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Chart Commentary

Taylor Swift gets a third week at number one in the singles chart. Two new releases battle for pole position in the albums chart.

Taylor Swift comfortably wins a third week at the top of the singles chart with Patient Zero, helped by the release of a new batch of physical copies. In the days when all singles sales were physical copies, this was standard practise although it wasn’t until the 1980s that there was a steady stream of remixes over the course of several weeks. It has a particularly big impact now that a single sale is of greater value than hundreds of streams. Jamie Miller climbs one place to a new peak of num
Chart Commentary

Close races at the top of the singles and albums chart. Two female singers vie for supremacy in the singles chart whole the race at the top of the albums chart is between two bands from north-west England, one long disbanded and the other very much still

After Taylor Swift finished well clear of all rivals (including herself) last week, normal service is resumed this week with another tight race for number one. In Wednesday's update Swift’s Patient Zero held a lead over Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation of just 600 chart sales. Patient Zero topped last week’s chart, ending Great Expectation’s three-week run at the top. Taylor Swift was the eventual winner so Patient Zero gets a second week at number one. Great Expectation remains at number two.
Chart Commentary

Taylor Swift gets three more hit singles after releasing a new version of The Life Of A Showgirl. The album itself returns to number one.

Last Friday (25 September) Taylor Swift released a deluxe edition of her album The Life Of A Showgirl, including four new tracks. Inevitably, fans have rushed to download and stream those tracks meaning that three of them (the maximum number of songs by one artist allowed in the chart) enter the top forty. This means that the top five has a far fresher look than it has had for many weeks. The most popular of the new tracks, by a very long way, is Patient Zero. By Wednesday’s update it had accu
Chart Commentary

Sienna Spiro wins the race to the top of the singles chart. Beabadoobee has the number one album.

For the third week in a row, there was a tight race at the top of the singles chart this week. However ,one of last week’s contenders has been removed from the battle. Streams of Hugel, Imarl Angel and Ultra Nate’s Movin’ To The Sun have been declining for the last three weeks. This means that it is moved on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR) and the value of the song’s streams are halved. Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation held a narrow lead in the midweek updates and duly gets a third week a
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Another close race at the top of the singles chart is won once again by Sienna Spiro. Former Mercury Prize-winners Ezra Collective get their first number one album.

With no recent release making any impact near the top of the chart or threatening to be the new Rein Me In, there was another close race for number one in the singles chart. In Wednesday’s update the top four were separated by roughly 1,600 chart sales. I could have chosen to prepare a separate commentary for each possible top four. However, there are 24 different combinations, so I didn’t. The leader in Wednesday’s update was Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation which climbed to the top last week
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The Suedehead Chart Commentary - An Apology

Unfortunately, a domestic emergency means that I have been unable to write a Chart Commentary this week. John (popchartfreak) is also unable to provide his usual replacement commentary. I'm very sorry about this. Normal service will be resumed next week. In the meantime, congratulations to Sienna Spiro on her first UK number one single.
Chart Commentary

A close race at the top of the singles chart Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In takes a tumble after falling victim to a chart rule. Alex Warren gets his second number one album.

Three times in the last six months I have been able to report that Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In has fallen from number one. There are at least two reasons why this week’s report that it has happened again is historic. First, as Rein Me In is the first song in history to get four spells at the top in a single chart run, it is now the first song to fall from the summit from the summit for the fourth time in the same chart run. That piece of chart history was clearly going to happen wh
Chart Commentary

Twenty-three weeks at the top for Sam Fender and Olivia Dean. Paul Heaton gets his first solo number one album.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean continue their record-breaking run as Rein Me In tops the chart for a tenth consecutive week, and the 23rd overall. The ascension of Last Christmas to the title of longest-running UK number one has now been delayed by two or three years. Of course, if Fender and Dean record a Christmas song of their own, that moment could be postponed for even longer. Dean was at number eight this time last year with Man I Need. This week the song is …. at number eight. Sakira and Bu
Chart Commentary

Rein Me In still can’t be reined in as Sam Fender and Olivia Dean get a 22nd week at number one. Phoebe Bridgers gets her first number one album in the UK.

.In 2007 Rihanna spent ten weeks at number one with Umbrella. While it would be an exaggeration to say that it never stopped raining in that time, we did have a rather wet summer.  In 2026, Rein Me in (let’s not worry about minor details such as spelling) has now notched up a 22nd week at number one and rain has become something people talk about nostalgically. Indeed, it has been at number one for so long that it is easy to forget that it climbed to the top at a time when we desperately longe
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It's a 21st for Rein Me In as The Reytons climb the album pinnacle

It's a 21st for Rein Me In as The Reytons climb the album pinnacle Boosted by all the media articles, the record-breaking keeps on going for Rein Me In with a 21st non-consecutive week on top of the single-track chart, and that 6 months total for Sam Fender and Olivia Dean is looking increasingly likely week on week. That the only serious contender continues to be the World Cup song after the competition has ended underlines how difficult other tracks find it to get the ball in the back of the
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Sam & Olivia make it a 20 week Rein reign, Ariana's 6th number 1 Petal blooms on Albums

