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Suedehead2

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  1. 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



  2. 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.


  3. 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!


  4. 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.


  5. 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.


  6. There was a close battle for the number one single this week between the two songs that have topped the chart for thirteen of the last fifteen weeks - Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia and Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. In Monday’s update Swift was ahead by just over 100 copies. By Wednesday she had extended her lead to around 1,000 chart sales.


    By the end of the week Taylor Swift was still in front, so The Fate Of Ophelia returns to the top after two weeks behind Golden. That song slips back to number two.


    Haven is an example of how acts can become successful while there is still very little known about him. The British producer, born Harrison Walker, has nearly four million listeners on Spotify, but the site has no biographical information for him. However, his single I Run has become popular enough for it to have been riding high in the chart in Wednesday's update. However, it is nowhere to be seen in the final top 100 chart published on Friday. It has to be assumed that it has been disqualified for some reason.


    Spanish singer Rosalia has a strong following in her home country, but has yet to have a major hit in the UK. That may be about to change with the arrival of the rather wonderful Berghain in the top forty at number 36. It features the very distinctive vocals of Bjorl, who makes her first top forty appearance for twenty years, as well as a brief vocal contribution from Yves Tumor who makes his UK chart debut. The string section hasn’t been granted a credit.


    Fred Again gets his second top forty hit of the year with Talk Of The Town at number 22. While it is not as good as the Pretenders song of the same name, it is still decent enough. It features Sammy Virji who had a chart hit earlier this year with Cops And Robbers.


    Sonny Fodera had one top forty hit in 2023 and then two in 2024. Unless he has a surprise Christmas song ready for release, he is unlikely to make it three in 2025. At least the arrival of Think About Us at number 33 means he hasn’t slipped back to one top forty hit in a calendar year. The song features D.O.D and the splendidly-named Poppy Baskcomb.


    The quality of this week’s new entries is relatively high, but there is an exception. Digga D’s DPMO, a new entry at number 31 is that exception.


    When Goo Goo Dolls released Iris as a single in 1998 it was only a minor hit, missing the top forty. A year later, it did reach the top forty, but only for one week. It returned to the lower reaches of the chart several times, but only became a major hit in 2011 when it was featured on a talent show and it went to number three. It continues to notch up further weeks in the top 100 and has now become one of those songs which is almost always in the chart until the Christmas songs arrive. This week it returns to the top forty at number 39.


    There are three other re-entries. Panic not, there aren’t any Christmas songs among them. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is at number 35. Sabrina Carpenter=s Manchild is back at number 38 and Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not returns at number 40.



    On 31 October 1975 Queen released Bohemian Rhapsody as  a single. The general consensus was that they were mad. It was too long and, with its frequent changes of style, confusing. One prominent radio DJ believed in it. Kenny Everett, who had more say on what was played on his Capital Radio weekend show than weekday daytime DJs, loved it and played it, in full, regularly.


    Most people at the time would have thought that Bohemian Rhapsody would do well to spend one week at number nine. In fact, it spent nine weeks at number one and sold a million copies. After Freddie Mercury died in 1991, a reissue spent another five weeks at the top of the chart, again selling a million copies. It is the only single to sell one million copies with two separate releases. 


    In the half-a-century since it was released Bohemian Rhapsody has continued to sound unlike almost anything else. To mark its 50th anniversary, a new physical edition of the song has been released - yes, singles can get anniversary editions as well. It was number one last week in the singles sales chart, the physical singles chart and the vinyl singles chart.



    As well as returning to the top of the singles chart, Taylor Swift does the same in the albums chart with Life Of A Showgirl. It may be the first time that an artist has had two separate runs with a chart double with the same pairing of song and album.


    Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving climbs back up to number two. Lily Allen’s West End Girl falls one place to number three while Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number five.


    As well as getting her second top forty single, Rosalia also has a big hit album on her hands. Lux is a new entry at number five which means that all of the top five albums are by female solo artists. Lux is the highest-charting album by a female Spanish singer.


    To accompany a book about Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings, the man himself has overseen the compilation of a new Best Of album, simply titled Wings. Inevitably it includes Mull Of Kintyre, but it also includes far better songs such as Band On The Run, Bond theme Live And Let Die and Jet. It enters at number twelve.


