Harry Styles might stop Ed Sheeran from breaking a chart record

It’s the battle of the affable Brits on the singles chart this week, as Ed Sheeran guns for a record 14 weeks on top of the ARIA Singles chart, and Harry Styles’ debut single ‘Sign Of The Times’ looks likely to knock him off the top spot and deny him yet another chart record. Poor Ed. (Didn’t sleep with Taylor either – will the dude get any breaks?)

Saleswise these two are neck and neck (innit?), so it will really go down to the wire. The record Ed Sheeran is looking to beat is currently held by Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’, which spent 13 weeks at number 1 from October 22, 1995 through to the start of 1996, when it was knocked off the spot by George Michael’s ‘Jesus To A Child’.

In other news, doesn’t Harry’s single sound an awful lot like Chicago’s ‘Hard To Say I’m Sorry’? A friend (of mine, not of Harry’s) pointed out that it could easily be added to triple j rotation based on its sound, if it wasn’t for Harry’s lurid boy band past.

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