Hozier Lands His First Top 5 Hit
Hozier lands his first top five hit as “Take Me To Church” jumps up from #6 to #3 in its 15th week on the Hot 100. The rock ballad echoes the style of early Elton John, who amassed 18 top five hits from 1973 through 1997. “Take Me To Church” tops the 1 million mark in digital sales this week. It’s #1 on Rock Songs for the sixth week.
"Take Me To Church" is the first song by a male solo artist to crack the top three on the Hot 100 in nearly three months. The last to do so was Sam Smith's “Stay With Me,” also a ballad.
Incidentally, this isn’t the first “Church” song to make the top 10. Culture Club's “Church Of The Poison Mind” hit #10 in December 1983.
Taylor Swift's “Blank Space” holds at #1 for the second week in its fourth week on the chart. In addition, “Blank Space” tops Hot Digital Songs for the third time in four weeks (302K). Swift has headed this chart for a total of eight weeks so far this year. That puts her in a tie for second place with Meghan Trainor (who did it with just one song, “All About That Bass”). Out front: Pharrell Williams, who headed the chart for 11 weeks (also with just one song, “Happy”). There are still five weeks left in the Nielsen SoundScan year. If Swift is on top for at least three of them, she will equal Williams’s 11-week record. Stay tuned.
Meghan Trainor's aforementioned “All About That Bass” holds at #2 on the Hot 100 for the fourth consecutive week in its 20th week. The song spent eight weeks at #1. Trainor may soon have two songs in the top 10: Her follow-up, “Lips Are Movin,” leaps from #38 to #19 in its fifth week.
Maroon 5's “Animals” holds at #4 for the second week in its 14th week. The song has climbed as high as #3. The song is #1 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart for the second week … Taylor Swift's “Shake It Off” drops from #3 to #5 in its 14th week. The song spent four weeks at #1 … Tove Lo's “Habits (Stay High)” dips from #5 to #6 in its 26th week. The song peaked at #3.
Sam Smith's “I'm Not The Only One” jumps from #9 to #7 in its 12th week … Nick Jonas's “Jealous” jumps from #10 to #8 in its 11th week.
"Love Me Harder" by Ariana Grande & The Weeknd rebounds from #13 to #9 in its seventh week. The song has climbed as high as #7. The song has the light, silky tone of another collabo, “Hate That I Love You,” by Rihanna featuring Ne-Yo, which reached #7 in December 2007.
Ed Sheeran's “Don't” rebounds from #11 to #10 in its 24th week. The song has climbed as high as #9.
Two songs drop out of the top 10 this week: Bobby Shmurda's “Hot Boy” and “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj. The songs peaked at #6 and #3, respectively.
Look for a high debut for Band Aid 30's “Do They Know It's Christmas?,” which was re-recorded to aid in the global fight against Ebola. It will be the third version of this Bob Geldof-Midge Ure song to crack the Hot 100. The original recording by Band Aid reached #13 in 1984 and returned to #49 in 1997. A Glee rendition reached #92 in 2011.
The new version features such top British stars as Bono, Sam Smith, One Direction and Emeli Sande—but not Adele, whose absence is conspicuous because the track was co-produced by her main producer, Paul Epworth.
The Band Aid 30 record enters The U.K.’s Official Singles Chart at #1. It’s the fourth version of the song to reach #1 in the U.K. The Band Aid original spent five weeks on top in 1984. A second version of the track, attributed to Band Aid II and produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, spent three weeks on top in 1989. In 2004, a version by Band Aid 20 spent four weeks on top.
To My Readers: I’ll have another Chart Watch column drawn from the Hot 100 later today.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
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