Carly Rae Still #1, What’s Ellie Goulding Doing in the Top Ten?

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 06/27/2012 at 3:46 PM News

The Popdust Files: Billboard, Call Me Maybe, carly rae jepsen, charts, Ellie Goulding, lights

Yes, in case there was any doubt remaining, Scooter Braun gets his birthday wish of simultaneously having the #1 album and song in the country to his team’s credit, with Justin Bieber’s Believe on top the albums chart and Our Girl Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” dominating the singles chart for a third straight week. (Only nine days after his birthday proper—that’s still within acceptable birthday-gift-giving range, right?) Behind her, Maroon 5 and Gotye switch places, with “Payphone” creeping to #2 on a huge boost in radio airplay and online streaming. With the band’s Overexposed out this week, look for them to pose a threat to Carly Rae’s reign of…whatever the opposite of terror is.

More interestingly, lower in the chart, Ellie Goulding concludes her long and improbable rush of the top ten, with her “Lights” jumping from 12-6 on the charts. The song’s ascent is unlikely for any number of reasons, not the least of which being the song’s been around forever, with its official release coming over a year ago and its existence dating back to well earlier. (The song’s 27-week march to the chart’s upper tier is the longest since Shinedown took an equal amount of time with “Second Chance” back in in’08-’09.) True, the song’s dance-pop sound sounds more like the charts currently than it did at the time of its creation, but even now, it doesn’t really sound like a smash—it’s a light song with a gentle vocal hook, far from the hard-hitting, rip-roaring dance smashes that tend to cross over these days. Good for her, though—good song and all.

In other stat-compiling news, Usher scores another top ten hit with “Scream” (11-10) and Rihanna scores another top five hit with “Where Have You Been” (8-5)—the former’s 19th top ten, and the latter’s 15th top five. And chart-topping fiend Katy Perry continues lurking in the weeds with her “Wide Awake” (#4 again this week), just waiting to pounce at the first sign of CRJ weakness. Stay strong, Carly Rae.

[Billboard]

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