Check out this weeks New Zealand music chart including the new singles and albums just released. The Official New Zealand Top 40 premieres Saturday nights at 6:00pm on C4.
Another Boyle Record
Susan Boyle likes to break records and she’s just shattered a near 30-year New Zealand chart record. It’s a feat that she’d probably not want, however.
This week she registers the biggest fall from #1 ever on the New Zealand Albums chart, I Dreamed A Dream crashing 28 places to #29 from the top last week.
It does put her in the company of two chart heavyweights though – David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac! Previous joint record holders for the last 29 years and 10 months had been Tusk by Fleetwood Mac who fell 11 places from the summit to #12 in April 1980. This matched the same tumble by Bowie’s live Stage set in January 1979. The Bowie crash of the ‘79 Christmas #1 album can be attributed to the four-week break the chart used to take each summer. Tusk spent a solitary week in the pole position in its 22nd week of a 35-week run and its quick demise in Easter 1980 can also be put down to no chart being published for a week.
These days the Official New Zealand Music Chart is compiled every week of the year, and Boyle’s big fall has nothing to do with a gap in the counting – it’s to do with discounted retail pricing making the bulk of her actual sales last week ineligible for the chart. When normal pricing restores, it’s likely she will reascend just as quickly next week.
The changes leave the way open for Gin’s Holy Smoke to regain the top for a second non-consecutive time 18 weeks after she debuted in the penthouse.
The New Singles
#13 Kids Of 88 – Just A Little Bit
Local duo Kids Of 88’s sophomore hit Just A Little Bit is the highest new entry of the week at #13 but fails to match the #4 opening of Sam and Jordan’s My House debut in June last year.
#17 Helping Haiti – Everybody Hurts
As Artists For Haiti’s charity remake We Are The World 25 makes short work reaching #8, another all-star remake to benefit earthquake-shaken Haiti arrives. In a second frame atop the UK list, Helping Haiti’s reworking of REM’s 1993 #12 Everybody Hearts debuts at #17. It’s the third Haiti fundraiser to chart here and has the novelty (these days) of a physical CD single issue.
#31 Guru Josh Project – Infinity 2008
Hard to believe but a two-year-old remix of a 20-year-old dance track first available 12 months back makes its debut at #31 this week on the back of a recent resurgence in both radio airplay and download sales. Guru Josh Project, who is DJ Paul Walden, enters the NZ charts for the first time.
#33 Nesian Mystik – Sun Goes Down
It’s taken Auckland-based Nesian Mystik nine years to rack up a dozen chart singles. The latest, Sun Goes Down, opens at #33. Almost two years back Nesian 101 became their first and thus far only chart-topper. More impressive is the 10-strong haul of Top 10ers among their 12 charted.
#38 Paramore – The Only Exception
Currently in Australia, Paramore’s New Zealand gigs next week are preceded by the US band’s sixth hit at #38. The Only Exception’s video launched just last week. The track is taken from Paramore’s gold-selling #1 Brand New Eyes which rebounds to #13 this week.
The New Albums
#35 Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back
Original Genesis singer Peter Gabriel returns after nearly six years with covers set Scratch My Back, the highest album chart debut of the week at #35. Gabriel first charted solo 32 years back when Peter Gabriel 2 made #24. 1986’s So remains his sole #1 from 10 appearances.
#38 Faith No More – The Very Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection
The newly reformed Faith No More were here live last week. And this week they return to the charts for the first time this century at #38 with their second hit compile-a set originally released over eight months ago. Last time out We Care A Lot: The Greatest Hits peaked at #10 in 1998. It gives FNM a half dozen entries over a 19-year 8-month period.