WILL YOUNG could do with a bit of ROBBIE's magic rubbing off on him.

The Pop Idol winner may have hit No2 in the singles charts yesterday
but he has earned the unenviable accolade of releasing the second
lowest-selling Children In Need record ever.

For the record — the worst ever was a cover of It Takes Two by JIVE
BUNNY, LONDONBEAT, BRUNO BROOKES and LIZ KERSHAW in 1989. That effort
struggled to No53 in the charts.

Will was beaten to No1 yesterday by a CHRISTINA AGUILERA record that
spent last week in the top slot. By yesterday Will had sold only
around 45,000 copies of his charity record.

He should be commended for donating all the cash from every record
but on these sales it will only be around £150,000.

To put it in perspective, the Children In Need record Perfect Day
sold more than 1.5million copies in 1997 and raised £2,125,000 for
the charity.

His debut double A-side Anything Is Possible/Evergreen became the
fastest-selling single of all time with 1,108,000 first-week sales.

When his follow-up Light My Fire came out in June it sold an
admirable 177,000 but interest in Pop Idol was clearly waning.

There were fewer sales still when he teamed up with GARETH GATES in
October for The Long And Winding Road which sold 132,500 copies in
the first week.

And this latest release will frighten his record label BMG.
One insider said: "If he was a football manager and he lost that
amount of points then he would be sacked."

It is another clear sign of the public's impatience with reality TV
pop. A new band has just been born on Saturday night's Popstars: The
Rivals and they will no doubt flog loads of Christmas singles.

But how long will they last after that?