Sabrina Carpenter gets her second number one single just weeks after the first fell from the top. Taylor Swift is still number one in the albums chart.

Sabrina Carpenter has her second number one single. Taylor Swift remains atop the albums chart.

Just weeks after bagging her first number one single, she gets a second as Please Please Me climbs to the top. It becomes the first song with two Pleases at the beginning of the title to top the chart. The Beatles’ Please Please Me is, famously, only counted as a number two hit on the Official Chart although other charts had the song at number one. If there are any examples of a number one song whose title is just the same word three times, feel free to let me know. One thing that I can state with certainty is that Carpenter is the first act to have two number ones in 2024.

Sabrina Carpenter’s previous number one, Espresso, is at number two for a third week. She joins a short list of acts to have occupied the top two places in the singles chart. The only example I can think of where an act has done so even earlier in their career would be Frankie Goes To Hollywood who had Two Tribes at number one and Relax at number two in 1984. Those were the band’s first two singles. Carpenter has done it with her fifth and sixth top forty singles.

Eminem’s Houdini drops to number three after two weeks at the summit. Billie Eilish’s Birds Of A Feather and Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) remain at numbers four and five respectively.

Regular readers will know that this is the bit where I run through the week’s new entries. This week, they are rather thin on the ground. To be precise, there is just one. For reasons best known to the decision-makers at the BBC, Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go, new at number 39, wasn’t played on the Chart Show. Perhaps there is a hidden political message I didn’t spot in the lyrics, making it unplayable in an election campaign. Meanwhile, her album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess continues to climb. It enters the top ten for the first time at number nne.

There are, though, two re-entries.One of them is a song that was already a re-entry when it last entered the chart a few weeks ago. The good news is that it is an exceptionally good re-entry. Disturbed’s outstanding version of The Sound Of Silence is back at number 40.

The other re-entry is a song that re-enters in most even years at around this time. Yes, it’s football tournament time which can only mean that Three Lions, performed by Lightning Seeds with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, is back in the chart, at number ??? Its longevity will, as ever, be determined by how well England do in the tournament.

With little excitement in the singles chart, perhaps the albums chart can offer us lots of activity. Well, not really. For a start, there is still no change at the top with Taylor Swift getting a seventh week at number one with The Tortured Poets Department.

The lack of excitement continues. Billie Eilish climbs back up to number two with Hit Me Hard And Soft while Charli XCX’s Brat falls just one place to number three after narrowly missing out on the top spot last week. Such is the lack of big new entries that The Weeknd’s Highlights collection is back in the top five after an absence of a few weeks, at number four.

The highest new henry of the week finally turns up at number five in the form of Midnight Butterflies by Sea Girls. Their previous two albums both got to number three.

The next new entry was recorded almost fifty years ago and is described as a live studio album. One Hand Clapping was intended to be a documentary about Paul McCartney and Wings, the band formed after the break-up of The Beatles. However, neither the documentary nor the planned accompanying album was released. Now, neatly coinciding with the news that McCartney will be playing some live gigs in the UK later this year, the album has been released and it is a new entry at number ten.

After two top ten albums, Luke Combs’ fourth studio albums flopped badly, barely reaching the top 100. However, the success of his cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car has reminded people of his existence. Album number five, Fathers & Sons, enters at number fourteen.

Don Toliver continues his ru of moderately successful albums (albeit without any of them spending long in the chart) with Hardstone Psycho at number 27. John Grant is at number 28 with The Art Of The Lie. Insert your own joke about election campaigns.

Yet another collection of recordings from the David Bowie archives is at number 39. Rock ‘n’ Roll Star is a collection of recordings from February 1971 to October ‘72. It contains various demos, BBC sessions and even some rehearsals.