The John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John (aka FONJie) seasonal collaboration “Friends for Christmas” stays for a second week at the top of the ARIA Albums chart this week.
“Friends for Christmas” is only the seventh album for 2016 to log two or more weeks at the top, as overall we have had 43 albums go to No.1 during 2016, more than any other year this decade (2010 – 20 #1’s, 2011 – 14 {the year of Adele’s “21”}, 2012 – 21, 2013 – 36, 2014 – 31, and 2015 – 32). The Johns’ stable No.1 keeps the former No.1 “Christmas” by Michael Buble at No.2 for a third straight week (this year anyway), but with three days of seasonal sales within the next weeks chart data, it could yet again ascend to the top for a fifth run and fourteenth accumulated week at No.1 in Australia.
The entire top five albums from last week remain within the Top 5 this week, with only a few changes to the line-up. Remaining at No.3 for a second week (after a single week at the top) is The Rolling Stones blues covers album “Blue & Lonesome”, whilst swapping places this week are Adele with “25” up one to No.4 and “Ripcord” by Keith Urban down a spot to No.5 after he finished his national tour here.
One of two soundtracks within the Top 10 this week is the “Trolls” set, which is up four places to a new peak of No.6, and the album is the only certification for this week, newly Gold (●) in sales, with the other soundtrack being for the TV series “The Secret Daughter” for Jessica Mauboy, which is down one spot to No.8 this week.
In between those two soundtracks at No.7 is Bruno Mars with his third album “24k Magic”, which is back up four places and into the Top 10 for a third week. The fourth and final album on hold in the Top 10 this week is Metallica with “Hardwired… to Self Destruct” at No.9, whilst also returning to the Top 10, up six spots to No.10 is the latest Michael Buble studio album “Nobody But Me”, racking up the fourth week inside the ten, helped by last week’s edition of ‘Sunday Night’ on Channel 7, which replayed their Michael Buble interview, plus his holiday special screened on Chanel 10, both broadcast within the chart week.
UP:
* Another replayed ‘Sunday Night’ (Ch.7) interview was the one with Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, which looks to have helped the trio’s collection “My Dear Companion” to jump back up twenty-nine places this week to No.14.
* Human Nature’s repackaged “Gimme Some Lovin’: Jukebox Vol.II” is back up eleven places this week to No.21.
* Both of the first two albums for Adele rise back up this week, with “21” rising seven to No.29 and “19” back up thirteen spots to No.56.
* “Skin” by Flume is back up six spots to No.31.
* Guy Sebastian released the physical edition of his “Part 1” EP (HP-31) last week, and that helps the set to return to the Top 100 this week at No.33.
* Last week’s debut for the upcoming animated film “Sing” sees its soundtrack leap up thirty-five places to a new peak of No.42 this week.
* The INXS compilation “The Very Best of” returns to the Top 50 this week, up twenty-three places to land at No.43.
* With their 2017 Australian tour looming, the “Greatest Hits” for Guns N’ Roses is back up eleven spots to No.49.
* Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds see their former No.1 “Skeleton Tree” rise again, up sixteen spots this week to No.63.
* The Cold Chisel “Best of-All for You” jumps back up thirty places to No.65.
* Both of the David Bowie compilations in “Legacy” and his previous collection “Nothing Has Changed: The Best of” both climb back up eleven places to No.72 and No.75 respectively, whilst his last studio album “Blackstar” returns to the Top 100 at No.81.
* Slava Grigoryan comes close to reaching his former entry peak of No.75, as his “Bach: Cello Suites Vol.1” is back up nineteen places this week to No.77.
* Further returns this week sees Greatest Hits collections for Queen (#79), Red Hot Chili Peppers (#84) and Prince with “4Ever” (#95) back into the Top 100.
* And five more albums re-entering are “WACO” for Violent Soho (#86) “Wildflower” for The Avalanches (#93), “Thank You” for Meghan Trainor (#99) and the first two Bruno Mars albums “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” (#98) and “Unorthodox Jukebox” (#94).
