Olivia Dean battles against herself for the number one single, and against Charli XCX in the albums chart.

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.