Sam Fender and Olivia Dean continue their reign at the top of the shingles chart, in a week that has seen both heavy rain and hail, withRein Me In. It has now been at number one for a total of eleven weeks. The last song by a British act to spend as long at number one was Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits in 2021. That song had a single eleven-week run whereas Rein Me In is now in its third run at the top. Rein Me In moves past Rihanna and Jay-Z’s Umbrella to become the longest running number one single by as male/female duo.

There are three Michael Jackson songs in the top ten, thanks to the popularity of the recent biopic. Billie Jean leads the way at number two and Beat It is at number three. The third song is Human Nature. That was released as a single from the Thriller album in some countries, but not in the UK. It eventually reached number 62 immediately after Jackson’s death and when downloads meant that any song was eligible to chart. It would have been in the chart last week if the three-songs limit was not in place. It is now one of the three  most popular Jackson songs of the week, so it enters at number six, giving the late singer a 45th top ten single.

Tame Impala is at number three with Dracula. Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead is at number four. It is the only song in the top seven that was released in 2026 . The Chemical Brothers jump fifteen  places to number seven with their 2015 track Go. It is their first top ten hit since the brilliant Galvanize in 2005.

Sienna Spiro enters at number 23 with Material Lover. The song comes from the soundtrack of the much-hyped film The Devil Wears Prada II. The Visitor, a number eleven hit for Spiro earlier this year, re-enters at number 33.

For five years from 2008, almost every single released by Katy Perry made the top ten. Four of them reached number one. Her later singles have been less successful although she did manage a fifth chart-topper, helped by the presence of Calvin Harris and Pharrell Williams. In her early five-year run of top ten singles, one of the rare singles to peak outside the top ten was the aptly-named The One That Got Away. Maybe that is about to be changed as the song re-enters at number 30.

In thirteen years of steady chart success Charli XCX has had two number one singles. Rather unusually, they were eleven years apart. Her debut single I Love It (where she played second fiddle to Icone Pop who has rarely been heard from since) topped the chart in 2013. She didn’t return to the summit until 2024 when Guess, with Billie Eilish, got there. She has a re-entry at number 36 with Rock Music, a song that would benefit from being longer than just two minutes. Strangely, some of her songs would have benefitted from being cut to two minutes.

The Essential Michael Jackson remains at the top of the albums chart, giving it a ninth week at number one when added to the time spent at the top after Jackson’s death in 2009. Jackson is also at number five with Thriller, one place ahead of Bad.

In the 27 years since they released their first album Dublin band Westlife have achieved a lot of chart success while also being widely criticised as being bland and predictable. One thing they were particularly good at (or, more accurately, their record label was good at) was releasing albums and singles at a time that would maximise their chances of getting to number one. That timing has given them eight number one albums and fourteen chart-topping singles. They are about to go on tour again which has given them an excuse to release another compilation album. This one has 25 songs which is the best explanation I can come up with for the title 25: The Ultimate Collection. That said, their tour is called The 25th Anniversary World Tour which suggests that someone isn’t very good at arithmetic. The album led the way in the midweek updates, but finishes the week at number two. Insert your own joke here.

Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide is at number three. Olivia Dean is at number four with The Art Of Loving.

Reverend And The Makers are one of many acts not to java matched the success of their earliest releases. Their fantastic debut single Heavyweight Champion Of The World remains their biggest hit. Its parent album The State Of Things is also their most successful, although they did get a second top ten album with Heatwave In The Cold North in 2023. This week their eighth studio album, Is This How Happiness Feels?, is at number seven.

Rock band Basement were formed in Ipswich in 2009. From then until 2018, they released four albums, none of which sold very well. They gained a decent following in the USA, but that was not enough to sustain them. Despite being considered suitable to support Weezer and The Pixies in 2019, they disbanded the following year. The members pursued various careers outside music. Singer Andrew Fisher became a popular teaching assistant in Brighton - Hove, actually.

In 2022, they decided to give things another go. This came after the release of an EP which included a great version of Suede’s Animal Nitrate. They ultimately quit their jobs to concentrate full-time on music again, not letting the fact that two members now lived in the USA get in the way.

Last Friday (8 May) Basement released their fifth album Wired. Pre-release tracks had suggested that this would be slightly less rocky than previous releases, and so it has proved. There is a distinct feel of their near namesakes Pavement about the album. 

In Monday’s update Basement were at number eight. By Wednesday, they had fallen just one place. A probable top forty finish had turned into a possible top twenty placing. That deserved top twenty hit has duly happened. Wired is a new entry at number sixteen.

As mentioned in the singles section, Katy Perry’s The One That Got Away has re-entered the singles chart this week. It is included on a new compilation The Ones That Got The Plays (see what they did there?). The album is currently only available as a playlist on streaming sites with no physical release or even a download release. That lack of anything that could be called a release in conventional terms has not excluded it from the chart. It is a new entry at number thirteen despite only landing on streaming sites on Wednesday.

The Covasettes join a very long list of Manchester bands with a top forty album to their name as Honeymoon Forever lands at number 34.

Chris Brown is at number seventeen.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets another week at number one this week, finishing well clear of all rivals. Its current run has now lasted two weeks, bringing its total up to ten weeks. It is the third song to spend at least ten weeks at number one since the beginning of last year. The other two songs both remain in the top forty. This is, surely, the first time we have had three songs in the top forty which have spent at least ten weeks at number one in their current chart run.

Rein Me In is the joint longest-running number one by a male/female duo, matching Rihanna and Jay-Z's Umbrella in the wet summer of 2007. It is the longest-running chart-topper by a British female artist.

Tame Impala’s Dracula is back up to number two. Olivia Rodrigo is at number three with Drop Dead.

One of the songs to have spent at least ten weeks at number one recently is Alex Warren’s Ordinary. That climbed to the top in March last year and stayed there for twelve weeks. After Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild toppled Ordinary for a week, it returned to the top for a thirteenth and final week. It remains in the top forty today and would be even higher if it had not been moved on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio for most of that time. 

In recent weeks Fever Dream has provided Alex Warren with another major hit single. It currently sits at number five. This week, another new Warren song is in the chart as Fine Place To Die enters at number twenty. Both songs are said to be on his forthcoming album. However, there is currently no title or release date for the album.

Madonna’s last top forty hit as a lead artist was Living For Love in 2015. Sabrina Carpenter, on the other hand, has had fifteen top forty hits as the lead artist (including four number ones), plus one hit playing second fiddle to Taylor Swift. The two have now joined forces to record Bring Your Love with Madonna getting top billing. The song is a new entry at number 29, providing Madonna with a 70th top forty hit.

The latest song to benefit from appearing on a soundtrack is Chemical Brothers’ Go. It originally appeared on their 2015 album Born In The Echoes and it reached number 46 as a single. It has now been used in the film Apex and is at number 22. Chemical Brothers’ last top forty single was The Salmon Dance in 2007.

Two Los Angeles acts make their UK top forty debut. Stella Lefty, a singer-songwriter from , is at number 38 with Boston. Perhaps she will now move to Boston and release a song called LA. Temper City, from Israel but now based in LA, are at number 35 with Self Aware.

The race for the top of the albums chart was a three-way battle between two new releases and a much older album.

When Kneecap released their album Fine Art in 2024, they were a little-known hip-hop trio from Ireland. Even so, the album came close to reaching the top forty. Then, in April 2025, they expressed support for Palestine but, more controversially, also made some inflammatory remarks about Israel. This caused outrage in certain sections of the UK press who managed to unearth some earlier controversial comments made by members of the band.

All the controversy meant that Kneecap’s set at Glastonbury attracted a rather higher attendance than might have been anticipated when they were booked. It also meant that there would be a lot more interest in their third album when it was released. That release came last week in the form of Fenian.

The second new album to be in contention for the top spot was the latest solo album from former Spice Girl Melanie C. Her first solo set, Reason, reached number five in 2003. However, all of her subsequent releases have performed significantly less well with three of them not even making the top forty. The trend has gone into reverse more recently with Version Of Me reaching number 25 in 2016 before Melanie C went to number eight four years later. She is now back with Sweat. A top three finish would not only be her first; it would also be the highest peak for any former Spice Girl.

The third contender was not a new album by any stretch of the imagination. The Essential Michael Jackson was released in 2005 when it reached number two behind James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam. It then spent seven weeks at number one following Jackson’s death in 2009. As a result of the critically-unacclaimed Jackson biopic, it is now back at the top. Kneecap are at number two with Melanie C in third place.

Noah Kahan's The Great Divide falls to number four after seven days at the summit. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving holds onto its top five place at number five. Two other Michael Jackson albums are in the top ten. Thriller is at number six, two places ahead of Bad. Billie Jean is at number four in the singles chart. Beat It climbs twelve places to number ten and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough climbs to number fifteen. I Want You Back is a re-entry at number 33. The song, a number two hit in 1970, is credited to The Jackson 5 which means that it doesn't fall victim to the rule limiting an artist to three singles in the chart simultaneously.

Melanie C is not the only female singer-songwriter to get her best performing album for many  years. Tori Amos reached number fourteen with her much-praised debut Little Earthquakes in 1992. The follow-up, Under The Pink, topped the chart in 1994 and was followed bu two more top ten albums. Subsequent releases have not achieved the same success with one of them only just scraping into the top 100. She now gets a fifteenth top forty album with In Times Of Dragons at number thirteen, matching the peak of 2014’s Unrepentant Geraldines. That was her highest peak position since her third album, From The Choirgirl Hotel, reached number six in 1998.

Nigerian rapper Asake is at number 27 with M$ney. In the latest episode of Multi-hyphenate Watch, the Official Charts Company has used the term to describe Asake even though all his achievements are within the music industry.

Texan country singer Kacey Musgraves is at number seven with Middle Of Nowhere. Ohio Duo The Black Keys land at number 33 with Peaches!

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In returns to number one again, making it a total of nine weeks at the top for the song. It also means that one Olivia replaces another Olivia at the top for the second successive week. As nobody has pointed out any previous occasions since last week, I am assuming that this is only the second time in chart history that somebody has replaced another singer with the same forename at number one. Olivia Dean has another new entry with Baby Steps at number 31. It is the eighth song from The Art Of Loving to enter the top forty.

Rein Me In is only the eighth song in UK singles chart history to have three spells at number one in a single chart run. However, a closer look at the history of this phenomenon is an illustration of how things have changed since streaming data was included in the compilation of the chart.

The first song to have three separate spells at number one in the same chart run did so when the UK singles chart was less than a year old. Frankie Laine’s I Believe climbed to the summit in June 1953. It spent nine weeks at number one before dropping to number two. Just a week later, it returned to the top, spending a further six weeks there. After slipping back to number two for another week, it went back to the top for another three weeks. The total of eighteen weeks at number one remains a record over 70 years later.

In early 1957, Guy Mitchell’s version of Singing The Blues was the next song to have three goes at the top although each one lasted just seven days. One of the singles to topple Mitchell was Tommy Steele’s version of the same song. 

It didn’t happen again until 2014 when Pharell Williams’ Happy accumulated four weeks at number one in three spells with a five-week gap between the second and third. Since then it has also been achieved by Justin Bieber’s What Do You Mean (2015, five weeks), Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (2017, eleven weeks), The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights (2020, eight weeks) and Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters and co. (2025, ten weeks). The fact that we now have six songs in just twelve years achieving this (compared with two in the previous 62 years) suggests that this will soon be an unremarkable feat. We will, instead, be waiting for the first song to have four spells at number one in a single chart run.

The other Olivia is, of course, Ms Rodrigo who was at number one last week with Drop Dead. That song slips to number two this week.

Justin Bieber stays at number three with Beauty And A Beat (with Nicki Minaj). Bieber is also at number six with Daisies while Yukon is at 27.

Tame Impala remains at number four with Dracula. Alex Warren’s Fever Dream is back up to number five.

The other new entry is from the number one album with five re-entries also linked to the albums chart, so let’s just deal with the other re-entry before moving on to the albums. That other re-entry is Sombr’s 12 To 12 at number 39.

On this May Day, there is, alas, no sign of a re-entry for The Beatles’ Help or Abba’s SOS.

Naoh Kahan’s Stick Season album clocked up 150 weeks in the chart last week. In those 150 weeks it became a rather unusual number one album in two, linked, ways. First, it came after his first two albums (released in 2019 and 2021) had made no impact on the chart whatsoever. Second, it took a very long time to get there. The album was released in 2022 and, initially, it suffered the same fate as the previous two. It finally entered the chart in June 2023. Then, as the title track took off as a single, the album returned to the chart and has stayed there ever since. It eventually spent a week at the summit in February 2024, sixteen months after it was released and in its 35th week in the top 100.

The continuing success of Stick Season meant that the follow-up was bound to get off to a far better start than Noah Kahan’s first three albums. That has proved to be the case, and in spectacular style. Not only did Monday’s update show that The Great Divide was at number one, it held a large lead over all others, including a new Foo Fighters album. It, therefore, becomes Kahan’s second number one album.

Three songs from The Great Divide are in the singles chart. Doors is a new entry at number twelve. Porch Light (which you might find very near a door) re-enters at number twenty. The title track, which reached number ten in February, is back at number seventeen.

