Grenfell Tower charity single tops UK chart, sets record

An all-star charity project assembled and recorded in response to the tragic Grenfell Tower inferno has opened at #1 on the U.K’s singles chart after notching the strongest opening day sales for any track this decade.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” started at the top of the latest Official Singles Chart, published Friday, after racing past 170,000 digital and streaming equivalent sales, the vast majority of which were digital downloads, according to the Official Charts Company.

Remarkably, that volume was generated in just two days, and it includes a massive 120,000 combined sales on day one, more than double the opening tally of Adele’s 2015 hit “Hello,” which logged more than 78,000 sales in just 24 hours.

For a little perspective, the second-ranked song on the U.K. chart this week is the Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee Latin smash “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, which benefited from a full seven days on sale and mustered about 100,000 unit sales, a strong showing for an ordinary week but still some 69,000 combined sales adrift of “Bridge”.
A cover of the Smon & Garkfunkel classic, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” features more than 50 artists including Robbie Williams, The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Emeli Sande, Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley and members of One Direction and was set in motion after fire gutted the Grenfell Tower, a 24-story public housing block in London. At least 79 lives were lost in the blaze, a toll which continues to climb.

Money raised from the Simon Cowell-organised musical project supports The London Community Foundation.

As is so often is the case when catastrophe strikes, the music industry’s response has been fast and significant. Bob Geldof’s Band Aid supergroup has reunited four times and in four separate incarnations to recorded the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” which has generated millions for Africa-focused projects.

The biggest day 1 sales of all time in the U.K. belongs to another fund-raiser, Elton John’s Candle In The Wind, his tribute to the late Princess Diana which blew out 655,000 units on release in 1997.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.