Another record-breaking Rein Me In singles week, and also for Madonna on albums

Another Record-Breaking Rein Me In singles week, and also for Madonna on albums.

Suedey is in France this week, braving the hot weather with boisterous yung-'uns, so I think I have the easier job this week doing the chart commentary. Have fun Simon!!

Back in the days of purchased-based charts, the notion that a record could be on top of the charts after well over 12 months in the top 20 would have stretched credulity. That it could have equalled Bryan Adam's 16 week-run on top would have sounded insane - and at least that Robin Hood movie soundtrack had a reason for boosting Everything I Do (I Do It For You) over a 4-month stretch, and it then had the good taste to slowly depart never to darken the chart doors again, as opposed to keep coming back for more chart-topping month after month. Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's pleasant ballad, though, clearly has its eye on the 18-week all-time record of Frankie Laine's I Believe. Given the ongoing lack of ACR-status, that could well happen by the end of the month, barring any big new artist releases over the summer.

In the top 5, Michael Jackson's 1983 classic Billie-Jean drops to 4, Ariana Grande's hate that i made you love me is back up to 3. The most-exciting development is Choosin' Texas going top 5 at long last for Ella Langley, presumably due to the endless runs on top in the USA and returning holidaymakers streaming that great track they heard on rotation radio over there, climbing to number 5. Olivia Rodrigo's stupid song holds at 2 meanwhile, in runner-up - hey don't blame me if that sounds rude, I always insist on Capital letters for song titles in my charts! Just outside the top 10, the infectious Talk To You bops up to a new peak of 14 for ANOTR featuring 54 Ultra, making 2 Ultra's in the top 40 for an Ultra Ultra Top 40. 

Other items of interest in the singles chart are manifold this week. Everything is relative, though: Prospa & Cloonee take Free Your Mind to cling on to their number 10 peak. Always enjoyed George's Aunt Rosemary's records, so nice to see Mr. Cloonee follow her into the charts. Would I lie to you? Sound of people rushing to AI to check accuracy - just remember AI tells lies and I recently battled it into submission over a track by The Fireman on a free-with-newspaper CD from the Noughties! It's not a Paul McCartney/Youth dance obscurity after all, but AI denied its' existence entirely.

Meanwhile, another chart movie-related-song (and despite her new album) sees Sienna Spiro drop one place to 15 with Material Lover. Sienna's new entry Great Expectation, though, is doing well due to the new album (see below), at 32 to grab her 5th top 40 song in under two years, while Die On This Hill returns at 19. Oh, and sombr goes up one place to 26 with My Body Isn't Ready, but his records have a tendancy to oscillate a bit, chart-wise. 

Football football football, yes I've ignored it all and all of the highs and lows. Not so for many others though, as Shakira gets her highest-placed chart hit since her last footie theme, Dai Dai, with added Burna Boy, shaking those hips at 13 as Oasis' Wonderwall just refuses to stay out of the charts on yet another top 20 placing thanks to England success, up to 11. I think it's time Back Home re-charted instead of Three Lions (up to 21 ahead of a match with Norway, apparently) and assorted others.

HUGEL, Imael Angel and Ultra Nate, meanwhile get a deserved climb to 22 with the rather fab Movin' To The Sun afrobeats-ish dance track. DJ/producer HUGEL has had some good singles over the last few years, none of them hits, but Ultra Nate is now on her 7th top 40 hit since first charting in 1989 and last cropping up in 2005, notably on her wonderful 90's smash Free. This new track reminds of a snippet from Nomad's 1990 hit I Wanna Give You Devotion.

Finally, you thought you'd seen the last of that obscure-at-the-time-in-the-UK 80's song from Journey, but you hadn't counted on a re-set to SCR for Don't Stop Believin', reasons I know not, but it may well be part of the general nostalgia for the Noughties, or Glee. Either Way, it's back after pottering around the tail-end of the chart for 3 years, in at number 27. I haven't stopped believin' - it'll be popping in and out of the UK charts for the next 50 years, that is. Something to look forward to for those not of advanced years, then. If I'm still sighing on future chart re-entries in 2076 I will also be in the Guinness Book Of Records as the World's Oldest Man and Chart-Watcher. Those of you in your 70's and 80's can take me clubbing to celebrate.

Madonna has a new album, Confessions II turning out to be her best since Confessions On A Dance Floor over 20 years ago, and the last tour I caught her on (Cardiff, she was fab), back at last doing what she has always done best - dance/pop music. Her collab with Sabrina Carpenter Bring Your Love was her 73rd top 40 hit a few weeks ago, while arguably the best track on the album, Danceteria, must be a single proper too as it sneaks into this week's top 40 at 38 which is not bad for someone about to turn 68 and with 5 different decades of straight charting. The album comfortably hovers near 40k sales to become her first number one since 2012 and 13th in total, including the Evita Soundtrack, putting her on a par with Elvis Presley's 13. Ahead of her are Taylor Swift and The Rolling Stones with 14, The Beatles on 15 and Robbie Williams on 16.

That means Sienna Spiro enters at 2 with her debut album Visitor: the English Singer/Songwriter was born in 2005. She basically has no memory of the Noughties and debuted mere weeks ahead of Madonna's first Confessions album. If that doesn't make you feel old try saying it again a couple of times! Unless you are under 25, of course. Olivia Rodrigo drops to 3 with you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, Michael Jackson is still Essential at 4, Olivia Dean's The Art Of Loving is at 5 and Deep Purple go Splat! at 12. That's just missing out on a 12th top 10 album for a band that have been incredibly charting 24 studio albums for 58 years, near enough. I was a boy of 13 when I first noticed them on their manic hit Fireball. Yes, they and lead singer Ian Gillan are THAT old!

The Shires have been fairly consistent over the last decade or so, and the British duo just fall short of a 6th top 10 placing with their brand of Country Music, new at 28 while mary in the junkyard go all lower case for new album Role Model Hermit. The London band have previously released EP's and toured extensively, but this is their debut album. New in at 30.