As mentioned above, Foo Fighters released a new album last week. As their last three albums (and five of the last six) had all reached number one, the expectation was that Your Favorite Toy would provide stiff competition for Noah Kahan. However, as we have seen, that didn’t happen. It is a new entry at number two.

Despite largely poor reviews, the Michael Jackson biopic has attracted large audiences, making more money in its first weekend than any previous musical biopic. The soundtrack from the album is at number four this week. While most soundtrack albums are now only eligible for the compilations chart, this qualifies for the main chart as all songs are performed by Jackson, including some with the Jackson 5.

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Normally, the chart rules mean that only one compilation album by an artist qualifies for the chart. Streams of a song can only count towards one compilation album by that artist. However, if the albums have a significantly different tracklisting, more than one album can make the chart. This week, two more Michael Jackson collections have qualified. Number Ones is at number five with The Essential collection at fourteen. Furthermore, his classic 1982 album Thriller is at number eight and 1987’s Bad is at thirteen.

Three Michael Jackson songs have re-entered the singles chart. Billie Jean, a number one in 1983, is at number thirteen. Beat It (also 1983) is at number 22, one place ahead of Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough (1979). The latter two songs both peaked at number three in their original chart run.

Paul Weller is at number nineteen with Weller At The BBC (Vol 2). It features recordings from the whole of his career, including with The Jam and Style Council. There is also a version of What Was I Made For, performed with Billie Eilish.

Californian singer-songwriter Kehlani is at number 28 with an eponymous album, giving her a third top forty success.

One Olivia replaces another at the top of the singles chart as Olivia Rodrigo goes straight to the top to bag her fourth number one with the cheerfully-titled Drop Dead. While it has a fairly slow start, the song does pick up to become another pleasant Olivia Rodrigo song. Her fourth number one is the first in an even year. It is the first number one single to contain the worf dead in its title, although Dead Or Alive topped the chart with You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) in 1985. I can't think of a previous occasion when there were successive number ones by different people with the same forename, but two of Michael Jackson’s number ones were followed by George Michael (one of them with Elton John).

The other Olivia, Ms Dean, falls to number two alongside Sam Fender with Rein Me In. That song has now accumulated eight weeks at the top. Justin Bieber’s songs continue to enjoy a boost after his Coachella appearance. Beauty And A Beat (with Nicki Minaj) jumps eight places to number three to reach the top ten for the first time. Former number one Daisies is up to number five while Baby is a re-entry at number seventeen. That song, which features Ludacris, originally reached number three. As he gets second billing behind Sean Kingston on Ennie Meenie, the song does not count towards Bieber’s three-song limit. It is, therefore, able to re-enter at number 32. It is an unexpected return to the chart for Kingston whose last hit was in 2011.

Tame Impala’s Dracula falls two places to number four.

Tyla and Sara Larsson have a new entry at number 40 with She Did It Again. It is Tyla’s fifth top forty hit but only the second to have more than one word in the title.

The battle for supremacy in the albums chart was between two new releases by very different acts. Monday’s sales figures suggested that Olivia Dean could outsell them both, but the closeness of the race encouraged Skindread and Jessie Ware’s marketing teams to make a big push for the top spot. As a result, both albums picked up significant sales throughout the week, unlike many new releases.

The eventual winners were Skindred who describe themselves as a Welsh ragga punk metal band. At least that means they can claim to be the first act of that description to have another number one album. Their last album, Smile, missed out on the top spot by just 150 sales so this victory should be especially sweet for them. Commenting to the Official Charts Company, they described the win as “a fairytale of Newport”.

Skindred were also very generous towards Jessie Ware, describing her album Superbloom as “amazing”. While the album has missed out on first palace in the main chart, it is at number one in the Official Record Store chart which measures sales from independent record shops. Ware has now had six top ten albums but still awaits her first number one.

Olivia Dean finishes at number three with The Art Of Loving. In its 30 weeks in the charty, it has not yet left the top five.

Zayn (Malik, formerly of One Direction) is at number four with his fifth studio album Konnakol. According to Wikipedia, Konnakol is a south Indian art of performing percussion rhythms vocally. 

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael has not been well-received by the critics, particularly as there is no mention of certain parts of his life. As his family was closely involved with the project, that omission is hardly a surprise. The Essential Michael Jackson collection climbs to number five.

Tom Rowlands of Chemical Brothers has joined forces with Norwegian singer Aurora to form Tomora. Their album Come Closer is at number sixteen. All together now - The sun will come out Tomora, bet your bottom dollar that Tomora there’ll be sun.

Last Saturday was Record Store Day which saw lots of limited editions released. One of them was a new edition of The Cure’s Greatest Hits. The album returns to the top forty at number 27.

There’s still no stopping Sam Fender and Olivia Dean who get an eighth week att the top of the singles chart with Rein Me In. It is the longest run at number one since Huntrx and a cast of thousands spent a total of ten weeks at the summit starting in August last year. Golden is still in the top forty today.

Tame Impala’s Dracula entered the top forty between two of Golden’s three runs at the top  of the singles chart. It climbed to number 21 before dropping out of the chart altogether in November. It returned to the top forty in February and started to gain momentum, climbing nine places to number three two weeks ago. This week it climbs one more place to number two. 

Alex Warren’s Fever Dream climbs two places to number three. The top five is completed by two other songs climbing two places. Sombr’s Homewrecker is at number four, one place ahead of Dominic Fike’s Babydoll. It is Fike’s first top five appearance since 3 Nights in August 2019.

It is no secret that I am not generally a fan of K-Pop. Therefore, the chances of me liking a song by a Los Angeles-based group clearly inspired by K-Pop were never going to be great. However, I wasn't quite prepared for just how awful the song in question, Pinky Up by Katseye, would be. Pinky Up, a new entry at number fourteen, is their third top  forty hit. It is the first to reach the top twenty.

One of the surprise hits of last year was Doechii’s Anxiety which peaked at number three. The success of that song has earned her the chance to work with Lady Gaga, a performer with a chart history dating back to 2009. The result, Runway, is a new entry at number 32. It deserves to go higher.

Prospa are a DJ duo from Leeds. They had minor hits in 2020 and last year, neither of which came anywhere near the top forty. They have teamed up with another DJ by the name of Cloonee to record their latest singleFree Your Mind. The combination of two acts with little chart success has worked as they enter at number 39.

In the week that Olivia Dean gets an eighth week with the number one single alongside Sam Fender, she also gets an eighth week at the top of the albums chart  The Art Of Loving climbs back up to number one. It first topped the chart on its release last October and was most recently at the top in February. It has been in the top five for its whole 29-week run in the chart with all but two of those weeks in the top three.

Jack Savoretti’s ninth studio album, We Will Always Be The Way We Were, was at number one in the two chart updates this week. However, with fewer that 10,000 sales by Wednesday it always looked likely to miss out by the end of the week. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of that figure came from actual sales, both physical copies and downloads. As real sales are heavily weighted towards the beginning of the chart week, it was unlikely that he would add many sales to that total in the final two days. It is, therefore, no surprise to see him entering at number two. It is at number one in the Official  Record Store chart which only counts physical sales from independent record shops.

It comes as a pleasure to note that Holly Humberstone is the singer-songwriter’s real name. When you are blessed with a name like that, why change it? Her first full-length album reached number five in 2023. Her second has narrowly outperformed it; Cruel World is at number four. It is number one in the vinyl albums chart.

Raye falls one place to number three with This Music May Contain Hope. BTS are still at number five with Arirang. I’m still not sure whether they are referring to Ari Styles, or what he might have been ringing about.

Ella Langley’s first album got precisely nowhere in the UK albums chart  However, with a big hit single to her name in the form of Choosin’ Texas, her second release was always likely to do significantly better. And so it has come to pass; Dandelion is at number seven.

British rock band Enter Shikari are at number sixteen with Lose Your Self, an album that was a surprise release last week. Alfie Boe enters at number 32 with Face Myself. Unlike his previous albums, this includes some songs written by Boe himself.

Justin Bieber’s Purpose returns at number 37 following his performance at the Coachella festival last weekend. He also returns to the singles chart with Beauty And A Beat (with Nicki Minaj) at number eleven, five places above its original peak position in 2012. Daisies, a number one hit last year, has sprouted at number fifteen and Yukon is back at number 26. Yukon reached number eighteen last year.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean stay at the top of the singles chart with Rein Me In. Pedants will hope that the success of this song will mean that more people can tell the difference between rein and reign. Rein Me In (not Reign Me In) has now spent seven weeks at number one.

There have been many long-running number one singles this century. Whenever it happens, chart enthusiasts lament that these number ones don’t enter the public consciousness as much as songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You or Love Is All Around.  Sadly, there is a lot of truth in this. A poll of the general public would probably show that Sam Fender is still a long way from being a household name. It would probably also show that a lot of people have no idea who Drake is. Lucky them.

Bella Kay’s Iloveit cubed remains at number two. Tame Impala’s Dracula (on Columbia records) completes a static top three. Zara Larsson’s Lush Life is back up to number four. Alex Warren’s Fever Dream returns to the top five at number five.

ANOTR’s first hit Relax In My Eyes had been in the top 100 for three months before it finally broke into the top forty. It peaked at number 33 in its tenth, and final, week in the broadcast part of the chart. Hit number two, Talk To You, launched into the top 100 last month and now climbs into the top forty at number 29. The Dutch duo are joined by 54 Ultra, a singer-songwriter from New Jersey.

Californian singer-songwriter Malcolm Todd makes his UK top forty debut at number 40 with Earrings, a song I have already forgotten a few minutes after hearing it. There have been very few Malcolms named on single credits. One of the members of that exclusive club is Malcolm McLaren whose hits include Double Dutch and Madam Butterfly. Carl Malcolm’s Fattie Bum Bum is best forgotten.

Harry Styles swaps one former number one with another this week. Aperture drops out of the top forty as it is no longer one of Styles’ three most popular tracks. Its replacement is his equally good first number one single, 2017’s Sign Of The Times at number 28. This slightly bizarre occurrence is entirely down to the quirks of chart rules. Most obviously, Aperture is a victim of the three-song limit. However, the biggest factor is that it has gone on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio meaning that its streams have halved in value. Sign Of The Times, on the other hand, has gone in the opposite direction. After its use in a film, it has been restored to the Standard Chart Ratio.

Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole continue to climb the chart with the 20-year-old (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me. It hits a new peak of number 24. I hope Tim is pleased.

Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide climbs back up to number 36. If it had been released as a single at the time, some people might have been curious to find out what song was on the other side. Others wouldn’t have bothered. That lack of interest in b-sides probably led to many people buying Boney M’s Brown Girl In The Ring, not realising that it was on the b-side of the Rivers Of Babylon single they already owned.

There is a dearth of new entries in the albums chart this week which means that this section will not take up much space. Those new entries start, and almost finish, with the number one. After topping the chart with his first two albums Dermot Kennedy may be over the moon to complete a hat-trick as The Weight Of The Woods rockets to the top. It follows Without Fear (2019) and Sonder (2022) in topping the chart. He is the first Irish solo artist to top the UK chart with their first three albums. While the US Kennedy political clan has Irish roots, I am not aware of any connection with this Irish Kennedy.

Raye falls one place to number two after a week at the top. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number three. Harry Styles climbs back up to number four with Kiss All The Time Disco Occasionally. BTS are at number five with Arirang. All of the top five albums have started their chart run at the top.

Anaïs Marinho, recording as Arlo Parks, has a truly international background. While she was born in London, her ancestry is Nigerian, Chadian and French. She now lives in the USA. Her first two albums reached the top ten in the UK. Her third, Ambiguous Desire, ?is at number eleven. Her main co-writer on the album is Paul Epworth who has also worked with Adele (Rolling In The Deep, Skyfall), Florence and the Machine (Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)), and Coldplay (A Sky Full Of Stars, as producer) among many others.

There is a new biopic on Michael Jackson who didn’t invent the moonwalk although he did do a lot to make it popular. That has led to an increase in streams of tracks from his Essential collection which helps it climb back into the top ten at number seven.

Last week’s commentary referred to controversy surrounding Kanye West. By that time, some politicians had already started to call for him to be barred from entering the UK after the news that he would be headlining all three nights of the Wireless Festival in the summer. He has now been barred and the whole festival has been cancelled. As decisions by arts bodies go, the decision to choose West as a headliner is a definite arty miss.

There are many re-entries in the albums chart this week. It is disappointing that Dark Side Of The Moon and The Race For Space are not among them. They do include the Beatles 1967-70 collection at number 39, a compilation that covers the time of the first moon landing, unless you think it was staged in a studio.

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 number three in its sixteenth week in the top forty. His first chart appearance came in 2012 when his Lonerism album reached number fourteen.

Harry Styles is still at number four with American Girls. BTS fall to number four with Swim. It looked like sinking far further earlier in the week, but the release of new physical copies boosted its sales.

Zara Larsson’s I Love It climbs to number seven, just four places below the number three peak it reached a decade ago. 

I always like to try to understand the appeal of certain types of music, even if I don’t like it myself. With some artists, that is a real struggle. Why do people choose to listen to Central Cee? However, they do and he has a new entry this week with Wagwan at number 31. It is, predictably, as awful as its title. Does it stand for something? Maybe What A Git, What A Numpty?

