For the fifth time at No.1 the Michael Buble “Christmas” album reclaims the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, racking up a fourteenth overall week at the top in Australia.
“Christmas” was the 638th No.1 Album in Australia and the 489th for ARIA, and because the seasonal sales period fell three days within the last chart sales period, it was enough for the set to climb back to the top the first time since the 15th of December, 2014 (last year it was kept from the top spot by “25” by Adele). The set now has fourteen overall weeks at No.1, becoming equal 24th longest-running album in Australian chart history, alongside “So Far So Good” for Bryan Adams (from 21-Nov, 1993) and “Only by the Night” for Kings of Leon (from 29-Sept, 2008), with the album having previously been at the top in 2011 (5 wks), 2012 (4 wks), 2013 (3 wks) and 2014 (1 wk). The rarity of an album going back to the No.1 spot more than twice has only ever happened twice before, with the “Grease” soundtrack having hit the top three times (1978, 1991 and 1998), so for Michael to have done it five times now is an amazing feat.
Overall Michael Buble has now racked up 32 weeks at the top from five No.1 albums so far, placing him at equal tenth on the list of ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: 1965-2017’ alongside Delta Goodrem, and one place behind Jimmy Barnes (33 wks). And for this decade he remains at No.3 on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1:2010’s’, having now racked up 22 weeks this decade, and is one week behind the 23 by Pink. Plus Michael retains his No.1 ranking on the list of Canadian No.1 Albums acts, as his 32 weeks moves further away from second placed Celine Dion and her 24 wks from her five chart-topping albums.
Three weeks ago John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John’s “Friends for Christmas” became the first local artists seasonal-set to reach the top spot, and only the second Xmas album to make it to No.1 here, now this week that set falls to No.2, making it the first time that a Christmas album has been replaced with another festive season set. It also helped move Olivia Newton-John up the list of ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: 1965-2017′ from equal 42nd to now equal 39th alongside the fifteen weeks racked up by Red Hot Chili Peppers (6 #1’s), Matchbox 20 (4 #1’s) and Split Enz (3 #1’s), whilst John is only one week away from tying the 53 weeks racked up by Dire Straits from their four No.1 albums (#2 on that list).
Similar to the one and two spots, the next two positions swap around this week too, with “25” by Adele back up one place to No.3 and after two weeks at No.3 “Blue & Lonesome” for The Rolling Stones is down a spot to No.4. And other than the tail end of the Top 10, the remainder of albums are stable from last week, with “Ripcord” for Keith Urban at No.5, the “Trolls” soundtrack is spending a second week at its No.6 peak, “24k Magic” for Bruno Mars is at No.7, Jessica Mauboy and her TV Soundtrack “The Secret Daughter” is at No.8 and Metallica remain at No.9 with “Hardwired…to Self Destruct”. Returning to the Top 10 thanks to the DVD and Blu-Ray release a few weeks ago is the soundtrack to “Suicide Squad”, which is up three places to No.10 and making its first appearance in the ten since early November 2016, notching up a twelfth week inside the Top 10 also.
UP:
* The Weeknd rises back up three places to No.13 with his “Starboy” set.
* With the new animated film “Sing” opening around the country, its soundtrack halves its position from last week by jumping up twenty-one places to a new peak of No.21, and another animated film which just opened is the Disney film “Moana” which made it #100 three weeks ago, so its return this week at No.25 gives the soundtrack a new peak instantly.
* Flume is back up eight places to No.23 with his second album “Skin”.
* Some best of collections which jump back up are for Cold Chisel (65 to 27), Guns N’ Roses (49 to 29) and INXS (43 to 37).
* Shawn Mendes not only rises on the singles chart, his second album “Illuminate” is back up thirteen spots this week to No.34.
* And another singles chart act who sees multiple rises this week are twenty one pilots, whose most recent album “Blurryface” is back up twenty-five to No.35.
* Illy is back within the Top 50 with his first No.1 album “Two Degrees”, back up eight to No.43.
* Two multiple-Grammy Award nominees see their albums return to the Top 50 this week, firstly Drake and “Views” is back up twenty-nine spots to No.45 and Beyonce with “Lemonade” blasts back up twenty-three places to No.47.
* Taylor Swift and her “1989” set is back up thirteen to No.54.
