After missing out on a return to the top spot last week by a mere 500 “sales”, Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia made another attempt to get an eighth week at number one. In the four weeks since the song fell from the top, there has been a new number one each week although that included two non-consecutive weeks for Wham’s Last Christmas. However, Taylor Swift faced opposition from Djo’s End Of Everything. There are a lot of Stranger Things=related songs in the chart this week (more on that
As mentioned in last week’s commentary, Harry Styles is the nearest current equivalent to Robbie Williams, someone who started life in a boyband and who has then achieved huge success as a solo artist. Like Williams with Take That, Styles was just sixteen when he became part of One Direction. Any member of a band who starts a solo career faces a difficult choice. They can continue with songs in a similar style to those released by their band, or they can do something different. As a boyband’s
In October last year Taylor Swift became the first artist to reach number one with a song that had the name Ophelia in its title. Now she has become the first artist to top the chart with a song called Opalite.The song originally reached number two, behind The fate Of Ophelia, and spent eight weeks in the top ten. Last week it was at number fifteen. Its promotion as an official single, along with a vinyl release, sees it climb all the way to the top. It is Swift’s sixth number one single and the
Dave’s Raindance entered the top ten last November and was one of the few non-festive songs to remain in the top forty for the whole of December. After climbing to number three last week, it now climbs to the summit to give him a fourth number one single. It also helps Tems, the featured artist, to get her first chart-topping single. Solder readers will remember that the UK experienced a lot of rainfall throughout Rihanna’s ten-week stay at number one with Umbrella. Judging by this week’s weathe
After a week when it never seemed to stop raining, Dave and Tems climb back to the top of the singles chart with Raindance. The song’s last spell at number one lasted just a single week. Time will tell whether it falls so soon this time. Raye climbs back up to number two with Where Is My Husband. Djo’s End Of beginning remains at number three. Harry Style’s Aperture drops to number four after a week at the summit. Taylor Swift is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia. Like last week, all of
Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets another week at number one. Its current three week run matches the three weeks it spent at the top before being interrupted for a week by Harry Styles’ American Girls. Styles’ previous number one, the excellent Aperture, was also sandwiched between separate runs of the same song, in this case Dave and Tems’ Raindance. Bella Kay climbs back up to number two with Iloveitiloveitiloveit. Tame Impala gets his first top ten singles as Dracula climbs to nu
Olivia Dean battles against herself for the number one single, and against Charli XCX in the albums chart. There was a close race at the top of the singles chart this week. There was no real doubt that Olivia Dean would be getting her second number one single. The question was whether Sam Fender would get his first. Back in the days when the singles chart measured physical sales only (because that was all that was available), it was relatively unusual for a single to fall down the chart and
Once the release date of Harry Styles’ new album Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally was announced, there was no doubt that this particular Friday the thirteenth would not be unlucky for him. There was no prospect of there being anything resembling a race, just a complete walkover. Let’s leave aside the fact that the people responsible for the title seem to have been determined to make some of us type a supposed sentence that makes no sense. Just a couple days after Harry Styles released his
After being replaced by Harry Styles last week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean climb back to number one in the singles chart with Rein Me In. The song has now had four weeks at the summit. It used to be fairly rare for a song to return to number one in the same chart run, but nowadays it is hardly worth highlighting. Rein Me In is already the second song to return to the summit this year. Bella Kay’s Iloveitiloveitiloveit climbs back up to number two. Harry Styles’ American Girls falls to number t
Rein Me In holds at the top and Gorillaz grab a 3rd album number one. Simon is unable to do the commentary today and this is a shoddy replacement bus service, so there may be errors. Or not! Brits winner for Song Of The Year Rein Me In gets a post-win boost to hold at one for a 3rd week for Sam Fender and Olivia Dean as it faced strong competition from Alex Warren’s new track Fever Dream. I downloaded both so neither benefitted from my purchase! Alex Warren has to make do with number 3 for now
After completing a marathon journey to the top of the chart last week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets a second week at number one. The song first appeared on Fender’s People Watching album released early last year. Dean was invited to choose a song from the album to sing as a duet. She chose Rein Me In and Fender has been rewarded with his first number one single. Olivia Dean can also be found at number two with So Easy (To Fall In Love). Pink Pantheress jumps six places to numbe
The Christmas period has been a problem for the Official Charts Company (OCC) since streaming was included in the calculations for the chart. This became more pronounced when they introduced the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR) whereby the value of a song’s streams was downgraded if streams were declining for three weeks and the song had been in the chart for ten weeks. Because streamers started listening mostly to Christmas songs, almost all other songs saw their streaming figures decline. Songs
Sam Fender and Olivia Dean hold on at the top of the singles chart. Rein Me In now has a total of five weeks at number one. It is the longest-running number one since Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia spent seven weeks at the summit in October and November last year. Like Rein Me In, that song had two separate runs at the top. Last week BTS released a new album.There is more on that to come, but the album’s release has also had an impact on the singles chart with three tracks entering this we