Nice To Each Other has regained its status as Olivia Dean's third most popular song. This means that The Hardest Part drops out of the chart while Nice To Each Other is back at number 30. Rein Me In counts as a Sam Fender song, so does not count towards Dean’s limit of three songs in the chart.

Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole’s (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me climbs to number 26, ahead of its original peak in its initial chart run twenty years ago.

Last week I commented on Ella Langley's Choosin’ Texas, specifically the fact that it had spent eight weeks in the top forty without ever falling, but still only achieving a peak of number 32. This week it climbs again, to number 29. At this rate, it might be the last number one before Wham take over again in December.

Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide slips back into the top forty again at number 40.

Raye’s struggle to be able to release the music she wanted to release, rather than what record companies wanted her to release, has been well documented. It meant that her debut album, My 21st Century Blues, wasn’t released until 2023, more than six years after her first appearance in the singles chart. While the album didn’t quite get to number one - she was beaten to the top spot by Shania Twain - it did give her a first number one single in the forn of Escapism.

Last week Raye released her second album, This Music May Contain Hope, a set which includes another number one single, Where Is My Husband. There was never any real doubt that the album would go to number one and it has done so by a large margin. The fabulous Click Clack Symphony climbs to number eleven in the singles chart. The former number one single is back up to number fifteen while she gets a third track in the top forty with I Know You’re Hurting entering at number 22. With seventeen songs and a running time of 73 minutes, it is another album that bucks the general trend for pitifully short albums.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving returns to the top two at number two. BTS's Arirang falls to number four after a week at the top.

In recent years Kanye West has become known more for expressing some rather controversial views than for his musical output. He has also decided to shorten his name to a simple Ye. Apart from his debut, which stalled at number two, all of his studio albums have topped the chart in the USA while his performance in the UK chart has been less consistent. I haven’t counted Donda 2 as it was ruled ineligible for the US chart. His latest album Bully is a new entry at number three.

Two tracks from Ye’s album are in the singles chart. All The Love, featuring his music director Andre Troutman is at number 28. Father, featuring Travis Scott, is one place above it.

Melanie Martinez first entered the consciences of the American public when she appeared in the US version of The Voice in 2012. She lands at number five with her fourth album Hades, a very un-hellish debut position.

Don Broco will forever be included on the lists of bands whose name sounds like that of a solo artist. None of their members is called Don, or Broco for that matter. Their last album, Amazing Things, topped the chart in 2021. Their new set, Nightmare Tripping, hasn’t done quite such amazing things, but still enters at a respectable number seven.

When Queen released their second album, unimaginatively titled Queen II, they were still relatively unknown. Their debut album, Queen, had failed to chart and they were just getting their first hit single with Seven Seas Of Rye. Queen II eventually climbed to number five with their debut finally getting into the chart in its wake. Now, to mark the second anniversary of its fiftieth anniversary, there is a remastered edition with some added live recordings and tracks from BBC sessions. The new edition is at number fourteen. Their Greatest Hits drops out of the top forty for the first time this year in its 1,200th week in the top 100.

London singer-songwriter Tom Misch isn’t exactly a household name, but he gets a third top ten album this week with Full Circle at number nine.

Swedish singer Robyn finally gets a top ten album with Sexistential at number ten. Her previous albums chart peak was with her eponymous debut album which reached number eleven in 2008.

While they are generally thought of as a London band, Blur’s roots are actually in Colchester. If you consider Blur to be a Colchester band, Pet Needs’ chances of being the most successful band from the Essex town are close to zero. They are at number sixteen this week with Elbows Out! This Is Capitalism.

Comedian Dave Gorman once spent time gently ribbing Scouting For Girls for releasing a second Greatest Hits album when most people could only name one of their songs at most. They haven’t had a top forty single for nearly fifteen years, but they are still going. They have a new entry this week with These Are The Good Days at number seventeen.

Courtney Barnett is at number 29 with Creature Of Habit. Central Cee has persuaded enough people to listen to, or even buy, All Roads Lead Home for it to get to number 34. Catherine Garner thought it was a wise move to call herself Slayyyter for her musical career. She is at number 26 with Wor$t Girl In America.

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 week. The most popular by far is Swim which is at number two, becoming their fifth top ten single. Further down the chart, Body To Body is at number 28 and FYA is at 39. They have now had twelve top forty hits.

Bella Kay falls to number three with a triple dose of Iloveit. Harry Styles’ American Girls is at number three. PinkPantheress falls one place to number five with Stateside.

German Hans Zimmer is probably the second most famous composer of film soundtracks behind John Williams. His work includes soundtracks for Gladiator, the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Dunkirk. He had a hit single in 2007 with Spider Pig, one of the shortest “songs” ever to reach the chart. Nineteen years on, he enters the top forty for a second time, this time playing second fiddle (not literally) to Raye on the rather wonderful Click Clack Symphony. There has been just one previous chart hit with the word clack in the title. Bryan Hyland, best known for Sealed With A Kiss, had a number 29 hit with Four Little Heels (The CLickety Clack Song) in November 1960. It would be great to see this Raye song climb a loy higher than its current position of number ???

Ella Langley entered the top one hundred three months ago with Choosin’ Texas. A month later it reached the top forty. In all the time it has been in the chart it has either climbed or stayed in the same position. In its eighth week in the top fort, it climbs to a new high of number 32 this week. Tame Impala’s Dracula also continues to climb. It reaches a new peak of number twelve five months after first entering the top forty.

Some people who usually oppose the idea of National Service may have found themselves grateful that it is still practised in South Korea. It has been responsible for BTS being unable to release any new music for the last three years. Other people will have disagreed. Regardless, it is a simple fact that BTS, one of the very biggest names in K-Pop, did release an album last week. 

Three years is a long gap for such a band, a gap which could easily have seen their fans move on to other acts. BTS seem to have risen above that as Arirang becomes their second number one album. The title is the name of a traditional Korean folk song. Several of the tracks have a dozen or more credited songwriters with the co-writers including OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.

Harry Styles slips to number two after two weeks at number one with Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number three, ending a run of nineteen consecutive weeks in the top two. It still hasn’t left the top five since it entered the chart exactly six months ago. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number five.

Like most American country singers, Luke Combs remained pretty anonymous in the UK for many years. His albums made brief appearances in the chart but he didn’t receive much attention until his version of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car became a hit. While many albums these days are relatively short, Combs’ latest, The Way I Am’s 22 tracks clock in at a total of 73 minutes. It is a new entry at number four, one place ahead of his previous highest position.

Back in the days when reality TV was unscripted and featured real people rather than people seeking fame, the BBC chowed a series called The Cruise, following the staff of a luxury cruise ship. The one member of staff who might have hoped that the series would lead to bigger things was the resident singer Jane McDonald. She proved popular with viewers which led to a recording contract and a debut album which reached number one in 1998. She has now released an eleventh studio album. Living The Dream, which is described as a nod to country music. It is a new entry at number ten.

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 two after a week at the top. Pink Pantheress climbs to number four with Stateside. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) is at five.

Sienna Spiro gets her third top forty hit with The Visitor at number e;even. The instrumentation is rather lovely, but the vocals occasionally grate a bit. While I did not expect to find a long list of hit singles with the word Visitor in the title, I was rather surprised to find that this is the very first, even when extending the chart to a full top 100.

After the huge success of the splendid Stick Season, it took Noah Kahan some time to get a second top ten hit on his own. That happened earlier this year when The Great Divide reached number ten. He is now looking for another one with Porch Light. It’s not there yet, but a new entry at number nineteen is a good start. Unsurprisingly, the word Light has appeared in the title of a lot of hit songs. Among those to use it as a singular noun are Blinded By The Light (Manfred Mann’s Earth band’s version of a Bruce Springsteen Song), Red Light Spells Danger (Billy Ocean) and the unforgettable Red Light, Green Light by Mitchell Torok.

Zara Larsson’s Lush Life continues to be a big hit for the second time. It spent thirteen weeks in the top ten at the beginning of 2016, peaking at number three. Exactly ten years later, it returned to the top ten and, again, peaked at number three. Last week it dropped out of the top ten, but this week it is back up to number eight.

Tame Ompala’s Dracula climbs to a new peak of number fourteen. His only top forty single entered the chart last October. After spending the last five weeks at number 35, Ella langley’s Choosin’ Texas climbs two places to a new peak of number 33. Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide slipped out of the top forty last week. This week it edges back in at number 40.

To no great surprise, Harry Styles gets a second week at the top of the albums chart with the curiously-titled Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. A combination of its huge sales last week and the lack of any serious competition from last week’s new releases made it almost inevitable. It is the first album by a male artist to get a second successive week at number one since Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) in summer 2024. The last British male act to do so was Lewis Capaldi with Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent in May and June 2023 which immediately followed a two-week run for Ed sheeran’s -.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving eventually provided Harry Styles with his nearest challenger. It remains at number two, extending its run in the gold and silver medal positions to nineteen consecutive weeks.

While James Blake has never had a major hit single, he has had a good run of successful albums, beginning with his eponymous debut in 2011. This week he reaches the top three in the albums chart for the first time as Trying Times enters at number three.

Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number four.

Tate McRae’s So Close To What entered the albums chart at number two in February of last year, somebody told me. It has remained in the top forty ever since and last week stood at number 22, stacked up there for a second consecutive week. Following the release of a double vinyl version of the deluxe edition, it soars back up to number five.

The Official Charts Company’s review of the albums chart insists that there will be celebrations on the East Sussex coast tonight for Brighton band Yonaka. I can’t hear anything yet, but perhaps something will happen later this evening. That would be to celebrate Until You’re Satisfied becoming their second top forty album at number 25.

The Black Crowes get their ninth top forty album with A Pound Of Feathers at number 37. It comes almost 35 years after their first top forty album back in August 1991.

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 new album, a concert promoting the album appeared on Netflix. That was convenient, wasn’t it? His choice to dress up like the Ukrainian flag might have helped his sales there, and if that led to reduced sales in Russia, who cares? It was possibly the first live set I have seen that has started and ended with the same song. As that song was the rather brilliant Aperture, I’m not going to complain. Styles used the opportunity to play the album in full before a five-song encore comprising songs from earlier in his solo career. The repeat performance of Aperture formed the second encore.

Overall, the album demonstrates Harry Styles’ welcome willingness to experiment. He has come a long way since his days in One Direction. He has been rewarded with a third number one album. His second solo album Fine Line missed out On its release just before Christmas 2019 it finished behind a Rod Stewart compilation and Stormzy’s new album. It eventually climbed to number two at the beginning of 2021, behind a Taylor Swift album. The new album notched up 183,000 “sales” in its first week, the biggest weekly sales of the year so far. 

Harry Styles’ previous albums have all received a boost. Harry’s House benefits the most and re-enters at number 31.

In the singles chart, Harry Styles inevitably has three songs riding high. In the midweek updates, American Girls was showing as a new entry at number one, but by Wednesday its lead over Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In was a narrow one. A second number one from this album would give Styles his second chart double. Harry’s House was the number one for two weeks while As It Was topped the singles chart.

American Girls held on to finish the week at the top of the chart giving Harry Styles a fourth number one single and a second chart double. Aperture is at number four, one place ahead of another newcomer Ready, Steady, Go!

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In slips to number two after three weeks at number one. Bella Kay’s Iloveitiloveitiloveit is at number three.

Returning to the albums chart, Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving gets a thirteenth week at number two. It has been in the top two since last November. Fleetwood Mac’s compilation 50 Years: Don’t Stop oss at number four. Bruno Mars falls to number five with The Romantic. :asy week’s number one, Gorillaz’ splendid The Mountain, falls to number ten.

Morrissey has long been a controversial figure. From his days in The Smiths he has been passionate about his vegetarianism but alienated some with his comments about omnivores.However, as time has gone on, his comments have become increasingly bizarre and unpleasant. He has compounded that by calling off several dates on his current tour at short notice.

Morrissey’s behaviour has made him a classic case of “Great music, shame about the man”, As the years have passed, an increasing number of people have let their views about the man override their thoughts on his music and their willingness even to listen to any new material. He hasn’t had a number one album for twenty years. This week Make-Up Is A Lie, his fourteenth solo album and the first for six years lands at number three.

Since making their chart debut in 1979, Squeeze have had twelve top forty albums and twelve top forty albums. Coincidentally, they have accumulated a total of 57 weeks in both top forties. They have never had a number one in either chart and their three top ten albums have all been singles compilations. Their new album, Trixies, enters at number fifteen. It is their first album for eight-and-a-half years.

British folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy gets her first top forty album with These Frightening Machines at number 21.

Finally, many thanks to popchartfreak for stepping in for me at very short notice last week. I had received some bad news at work which had come as a massive shock. I struggled through the rest of the day at work, but couldn’t face writing a light-hearted chart commentary.

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, with Ordinary also going up a few spots and showing no sign of exiting anytime soon. Number 2 and up 2 is Bella Kay and iloveitiloveitiloveit. That’s the song not me commenting, I actually haven’t heard it yet being in New Zealand for a month and all.  Pink Pantheress drops 1 to 4 with Stateside and Olivia Dean is down 3 with So Easy despite dominating the awards on Sunday, but bonus she enters at 19 with yet another track at 19 - The Hardest Part an old track from 2020. 