    Last weekend I was thinking about what to say about the new White Lies album. I was preparing for a disappointing chart position which I thought I might need to attribute to it sounding “just like any other White Lies album”. Then I listened to it, and was relieved to hear that it had far more variety than I was expecting.


    Unfortunately, the other part of my prediction was all too accurate. In Monday’s update Night Light was just outside the top ten. That made it certain that it would be the band’s lowest charting album by the time Friday’s chart was published. Thankfully, it did at least hold on to a top forty place and it ends the week at number 29.


    Paramore singer Hayley Williams is at number ten with her third solo album Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party.


    I have in the past been critical of artists who have released a deluxe version of an album shortly after the original release. For consistency, I can’t exclude acts I like, so Jaker Bugg needs to spend some time on the naughty step. The new edition of his 2024 album A Modern Day Distraction is at number 37.


  7. After climbing back to the top of the singles chart last week HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast get another week at number one with Golden. This brings its total number of weeks at the summit to ten. However, it is still not the longest-running number one of the year. That title is still held by ASlex Warren’s Ordinary which had a total of 13 weeks at the top. That song is in the top twenty for a 39th week, climbing two places to number fourteen. In the separate Streaming Chart, it has been in the top ten since March, apart from one week when it fell to number sixteen, behind the tracks fro, Taylor Swift’s album. It spent twenty of those weeks at number one.


    Taylor Swift remains at number two with The Fate Of Ophelia and at number four with Opalite. In between the two Taylor Swift songs, as last week, is Raye’s Where Is My Husband. The only change in the top five is that Olivia Dean’s Man I Need climbs back up one place to number five. Dean also has a new entry at number 22 with A Couple Minutes, bringing her 2025 tally up to eight top forty singles.


    There are many singles whose chart peak is lower than many music fans assume. One particularly extreme example is Bryan Adams’ Summer Of ‘69 which has never reached the top forty. For all its ubiquity, The Killers’ Mr Brightside has only spent one week in the top ten, at number ten. That is also its only week in the top twenty.


    Similarly, one of Michael Jackson’s best-known songs, Thriller, also peaked at number ten although its initial chart run did include an additional eight weeks in the top twenty. It gained another top twenty week after Jackson’s death in 2009, but the predominance of streaming in the chart calculations means that it is now a regular visitor to the chart around Hallowe’en. This year, Hallowe’en was on a Thursday but it seems that many people chose to celebrate it over the weekend. As a result, Thriller climbs to a new peak of number nine.


    Three other old songs re-enter the top forty. Ray Parker Jr’s theme song from the film Ghostbusters is at number seventeen, two places ahead of Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me which features Michael Jackson on backing vocals. Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett gets his annual outing in the top forty with Monster Mash at number twenty.


    We will soon reach the time of year when the influence that Christmas playlists on streaming sites have on the charts becomes an issue. Warning - Mariah Carey entered the top 100 this week. Now, the same thing is starting to happen around Hallowe'en. Whatever happened to Bonfire Night? The return of songs like Thriller to the chart is one thing, but now we are starting to see the appearance of random songs most people have never heard of.


    Andrew Gold is best known for his marvellous 1977 hit Lonely Boy. Almost half-a-century later, and fourteen years after Gold died, he gets a fourth top forty hit with Spooky Scary Skeletons at number 30. Danny Elfman’s This Is Hallowe’en, from the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas, reached number fourteen last year, but just missed out on a top forty place last year. This year it is back at number 31.


    Rapper EsDeeKid is at number 40 with Century, a song that thankfully lasts a good deal less time than that. His other current hit Phantom hasn’t got a Hallowe’en boost; it stays at number 28. Presumably its title hasn’t got it added to any seasonal playlists yet.



    Florence + The Machine’s fabulous debut album Lungs was, for some time, an exceptionally unlucky album in chart terms. It spent its first five weeks at number two behind a Michael Jasckson compilation in the immediate aftermath of Jackson’s death. After spending another week in the runner-up spot in January 2010, it finally ascended to the summit the following week and stayed there for two weeks. Three of the following four studio albums also went to number one.


