Chart detail Jan. 19 issue

The January charts are always a little strange, reflecting radio's recovery from playing Christmas music and "the top songs of whatever year just went by" stuff, so songs make strange moves up, down, and sideways. This week's chart shows songs not doing a whole lot, but I haven't commented in awhile, so the top 10 looks a bit different.

Not so much at #1, though. Taylor Swift's "Our Song" holds down the song for the fifth week, and a sixth week seems likely. The last song to spend five weeks at #1 was last summer's "Never Wanted Nothing More" by Kenny Chesney, but it's been almost two years since someone spent as many as six weeks at #1, so we'll see. Meanwhile, "Stay" by Sugarland holds at #2, and it seems like it could be a contender for the top spot, but it really depends on the strength of "Our Song". (Josh Turner's "Firecracker" seemed like a surefire #1, too, but fell casualty to Taylor Swift as well.) Rounding out the top 5 are Montgomery Gentry, Rascal Flatts, and Keith Urban. Urban's song took forever to make it this far (it seems like it, anyway), so its chances seem slimmer than the other singles in positions #2-4.

Brad Paisley earns the "greatest gainer" label on the chart with "Letter To Me", which moves from #8 to #6, so that's promising for him. The top 5 seems pretty competitive now, though, so who knows. Next week's chart is either going to be very interesting, with songs fighting for rank, or very boring, with songs staying put. Other songs making upward moves in the Top 10 are "Watching Airplanes" by Gary Allan, up two to #7, and Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter with "Ready, Set, Don't Go," entering the top 10 at #10. Billy Ray's last top 10 hit was in 1999, but this is, of course, the first top 10 country hit for his daughter Miley (aka Hannah Montana).

It's hard to comment on positions #11-25. Every song in the top 25 is "bulleted" (meaning it's had significant airplay gains since the preceding week), but since radio is recovering from Christmas and New Year's, that's not surprising. So, for example, #11 is "How 'Bout Them Cowgirls" by George Strait, which moves down a notch, and which already peaked at #3, and is unlikely to start moving back up the charts. So it's hard to know what's going on here in all reality.