Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass has completed its fourth week at the top of the UK chart. The American singer’s debut single is now tied with Clean Bandit’s Rather Be as the country’s longest-reigning No 1 of 2014 so far.
All About That Bass has outperformed hits like Katy Perry’s Dark Horse, Nico and Vinz’s Am I Wrong and Beyoncé’s Drunk In Love, and it has easily held off recent releases such as Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off, One Direction’s Steal My Girl and Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda. All of the aforementioned singles slipped down the chart this week; only Thinking Out Loud, by Ed Sheeran, Blame, by Calvin Harris, and Bang Bang, by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, saw an improvement from their positions in last week’s top 10.
It’s rare for a song to spend more than four weeks at the top of the singles chart: aside from Trainor and Clean Bandit, it has only happened twice since January 2012, with Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines and Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know. Although tracks like Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe and Pharrell Williams’ Happy seemed like they were on top for months, they too only lasted 28 days.
On the UK albums chart, this week was big for 27-year-old songwriter Ben Howard. The London musician’s second album, I Forgot Where We Were, has debuted at No 1 - three places higher than 2011’s Every Kingdom. Three other members of the top five are new releases as well, including Status Quo’s highest charting album since 1996.
Official singles chart top five:
1. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass
2. Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
3. Waze & Odyssey vs R Kelly Bump & Grind 2014
4. Jessie J ft Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande - Bang Bang
5. Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
Official albums chart top five:
1. Ben Howard - I Forgot Where WE Were
2. Slipknot - The Gray Chapter
3. Ed Sheeran - X
4. Neil Diamond - Melody Road
5. Status Quo - Aquostic: Stripped Bare