    Three years after Dance Fever, Florence + The Machine released their sixth studio album Everybody Scream, appropriately enough on Hallowe’en. It was written after Florence Welch suffered a serious miscarriage, threatening her own life. As a result, she has described the songs as her most personal songs to date. The album, another great offering, is this week’s number one.


    Lily Allen’s West End Girl continues to be one of the most talked about albums of the year. The exposure sees it climb two places this week to number two. The three songs that entered the singles chart last week have all climbed. Pussy Palace climbs four places to number eight, giving her a first top ten single for fourteen years. The title track climbs to number fifteen with Madeline one place behind.


    Taylor Swift remains at number three with The Life Of A Showgirl. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving climbs one place to number four.


    The timing of the release of Cat Burns’ second studio album How To Be Human has been rather fortunate. It came near the end of a period where she has been on television every week on one of the most-watched shows for many years. Her reward is a number five start, completing an all-female top five (for vocalists at least).


    Manchester band The Charlatans made their name thanks, in large part, to the distinctive keyboard skills of Rob Collins. When he was killed in a road accident shortly before the band had finished recording their fifth studio album Tellin’ Stories, many people assumed that that would be the end of the band. Just a few weeks after his death, the band were due to support Oasis at Knebworth. They chose to go ahead with Martin Duffy from Primal Scream replacing Collins. Tony Rogers then became the permanent replacement.


    Last week The Charlatans released We Are Love, their fourteenth studio album, after a gap of eight years. It was recorded at the same studio as Tellin’s Stories, the first time the band had returned there since Collins’ death. It enters at number eight making it the ban’d eleventh top ten album.


    In their 30+ years together, Radiohead have only released two live albums. I Might Be Wrong came out in 2001 and reached number 23 in the chart. Now they have released Hail To The Thief, a collection of live recordings of their 2003 album of the same name. The original release gave them a fourth number one album. This version is at number twelve.


    The week’s “Does hat it says on the tin” award goes to an outfit calling themselves The Rock Orchestra. Their album Classics Volume 1 includes versions of Zombie, Paint It Black and Stairway To Heaven. It is a new entry at number fourteen.


    Bob Dylan continues to release his Bootleg series. Volume 18, Through The Open Window, enters at number 28 to give him a 57th top forty album, winning him the Heinz Award. The album is made up of some of his earliest live recordings dating back as far as 1959.


    Liverpudlian Sophie Morgan Howarth, recording as Luvcat, is at number 31 with Vicious Delicious.


    There are two new editions of old albums in this week’s new entries. The Who released their eighth studio album Who Are You in 1978 when it reached number six. A Super Deluxe Edition enters at number 34. Their legendary drummer Keith Moon died just a few weeks after the original release.


    K T Tunstall’s Eye To The Telescope joins the list of albums whose “Anniversary” edition is released in the wrong year. The album was released in 2004, but the 20th Anniversary Edition has only just landed. It is at number 35.


  8. After three weeks topping the singles and albums charts, Taylor Swift has been toppled from the summit of both of them. Her successor in the singles chart is not exactly new. It is the song toppled by Olivia Dean the week before Swift took over. The third run at the top for Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast brings its total up to nine weeks at the top.


    Taylor Swift's The Fate Of Ophelia slips to number two, one place ahead of Raye’s Where Is My Husband. Raye had her car stolen last year. This week it was found, complete with the songbooks left in it. The loss of those songbooks had led to the postponement of her second album. She is now in a much better position to work on that project. Swift is also at number four with Opalite.


    There are three new entries from each of two new albums this week, so it makes sense to talk about both charts together for a while.


    The multihyphenate is back! The Official Charts Company used the term to describe Dave in their write-up of Wednesday’s midweek update. As per normal, they are being a little generous. He is a rapper who has done a bit of acting. Alternatively, he is a part-time actor who is also a very successful rapper. 


    After modest success with an EP, Dave’s first two full-length albums topped the chart - Psychodrama in 2019 and We’re All Alone In This Together in 2021. Now, after a four-year absence, he has completed a hat-trick with The Boy Who Played The Harp. For the record, there is a harpist on three of the tracks, but she is a woman.


    The highest of the three tracks from the album in the singles chart is Raindance, which features Tems, at number five. History, featuring James Blake, is at nine giving Blake a first top ten single credit fifteen years after his only other top forty single. Chapter 16, with added Kano, is at number eleven.