Bruno Mars is back up 2 with an album boost for I Just Might at 6, as he enters with the more laid-back track Risk It All at 15. Harry Styles did a great performance of Aperture and is rewarded with a Brits boost to 10. I may be biased - OK I am biased - but one week on top is not enough for this fabulous record. Dominic Fike is up to 14 with Babydoll and also has a new entry joining it lower down at 27: White Keys.

Tame Impala rise 4 to 22, almost matching the 2025 peak of 21, and it was sounding fab in an Auckland pub bar last week. Dracula still bites! RAYE joins the theme of the week with another new release joining the existing hit, Nightingale Lane at 20 is quite tastefully nice, following in the tradition of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square. See Tori Amos for a good version of that one.

Who had Madonna’s 1985 smash number one back in the charts this week at 40? No, me neither, even if Into The Groove is still fab over 40 years on! Tikkety Tokkety or something I expect. Meanwhile Scottish DJ Ewan McVicar debuts Share The House at 38, his 2nd top 40 in 6 years.

Gorillaz debut comfortably at 1 with The Mountain, their 3rd number one from 9 studio albums. Damon Albarn certainly stays busy. The animated band is seeing off a Brits boosted Olivia Dean at 2 and Bruno Mars’ surprisingly low entry at 3 for The Romantic. Given his Gaga and ROSE hits one might have expected more fanbase anticipation. US Singer-songwriter Mitski debuts Nothing’s About To Happen To Me at 4, her 8th album, and PinkPantheress re-enters at 5 with Fancy That for a busy top 5.

Elsewhere K-pop girl group Blackpink debut at 11 with 3rd Mini Album (Deadline) for a 5th charting hit as the Brits Effect pulls in re-entries for Sam Fender at 28 People Watching, Rosalia’ Lux at 37 following a great show stopper on Berghain, and The 1975’s I Like It….etc at 40. That leaves Paul McCartney extending his album career to a whopping Beatles-inclusive 63 years as Man On The Run OST album pops in at 35. I haven’t seen the streaming TV documentary yet. It’s Macca’s 5th hits compilation. 

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 number three with Stateside. It is her second top three single after Boy’s A Liar in 2023. Bella Kay climbs a massive 22 places to number four with Iloveitiloveitiloveit. Sombr’s Homewrecker climbs two places to number five.

As origins of band names go, the story behind the choice of Twenty One Pilots is one of the more bizarre. American playwright Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is based on a true story about am American company which, knowingly, sent defective aircraft to Europe for military use. This resulted in the death of 21 pilots. The band have a new entry at number 23 with Drag Path. By a neat coincidence, a revival of the play is currently being performed in London’s West End.

Drag Path is the only new entry in the chart, but there is also a very welcome re-entry. Charli XCX’s soundtrack for the new Wuthering Heights film falls to number eight this week after a week at number one. The original musical Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush’s brilliant debut single, re-enters at number 40.

In April last year, the music world’s favourite removals firm Mumford And Sons released their first album for seven years. It matched two of its predecessors by going to number one. However, while one of those number ones and the number two album Sigh No More enjoyed lengthy runs in the chart, Rushmere did something that has happened to so many albums in the 2020s. It dropped straight out of the chart the following week. Less than a year later, they have released another album, Prizefighter. It too has gone straight to number one, giving them a fourth chart-topping album. It would not be a surprise if it is nowhere to be seen in next week’s chart.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving remains at number two.

Lovers of coincidences will enjoy the fact that former Little Mix member Leigh-Anne’s debut solo album My Ego Told Me To is at number three. That means that it has matched the albums chart peak achieved by each of her two former bandmates.

So far this year, we have already been reminded of the tenth anniversary of David Bowie’s death. In the rest of 2016 the music world also lost Prince, Greg Lake, Keith Emerson, the whole of promising indie band Viola Beach and , on Christmas Day, George Michael. In the wider world of entertainment, we also lost two brilliantly funny women Victoria Wood and Caroline Aherne. In the USA Debbie Reynolds died just a day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher.

George Michael had made his name with Wham, alongside his childhood friend Andrew Ridgeley. When Wham split up Michael pursued a solo career, Ridgeley chose to enjoy the fact that he could do what he liked having with a combination of the money he had already made and ongoing royalties. This includes income from Michael’s Careless Whisper on which he receives a writing credit although there has always been a suspicion that the credit was a characteristic act of generosity by Michael. 

Faith was George Michael’s first solo album. It included the song I Want Your Sex which was banned from radio and television. Broadcasters claimed that the song promoted promiscuity at a time when the government was trying to combat the spread of Aids. Michael gave interviews in which he said that that was the opposite of the message he was trying to convey. Careless Whisper was not on the album as it had already appeared on a Wham album.

Faith has now been made available on vinyl for the first time in many years. The album spent a week at number one when it was first released in 1987 and was last seen in the top forty in 2011 following the release of a remastered edition. This latest reissue sees it back in the chart at number four.

The Official Charts Company (ICC) hasn’t published its albums chart write-up at the time of writing this, but I’m willing to guess that they will describe Hilary Duff as a multihyphenate. As we;; as being a singer and actor, she also hs five books published in her name. While she has enjoyed several top ten albums in her native USA, her achievements in the UK have been rather more modest. Just one of her previous studio albums troubled the top forty. Dignity reached number 25 in 2007. Luck…. Or Something has fared rather better as her first album for eleven years enters at number five. (The OCC’s write-up has just appeared,and the word multihyphenate is nowhere to be seen.)

To accompany the release of an Elvis Presley concert film, there is also an album, EPiC - Elvis Presley in Concert. It enters at number seventeen and is Presley's 96th top forty album. Will his record company find a way of getting that figure up to 100 in time for the fiftieth anniversary of his death next year?

If Baby Keem manages to get 100 top forty albums in the UK, I don't expect to be around to see it. His tally currently stands at one, thanks to Ca$ino entering at number 29.

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 then climb back up again. It was even more unusual for a single to yo-yo up and down over a prolonged period. The inclusion of streaming, and the various changes to the rules to try to speed up the chart, has made a yo-yo chart run very common.

One of the clearest examples of the yo-yo phenomenon is Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In which has had seven runs in the top ten since it first entered the upper tier last October. Four of those runs have been just a single week at number ten. The longest run in the top ten started at the beginning of the year and reached seven weeks last week when it climbed to its peak of number five for the third time.

In the midweek updates, Rein Me In was at number one, but with a slender lead over the number two. The opposition came from another Olivia Dean song, So  Easy (To Fall In Love). That song was at number six last week, having peaked at number three. Both songs, then, were heading for new peaks. It was just a matter of which song would get the higher peak. Regardless of which song won, Sam Fender would be able to celebrate a new singles chart high, beating the number three peak achieved by Seventeen Going Under. A win for Rein Me In would also set a new record for the longest time taken for a song to get to number one in a single chart run. Rein Me In’s 36-week path to the top would easily outstrip the relatively swift 19 weeks taken by Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud.

In the end, victory went to Rein Me In which means that Olivia Dean’s second number one is also Sam Fender's first. After waiting two-and-a-half years from his first top 100 to get into the top forty for the first time, he has had another fairly lengthy wait to get a deserved number one. Dean has a third song in the top five as Man I Need, her previous number one, climbs back up to number four.

Zara Larsson’s Lush Life climbs to number three, matching its peak from almost exactly a decade ago. Bad Bunny falls one place to number five with DtMF. He also gets a fourth hit from his current album as Titi Me Pregunto enters at number eighteen. Under the three-song limit Baile Inolvidable drops out to make way for it.

Last week’s number one, Taylor Swift’s Opalite drops to number eight after a week at the top. It just about avoids the fate of Lewis Capaldi’s Pointless which climbed to the top from number fifteen (as Swift did last week) before dropping straight back out of the top ten.

Central Cee’s new single Iceman Freestyle gets off to a great start with a brief clip of Albinoni’s familiar Adagio in D Minor. Sadly, it goes rapidly downhill when Mr Cee’s vocals start. The wait for a song of his that I like goes on. Iceman Freestyle, a title which could have been used for a song about the Winter Olympics, is at number 37 giving Central Cee a 34th top forty single since his 2002 debut.

Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole’s (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me was a number 31 hit in 2006. Thanks to Tik Tok, it is a re-entry at number 38, Oh joy. After spending the first six weeks of the year in the lower reaches of the top forty Sombr’s Back To Friends dropped out last week. This week it returns at number 40. His Homewrecker enters the top ten at number seven. If it goes no higher, it will be the third of his five top forty hits to peak in that position.

There are two more new entries and a re-entry in the singles chart which will be recorded in the upcoming albums chart section.

While Olivia Dean was almost guaranteed to have the number one single as her main opponent was herself, in the albums chart, the competition came from fellow Briton Charli XCX with her soundtrack for the new Wuthering Heights film. Most soundtrack albums are now consigned to the separate compilations chart (a move that came after soundtrack albums - particularly The Greatest Showman - spent a large part of 2018 at number one) but this qualifies as it is credited to Charli XCX alone.

In musical terms, Wuthering Heights is, of course, mostly associated with the sublime debut single from Kate Bush. When agreeing to do the soundtrack for the new film, it is unlikely that Charli XCX had any illusions that that was likely to change. Still, if she could get the number one album, Wuthering Heights would be arguably the most unusual title of a number one single and album by different artists. On the other hand, if Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving held on, it would match the three-week run by the same album in the first three charts of the year.

In Wednesday’s update Wuthering Heights was still at number one, albeit with a fairly narrow lead over The Art Of Loving. By the end of the week, it held on at the top, thereby denying Olivia Dean a chart double. It is Charli XCX’s third number one album and the first of those three to have a second word in the title.

And those three remaining singles? All three are from Wuthering Heights. Chains Of Love spent a week in the top forty last November. It now returns at a new peak of number seventeen. Dying For You is at number 27. The glorious Always Everywhere is at number 33.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving, then, slips one place to number two. It has spent seven weeks at the top in four separate runs. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number three, one place ahead of another compilation, The Weeknd’s Highlights. Bad Bunny is at number five with Debi Tirar Mas Fotos.

In between releasing Tension and Tension II, Kylie Minogue embarked on a 66-show world tour. A live album, recorded on the tour, was released last September, but was initially only available to stream. The lack of the opportunity to buy the album meant that it failed to enter the chart in the UK. With physical copies now on sale, it enters at number nineteen.

Fred Again’s USB re-enters at number 31 after he performed for four nights at one of my least favourite London venues, Alexandra Palace.Another album about a stick. Noah Kahan’s Stick Season continues to do well.

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 second from her latest album.

Dave and Tems slip to number two with Raindance. Readers in Aberdeen (home of the wonderful Annie Lennox) will have been surprised (or confused) when they finally saw some sunshine yesterday afternoon (Thursday) for the first time since 21 January.

Raye drops to number three with Where Is My Husband. This week she was named as one of the headline acts for this year’s Brighton Pride in August. She will appear on the Saturday while Diana Ross will headline Sunday’s show. If Raye has found her husband by then, she can bring him along.

Shane Boose, under the name Sombr, has had three top ten hits from his debut album I Baqerly Know Her, released last August. Now he has already moved on to songs from his next album with the release of Homewrecker. It is a new entry at number fourteen, complete with  its Beach Boys-y beginning and end.

Just two weeks after former members of One Direction topped the singles and albums charts, another former member has landed in the charts. This time it is the turn of Niall Horan who has temed up with Myles Smith to record a song called Drive Safe, sound advice in the rubbish weather we have been having. Each singer has two top ten singles to his name with Smith charting higher than Horan. Their perfectly decent joint venture is at number 27.

Two acts whose age would generally make them unlikely visitors to the singles chart enter at number 37 with a song called Release The Pressure. Forty-two-year-old Harris has been having hits consistently for nearly twenty years, including eleven number ones. Leicester band Kasabian last had a top forty single in 2014. Kasabian seem to have decided that the best way to get back in the singles chart is to play second fiddle to Harris as this sounds far more like a Calvin Harris song than a Kasabian one.

American singer-songwriter Dominic Fike is at number 30 with Babydoll, a song originally released in 2018 before it became a minor (non-top forty) hit in 2023.

There are several re-entries in the chart this week, one of which is covered in the albums chart round-up. Tame Impala’s Dracula, a surprisingly long-lasting hit last year, is back at number 25. Justin Bieber’s Yukon reached number twelve last summer. It is now at number 29.

If he had stuck to the original release date, Robbie Williams would have been celebrating his 52nd birthday today with a record-breaking number one album. As it is, Britpop has already been to number one (two weeks ago) and left the top forty. That means another week at the top for the Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving which has become the “default” number one whenever there are no major releases.

On one Sunday evening every January, tens of millions of Americans spend several hours watching two teams of men in armour playing a glorified version of catch. Most of the time is occupied by adverts with brief interruptions for “action”, but Americans lap it up. While the men in armour have a slightly longer break than the ones for adverts, there is a live musical act. This year, the performer was Puerto Rican Bad Bunny who recently became the first act to win the Grammy award for best album with a release entirely in Spanish.

