U.K. CHARTS: ROYALTY RULES

It’s a right royal affair in Blighty this week as The King himself rules the Official Albums Chart, with the U.K.’s very own Queen of pop continuing her reign atop the Official Singles Chart. We’re talking about Elvis and Adele, of course, while Rod Stewart and Justin Bieber take the #2 spots.

If I Can Dream (RCA/Legacy Recordings) is a collection of Elvis classics reworked by Her Majesty’s Philharmonic Orchestra (not Adele, the real Queen this time). The album claimed 79k combined chart sales. It bestows upon The King his 12th U.K. chart-topping album; he now shares second place with Madonna for the most chart-topping LPs. The Beatles claim the top spot with 15.

The Elvis album is the second-fastest selling of 2015 so far, behind Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ with Chasing Yesterday.

At second place on the U.K. albums chart is Rod Stewart, who lands his 34th Top 10 album with Another Country (Capitol/Decca). Elbow frontman Guy Garvey is at #3 with his first solo release, Courting The Squall (Polydor).

Rounding off the Top 5 is Atlantic U.K.’s Ed Sheeran, who spends his 72nd week in the Top 10 at #4 with second album x. Another Warner star, Jess Glynne, is at #5 with debut I Cry When I Laugh.

On the singles side of the fence, Adele’s “Hello” (XL/Columbia)—the fastest selling single of 2015—holds on to #1 for a second week. The track has sold 121k downloads and 5.78m streams, giving it a total of 179k chart sales.

Bieber’s “Sorry” (Def Jam) is at #2 for another week, racking up 4.41m streams, while Sam Smith’s Bond theme “Writing’s On The Wall” (Capitol) is up one place at #3. The Weeknd’s “The Hills” (Republic Records/XO) rises a place to #4 and Drake’s “Hotline Bling” (Cash Money/Republic Records) slides two to #5.