    Albums whose songs are largely influenced by the break-up of a relationship are not exactly unusual. However, the lyrics are generally relatively subtle. Lily Allen has chosen to eschew that approach with her new album West End Girl, her first for over seven years. The lyrics are full of outright contempt for her former husband. Oh, hang on. I don’t want to be sued. She doesn’t name anyone, but the assumption is that it is about her former spouse who I won’t name - not that I’d heard of him until this album was released.


    Lily Allen does depart from the central theme on one track. At least I assume that Pussy Palace is about a luxury home for stray cats (not to be confused with Brian Seltzer’s band). That song is at number twelve in the singles chart. The title track is at number seventeen and Madeline is at number nineteen. She has now had sixteen top twenty singles. The album itself is at number four. It doesn’t yet have a physical release - the album was written and recorded very quickly, not leaving enough time for CDs and vinyls to be pressed. A physical release is likely to give it a new lease of life, perhaps taking it to number one if it happens in a quiet week. It should certainly beat the one week in the top forty managed by its immediate predecessor.


    After my comments on the charting tracks from Taylor Swift’s album a few weeks ago, it is worth acknowledging that only one of the tracks from each of Dave and Lily Allen’s releases are among the three opening tracks.


    Returning to the singles chart, there is one more new entry to report. Skye Newman gets her third top forty hit of the year at number eighteen with FU & UF, which I think stands for Fed Up and Under Fire. She made her chart debut earlier this year with Hairdresser and followed it up with the number five hit Family Matters which has returned at number 25..


    Today is Hallowe’en which means that people have been streaming songs associated with the supernatural. Today’s streams will, of course, count towards next week’s chart which may mean some of them are in that chart. In this week’s top forty we have Michael Jackson’s classic song Thriller at number 33.


    Alex Warren’s Ordinary remains in the top twenty for a 38th successive week. It breaks the record set way back in 1962 by Mr ‘Acker’ Bilk’s Stranger On The Shore. That song does still hold the record for an instrumental.


    Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl slips to number three in the albums chart. Olivia Dean is at number five with The Art Of Loving.


    Bon Jovi last week joined the list of acts shameless enough to release a deluxe edition of an album only a year or so after the original release. Forever reached number three when it was released in June last year. It now gets a second week in the top forty, at number two.


    Last week’s commentary contained an oblique reference to a 1970s Elton John album, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player.. This week’s has a rather more direct reference to another 1970s Elton John album. It is a sign of his longevity that it is now half-a-century since he released his ninth studio album Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy. By stalling at number two it brought an end to a run of three successive number one albums, beginning with the aforementioned Don’t Shoot Me.


    In 2005, to mark the 30th anniversary of the album, Elton John played most of the album live in a series of concerts in the US. Some of those performances are included on this new edition, along with a number of demos. The 50th anniversary edition is at number 24.


    Elton John had a number one album earlier this year in collaboration with Brandi Carlile. She gets her first top forty solo album at number 30 with Returning To Myself.


    Bruce Springsteen recorded his sixth studio album Nebraska in a bedroom at home. The intention was to add backing from the E Street band as usual, but that didn’t happen. He released the original recordings in September 1981 and the album spent two weeks in the top ten. The follow-up, Born In The USA, was his first really big hit album in the UK.


    Earlier this month, a film based on the recording of the album, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, was released. Naturally his record company has seized the opportunity to release a new edition of the album, complete with “the Electric Nebraska recordings” and a live performance of the  album in full. This release is at number fourteen.


    This still isn’t the end of the anniversary editions. Pulp released their fifth studio album Different Class in October 1995. Only one of their four previous albums had charted at all. Different Class went to number one and spent 23 of its first 25 chart weeks in the top ten. It won the Mercury Prize and is considered to be one of the defining albums of the Britpop era. Its third track, Common People, was the song that took them from being moderately successful to one of the biggest bands of the day. That and Jarvis Cocker’s overblown charisma. The reissue is at number 38.


    Birmingham based The Clause make their chart debut at number nineteen with Victim Of A Casual Thing. It really is the epitome of a curate’s egg album for me. Some of the tracks are really good while others are decidedly mediocre. It is at number one in the Independent Albums Chart.