Donald Trump once described the president of Puerto Rico as terrible for his inadequate response to a natural disaster there. Pity the poor person who had to explain that the president of Puerto Rico at the time was one Donald J Trump. Whether that contributed to Bad Bunny’s antipathy towards Trump, I don’t know. However, it was no surprise that Trump was not a fan of the Superbowl performance.

Because of the lateness of the show, the UK audience for the quasi-sporting event is relatively low. However, the controversial choice of half-time performer generated more than the usual amount of publicity, increasing the gap between the number of people who know about that and those who know the result.

The publicity surrounding Bad Bunny’s performance has had an impact on the UK charts. The now award-winning album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos reached number thirteen in January last year. Now it is back at number two, easily his best position in the UK charts. DtMF, a number 26 hit early last year, returns to the singles chart at number four. Nuevayol is a hit for the first time at number fifteen. As is Baile Inolvidable at number twenty.

J Cole is at number three with The Fall-Off. Cole has said that this will be his final album. However, as he is only 41, he has plenty of time to change his mind. If not, he finishes his career with a fifth top ten album from seven releases. In Monday’s update J Cole was sitting neatly at number 26 with a song called Two Six. Some of us might have hoped he had recorded a song called Six Seven instead. Those people will have been relieved to see the song miss the top forty by the end of the week.

Even if he wasn’t Japanese, the man known as Joji might have decided that his birth name of George Miller didn’t exactly catch the eye. It certainly isn’t a name that would lead to the assumption that he is from eastern Asia. Under his chosen moniker he gets a fourth top forty album this week with the delightfully-titled Piss In The Wind at number six. It matches the peak achieved by the sweeter sounding Nectar in 2020.

Still on names that might mislead people about the origin of the act, the band Ist Ist come from Manchester rather than a German-speaking country. Their first four albums all fell well short of the top forty. The best they managed was number 87 with The Art Of Lying in 2021. Thankfully, their record label has been patient enough to allow them to release a fifth studio album. That patience has paid off as Dagger is a new entry at number 21.

French composer Lorien Testard won awards last year for the music he wrote for the video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The soundtrack album reached number six in the soundtrack albums chart, but was placed nowhere in the main albums chart. Following a release on vinyl, it lands at number sixteen this week.

The list of famous musicians from Portsmouth is relatively short although the city has at least had a hit single named after it. Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears comes from there as does former Dr Who composer Murray Gold. It was also the home of the intentionally terrible Portsmouth Sinfonia. The band Crystal Tides were formed in the city eight years ago. This week they make their chart debut with Toothpaste at number 37.

Jamaican-British singer Marnz Malone is at number 36 with Yaqeen.

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 the top five singles have spent at least a week at number one.

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season was very much a slow burner. It entered the singles chart in October 2023, over a year after it was released. It climbed to number one at the beginning of the following year and stayed there for eight weeks. It stuck around in the top forty for many months.

Since Stick Season, Noah Kahan’s subsequent single releases have had mixed fortunes. Some have been hits while others have been less popular. His latest single, The Great Divide (not a tribute to an Ed Sheeran album) was at number one in Sunday’s initial update. However, by the following day it had already fallen to number five. It finishes the week as a new entry at number ten.

Country music has never been particularly popular in the UK. Even country singers who have scored hit singles here have generally done so with songs that lean some way towards pop. Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas, a new entry at number 38, is more like what we expect American country music to sound like. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is a matter of personal taste.

There are four re-entries in the top forty. Three of them were in the top forty recently, but the other is from 2002. Italian production group Milky reached the top ten that year with Just The Way You Are (not the Billy Joel song or a time warp-enhanced version of the Bruno Mars song). Thanks to a new remix, it returns at number 35.

Billy Eilish’s Wildflower is back at number 32. It peaked at number seven in 2024 and was last in the top forty in March 2025. Tate McRae’s Tit For tat is back at number 39 after leaving the top forty last week. Fred Again, Sammy Virji and Reggie’s Talk Of The Town also dropped out last week. This week it returns at number 40.

When Lily Allen’s West End Girl reached the top five last year, it was tempting to predict that it would climb to number one when physical copies were released as it was scheduled for a week lacking in major releases. However, I reckoned without the enduring popularity of Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving. The album received an additional boost when Dean won the Best New Artist award at last weekend’s Grammys ceremony. That boost sees the album reclaim the top spot, bringing its total time at number one up to six weeks.

The success of West End Girl led to tickets for Lily Allen’s tour selling out very quickly, despite some eye-watering prices. Fresh dates added to the tour, including three nights at the London Palladium, also sold out quickly. She narrowly misses out on being able to say that the tour is promoting a number one album as the physical release helps it to return to the chart at number two, matching its peak position last year.

Liverpool band The Molotovs were formed in 2020 by brother and sister Matthew and Issey Cartlidge. Their debut album Wasted On Youth enters at number three. Maybe they will celebrate with a few cocktails tonight.

On one of the occasions I saw Oasis live, they were supported by The La’s who had re-formed not long before. At the time they were known for There She Does and little else. That song had been a hit in 1990, two years after its original release. Not long after their time supporting Oasis, the band split up for a second time and backing vocalist and guitarist John Power went back to Cast., the band having been formed after The La’s split up for the first time. Thirty-odd years later, Cast supported Oasis on their reunion tour. They are the second Liverpool act to enter the top ten as their eighth studio album Yeah Yeah Yeah lands at number eight.

Texan Don Toliver’s first three albums peaked at steadily lower positions. If that trend had continued, his fourth offering would probably have missed the top forty. However, the trend went into reverse and it reached number 27. The reversal in fortune continues in style this week as he bags his first top ten album with Octane at number four.

Despite the lack of any chart history, in either the singles or albums chart, Reading band Only The Poets managed to sell out a gig at the Brixton Academy recently. They have now broken their chart duck by reaching number nine with their debut album And I’d Do It Again.

Cast are not the only band never regarded as particularly cool to have a new album in the charts this week. They were briefly popular as a result of their psychedelic-sounding singles Tattvah and Govinda, but lost any coolness they had when the best-known thing about the band was the fact that singer Crispin Mills was a member of the Mills acting dynasty rather than any of their songs. A Nepo band before the term was invented.

It, therefore, came as something of a surprise when people started to hear songs from Kula Shaker’s new album and found that they were rather good. As a result, Wormslayer is at number thirteen. It is their highest charting album since their second set Peasants, Pigs And Astronauts reached number nine in 1999.

While Status Quo have enjoyed sustained success over many decades, their singer Francis Rossi’s solo career has been less than stellar. That continues this week as The Accidental enters at number 25. He can at least console himself with the fact that it has performed better than his previous solo efforts.

Michael Jackson’s Number Ones collection was released on vinyl for the first time lsat week, coinciding with a new biopic about him. It returns to the top ten at number seven. Chart rules dictate that streams of a song can only contribute towards “sales” of one compilation album. Therefore, The Essential Michael Jackson drops out of the chart from last week’s number ten position.

Phil Collins also returns to the top forty with a hits collection. A coloured vinyl; edition of The Singles was released last week to mark his 75th birthday. The album is at number 37, its first appearance in the top forty for a little over nine years. Last week he reached a total of 800 weeks in the UK albums chart from 20 albums. He has another 479 weeks as a member of Genesis.

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 fanbase’s musical taste is likely to change as they get older, the latter route makes a great deal of sense. Even so, the contrast between One Direction’s output and Sign Of The Times, Harry Styles solo debut, was something of a surprise.

Harry Styles has continued to explore different musical styles (sorry), and that continues with his new single Aperture. It uses its near six-minute runtime well, gradually building into a really good song. Not surprisingly, it has gone straight to number one, becoming Styles’ third chart-topping single. Sign Of the Times spent just a week at the top while As It Was had a marathon ten-week run. Time will show whether Aperture comes close to one of those extremes, or sits somewhere in the middle. It is the first song with the word Aperture in its title to reach the UK singles chart.

The release of a new Harry Styles single saved us from a completely static top five. Instead, last week’s top four have all fallen one place. Dave and tens’ Raindance falls to number two after a week at the top. Djo’s End Of Beginning is at number three, one place ahead of Raye’s Where Is My Husband. Taylor Swift, once romantically involved with Harry Styles, is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia.

It is twenty years since Arctic Monkeys released Whatever You Say I Am That’s What I’m Not. It received rave reviews and became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, selling over 360,000 copies in its first week. Singer and lead songwriter Alex Turner celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this month, so he has been in the band for over half of his life.

There is currently no news of a new Arctic Monkeys album, but they have released a new single. Opening Night will appear on Help 2, an album to be released on ^ March to raise funds for the War Child charity which works to help children who are affected by war. The first Help album was released in 1995 and featured songs from acts such as Suede, Blur and a band calling themselves Smokin’ Mojo Filters whose members were Paul McCartney, Paul Weller and Noel Gasllagher. The original album was put together so quickly that the CD cover art didn’t have a track listing.

Smokin’ Mojo Filters’ version of the Beatles song Come Together reached the top twenty. Arctic Monkeys have chosen to release an original song and it enters at number sixteen.

Lil Uzi Vert came very close to entering the top forty last week with What You Saying. Instead, it fell just short, leaving us with a grand total of zero new entries. This week, it has climbed into the top forty at number 27.

Louis Tomlinson’s solo career away from One Direction started with two top ten singles, but only one more single has even reached the top forty. He has, however, continued to enjoy success in the albums chart. Faith In The Future (2022) reached number one and he has now done the same with his third solo album, How Did I Get Here. Whether this week’s chart double (the number one single and album being by former members of the same band) is unique, I don’t know. If I had a super-sophisticated database linking people to their former bands, I could find out. Sadly, I don’t have such a database.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving remains at number two. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years Don’t Stop compilation stops at number five.

The delightfully-named Megadeth (guess what their genre is) released their first album in 1985. They had to wait until the release of their sixteenth studio album in 2022 to reach the top three for the first time. They have now matched it with album number seventeen which has also reached number three. They seem to have run out of inspiration for album titles. This one is called Megadeth.

Callum Beattie was born in Scotland in 1989, some four years after Megadeth released their first album. His first two albums topped the Scottish albums chart, but performed less well in the UK as a whole. A;bum number three has done a lot better. Indi is at number four.

Lebanese-born Mika (aka Michael Penniman) made a big impact with his first hit single, Grace Kelly. He had a few more top ten singles but has never matched the success of that song. Hyperlove, a new entry at number fourteen, is his first appearance in the top twenty for over a decade.

New Rose by The Damned is generally regarded as the first single released by a UK punk band. Even with a cover of Help by The Beatles (linking back to War Child) as the b-side it wasn’t a hit, but it does have its place in UK music history. They did go on to have a number of hit singles, including a fabulous version of Barry Ryan’s Eloise. The follow-up to that was a reissue of New Rose but it only reached number 81. The Damned’s last two albums both reached the top ten. Their thirteenth studio album, Not Like Everybody Else, is at number 23.

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 weather, Raindance is threatening to repeat the trick.

Djo’s End Of The Beginning slips to number two after a fortnight at the top. Raye’s search for her husband goes on. She climbs to number three in Where Is My Husband’s sixteenth week in the top ten. Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia is at number four. Bruno Mars climbs to number five with I Just Might.

There is a distinct lack of new entries this week, but there is a re=entry for a particularly brilliant song which is over 45 years old. The Cure released Boys Don’t Cry in 1979, but it wasn’t a hit. They had to wait until the following year for A Forest to see them in the top forty for the first time. In 1986, they released a new recording of Boys Don’t Cry. By this time they had become regular visitors to the singles chart and the remix reached number 22. A video accompanied by the song has become popular on TikTok which means that it is back in the chart at number 39.

The week’s other re-entry is a song that entered the chart last summer. Gunna and Burna Boy went on to spend two weeks at number 22 with Wgft before it fell out of the chart along with almost everything else at the end of the year. It is now back in the top forty at number 30.

The story of Robbie Williams’ solo career has been recounted many times. After leaving Take That he reached number two with his first two solo singles in 1996 and ‘97. The next two singles did less well, suggesting that he might struggle to achieve a successful solo career. Indeed, I was able to get a ticket to see him at the 1,700- capacity Southampton Guildhall just a few days before the date of the gig. By the day  itself, it was not a sell-out.

Everything changed for Robbie Williams when he released Angels as a single in December 1997. While it didn’t get to number one, it became a massive hit, spending twelve weeks in the top ten. The host album, Life Thru A Lens, had only reached number eleven and soon left the chart. The success of Angels gave the album a major boost, sending it into the top ten for the first time and, eventually, to number one in April 1998.

Since Life Thru A Lens, Robbie Williams has notched up a further fourteen number one albums, the most recent of which was the Better Man soundtrack last year. That fifteenth number one album saw him draw level with The Beatles as the artist with the most number one albums. At the time, he made no secret of the fact that he wanted to beat the record.

The first reports of Robbie Williams latest album, Britpop, suggested that it was due for release last autumn. The existence of a Taylor Swift release has been suggested as a reason for its delay, although there was never an official autumn release date. Until last week, the album was expected on 6 February, but Williams sprung a surprise by releasing it last Friday (16 January). He has described the album as the one he would have liked to release as his solo debut, and there are certainly strong mid- to late 1990s indie vibes on many tracks. The album has been written without his regular writing partner Guy Chambers. Instead, Williams has collaborated with a number of writers including his former bandmate Gary Barlow and Gaz Coombes of Supergrass.

