Like Peter Cushing prying open a creaky wooden coffin in a dank cavern and smashing a wooden stake through Christopher Lee's rotting, 700-year-old chest, pop's gallant hero Lady GaGa continues to erase any need for Ye Olde Vampyre Madonna. This time the feat comes in the U.K., where Lady GaGa is at ...

First off, how did one of Chart Rigger's 10 Worst Singles Of 2008 slink into the U.K. Top 10 this week? Yes, I'm talkin' about you and your "T-Shirt," Shontelle! Geez, someone really oughtta class this broad up a bit with some decent songs. (Although the fact that her album is called Shontelligence ...

When last we saw 26-year-old Aussie Daniel Merriweather, he made a dent in the U.K. chart with his and Mark Ronson's cover of The Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" (shortened, for their version, to simply "Stop Me"), which eventually hit #2 in spring 2007. This week he agai...

Lily Allen's "The Fear," the lead single off her upcoming second album It's Not Me, It's You, has unseated Lady GaGa's "Just Dance" from the top of the U.K. chart this week. Just like here in the States, GaGa had a three week stay at #1 before being pried off the stripper pole and slapped down to #2...

Alright, folks, I momentarily missed out on doing actual U.K. chart talk last Sunday due to my escaped pussy. Vut to quote the wise Jerri Blank from Strangers With Candy, I've got something to SAY! First off, a giant Wee-haw! to The Saturdays for totally kicking Sugababes and Girls Aloud to the curb...

Forgive me for breaking protocol today with the U.K. chart post, but it's been an exhausting day, both physically and mentally. Last night our house cat Cracker snuck outside. We'd had a friend over, and we kind of deduced that when they left, Cracker slipped out the door unnoticed. I realized he wa...

So, I've been listening to Lady GaGa's The Fame for the past couple days, given that she topped the U.S. chart this week, the U.K. chart today and, inevitably, is pretty much inescapable anymore. I'm leaning toward thinking "Boys Boys Boys" is pretty groovy—particulary the line, Let's go see The K...

Right. To understand the whole "Hallelujah"/Alexandra Burke/Jeff Buckley nonsense, read this and this. Enjoy your new, totally unsurprising Christmas #1 single, United Kingdom. What I'd like to know is how Geraldine McQueen's "Once Upon A Christmas Song" (written by Take That's Gary Barlow and Geral...

The big news in the U.K. this week is that Take That sold a big, firm, manly 432,000 copies of The Circus and then Gary, Howard and Jason pinned me down to debut at #1 on the Brit album chart. (It settles for #3 in Ireland.) The foursome knock The Killers' Day & Age off the top, while Britney Sp...

Oh, now, what a crying shame; Girls Aloud were only, uh, allowed one week atop the U.K. singles chart with "The Promise." Awww. But at least worthy, revered rock legends the X Factor Finalists were the ones to bump the Girls off, with their face-melting power jam "Hero." Gosh, the guitar solo alone ...