    Sigrid is at number twelve with There’s Always More That I Could Say. Skye Newman’s EP SE9 Part 1 is at number nineteen. Twenty-one-year-old Guildfordian Henry Moodie makes his chart debut at number 31 with Mood Swings.


  9. After topping both the singles and albums charts for the last two weeks, Taylor Swift started the week looking to perform the double for a third successive week. The midweek updates indicated that she would succeed in getting a third week at number one in the singles chart with The Fate Of Ophelia, but the albums chart was a different matter. Of her four previous number one singles, only Anti-Hero has spent longer at the top. Swift’s Opalite falls to number five this week.


    HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast’s Golden is still at number three. Olivia Dean’s Man I Need remains at number two. Ray’s Where Is My Husband is at number four.


    The top ten comprises three Taylor Swift songs, four featuring Olivia Dean and two from the KPop Demon Hunters film. Oh, and one song by Raye.


    The reason Olivia Dean is able to feature on four songs in the chart, given that there is a three-song limit per artist, is that only the first named artist counts (although an exception has been made for the KPop Demon Hunters Cast). She takes second billing on her duet with Sam Fender, Rein Me In. Earlier this week Fender’s People watching album was awarded the Mercury Music Prize . That has led to Rein Me In climbing back in to the top ten at number ten.


    Sam Fender’s Mercury Prize win has led to another duet entering the chart. His guest on Talk To You, a new entry at number twenty, is Elton John who gets his 71st top forty single, albeit this time as a piano player rather than as a vocalist. Don’t shoot him for it. His first hit, Your Song, was released in January 1970, 24 years before Fender was born. The album’s title track, People Watching is a re-entry at number 28. It reached number four last November.


    As mentioned above, the KPop Demon Hunters cast are being counted as the lead artist on songs from the film, even though they are named last on the lengthy credits. As happened last week, one such song leaves the chart this week to be replaced by another. The replacement this week is What It Sounds Like which is credited to HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast , the same as Golden. What It Sounds Like is at number thirteen. What does it sound like? Surprisingly, it’s actually OK.


    George Miller’s name doesn’t exactly sound like that of someone born in the Japanese city of Osaka. His chosen moniker Joji sounds a lot more like that of a Far Eastern artist. He gets his third top forty single this week with Pixelated Kisses at number 37. It is, unsurprisingly, the first song with any form of the word pixel in its title.


    Just two weeks after getting his first top forty single, Kevin Parker, better known as Tame Impala, gets his second. My Own Way is a new entry at number 39, the position occupied by Dracula last week. That song jumps eighteen places to number 21.


    Myles Smith re-enters t number 38 with Stay (If You Wanna Dance). Ed Sheeran’s Sapphire is a re-entry at number 40, two weeks after it slipped out.



    I opened this week’s commentary by saying that Taylor Swift faced some stiff opposition at the top of the albums chart. The midweek updates suggested that she would be deprived of a third week at number one (for now at least) by Last Dinner Party’s From The Pyre. Their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy topped the chart and was nominated for the 2024 Mercury Prize. Had Swift’s release date been announced further in advance (it was only made public in August), perhaps the record company would have chosen to release From The Pyre at a different time.Sadly, Last Dinner Party have to be content with a number two debut as The Life Of A Showgirl gets a third week at number one.


    In the week’s first update on Monday, Taylor Swift was at number three behind both Last Dinner Party and Tame Impala’s fifth studio album Deadbeat. However, the latter was only 164 sales ahead of The Life Of A Showgirl, so it was never going to be as high as number two by the end of the week. The last two Tame Impala albums have entered at number three.Deadbeat is at number four.


    Olivia Dean is at number three with The Art Of Loving. Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number five.


    Judging by this year’s contest, Sam Ryder looks like retaining his status as the last UK act to finish in the top three at a Eurovision Song Contest for many years to come. His success in the 2022 contest helped his debut album, It’s Nothing But Space Man, get to number one. His second set Heartland is at number eleven.


    Twenty years after I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor was at number one (eek!), Arctic Monkeys’ singer Alex Turner’s mate Miles Kane has a new album. Sadly there is no sign of a revival for their joint project Last Shadow Puppets. In the meantime, Sunlight In The Shadows, Kane’s sixth solo album, is at number thirteen.