* The next non-George return is the “Greatest Hits” for Fleetwood Mac at No.55, followed by Norah Jones’ “Day Breaks” at No.57. Re-entries also occur for Melanie Martinez with “Cry Baby” (#62), Halsey and her debut “Badlands” (#73), The Beatles #1 (#79), “Bloom” for RuFus (#91), Kerser and his recent album “Tradition” (#92) and the final A Tribe Called Quest set “We Got it from Here…” is back in at No.98.
* Best of collections for Prince (78 to 56) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (84 to 63) also rise.
* “WACO” for Violent Soho is back up fifteen places to No.71.
DOWN:
* The only album leaving the Top 10 this week is from the current No.1 albums chart holder, Mr Michael Buble, as his latest studio album “Nobody But Me” (HP-2, WI10-5) is down two to No.12.
* After blasting back up into the Top 15 last week, the Dolly, Emmylou and Linda collection “My Dear Companion” is back down eight to No.22 this week.
* Leonard Cohen drops ten places to No.30 with his last studio album “You Want it Darker”.
* Robbie Williams is down nine to No.33 with “The Heavy Entertainment Show”.
* Human Nature fall fifteen places to No.36 with “Gimme Some Lovin’: Jukebox Vol.II”.
* A third-week tumble for X-Factor 2016 winner Isaiah, his self-titled album drops thirteen to No.39.
* Two recent first time Top 10 entrants who drop again this week are J. Cole with “4 Your Eyez Only” (34 to 42) and Childish Gambino with “Awaken, My Love!” (37 to 46).
* Dropping out of the Top 50 is Garth Brooks’ “Gunslinger”, down sixteen to No.51.
* One Cold Chisel album rises, whilst the most recent entry “Live Tapes Vol.3” is down twenty to No.52.
* Carrie Underwood falls twenty-three to No.61 with “Storyteller”.
* Susan Boyle plummets thirty-six spots to No.66 with “A Wonderful World”.
* After blasting back into the Top 100 last week, the Guy Sebastian “Part 1 EP” is back down forty-one spots to No.74 this week.
* Andre Rieu drops thirty-one places to No.75 with his “Falling in Love” album.
* Falling nineteen spots to No.78 is the second Barry Gibb solo album “In the Now”.
* Down twenty places to No.84 is The Wiggles “Best of” collection.
* The Cliff Richard set “Just… Fabulous Rock ‘N’ Roll” is down thirty spots to No.87.
CHRISTMAS TITLES:
* Most seasonal titles move down this week, and most will be gone by next week, as last week’s chart week included three days of Christmas sales. The third and final Top 20 set this week is the Mariah Carey “Merry Christmas” album which is down three to No.20.
* The recent US No.1 “A Pentatonix Christmas” is down four to No.26, whilst their older set “That’s Christmas to Me” plummets twenty-nine spots to No.68.
* “The Christmas Album” for Human Nature is down sixteen to No.41 and the fifth and final Top 50 seasonal set this week.
* Down ten to No.60 is the re-packaged “Kylie Christmas” for Kylie Minogue.
* Descending thirty-four places to No.70 is The Ten Tenors with “Our Christmas Wish”.
* The final Top 100 seasonal entry is the Rod Stewart “Merry Christmas, Baby” album (61 to 90).
* The only album leaving the Top 100 from last weeks Top 50 is the Neil Diamond set “Acoustic Christmas”, out from No.46, with the other festive season album to leave being “Best of Christmas” for Andre Rieu (#66).
GEORGE MICHAEL:
* With the December 25th passing of George Michael at only 53, we see five of his previous entries return to the albums chart this week, with his last collection of hits “Twenty-Five” (HP-9, peaked March 2010 during his tour here) returning at No.11.
* His first solo best of collection “Ladies & Gentlemen… The Best of” (HP-2×2, peaked Nov 1998) is not far behind, returning at No.14 this week.
* George’s first solo album “Faith” (HP-3×3, peaked April 1988) is back in at No.53.
* The only Wham! album to return is the group’s first best-of “The Final” (HP-5, peaked August 1986) which is back in at No.80, followed a few places lower at No.83 by his last released album, the live set “Symphonica” (HP-11, peaked March 2014).
compiled by Gavin Ryan for Australian-Charts.com
