Olivia Rodrigo gets the upper hand in the U.K. chart battle with Queen, though there wasn’t much in it.
Rodrigo’s Sour (Geffen) snags a fourth week at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, with an advantage of just 270 chart sales over Queen’s evergreen Greatest Hits (EMI).
Sour is the U.K.’s biggest album of 2021, so far, the OCC reports. Queen’s Greatest Hits, however, is the U.K.’s biggest album of all time, shifting more than six million units since its release in 1981, and logging 985 weeks on the chart, a streak bettered only by ABBA’s Gold (1001 weeks, and counting).
The rock legends’ career retrospective enjoys a spike thanks to a 40th anniversary reissue campaign. According to the charts compiler, 78% of Queen’s final total during the week was made up of physical sales (vinyl, CD and cassette) with Greatest Hits the best-selling vinyl album of the chart week.
Elsewhere on the tally, Jack Savoretti’s Europiana (EMI) is the week’s best-seller on downloads, despite dipping 1-4, while Bo Burnham’s Inside (The Songs) (via Imperial) lifts 6-5, a new peak.
Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie and French artist Jehnny Beth score a No. 12 debut with their collaborative effort Utopian Ashes (Sony Music CG). It’s Gillespie’s 13th Top 40 appearance, the first as a solo artist, and it’s Beth’s first appearance in the upper reaches of the chart.
Over on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” (Asylum) enters a second week at No. 1, scooping 103,000 chart sales, including 10.9 million streams, an effort that eclipses its opening week.
Australian pop artist Tones And I takes off with “Fly Away,” lifting 33-25, a new high. “Fly Away” is Tones’ second Top 40 hit after 2019’s “Dance Monkey” (Parlophone), which nailed top spot for 11 weeks, a record for a solo female artist.
Finally, football fever sweeps the chart with no less than six soccer anthems landing in the Top 100.
The top scorer is “3 Lions” (Epic) by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds, which rockets 22-4 ahead of England’s appearance Sunday (July 11) in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley Stadium.