DOWN:
* The first of two albums leaving the Top 10 this week is for recent tourists here Coldplay and “A Head Full of Dreams” (HP-2, WI10-10) which is down three to No.11, whilst their 4CD Catalogue Set is stable at No.27 this week.
* The highest new entry from last week was the J. Cole set “4 Your Eyez Only” at No.6, which this week drops twenty-eight places to land at No.34.
* Last week’s second highest entry in the self-titled album for X-Factor 2016 winner Isaiah is this week down fourteen places to No.26.
* With the Cold Chisel best of jumping back up, their recent live album entry “The Live Tapes Vol.3” is down this week six places to No.32.
* After blasting back up the chart last week, the Carrie Underwood set “Storyteller” is back down ten places to No.38 this week, now that her tour here with Keith Urban is finished.
* After hitting a new peak of No.39 last week, the twenty one pilots double album of ‘Vessel’ and ‘Blurryface’ drops back down six this week to No.45.
* After returning to the Top 50 last week, this week “The Ultimate Collection” by Roy Orbison drops back down fourteen places to No.52.
* Another act who started out in the 1950’s in Cliff Richard sees his latest covers album “Just… Fabulous Rock ‘N’ Roll” fall thirteen places to No.57.
* Leaving the Top 50 for the first time is the Barry Gibb album “In the Now”, down ten to No.59.
* The Ed Sheeran set “x” is down fourteen places this week to No.69.
* Two kids albums dropping this week are “The Best of” for The Wiggles (54-64) and “50 Best Songs” by Play School (56-76).
* Three local acts’ albums that fall in the lower fifty are “Brace” by Birds of Tokyo (73-85), “Let There Be Light” for Hillsong Worship (63-92) and “Reclaim Australia” by the duo A.B.Original (72-96).
XMAS ALBUMS:
* Logging an overall tenth week within the Top 20 is the Mariah Carey seasonal album “Merry Christmas”, which is back up seven places this week to No.17. In 2015 the set got back up to No.19 and prior to that the 2012 return saw it climb to No.19 also, initially it was in the Top 20 (and 10) during it’s 1994 chart run.
* There are two albums within the Top 40 for Pentatonix, with their latest “A Pentatonix Christmas” (HP-16), up one spot to No.22, and their former entry “That’s Christmas to Me” down eight places this week to No.39.
* The Human Nature festive set “The Christmas Album” is on hold at No.25.
* The Ten Tenors are back down three to No.36 with “Our Christmas Wish”.
* Neil Diamond is up eleven places and into the Top 50 for the first time with his “Acoustic Christmas” album, climbing to a new peak of No.46. This becomes his second Top 50 seasonal entry, as back in 1992 “The Christmas Album” climbed to No.30.
* The ninth Xmas Album within the Top 50 this week is “Kylie Christmas: The Snow Queen Edition”, which is down four this week to No.50.
* Rod Stewart returned to the chart at No.59 last week with “Merry Christmas, Baby”, which is down two places this week to No.61.
* Andre Rieu has two albums in the Top 100 this week, his “Falling in Love” album is back up four to No.46, whilst his “Best of Christmas” set jumps thirteen places to No.66, with Andre being another of the Channel 7 ‘Sunday Night’ musician interviews replayed last week.
NEW ENTRIES:
* #80 – The seventh soundtrack to chart in Australia from a ‘Star Wars’ film enters at No.80 this week, and is taken from the first stand-alone Star Wars story “Rogue One”, the music performed this time by Michael Giacchino rather than John Williams.
* #88 – The sixth studio album for Kid Cudi entitled “Passion, Pain & Demon’ Slayin'” is the final new entry to the Albums Chart for 2016, coming in at No.88 this week, and becoming his fifth studio album to make it onto the ARIA Albums Chart.
