27,856 sales. Meduza and Dermot Kennedy also reach a new peak within the Top 10, climbing to No.6 with 25,200 sales. A decidedly fresh-looking feel continues lower down as the market’s hunger for new music continues to manifest itself. Goosebumps by HVME rockets 25-15 with sales up to 17,087 and just below The Business from Tiesto is up to No.16 with 16,606 sales. The most improved cut of the week however is Streets by Doja Cat, which jumps 39 places to No.20, its consumption lifting to 14,501. A few weeks before his death in November 2019, Juice Wrld hinted that he was working on further material with Young Thug on Instagram. After a year of anticipation, the session has finally emerged and Bad Boy duly debuts at No.31 (10,229 sales). It is Juice Wrld’s 19th chart entry (his 12th posthumously) and the 13th for Young Thug. With the phenomenon of sea shanty TikTok having gone mainstream in recent weeks, it is only right that The Wellerman becomes a hit single. For now, this is thanks to Bristolian male harmony group The Long Johns. The title track of their 2019 album is the most visible recording of the song on DSPs and so the group lands inside the Top 40 at No.37, posting 8,933 sales. New at No.44 (7,863 sales) is Central Cee with Pinging (6 Figures), joining his still-charting Loading, which falls back to No.24 from last week’s No.19 peak. A transatlantic hook-up is next, with Chip, Young Adz and female American MC Young MA at No.49 with Lumidee, a cut taken from the former’s forthcoming new mixtape. There is a long-overdue chart return for Ghetts, as Skengman becomes the 36-year-old MC’s first ever chart single as a lead artist as it debuts at No.50 with 71,39 sales. Guesting on the track is no less a figure than Stormzy, returning the favour after his Bad Boys became Ghetts’ only previous chart credit when it reached No.22 in March 2017. Returning to the charts for the first timer since 2019, Henry ‘Riton Smithson’s third chart single is inspired by a viral video incorporating the beat of the Nightcrawlers’ club classic Push The Feeling On. Friday adds new lyrics and seems set to become the latest in an ever-growing line of reworked ’90s bangers. It is No.60 with 6,344 sales. The singles market moves another tick upwards, rising 2.34% week-on-week to 20,769,232. Paid-for sales are up a shade under 4% to stand at 426,246. Subscribers can click here for all the latest charts.

Charts analysis: Barry Gibb scores first solo No.1 album

As a member of The Bee Gees, Barry Gibb appeared on 26-chart albums between 1967 and 2017, but he topped the charts just once in that period. Spirits Having Flown was the group’s only credited No.1 album in 1979, although we should not ignore the brothers’ core contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which spent an extended period at the summit in 1978. Now in 2021, he finally breaks his solo duck too. Four years after In The Now topped out in second place, Greenfields - The Gibb Brothers Songbook - Volume 1 flies with some style to the very top of the albums chart, posting 16,166 sales, 13,447 of them physical copies. As the title suggests the album features reworked versions of older Bee Gees material, the songs remade surprisingly successfully in Country & Western style. Although Barry Gibb has the sole artist credit, every track on the album is a duet of some kind and artists of the calibre of Keith Urban, Belinda Carlisle, Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow and Dolly Parton all feature amongst its 12 tracks. At the age of 74, Gibb is the latest in a growing line of comparatively elderly men to enjoy No.1 albums in the recent years, and with the Bee Gees' first No.1 single having arrived in October 1967 it means he now can claim a 53-year span of chart-topping records. Commiserations therefore go to Passenger, whose best chance for a first No.1 album in over four years went begging. Michael Rosenberg's 14th studio album (although only his 13th as a solo performer) Songs For The Drunk And Broken Hearted saw its production disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and appears almost a year after it was originally scheduled. Today it becomes his seventh chart record, its No.2 entry (7,189 sales) is enough to make it his second-highest charting album to date, with only 2016's Young As The Morning Old As The Sea peaking higher. Perhaps inevitably Passenger's biggest album is his solo debut All The Little Lights, home to his most famous single Let Her Go, and which has accumulated 560,583 chart sales to date. His only other album to break the 100,000 barrier is 2014's Whispers which peaked at No.5 and has clocked up 119,862 sales as of this week. The rest of the Top 5 sees Taylor Swift's Evermore down 1-3 (6,590 sales), Pop Smoke's continually impressive Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon a Top 10 album for the 22nd time in its 28-week chart career at No.4 (5,195 sales), while more than a year on from its release Harry Styles' Fine Line spends a 44th week in the Top 10, 5,037 sales making it No.5 for the week. The fifth anniversary of the death of David Bowie prompted many reflective looks at his life and work during the week, propelling compilation album Legacy to its best chart showing in over six months. The album sits this week at No.18 with 3,183 sales taking its overall chart sale to 591,007. Another legacy hits collection gives us this week's third highest new entry. Gold is credited to Ian Hunter & Mott The Hoople, the compilation hitting No.33 with 2,161 sales. Perhaps startlingly it is the first ever Mott The Hoople hits collection to make the charts, this the first albums chart appearance for the group since 1975 swansong Drive On reached No.45. Frontman Ian Hunter has enjoyed more recent chart success of course, his last chart record Fingers Crossed (credited to Ian Hunter and The Rant Band) reaching No.36 in September 2016. Slightly more contemporary rock sounds come thanks to Swedish post-punk band The Viagra Boys. Their second album, Welfare Jazz, debuts at No.41 with 1,948 sales to become their first chart record of any kind in this country. Their only other full-length album, 2018's Street Worms, has accumulated 5,662 sales since its release. Remaining on a Swedish tip, rock band Europe are another veteran act who have never had a hits collection reach the charts before. That changes this week as their own Gold compilation lands at No.58 with 1,521 sales. It is only the group's seventh chart album in all, their first appearance since 2017's Walk The Earth limped to No.69. After last week's dramatic market slump, the only way was up and happily so it proves, albums sales up 8.73% week on week to 1,651,158. New releases always give the physical market a lift and that too is the case here, a 15.62% rise meaning 285,466 physical albums were moved last week representing 17.29% of the market. Click here for all the latest charts.

Charts analysis: Olivia Rodrigo motors to singles summit

A song about passing a driving test to obsessively journey past the house of an ex-love, sung by the teenage star of a Disney+ series, Drivers License by ...

Analysis

subscribers only

Charts analysis: Taylor Swift triumphs in three-way tussle for No.1

An intriguing three-way tussle developed for the honour of becoming the first No.1 album of 2021, honours eventually going to Taylor Swift. Her Evermore album enjoyed physical ...

Analysis

subscribers only

Charts analysis: Little Mix's Sweet Melody soars to summit

Christmas was only a few weeks ago, but it feels like a lifetime, as the UK singles chart performs its annual wholesale rebound as the festive hits melt ...

Analysis

subscribers only