    A rather older solo artist known for his work as part of a band is at number twelve in the shape of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour with his ninth solo top forty album The Luck And Strange Concerts.


    Of Monsters And Men, the Icelandic band who aren’t Sigur Ros, are at number sixteen with All Is Love And Pain In The Mouse Parade. Swedish singer-songwriter Rianne Downey makes her chart debut with The Consequence Of Love at number eighteen. Ashnikko lands at number 32 with Smoochies.


    We have already seen that Sam Fender’s Mercury Prize win has given a boost to some of the tracks from the album. Not surprisingly, the album itself has also benefitted. People Watching soars 58 places to return to the top forty at number seventeen, a number with a special meaning for him.


  10. With such a big lead in last week’s singles chart, it is no surprise that Taylor Swift gets a second week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. Her five UK number one singles have now spent a total of twelve weeks at the summit, almost as long as Alex Warren’s Ordinary managed earlier this year.


    While remaining at number one, Taylor Swift has not repeated last week’s feat of occupying the whole of the top three. She does, though, still have three songs in the top six which isn’t bad going. Opalite is at number four with Elizabeth Taylor at six.


    HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast climb back up to number three with Golden. Olivia Dean’s Man I Need is at number two where it took up near-permanent residency for so long.


    While the three-song rule is usually applied to the lead artist, all the songs from the KPop Demon  Hunters cast which include the cast among the credited artists have been subject to this rule. The fact that some have HUNTR/X as the first-named artist while others have Saja Boys listed first has been deemed irrelevant. Some people will have been very grateful. This week, one of the Saja Boys songs has fallen below How It’s Done, another song credited to HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. Therefore, Soda Pop drops out (from last week’s number seven) while How It’s Done is a new entry at number twelve. The soundtrack album is consigned to the compilations chart where it is number one for a seventeenth week this week.


    TikTok continues to help launch the careers of singer-songwriters. This week it’s the turn of 20-year-old Londoner Sienna Spiro. She has released a string of singles since the beginning of last year, but without any chart success (apart from reaching number 89 in Ireland). This week she breaks her duck as Die On This Hill enters at number 26.


    Over the last few years, we have been treated(ish) to multiple hits from former members of One Direction and members of various KPop bands. This week we get a double whammy as Blackpink’s Jisoo has teamed up[ with former One Directioner Zayn Malik to create Eyes Closed, a song which is rather better than I expected. It is a new entry at number 37.


    Last week Taylor Swift topped the albums chart with over 400,000 sales of her new album The Life Of A Showgirl. It was always highly likely that she would get a second week, and so it has come to pass. Her fourteen number one albums have now spent a combined 34 weeks at the top. However, her chart sales have fallen somewhat faster than might have been expected. It is still likely to spend several more weeks at number one between now and next January, but perhaps she will be beaten more times than I thought last week.


    Richard Ashcroft, formerly of The Verve, enters at number three with his latest solo album Lovin’ You. He will shortly be resuming his role as support act for Oasis on their reunion tour.


    Olivia Dean achieves a chart double of her own (after completing a more conventional one two weeks ago) by sitting at number two on both charts. The Art Of Loving is back up one place to the runner-up spot. Sabrina Carpenter is still at number four with Man’s Best Friend. The Weeknd’s Highlights compilation is at number five. That album has now spent 173 weeks (well over three years) in the top ten without ever quite getting to number one.


    The only other new entry in the top forty is Calum Scott’s Avenoir at number 31. 


    Three hits compilations re-enter the top forty. Best Of 50 Cent is at number 34, Maroon 5’s is at 37, one place below The Best Of Pitbull.


    Finally, I owe an apology to fans of Tame Impala. The band, basically Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Harper with other musicians joining him on tour, had a new entry at number 40 in the singles chart with the rather marvellous Dracula, but I missed it. This is Tame Impala’s first UK top forty single some sixteen years after debut single Sundown Syndrome.


  11. As referenced in last week’s commentary Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl last week. Without the rule allowing only three tracks by a lead artist to appear in the chart simultaneously, the twelve tracks would probably occupy the top twelve positions. That would have knocked Olivia Dean right out of the top ten after climbing to number one last week.


