30th of Jan 15: A Historical Moment in January

There is really something going on. The fifth issue of 2015 and we have the fourth song invading nr.1 position. Never before a year started that busy. The song in question right now is The Hanging Tree coming from the movie soundtrack The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I by James Newton Howard.

Three times in chart history we came close to such a fast turnover of nr.1s in January. In 2001 it were EMINEM & Dido who dethroned Big Brother star Christian for a week but being pushed from the top a week later by Outkast and Ms. Jackson. That rush took place in late January.
1993 saw the first two weeks More And More by The Captain Hollywood Project at number 1 followed by Charles & Eddie and their Would I Lie To You for a week just before Whitney Houston climbed to the top with her I Will Always Love You that held firm for six weeks.
The most similar turnover of number 1 hits in January took place in 1985. Given that the last week of December 1984 (that actually had no official list) saw Duran Duran and their Wild Boys as best sold single the succeeder at the Top was Band Aid with the first recording of Do They Know It's Christmas? for two weeks followed by Murray Head's One Night In Bangkok for another two weeks just before Tears for Fears started their four weeks run at the top with Shout on the first issue of February. That's a bunch of four different number 1 hits within 6 weeks.

Worth noting the three new number 1s of 2015 each took more than two months to reach its hiatus. So we see the complete second row of the Christmas sale now standing in the first line. It might result due to the lack of infecting new releases on the market. The Hanging Tree definitely cashes in cause of the release of the Rebel Remix which boosted the demand the past days.


Highest new entry comes in at number 7. Charli XCX launches her second top10 hit with Break The Rules. Her first appearance (alongside Swedish Icona Pop) two years ago stopped at number 4.

New comer OMI now arrives inside the Top 20. His Cheerleader lands at number 16 in its fourth chart week.


Almost a full year after its first appearance in the survey Let It Go by Demi Lovato returns for a week and sets a new peak. Number 65 is 18 ranks higher than her so far peak. All this happens in the sixth chart week of the song.