There was never any real doubt that Robbie Williams would succeed in his aim of getting a record-breaking sixteenth number one album. There was simply no serious opposition to overcome. The artist best placed to take his record is the aforementioned Taylor Swift who has, so far, had fourteen chart-topping albums.

Singer-songwriter Madison Beer’s first two albums both entered the chart at number 28 before dropping straight back out again, never to return. Her third set, Locket, has already outperformed them by entering at number three. Whether this one gets a second week in the chart remains to be seen.

Nathan Evans remains best-known for his unexpected number one single Wellerman in 2021. He now gets his most successful album with Angels’ Share, a collaboration with Saint Phnx Band, at number four. It is at number one in the Scottish Albums Chart.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving falls to number two after spending the last three weeks at the summit. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop collection is at number five.

As misleading band names go, Sleaford Mods is up (or should it be down) there with the best. They aren’t really a mod band at all. They are at number six with The Demise Of Planet X.

Still on the subject of misleading names, ASAP Rocky doesn’t make rock music, although he has given the writer Official Chart Company’s summary the chance to use their favourite word - multi-hyphenate - again. He is at number eight with Don’t Be Dumb.

Bristolian singer Elles Bailey got to number twelve in 2024 with her seventh album Beneath The Neon Glow. Its predecessor, Shining In The Half Light, was her first album to reach the chart but it fell just short of the top forty. She is now back in the chart with her latest album, Can’t Take My Story Away, at number fourteen.

Following the announcement of a new album and tour, two old Harry Styles albums return to the top forty. The most obvious successor to Robbie Williams as a former boyband member enjoying a hugely successful solo career is at number 32 with Harry’s House and number 37 with Fine Line.

After climbing to the summit last week, Djo gets a second week at number one with End Of Beginning. It is the first song to get a second consecutive week at number one since Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia which topped the chart for four successive weeks last November and December. That song is at number three this week, continuing its annoying habit of finishing the week one place below where it was in the midweek updates.

Dave and Tems move up to number two with Raindance, a song that would sound a lot better if Tems was the sole vocalist. Raye slips to number four with Where Is My Husband. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) stays at number five.

While Bruno Mars had two number two hits in 2024 and ‘25 in collaborations with Lady Gaga and Rose, he hasn’t had a solo hit since That’s What I Like in 2017. That isn’t to say he has been idle; he has had several other hits alongside a variety of artists. That ends this week with the arrival of I Just Might at number six. It is the 24th top forty hit for the man born Peter Hernandez in Hawaii forty years ago. 

One of Bruno Mars’ aforementioned number two hits, Lady Gaga collaboration Die With A Smile returns to the chart at number 28. His 2012 number two hit Locked Out Of Heaven is back at number 36. His 2010 album Doo-Wop and Hooligans re-enters the chart at number 31.

American singer-songwriter Zach Bryan had two top forty hits in 2024, including one that had originally charted the previous year. Now he is back, at number 29, with Plastic Cigarette.There have been a few top forty singles with the word cigarettes in the title, most famously Oasis’s Cigarettes and alcohol but this is the first with just a single gasper in the title.

The Land Of The Midnight Sun is a term usually used for the area within the Arctic Circle which has constant daylight for part of the summer. That means that the release of Zara Larsson’s single Midnight Sun last June made some sense. However, it has taken until now (when people in that part of the world haven’t seen daylight for a while) for it to be a hit. It is a new entry at number 39.

On Saturday 13 December 2003, I was part of the audience for Suede’s final gig before they split up. The 27-song set proved to be an emotional occasion for many of those attending. Elsewhere in London on the same night, Blue played to an audience of adoring fans. The following year, they announced that they were going on hiatus.

Waelier in 2003, Blue had their third number one album in three releases with Guilty. The hiatus for both Suede and Blue lasted for a similar time. Suede re-formed in 2010, initially to play a benefit concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust, but they have stayed together ever since. Blue re-formed the following year in order to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Blue’s first three albums after re-forming performed fairly modestly in the charts. However, their latest set, Reflections, has done rather better. It was at number one in the midweek updates, albeit with a fairly narrow lead. A string of promotional events and the availability of umpteen versions of each physical format made them definite contenders for the top spot at the end of the week. 

In the end, though, they didn’t quite make it. Reflections enters at number two, still their best showing since re-forming. There is still no sign of Blue collaborating with Pink to form Notso Deep Purple.

Blue’s narrow miss means that Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving gets a third consecutive week at number one. The last album to spend three consecutive weeks at the top was Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl in October last year.

As well as getting his third top forty single this week, Zach Bryan also gets a third top forty album. The two earlier releases peaked at numbers sixteen and 22. With Heaven On Top easily outperforms them both by entering at number three.

Indie band The Cribs also get a new albums chart peak, although in their case they have had to wait 25 years to reach the top five for the first time. Selling A Vibe is at number five. It is at number one in the vinyl albums chart.

South London band Dry Cleaning are particularly notable for the fact that vocalist Florence Shaw speaks most of the lyrics rather than singing. Their debut album New Long Leg (not about cricket) deservedly reached the top five in 2021 but, sadly, the next release Stumpwork, also not about cricket, fell just short of the top ten. This week they have fallen just short of the top ten again as Secret Love enters at number twelve.

The Kid Laroi (born with the posher-sounding name Charlton Howard) included the word Love in the title of a mixtape that reached the top forty albums chart. Thankfully, I can quote the title of his latest album, Before I Forget, in full. It enters at number 22.

American rock band Alter Bridge reached the top ten with each of their last five studio albums. That run comes to an abrupt end this week as their latest set, unimaginatively titled Alter Bridge, can only get to number twenty.

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 later), but the highest doesn’t actually appear in the show. Joseph Kerry is an actor in the show but released End Of Beginning under the name Djo as a separate project. The song reached number four last March in a seven-week run in the top ten. It returned to the top ten last week and this week it climbs to a very top to give the 33-year-old his first number one single with a song first released in September 2022.

Taylor Swift, therefore, has another week in the runner-up spot with The Fate Of Ophelia.

Raye’s Where Is My Husband falls to number three after completing a thirteen-week climb to the summit last week. 

Dave and Tems are at number four with Raindance. Two more songs about rain will be along later. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) is down one place to number five. She is also at number six with Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In and at seven with Man I Need.

Thanks to his presence on YouTube and elsewhere James Marriott has two top twenty albums to his name, including a number one with Don’t Tell The Dog last year. He now has his first hit single with California Rain at number 22. 

Apple Music describes Katseye as some sort of cross between K-Pop, the Spice Girls and Pussycat Dolls. That isn’t exactly a description that inspires me but, in the interests of fairness, I have listened to Internet Girl. While I wouldn’t exactly go out of my way to hear it again, I did at least get to the end of the song that is a new entry at number 24. It is the first top forty hit to include the word internet in the title.

Sienna Spiro enters at number 37 with You Stole The Show, following her top ten hit last year with Die On This Hill. It sounds like an attempt at an Amy Winehouse song, with an inferior voice and without the same songwriting talent. A chart showing the progress of Sienna Spiro’s singles is known as a Spirograph.

The highest entry into the chart was last in the top forty in 2016 following the death of Prince. Purple Rain jumped back in at number six, beating its original 1984 peak by two places. Thanks to Stranger Things, it is the second rain-related song to enter this week and it lands at number twelve. It was played in all its nine-minute glory on the Radio 1 Chart Show in 2016, but they omitted it this week.

Every Breath You Take became The Police’s fifth number one single in 1983. I was to be their final chart-topper; indeed, they only had one more top ten single. It entered the lower reaches of the chart after the first batch of the final series of Stranger Things was released in October. Now it crashes back into the top forty at number seventeen.

Fleetwood Mac’s singles chart history is a rather odd one for one of the biggest acts of the last 50-60 years. Albatross is one of their best-known tracks and remains their only number one. However, other well-known songs by them have done rather less well. Go Your Own Way and Don’t Stop both reached the top 40 without advancing into the top 30. Dreams did make the top 30 but Rhiannon din’t even get into the top 40. The Chain was never released as a single but has made the lower reaches of the charts since the addition of streaming. That chart history gets another twist this week with the arrival at number twenty of Landslide from their eponymous album released in 1975. Stranger  Things has helped one of the bands lesser-known songs get to number twenty.

Some good news regarding Stranger Things is still to come but first it’s time for some standard eighties disco dross. Diana Ross made her name in the 1960s as part of The Supremes who had classic hits with songs such as Where Did Our Love Go and Stop In The Name Of Love. The Supremes were then rebranded as Diana Ross and The Supremes before Ross left to pursue a solo career. Her willingness to embrace various musical styles of the day meant that her singles chart career extended into the 1980s. I wasn’t a fan of her collaborations with Chic but they were one of the biggest acts of the day and they gave her a number of hits including Upside Down. The song reached number two in 1980 and it is back in the top forty this week at number 26.

Ten years ago tomorrow (10 January) David Bowie died after being diagnosed with cancer. As he had chosen to keep his condition private, the news came as a huge shock to the music world. In a clear sign that his music lives on, he is back in the top forty this week. Peter Gabriel's excellent version of Bowie’s classic song Heroes was used in earlier series of Stranger Things, but the original version was used over the credits of the final episode which was released last week. Bowie’s version therefore makes a welcome return to the top forty at number 34. It reached number 24 in 1977 before reaching a new peak of number twelve immediately after Bowie’s death. It is back this week at number 34. His Legacy compilation returns to the albums chart at number 30.

The final Stranger Things-related song in the chart is the wonderful Should I Stay Or Should I Go by The Clash. The band emerged in 1977 as part of the punk wave of the period. While much of their later material veered towards reggae in style, Should I Stay Or Should I Go  still owed a lot to their punk roots. The song was first released as part of a double A-side with Straight To Hell in 1982 when it reached number seventeen. The song was reissued in its own right in 1991 after its use in a jeans commercial and it spent two weeks at number one. Now it is a hit for a third time, re-entering the chart at number 40.

The two Stranger Things tracks in last week’s chart both climb. Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now climbs two places to number 27. Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill also climbs two places, to number fourteen.

As mentioned last week, we are now in a very quiet period for new album releases which leaves the way open for older albums to grab a week or two at the top. Last week Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving took advantage and it remains at number one this week, giving it a total of four weeks at the summit.

Sabrina Carpenter is still at number two with Man’s Best Friend. In the week that Fleetwood Mac get their eleventh top twenty hit single, their 50 Years - Don’t Stop collection, released in 2018. reaches a new high of number three. Taylor Swift falls to number four with Life Of A Showgirl. The Weeknd’s Highlights compilation is at number five.

There are no new entries this week.

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 on ACR that experience a substantial increase in streams, relative to the market, can be reset to the standard ratio. However, that would apply to all Christmas songs so the OCC introduced a rule that all songs over three years old were on ACR permanently (with some exceptions which we will come to later). However, this still meant that songs in the chart towards the end of the year were treated unfairly simply because of the dominance of Christmas songs.

The OCC had a number of options to tackle this. Doing nothing would arguably have deterred record companies from releasing singles at a time when they would be adversely affected by the rules, so that was not an attractive option. They could have suspended the ACR rule in December which would have allowed more non-Christmas songs to remain in the chart in that month. They chose an alternative approach, resetting all songs that went on to ACR in December to the standard ratio in January. That seemed like a reasonable compromise. Applying the normal rules (only resetting songs that had significantly outperformed the market) would have meant that very few songs would be reset. Again, that would have deterred record companies from releasing songs for several weeks in the autumn.

That long ramble explains why many songs that dropped out of the chart in December have returned to the top forty while songs that dropped out before then remain outside.

Raye’s Where Is My Husband had dropped out of the top forty, to number 48  last week when the number of Christmas songs peaked. This week she rebounds all the way to number one to grab her second chart-topping single after Escapism almost exactly three years ago.

The chart published immediately after Christmas did, as ever, include a handful of non-Christmas songs. Among them was Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia which just about clung on at number 40. This week it climbs all the way back to number two.

Taylor Swift almost set a record that can never be broken by getting the biggest rise within the top forty. However, there is still an opportunity to climb from the bottom position to the top. Maybe after next Christmas In 2011 Adele’s Someone Like You climbed back up to number one from number 47 after a stunning performance at the Brit Awards ceremony, a climb now beaten by Raye. Other songs have climbed from a lower position, but generally because copies were sold before the official release date.

Dave and Tems climb to number three with Raindance. 

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean are at number five with Rein Me In. The song first entered the top ten in July 2025. Since then it has remained in the top forty, one of the few survivors of the Christmas onslaught. However, it has spent most of that time outside the top ten. This week is the seventh time the song has entered the top ten, a record for a song in a single chart run. Thanks to Jimwatts at Buzzjack for that information. Dean is on her own at number four with So Easy (To Fall In Love).

As well as all the re-entries there are four new entries. Two of them are songs that were performing relatively strongly in December. For the last two weeks they have been two of the highest placed non-Christmas songs which hadn’t yet made the top forty. The first comes from South African singer-songwriter Tyla whose choice of song title, Chanel, may - or may not - be a desperate plea for some freebies. If so, she has raised her sights since her debut hit Water in 2023. Chanel is a new entry at number fifteen.

