It seems what has happened last week as hit a nerve in the Music Industry. NME have now placed their article on the matter it reads: “STEPS could set a new chart record this week by having one of the fastest-rising singles in the history of the Top 40, after ‘THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL’ reached Number 72 before it was officially released. A spokesperson for the band told NME.COM that shops wanted stock of records that were being released yesterday (January 1) – including ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ – before Christmas to ensure they had stock in advance. “Everybody including us sent our records off to shops but a very small number have been selling this week’s records last week. “Having sold, I think, 972 copies over the counter, it went Top 75 before it was even released.” But he said it was unlikely to have an impact on the single’s chart placing now that it is officially on the shelves, and it is expected to sprint into the Top Five this Sunday: “A lot of people are saying that it could go to Number One, but it would be nice to at least carry on our run of Top Five singles.” He added that no one chain was responsible for the blunder. “We’ve had a look around and it seems to be the odd branch across the board. We say good luck to the fans if they got their hands on it a week early!” BBC are reporting that although the single is selling well it might not do enough to displace Bob The Builder from the top of the UK Charts. Worldpop are reporting this like: Despite suffering a minor chart tragedy scare after a sales bungle, Steps new single, The Way You Make Me Feel is battling with Rui Da Silva’s dance hit Touch Me for this week’s No 1 spot according to the worldpop sponsored UK charts. The Steps single entered this week’s chart at No 72 after nearly 1,000 copies were sold by some shops a week early. Copies of the track were sent out early in a bid to avoid Christmas delivery problems. A spokesman for the band, who have scored two No 1 hits, says: ‘Some hung-over staff at record shops must have looked through their stockrooms and thought, oh, there are some Steps singles. We’d better put these on display. Either a small number of shops have been selling it early or it might be that every single shop is selling it and nobody likes it. I would think it is the former. But we’re not complaining. It’s obviously going to be a high riser this week.’ If Steps do climb to No 1 this week it will signify one of the biggest ever leaps to the top spot although chart compilers CIN say it has happened before. ‘This happens with dance singles on limited release or on import,’ says a CIN spokesman. ‘It happened last year with Lady by Modjo. It entered the lower half of the Top 75 on import one week and then the next week, on proper release, it went to No 1.’ Check up on everything Steps related on worldpop’s microsite here The battle for this week’s No 1 seems to be a three way race between Rui Da Silva, Steps and Fragma’s Everytime You Need Me. Elsewhere on the worldpop sponsored UK chart DJ Mauro Picotto enters the Top 20 with his new single Save A Soul. There are also Top 40 entries for Lene Marlin’s Where I’m Headed and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Road Trippin’. The Beatles 1 compilation retains the top album spot. Not to be left out Channel 4 are now talking about this, here’s the edited version: Some shops put Steps’ new single on sale a week early. It’s 980 sales were enough to give it a number 72 chart entry. “Its disappointing, but there’s nothing we can do about it now,” says Steps spokesman Peter Berry. “I’d hope those 980 sales aren’t the difference between us getting to number one or sticking to number two. However it’s a genuine mistake. So no, we’re not taking any legal action.”It’s The Way You Make Me Feel was sent to shops a week early, to insure it’d be ready to go on sale on January 1st and not get lost in festive delivery problems. “Shops were under strict instructions not to put it on display until Jan 1st” explains Steps PR Peter Berry. “Inevitable, some hungover staff put it on sale anyway. And I guess when fans asked “Have you got the new Steps?” staff got it from their stockroom.” Steps’ new single wasn’t the only song whose sales were affected by going on sale a week early last week. New singles by Fragma and Rui Da Silva also sold enough copies to just miss out on entering the Top 100 chart. “It’s not just like there is a sinister plot to get at Steps. The band are on holiday and won’t be aware of the mix-up but I don’t think they will be that upset” says their PR Peter Berry. CIN, the body which compiles the chart every week, reckons it was helpless to prevent sales from Steps’ new single giving them a false new entry at number 72. “Even though it was a mistake to put it on sale, we couldn’t disqualify those sales” says a spokesperson. “We can’t carry the 980 sales forward by a week. We compile the charts on how many records are sold regardless of their official release dates.”Channel 4 also kindly sort out the confusion regarding the UK Single: A single can last only up to 20 mins. It can only have 3 Different Songs but as many remixes of the A-Side as long as the CD doesn’t exceed the 20mins. CD-ROM Videos can be added beyond the 20min running time but only if there is one video per CD single. CD-ROM videos don’t have to be the same as the A-Side on the single. These rules where introduced in 1997 NME have also reviewed the single, they say: Steps – It’s The Way You Make Me Feel Via a series of nerve endings sending millions of pulses to the brain. Hahahahahahahahahahhahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. So what precisely is it that makes ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ the best single Steps have ever released? Well, it’s not just the not-very-‘Dangerous Liasons video in which Steps flutter about a stately home with big collars and dodgy lingering glances that makes this ace. Nor is it simply the wonderful Abba bit after the second chorus where the whole single swishes into a flourishing pop beast. Nor, indeed, is the aceness solely attributable to the amazing bridge bit where Lisa wails “Luur-uuuuur-uuuurve”. Actually, come to think of it, it’s not even the boys pretending to be Justin Timberlake in the response bits in the chorus. Or the soaring whoosh into the chorus. Or the solid refusal to stop loving someone even though they’re with somebody else followed by the assurance in the second verse that a fling is “not impossible”. Or the twinkling stars in the middle eight, or the “make me feel make me feel” hollerings, or the way it starts off like the music on an advert for loo roll, or the Britney-esque production. It’s the whole lot. All together. IN ONE SONG! This really is very good. Even NME.COM’s Editor, who wears lots of black and likes Radiohead, thinks it’s the best thing they’ve ever done, something he wasn’t afraid to tell Foster & Allen on Radio 2 recently. Oh yes indeed. (10/10) Peter Robinson