Sam & Olivia make it a 20 week Rein reign, Ariana's 6th number 1 Petal blooms on Albums After the headline news of last week, the number one record extends further to 20 weeks non-consecutive weeks on top. Stating the obvious but Sam Fender and Olivia Dean are only 6 weeks away from a full 6 months on top. Half a year! 5% of the decade. Dai Dai dies back a bit on combined sales but holds at 2 for Shakira and Burna Boy. I just bought it. You're welcome!  Ariana Grande has a new album, and
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Rein Me In gets that record 19th week on top, Charli xcx gets a 4th album number one

Rein Me In gets that record 19th week on top, Charli xcx gets a 4th album number one Sam Fender and Olivia Dean do the seemingly impossible and take the chart record by a slender margin. Rein Me In was trailing in the first two chart updates, by a declining margin as memories of the World Cup half-time show fade, but Shakira couldnt quite get that second chart-topper with Dai Dai. Burna Boy's flame therefore has been extinguished too. Ah well, maybe in four years time then. With thanks to Simon
Chart Commentary

18 record-breaking weeks for Rein Me In, 2nd album topper for Gracie Abrams

18 record-breaking weeks for Rein Me In, 2nd album topper for Gracie Abrams Simon is on holiday in France for a rest and break, hopefully no-one mentions football matches while there! It's an historic chart week I don't need to research wikipedia for facts and stats because for my entire life the only record to spend 18 weeks on top of the UK singles chart has been Frankie Laine's 1953 smash I Believe, pretty much since the chart began in the early 1950's. There was the excitement around Brya
Chart Commentary

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 sli
Chart Commentary

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 sou
Chart Commentary

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean equal a chart record. Muse get their eighth number one album.

Rein Me In’s fourth run at the top (itself a record for a single chart run) continues for a second week, bringing its total run up to fifteen weeks. It matches Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around as the longest run at number one by a British act. Not so long ago, number one songs by British acts had become a rarity, apart from Wham’s annual spell and a Beatles song. Olivia Rodrigo is still at number two with her Stupid Song. Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is at number three. Harry Styles’ American
Chart Commentary

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean return to the top of the singles chart again. Olivia Rodrigo gets a second week at the top of the albums chart.

For the last few years, it has been assumed that the record for the most weeks at number one would be broken by Wham’s Last Christmas as it has been accumulating more weeks each year. Last Christmas has accumulated twelve weeks at the top, just behind the fifteen weeks of Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around and sixteen weeks for Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. Those two songs picked up all their weeks at the top in one single run. The current record for most weeks at number one ha
Chart Commentary

Taylor Swift stays at number one in the singles chart. Olivia Rodrigo completes a hat-trick of number one albums.

After entering the chart at number one last week, Taylor Swift holds off a strong challenge from three Olivia Rodrigo songs to remain at number one with I Knew It I Knew You. She remains the only artist to have two chart-topping singles in 2026. In the midweek updates, Olivia Rodrigo led the way with Stupid Song, although she insists on using all lower-case letters. However, a late rally by Taylor Swift means it enters at number two. There have been many other “song songs” in the charts over
Chart Commentary

Taylor Swift has the number one single. Niall Horan gets his third number one solo album.

One of the most successful current film franchises has now reached its fifth instalment with the release of Toy Story 5. Disney have managed to persuade Taylor Swift to contribute to the soundtrack which has led to her bagging a seventh number one single in the form of I Knew It, I Knew You. Thankfully, it is a lot better than most of the Disney songs that have reached the charts in recent years. This week Swift became the youngest woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Sam F
Chart Commentary

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean face competition at the top of the singles chart from a new Ariana Grande song. Paul McCartney has the number one album.

After finishing comfortably ahead of the field in the singles chart for several weeks, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In finally had some competition again this week. It came in the form of a new song from Ariana Grande, meaning that we could see the end of an eleven-week run oif number one singles by someone called Olivia. Ariana Grande’s new single Hate That I Made You Love Me comes from her forthcoming album Petal, due to be released at the end of July. The song is pleasant enough, bu
Chart Commentary

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean still reign supreme in the singles chart. Maisie Peters wins a tight battle at the top of the albums chart.

There is still no catching Sam Fender and Olivia Dean at the top of the singles chart as Rein Me in gets a thirteenth week at the top. It matches the thirteen weeks at the top achieved by Alex Warren’s Ordinary last year. Rein Me In’s thirteen weeks at the top has been split across three separate runs, each interrupted by a one-week number one. Its current run now stands at five weeks, matching the previous run. Sandwiched between these two runs was a seven-day spell at the top for Olivia Rodr
Chart Commentary

Sam Fender and Olivia Sean extend their run at the top of the singles chart to twelve weeks. One of three new Drake releases tops the albums chart.

San Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In remains at the top of the singles chart. It has now spent twelve of the last fourteen weeks at the summit. With one of Rein Me In’s three runs at the top having been ended by Olivia Rodrigo, there has been an Olivia at the top of the chart for the last eleven weeks. Olivia Newton-John still holds the record for the longest continuous run at number one by a single Olivia. Last Friday (15 May), Drake released not one, but three new albums. It is fair to sa
Chart Commentary

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean are at number one for an eleventh week. Michael Jackson still has the number one album.

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 b