Kato’s Turn The Lights Off came very close to being a new entry in the Christmas chart before falling back last week. This week, it climbs into the top forty at number 33. It marks a top forty debut for the Danish producer and for Jon, whoever he is. The song was originally released in 2010 when it failed to chart.

While the concept of choosing a new track as a single from an already-released album is somewhat outdated in the streaming era, it can still do enough to promote a song sufficiently to get it into the chart. Such is the case with Sabrina Carpenter’s Such A Funny Way  from her Man’s Best Friend album. This week it enters the chart for the first time at number 37. It is still behind her former number one Manchild which re-enters at number 36.

After having a number two hit in 2022 with Boy’s A Liar, Pinkpantheress has struggled to achieve consistent success. She had two top forty hits last year, but neither of them advanced into the top twenty. She is now having another go with Stateside which is a new entry at number 40.

Among the notable re-entries is Alex Warren’s Ordinary at number thirteen. It spent thirteen weeks at number one last year and was named as the biggest song of the year last week. It had a record run of 39 weeks in the top twenty before being forced out by festive songs. Because it went on to ACR many months before December, its streams are still being counted at the harsher conversion rate.

Sonny Fodera, DOD and Poppy Baskcomb reached number 30 in November with Think About Us. Now that most of the Christmas songs are gone, it is back at number 24. EsDeeKid’s 4 Raws also hits a new peak by re-entering at number 23. The rather ludicrous rumours that the Liverpudlian rapper was actually American actor Timothee Chalamet should have been consigned to the bin this week with their apparent joint appearance to perform together.

While debate continues over whether AI-generated songs should be allowed to qualify for the chart Haven and Kaitlin Aragon’s I Run enters the top ten for the first time at number ten.

Four of the Christmas songs in last week’s chart have survived for another week. The highest placed is Wham’s last Christmas which topped the chart again last week. It is now down to number 21.

And so to the exception to the three-year rule. While this was largely done to downplay the impact of Christmas songs (that worked well, didn’t it?), it could be seen as unfair to songs that saw an increase in streams for other reasons. The most glaring example, and the one that led the OCC to change their rules, was Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. The increase in streams for the song after it was used in Netflix drama Stranger Things would have been enough to see it go to number one in 2022. This was so obviously absurd that the OCC changed the rules so that older songs could be reset in certain circumstances. As a result, the song deservedly topped the chart the following week. The same rule change has allowed a reset for Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now. The song spent three wells at number one in 1988. Almost four decades on, it is at number 29.

Running Up That Hill returned to the chart last year when the final season of Stranger Things (or, rather, the first batch thereof) was released. It is back at number sixteen. I’ve never seen Stranger Things, but anything that gets Kate Bush back in the chart has at least something going for it.

The turn of the year has always been a quiet period for album releases, and this year is no exception. The release schedule for the rest of the month is fairly thin. This means that new entries will be very limited for the next few weeks, and that the chart will often be topped by an album from last year.

The first beneficiary is Olivia Dean, one of the biggest stars of 2025. At the beginning of the year, she had one hit single to her name, dating from 2021. She had a top five album in 2023 but it had no long-term impact on the chart. By the end of 2025, she had notched up a further four top forty singles, all of them reaching the top ten. One of them, Man I Need spent a week at number one. Therefore, by the time she released her second album, The Art Of Loving, in September expectations were high. It duly went to number one and spent the rest of the year in the top five, including a further week at the top in December. It is now back for a third week at the summit.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number two. Taylor Swift is still at number three with The Life Of A Showgirl. The top five is completed by two hits collections, from Fleetwood Mac at number four and The Weeknd at five.

Michael Buble’s Christmas album is still in the top forty, at number 29.

Over the festive period, Channel 5 showed a programme attempting to compare Abba and Queen. The concept was rather odd and the choice of criteria totally arbitrary, but it was still an entertaining programme. This week Abba Gold climbs to number twelve and Queen’s Greatest Hits is up to number 30.

The race for the Christmsa number one this year was complicated by the way streaming platforms report their figures. The updates on Monday and Wednesday both showed Kylie Minogue’s Xmas with a clear lead over Wham’s Last Christmas. However, it wasn’t as simple as that.

The sales for Kylie Minogue’s single were from a combination of multiple physical formats and streams. However, those streams came from one platform only, and it just happened to be the only one which seems to have worked out how to report its figures in a timely manner. Therefore, all of the streams for Xmas were included, but only some of those for Last Christmas. In the final chart, Thursday’s streams for most platforms are estimated based on streams over the previous six days. This means that Last Christmas would benefit from a boost which might be enough to keep it at the top of the chart.

In the end, Kylie Minogue held off Wham’s challenge to get her eight number one single, a full 22 years after her seventh (Slow) and nearly 38 years after her first (I Should Be So Lucky). It is also her first Christmas number one and she is the first female artist to have a number one single in each of four decades. Cliff Richard is the only artist to have had number one singles in five different decades.

Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You (with the last two words being stretched to approximately 27 syllables) is at number three. Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree stays at number four. The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl (who died 25 years ago this week) are at number six with the ever-brilliant Fairytale Of New York.

A reference to the length of the credit for I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday has become an annual event in my commentaries. This week Nai Barghouti, Leigh-Anne, Neneh Cherry & Together For Palestine feat. Amena, Bastille, Brian Eno, Celeste, Kieran Brunt, Lana Lubany, London Community Gospel Choir, Mabel, Nadine Shah, Sura Abdo, TYSON, Yasmeen Ayyashi & Ysee outdo Wizzard and co by a long way with Lullaby.

Lullaby is based on a Palestinian song with some additional English-language parts written by Peter Gabriel who has been working with musicians from around the world for decades. It has been released to highlight the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza and to raise funds for charities working in the area. It enters at number five.

Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody is the highest festive re-entry at number 36. Leona Lewis’s One More Sleep is back at number 38.

In 1973 Pink Floyd released Dark Side Of The Moon. While it didn’t quite make it to number one (thanks to the inclusion of compilation albums in the chart), it was a huge hit and made the band one of the biggest acts of the time. Their problem, as with any act that has a massively successful album, was how to follow it up. For a band that had stopped releasing singles, thereby missing out on some of the pre-release promotion that most albums by major acts enjoy, they made their task even more difficult. 

Two years after Pink Floyd released Dark Side Of The Moon, they delivered Wish You Were Here, an album every bit as good as its predecessor. It entered at number three before climbing to the top the following week. To mark its half-century, a new deluxe edition has been released. It includes demos (including instrumental versions), a version of the title track featuring jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, a 1975 live concert and other extras. Deluxe editions of Dark Side Of The Moon have failed to put right a historic wrong by topping the chart, but the Wish You Were Here release has returned the band to number one. They top the chart at Christmas for the first time since Another Brick In The Wall (Part II) was the Christmas number one single in 1979.

The number of brand new albums entering the chart this week is a big fat zero. This is nothing new for the Christmas chart. Even in the days when physical copies were either the only way of listening to an album or the dominant method, there were very few major releases in December. There are, however, some other reissues and compilations as well as Wish You Were Here.

Wish You Were Here is Pink Floyd’s second number one album of 2025, following a live album earlier in the year. The 50-year gap between the album’s first run at the top and the latest is a new record, beating the previous one set by The Beatles’ Abbey Road.

Olivi Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number two. Taylor Swift is at number three with The Life Of A Showgirl. Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number five.

Last week, I posed the question of whether Kylie Minogue's Christmas album might prevent Michael Buble’s festive collection topping the chart once again. I got it wrong in two ways. Minogue’s album has tumbled to number 29 while Buble is at number four. 

The year 2025 has been the one that finally saw Oasis reunite for a series of live gigs. As well as the proceeds from the tour, the band has benefitted from an increase in sales of their albums. Someone at their record company seems to have decided that this would be a good time to exploit the increase in interest by releasing another anniversary edition. This time, it is not a reissue of a studio album, but a new edition of the (What’s The Story) Morning Glory Singles Collection. The original version contained the singles from the band’s second album along with b-sides and a live recording of Live Forever. This new edition also includes some demos and live recordings from the mid-1990s. The original version got to number 24. The reissue, released only as a 7” vinyl box-set, is one place higher. The original album re-enters the top ten at number ten.

Oasis have stated that they will not be performing any live shows next year. They have not yet said whether they will do any in 2027. There is no Glastonbury Festival next year. It will return in 2027. Whether those facts are related remains to be seen.

As in previous years, there will be no Suedehead Chart Commentary next week. The next commentary will be posted on Friday 2 January when there will be a flood of re-entries to replace the Christmas songs.

Happy Christmas 

Nadolig Llawen

Feliĉan Kristnaskon

Joyeux Noel 

Fröhe Weinachten

Hyvää Joulua 

Häid Jõule 

Nollaig Shona 

Su Kalėdomis 

Feliz Navidad

Vesel Božič

Весела Коледа

Crăciun fericit

Καλή Χριστούγεννα

Счастливые Рождество

Linksmų Kalėdų

Wesołych Świąt

Boldog Karácsonyt

Vrolijk Kerstfeest

Nadelik Lowen

щасливого Різдва

عيد ميلاد مجيد

聖誕快樂

One of the consequences of the singles chart being dominated by streams, specifically songs from playlists, is that the same songs dominate the chart every December. One of those songs is, of course, Wham’s Last Christmas which climbs to number one for the fifth time this week. Its first two runs at the top lasted for just one week but it has spent rather longer there for the last two years. Thus, this is its tenth week at the top in total. For many years, Last Christmas was the UK’s best-selling single not to have reached number one, having been beaten by Do They Know It’s Christmas in 1984. Now it is threatening the granddaddy of all chart records - the total of eighteen weeks at number one accumulated by Frankie Laine’s I Believe way back in 1953. At its current rate it could surpass that total next year or in 2027.

The first old Christmas song to top the chart thanks to streams was Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Like Last Christmas, it didn’t top the chart first time round. In 1994 it was beaten by East 17’s Stay Another Day. It finally got to the top in 2020, just a few weeks before Last Christmas made it. It returned to number one two years later. This week it climbs to number three.

One of the clearest beneficiaries of the American dominance of streaming playlists is Brenda Lee's Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree. It reached number six in 1962. After downloads was included in the chart it spent time in the very lower reaches of the chart as British buyers continued largely to ignore it. It didn’t reach the top forty until 2017 (three years after streams were first included), but has now become a regular visitor to the top ten. It climbs to number four this week, matching its peak reached in 2022 and ‘24. Oh, and a belated Happy Birthday to Brenda Lee who was 81 on Thursday (11 December).

Kelly Clarkson’s Underneath The Tree, which only reached number 30 when it was released in 2013, climbs to number five, a new peak. The one non-Christmas song in the top five is Raye’s Where Is My Husband at number two.

A combination of the dominance of Christmas songs and the fact that it has gone on to the Accelerated Chart  Ratio (ACR), whereby the value of its streams are halved, sees Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia slump from the top of the chart to number seventeen. It is worth noting that the Christmas songs are also subject to ACR.

There is a new Christmas song amidst all the oldies, albeit just sneaking in at number 40. Gwen Stefani gets her first top forty hit since summer 2007 with Shake The Snow Globe. 

This is the week when I go to a commentary from last year so that I can copy and paste the credits for a particular Christmas song. Yes, Wizzard featuring Vocal backing By The Suedettes Plus The Stockland Green Bilateral School Choir With Additional Noises By Miss Snob And Class 3C with their 1973 offering I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day is a re-entry at number 32.

Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree may be over 60 years old, but at least it is possible to understand people of all ages enjoying listening to it. It is rather harder to believe that significant numbers of people are actively selecting some of the other songs that enter the chart every year. Included in this week’s batch of re-entries are Dean Martin’s Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It  Snow at number 22 and Nat ‘King’ Cole’s version of The Christmas Song at 39.

Kylie Minogue released her seasonal Kylie Christmas album in 2012. It peaked at number twelve. Now, on its tenth anniversary, there is a new version available. Special CD and vinyl versions are not released until today (Friday), but it has been streamed in enough numbers for it to enter at number one. Could this be the album that keeps Michael Buble off the top in the Christmas chart, at least for one year? This week that album is at number five. Kylie Christmas is her eleventh number one album, 27 years after her first.

Sam Fender’s People Watching re-entered the top forty last week, on the day that a new deluxe version was released. That new version helps the album to climb to number three.

Olivia Dean is at number two with The Art Of Loving. Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl is at number four.

There are no fewer than three live albums entering the chart this week, all of them recorded relatively recently. The most recent is also the highest-placed. After a highly successful 2023, Olivia Rodrigo was chosen as one of the headliners for this year’s Glastonbury Festival. She delivered a highly-praised set which is now available as an album. It enters this week at number twelve.

In 1993 Depeche Mode released Songs Of Faith And Devotion Live, a live version of their chart-topping Songs Of Faith And Devotion which had been released earlier that year. Now they have done the same with their Memento Mori album, released in 22023 when it reached number two. Memento Mori - Mexico City is at number 22.

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ live album is also based on a recent studio album. Wild God reached the top five last year. Live God is at number 33.

