Now these, I’m really behind with…

When we left off, it was 20 March, and Adele’s “Someone Like You” had just been knocked off number one by Nicole Scherzinger’s “Don’t Hold Your Breath”.  That was four charts ago.  So what’s happened since?

Well, Nicole Scherzinger’s first week sales didn’t hold up, so on 27 March, “Someone Like You” returned to number one for a fifth week.  After that, for the two weeks I was out of the country, we had “On The Floor” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull.

Wikipedia says the reviews for this single were “generally positive”, which seems surprising, since it’s basically a one-note dirge interspersed with chunks of the Lambada.  Still, it’s clearly been a successful comeback single.  This is her first new song in several years, but she was a regular chart fixture from 1999 to 2007.  Even so, this is only her third number one – the others were “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” in 2001, and more surprisingly, “Get Right” from 2005.  Technically, it also gives Pitbull his first number one, beating the number 4 peaks of his own “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)”, the Alexandra Burke single “All Night Long” and Enrique Iglesias’ “I Like It”.

If you’re old enough to recognise the chorus, you probably remember it from Kaoma’s 1989 single “Lambada”, which reached number 4 in the UK.

That single has a curious history. Kaoma themselves were French. But “Lambada” is sung in Portuguese, because it’s a clone of the 1986 Brazilian single “Chorando Se Foi” by Marcia Ferreira.

And that, in turn, was a Portuguese-language translation “Llorando Se Fue”, a song originally written in Spanish. The arrangement used by Kaoma and Marcia Ferreira actually comes from another cover version by Cuarteto Continental (which seems to be beyond the reach of YouTube), but the 1981 original was recorded by the Bolivian folk group Los Kjarkas.  The video is quite something.

Incidentally, according to Wikipedia, Kaoma never actually licenced the rights to the song before covering it.  Not surprisingly, the Bolivians sued.

Back to the charts, and the current number one – “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO.  The video starts off as a 28 Days Later parody before turning into a straight dance number, but actually, the whole thing’s kind of growing on me.  It is, if nothing else, refreshingly direct.  And significantly less irritating than the Black Eyed Peas.

This is LMFAO’s first UK hit as lead artists, but they previously cropped up as guests on David Guetta’s number one “Gettin’ Over You”, and alongside Chuckie on the mash-up “Let The Bass Kick In Miami Bitch”.

So that’s the number ones.  I’m not going to look at everything that’s been through the top 40 over the last month – instead, I’ll quickly run down this week’s chart.  There are only four new entries, with the highest at number 14 – “Judas” by Lady Gaga.  Curious choice for an Easter single, and I gather it’s being treated in America as a case of controversy-baiting.  (Here in less-religious Britain, I doubt many people care.)  On first hearing I didn’t think much of this – a S/A/W chorus surrounded by a remake of “Bad Romance”, I thought – but it’s starting to work for me.  It’s going to climb to the top ten on Sunday.

Number 28 is “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” by the Arctic Monkeys, the lead single from their fourth album.  The video’s a bit indier-than-thou, but the song’s pretty great.  You can almost imagine five seconds of it whizzing by on the ITV Chart Show, though.  Number 32 is “Blow” by Kesha (hey, they’re starting to release singles where she actually sings).  And number 36 is “Yeah Right” by Dionne Bromfield featuring Diggy Simmons, the debut hit for Amy Winehouse’s protege.

The more notable climbers: number 3 is “ET” by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West, a bizarre mess of a single that’s curiously reminscent of the (much better) Tatu single “All The Things She Said”.  Number 4 is “sWEaT” by Snoop Dogg, now his biggest hit as lead artist since 2005.  And at number 8, “Beautiful People” by Chris Brown featuring Benny Benassi.  Chris Brown’s career comeback is still in full swing; Benassi, an Italian DJ, gets his first hit since 2004, and gives me an excuse to include the original Italian video for “Satisfaction”.  Which is… rather different from the notorious British one.

At 13, “Bright Lights Bigger City” by Cee Lo Green featuring Wiz Khalifa seems to be giving them both a follow-up hit.  And at 24, Nicki Minaj’s “Girls Fall Like Dominoes”, which samples the Big Pink’s minor hit “Dominoes” and improves on it quite a bit.

And that’s us pretty much up to date.  Yay!