Rein Me In is number one for a seventeenth week, one week behind the all-time record set over 70 years ago. The Rolling Stones have a fifteenth number one album.

At the beginning of the chart week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean looked all set for a seventeenth week at number one with Rein Me In, putting them just one week behind the all-time record. However, that changed in the early hours of Sunday morning when England reached the World Cup semi-final. As a result, various football-related songs got a hefty boost. Even by the time of Monday;s update (which uses incomplete streaming data for Sunday), three of those songs were in the top five.

It was a slight surprise to see Rein Me In comfortably ahead in Wednesday’s update. Later on Wednesday, England lost the semi-final against Argentina. This meant that streams of the football-=related songs will have taken a tumble.However, as most of Thursday’s streaming figures are estimated (because only one major streaming provider seems to have worked out how to report streams on time), that drop-off may not have been reflected in the estimate.

This all means that Rein Me In is at number one yet again. With seventeen weeks at the top, it is now the second longest-running number one in UK singles chart history. It is just one week behind Frankie Laine’s I Believe which set the record in 1953, less than a year after the first UK singles chart was published.

What, then, of the football-related songs. The word “related” is important here, as  the highest placed one is not actually a football song. At this World Cup, England fans have finally joined the rest of the world in getting fed-up with Sweet Carolin and have decided that a song by an English act might be more appropriate. They have started singing Wonderwall, by the football-loving Gallagher brothers and the rest of Oasis. It climbs to number two, matching its peak from 1995.

Three Lions, by The Lightning Seeds with help from David Baddiel and Frank Skinner is at number three. This is the eighth year in which the song has been in the top ten. 

The official song of the 2026 World Cup, Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy, climbs eight places to number five. It is Shakira’s first top ten hit since She Wolf in 2009.Shakira also recorded the official song for the 2010 World Cup, held in South Africa. Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) is back at number 26.There are still some people not fed-up with Sweet Caroline, enough of them to see it back at number 35.

One of the best performers for England was Jude Bellingham. As a result The Beatles' Hey Jude, written by Paul McCartney to comfort John Lennon’s young son Julian, is back at number 24. It spent two weeks at number one in 1968. Vindaloo by Fat Les (including Lily Allen’s father Keith) returns at number twenty. It reached number two in 1998.

ANOTR and 54 Ultra climb to number four with Talk To You.

Olivia Rodrigo has a new entry at number 30 with Honeybee. In the 1930s, diminutive comic Arthur Askey recorded The Bee Song whose chorus went “Bzz bzz bzz bzz honeybee honeybee / Bzz if you like but don’t sting me / Bzz bzz bzz bzz honeybee honeybee / Bzz if you like but don’t sting me / Bzz bzz. This is not a cover of that song.

Last week Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler died after having been seriously ill since early May. Her best-known song is probably the Jim Steinman power ballad Total Eclipse Of The Heart. It reached number one in 1983 and is back in the chart this week at number 29.

Alyssa Grace’s Bloodstream entered the top forty last month at number 25 but dropped back out again the following week, tumbling all the way to number 65. After a four-week absence, it is back this week at number 36.

When The Rolling Stones released Hackney Diamonds in 2023, there was widespread agreement that it was their best album for decades. It is, therefore, something of a surprise that their new album, Foreign Tongues, has been described as even better, and with good reason. Hackney Diamonds spent ten weeks in the top ten, two of them at number one. Foreign Tongues, the Stones’ 25 studio album, also tops the chart, giving them as fourteenth chart-topping album. Among the guest musicians are Paul McCartney, Robert Smith and Bruno Mars.

One of the finest moments in the career of My Chemical Romance came when the Daily Mail was less than kind to them on the release of The Black Parade and its chart-topping single. Last week they released a new version of their fourth studio album Danger Days: The true Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys. The original release, in 2010, reached number fourteen. This reissue is a new entry at number two.

My Chemical Romance are not the only act to get a high entry with a new edition of an old album. However, Bring me The Horizon have gone more down the Taylor Swift route and have re-recorded their 2006 debut album Count Your Blessings. The original version of the album fell well short of the top forty. Count Your Blessings: Repented is a new entry at number six.

Olivia Rodrigo is still at number three with You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love. The Essential Michael Jackson stays at number four.

For many years, Simon Cowell made a lot of money after being given many hours of primetime television to promote acts signed to a record label he just happened to own. Eventually, increasing numbers of viewers lost interest in X Factor which has now been off our screens for some time. However, last year Cowell announced a new show called The Next Big Act. This time, though, the show was on Netflix which made it less of an event watched by millions at the same time. Therefore, when the winning act - a boyband called December 10 - released their debut single, it failed to reach the top forty. Two subsequent singles did even less well.

Now, December 10 (who came up with that name?) have released an EP, On Your Side. Under current chart rules, it qualifies for the albums chart, and it is a new entry at number five.

This means that Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving has left the top five after 41 weeks.

Future is at number 27 with The Real Me. Jack White is at number 29 with his seventh solo album Frozen Charlotte. The Specials enter at number 39 with their final album Life From The Cathedral, recorded as a tribute to their late singer Terry Hall.

As mentioned two weeks ago, I shall be on holiday for the next four Fridays. So, thanks to Popchartfreak for filling  in for me last week, and thanks also for agreeing to cover for the next four weeks, with or without a new chart record for Rein Me In.