Rotherham band The Reytons are at number 27 with Roll The Dice. Their last three albums all entered the top five with What’s Rock ‘n’ Roll going to number one in 2023.

Radiohead’s European tour is currently underway. Their classic OK Computer album is back in the chart at number 40. It spent two weeks at number one when it was released in 1997 and spent its first fifteen weeks in the top ten.

Taylor Swift spends a fourth consecutive week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. It has now spent a total of seven weeks at the summit, making it Swift’s longest-running chart-topping single.

Raye remains at number two with Where Is My Husband. A clear sign that Taylor Swift may well be in her last week at the top (at least until next year) is that Wham’s Last Christmas is at number three with Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You at five. Brenda Lee is at number six with Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.

With the release of the first part of the final series of Stranger Things, some people have clearly gone back to watch the previous series. That, in turn, has led them to start streaming Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill again. That excellent judgement sees the song back in the chart at number 37.

Still on the subject of Stranger Things, Djo - who, apparently is in it - has a re-entry at number 34 with End Of Beginning. It reached number four last year.

Those two songs are, of course, not the only re-entries this week. Yes, there is a whole bunch of Christmas songs returning to the chart as well. One of the consequences of the Christmas takeover is that Alex Warren’s Ordinary has dropped out of the top twenty for the first time after 42 weeks.

Before we get to those re-entries, there is actually one brand new entry. As usual, one of the streaming sites has a song that is only available on their site. This year it is Xmas by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. Isn’t it great to see new artists being given a boost? Well, it would be if that happened. As it is, Minogue gets her 54th top forty hit with a new entry at number 24. Last week’s Christmas exclusive, Laufey’s version of Winter Wonderland re-enters at number eighteen, gaining a new peak now that it is available more widely.

Here we go then. I shall simply list this week’s festive re-entries.

Step Into Christmas - Elton John, number twenty.

Do They Know It’s Christmas - Band Aid, 22.

Andy Williams - It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, 23.

Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney, 25.

Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes, 28.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Michael Buble, 29.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love, 31.

Snowman - Sia, 32.

Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano, 33.

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir, 34.

Mistletoe - Justin Bieber, 36.

Holly Jolly Christmas - Michael Buble, 38.

Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea, 40.

Over half of the top forty is now made up of Christmas songs.

As the albums market enters a quiet period with very few new releases, Olivia Dean returns to number one with The Art Of Loving.

Taylor Swift is at number two with The Life Of A Showgirl. Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number three and Tate McRae is at five with So Close To What. The album preventing another all female top five is Michael Buble’s perennial; Christmas album at number four.

Since the release of her last full studio album in 2014, Jessie J has had a very traumatic time. She has suffered a miscarriage, been diagnosed with a disease affecting her hearing, and been treated for breast cancer. On a much happier note, she has also given birth to her first child. All these events have influenced the lyrics of her fourth album Don’t Tease Me With A Good Time. Her previous studio albums all reached the top five - a Christmas album in 2018 failed to reach the chart at all. This one is a new entry at number nineteen.

As far as new entries go, that’s it for this week. We can expect a similar pattern until the new year. There are, however, some re-entries. Teddy Swims is at number 25 with I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy - The Complete Edition. It reached number thirteen in the summer. Chappell Roan is back at number 29 with The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess. Sam Fender’s People Watching returned at number 34 while Fontaines DC’s brilliant 2024 album Romance is at 37.

Next Friday (12 December) is the day of my departmental Christmas meal. Therefore, next week’s commentary may be delayed until Saturday. Alternatively, I could just repost my commentary from the same week last year and see whether anyone notices!

Taylor Swift gets a sixth week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. Swift has now spent a total of sixteen weeks at the top of the singles chart. Combined with her 36 weeks atop the albums chart, she has now accumulated a combined total of 52 weeks (one year) at number one in the two main UK charts. Only ten artists have spent more weeks at number one. Of those ten, only two - The Beatles and Elvis Presley - have spent at least a year at the top of each chart. When Ed Sheeran spends another week at number one in the albums chart, he will become the third act to top both charts for a year. Thanks to Colin (a Buzzjack and Haven member) for that information.

Raye’s Where Is My Husband is still at number two. Her best hope of getting to number one may now come in the New Year when all the Christmas songs drop out. Two Olivia Dean songs each climb one place. So Easy (To Fall In Love) is at number three and Man I Need is at four. She is also at number five alongside Sam Fender with Rein Me In. As she is credited second on Rein Me In, it doesn’t count towards her limit of three songs. As a result, Let Alone The One You Love is allowed to enter at number 21.

Korean band Stray Kids get their third top forty hit with Do It at number 35. Neither of their two previous top forty hits has advanced further than number 30. This unlikely to outdo that any time this year, if ever.

The background to Haven’s I Run was chronicled here a few weeks ago. It looked set to be a high new entry, but was excluded from the final chart. The issues which caused it to be disqualified have now been resolved and, with an additional credit for Kaitlin Aragon, it is at number 37. 

Time for another film spot. This week we have three new entries from the soundtrack to the latest Wicked film, all of them with Cynthia Erivo as the lead artist. For Good, which includes Ariana Grande, is at number fourteen, three places ahead of No Good Deed on which Erivo is the sole credited artist. She is joined on As Long As You’re Mine by Jonathan Bailey, not previously known for his singing talents.

Tate McRae has two new entries to join Tit For tat which falls to number nineteen. Nobody’s Girl is at number sixteen and Anything But Love is at 25.

It may still be November, but we already have the second “festive update” of the year. Wham’s Last Christmas is at number nine  while Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You is at number thirteen.

Then, of course, there is a batch of re-entries. Once again, they show the influence of American-curated streaming playlists on what many people listen to. Kelly Clarkson’s Underneath The Tree is at number 24, one place behind Brenda Lee's Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree which entered the top forty last week. Ariana Grande is at number 28 with her version of Santa Tell Me. Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms is at number34.

Some British and Irish Christmas songs have also made it. The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl are at number 33 with the ever-brilliant Fairytaler Of New York. Shakin’ Stevens rather less good merry Christmas Everyone is at number 40. Oh, and Michale Buble’s Christmasis at number 24 in the albums chart.

Rock band Aerosmith made their UK chart debut in 1986 when their Walk This Way, a collaboration with Run DMC made the top ten. They entered the albums chart for the first time the following year. They have had fourteen top forty albums, but none of them have gone all the way to the top.

Yungblud wasn’t even born until 1997 when he was given the name Dominic Harrison. He made his chart debut in 2019 when The Underrated Youth reached the top ten in the albums chart. He had his first top forty single the following year with Obey, a collaboration with Bring Me The Horizon. The next three albums all topped the chart, including Idols earlier this year.

That history makes a collaboration between Aerosmith and Yungblud seem a relatively logical development. It has happened and the result, One More Time, is at number one.

In interviews he has given to promote his latest album, Olly Murs has lamented that his background as a former talent show contestant means that he hasn’t been taken seriously by the music industry. There may be some element of truth in that, but singers such as Harry Styles have thrived following their talent show career. Perhaps Murs has found it more difficult to get out of that shadow because his television success came after several years trying to make a breakthrough. Knees Up is Murs’ eighth album and it enters at number five.

Two Greatest Hits sets enter the top ten. Madness made their chart debut in 1979 and had a string of hits in the 1980s. They have released a number of compilations, two of which topped the chart. Their only studio album to reach number one was Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie just two years ago. The latest compilation, Hit Parade, is at number eight.

James were formed in Manchester in 1982 but didn’t achieve any significant chart success until 1990. They went on to become one of the most successful bands of the 1990s. They too have released a number of compilations with the most recent (apart from a collection of their earlier recordings) being Fresh As A Daisy in 2007. The new release, Nothing But Love - The Definitive Best Of is at number six.

Two more of the biggest bands of the 1990s were The Stone Roses, another Manchester band, and Primal Scream. Much of the Stone Roses’ success was down to the distinctive bass lines played by Gary Mounfield, known as Mani, who died last week. He joined Primal Scream after The Stone Roses split up. The Stone Roses’ debut album was not an instant success. It didn’t enter the chart at all until two months after its release in June 1994 and that was at a rather unimpressive number 82. It reached the top forty for a single week three years after its release but didn’t reach the top ten until its twentieth anniversary. Nevertheless, it is widely regarded as one of the best debut albums of all-time. Unsurprisingly, it is back in the chart at number 25 this week. The Stone Roses only released two studio albums, but there have been six compilations. One of those, The Very Best of The Stone Roses is at number 37.

In 1995, ITV showed Anthology, a documentary series about The Beatles. It featured interviews with all three surviving band members (John Lennon had been assassinated fifteen years earlier) who acknowledged that the series should perhaps have been made earlier. However, they had spent far too long suing each other. Three albums were released to accompany the series and they each reached the top five. Now, the series is being reshown on a streaming service with an additional episode and an additional album. Anthology 4 is at number nine with The Anthology Collection (all four albums) twenty places lower.The albums include recordings of Lennon and McCartney’s first band The Quarrymen, remastered recordings, BBC sessions and a whole lot more.

British DJ and producer Sub Focus gets his first top ten album with Contact at number ten.

There was another close battle at the top of the singles chart. In Wednesday's update Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia had a lead of under 300 over Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. This week they were joined by Raye’s Where Is My Husband. That was a few thousand behind, but the song had a physical release this week. It was unclear how many of those physical sales had been included in the update.

By Friday, the top three were in the same order as on Wednesday. Therefore, Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia gets a fifth non-consecutive week at number one. If it holds on next week it will equal Anti-Hero as her longest-running chart-topper.

Golden spends another week at number two while Raye is still searching for her husband at number three.

Olivia Dean still has two songs in the top five, but they have swapped places. So Easy (To Fall In Love) is now at number four with Man I Need one place below.

As well as the KPop Demon Hunters, we now have a second set of songs by an animated band, albeit only one of them in the top forty. Hazbin Hotel is an animated comedy musical show aimed at an adult audience, it says here. The first series didn’t provide any top forty entries but this week we have one from the second series. Just like the KPop stuff, these songs come with a long credit, albeit shorter than the upcoming cast list on Wizzard’s perennial hit. The cheerful Love In A Bottle, by Keith David, Lilli Cooper, Kimiko Glenn, Krystina Alabado, Sam Haft & Andrew Underberg is at number 29.

In the week that news came that there is to be a film based around Charli XCX’s Brat album, Ms XCX herself has a new entry with Chains Of Love at number 26, comfortably one of her best chart hits. It is the second top forty hit with that title following one by Erasure in 1988. Other charting chains include Diana Ross’s Chain Reaction and Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue) by W.A.S.P.

That leads, rather unfortunately, to the title of Lewis Capaldi’s fourteenth top forty hit, The Day That I Die. Sorry. His previous single, Almost, didn’t quite make the top forty. This one is at number 27.

I’ve been delaying it for as long as possible, but the time has now come to announce that the same old Christmas songs have started to enter the top forty. Leading the way, as for the last few years are Mariah Carey and Wham. Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You is at number 22. It now has notched up 102 weeks in the top forty, so will reach the two-year mark at the beginning of December. Wham’s Last Christmas, back at number nineteen, has been in the top forty for 90 weeks. That is on target to get to 100 weeks in December next year.

There is one more festive song to mention. Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree is at number 38. At 80 (she will be 81 next month), Lee is the oldest person in this week’s chart.

Here in Brighton on Wednesday we had a little over 5 seconds of winter when it snowed briefly. That coincided with the first week on sale for Australian band 5 Seconds Of Summer’s sixth studio album Everyone’s A Star! Their first three albums all reached number one but the next two fell just short, both peaking at number two. Their new album gives them a fourth number one.

The summer theme continues at number thirteen in the shape of Summer Walker’s Finally Over It. It follows Over It and Still Over It. Maybe the next one will be called Really, Really Over It, Honestly.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number two. Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl falls two places to number three.

The enduring popularity of D Block Europe continues to baffle many people. Their new album PTSD 2 is at number four. Readers can make their own jokes about the appropriateness of the title.

Time for a second mention of Brighton this week. Celeste spent her childhood in a village on the outskirts of the city and was educated at a school where I used to work. She is at number twelve with Woman Of Faces.

When a company launches a new brand with the intention of selling it worldwide, they generally go to great lengths to avoid a name that might cause difficulties in certain countries. Nathan Feuerstein clearly didn’t do his homework before dividing to use his initials as his stage name. He is at number fourteen with Fear.

That leads me nicely into the next new entry as the excellent There Goes The Fear, one of the highlights of their live shows, is one of the tracks on a new Doves compilation, So Here We Are: Best Of Doves. I still find it puzzling that Greatest Hits sets are still a thing, but they are so here we are. It is at number seventeen.

There are two anniversary editions in this week’s new entries. Songs From The Big Chair was Tears For Fears’ second album, released in February 1985. Several months late, there is now a fortieth anniversary edition. The album, which includes Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World, originally reached number two. The reissue is at number twenty.

The Rolling Stones reissue is several months early. Black And Blue, the band’s thirteenth studio album, was released in April 1976 but the fiftieth anniversary edition is here already. Like Songs From The Big Chair, this album also peaked at number two. The new edition is at number 40.