All of this year's X Factor finalists sing on the charity single
The X Factor song Hero has topped the UK charts and is tipped to be the decade's fastest-selling charity track.
Record bosses said it sold 313,244 copies in its first week of release - more than the entire top 10 combined.
Net profits from the song - recorded by the 12 finalists in the TV singing contest - will go to servicemen and women injured in the line of duty.
In the album charts, Pink's Funhouse went straight in at number one ahead of Snow Patrol's A Hundred Million Suns.
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the X Factor cover of the Mariah Carey 1993 hit could go on to become a million-seller.
He said: "The public's response to this single is amazing. It has the potential to be the biggest release of the decade with an extended run at the top of charts."
All net record company profits from the sale of Hero will go to the Help The Heroes charity and the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
The high street retailer Woolworths has said it would give away its profits from sales of the single - estimated to be around £25,000.
UK TOP FIVE SINGLES
1 Hero - X Factor charity single
2 The Promise - Girls Aloud
3 So What - Pink
4 Infinity 2008 - Guru Josh Project
5 Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon
Source: Official Charts Company
And on Wednesday, Chancellor Alistair Darling said VAT on sales will be waived and donated to the charity.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown also commented on the single, promising to buy his wife Sarah a copy for her 45th birthday.
Elsewhere in the single charts, Girls Aloud's The Promise slipped to number two after claiming the top spot last week, followed by So What by Pink in third place.
Guru Josh Project was down one place to four with Infinity 2008 and Kings of Leon slipped one place to five with Sex On Fire.
Alicia Keys and Jack White's James Bond theme tune Another Way To Die rose eight places to 10 after the release of the latest film in the series, Quantum of Solace.
Pink's album Funhouse - written amid the fallout of her divorce from husband Carey Hart - topped the album charts.
It was followed by Snow Patrol's fifth album, A Hundred Million Suns, with AC/DC's Black Ice falling two places to third.