    The treatment of album streams for chart purposes has always been a difficult issue to resolve. The most controversial rule is probably the one that allows streams of a full album also to count as a stream of each individual track. Part of the problem is determining how much of an album needs to be streamed before it should count towards the albums chart but not the singles chart.


    When any new album is released, there are bound to be many people who give it a listen simply out of curiosity, particularly if it is one that has received a lot of hype. Not all of those people will make it to the end. There is strong evidence that this has happened in Taylor Swift’s case as the top three tracks are the first three tracks on the album, almost in the same order. That means that The Fate Of Ophelia becomes her fifth number one single. Opalite at number two and Elizabeth Taylor at number three bring her number of top ten singles up to 33. Ophelia was the name of a number 52 hit for Lumineers, but Opalite has never appeared in the title of a charting single for some reason.


    HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast have regained their lead over Olivia Dean. Their former number one Golden is at number four while Dean’s Man I Need falls four places to number five.


    Apparently Tkandz is a big name in the lofi drill scene. I must be getting old, as I didn’t even know there was a lofi drill scene. He has teamed up with Cxsper on a track called Now Or Never which is at number 30. The names, by the way, are not typos.


    Back, then, to Taylor Swift. The only questions about the chart performance of The Life Of A Showgirl in its first week were about how many sales and streams it would achieve. Even by Monday (when a lot of stream data from the weekend was missing) its “sales” had surpassed those of Sam Fender’s People Watching to become the best-selling album released this year. Some time next week it will take up position as the best-selling album overall in 2025 and will probably stay there for the rest of the year.


    The Life Of A Showgirl has opened with well over 400,000 “sales” in its first week, far more than any other Taylor Swift album. Its 126,000 vinyl sales is the most in a single week for any album this century. It has also picked up more sales from streams than any album since streaming figures were included in chart sales.


    Many critics of Taylor Swift have accused her of writing too many songs about break-ups. That isn’t the case this time as she wrote the album in the lead-up to announcing her engagement to someone who makes his living by playing a form of catch, one in which the participants have to dress up in a suit of armour (or something like it).


    With the re-recorded versions of her earlier albums being counted as separate releases, Taylor Swift has now had fourteen UK number one albums, behind only The Beatles and Robbie Williams who have each had fifteen. Both those artists are about to be mentioned again.


    The first time a chart double was followed by another double by a different act was in 1962 when Cliff Richard and the Shadows were replaced by Elvis Presley at the top of both charts. Presley had become the first act to achieve the chart double the previous year when he topped both the singles and albums charts simultaneously for a total of fourteen weeks. 


    It next happened in 1964. Unsurprisingly, the acts involved were the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. In fact, it was so easy to guess the name of the second act that auto-suggestion offered it as the next word even before I typed the B. In 2012 a Robbie Williams double was immediately followed by one for One Direction. Thirteen years on, we have only our fourth example of this occurrence.


    Oasis’s second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory is now thirty years old. To mark the occasion, yet another commemorative edition has been released. Without Taylor Swift, the album would have gained an eleventh week at number one. With Taylor Swift, it is at number two in its 1,068th week in the chart. Thanks to the band’s reunion tour, this is the album’s ninth week in the top ten this year.


    Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving slips to number three after a week at the top. Sabrina Carpenter is at number four with Man’s Best Friend. This means that all of the top four albums have reached number one at some point.


    James Morrison gets his fifth top ten album with Fight Another Day at number five. It is the highest selling album of the week in independent record shops.


    The fresh-faced teenagers who were Ash when I first saw them live are now middle-aged men, but they are still capable of releasing great music. Last week they proved that by releasing their ninth studio album Ad Astra. The three original members of the band are joined on one track by Blur’s Graham Coxon, a rare use of a guest performer by the band from Downpatrick.


    In their early days Ash recorded a version of the Star Wars theme which was the B-side of their first major hit, Girl From Mars. All of the members are fans of the films and named their debut album, 1977, after the year the first one came out. It was also the year of birth of the band’s singer Tim Wheeler and bassist Mark Hamilton. They have now returned to the sci-fi theme by opening this album with Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, best known as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. As we near the end of International Space Week, Ash’s Ad Astra is at number fifteen.


    Rapper EsDeeKid released his album Rebel a few weeks ago. It enters the top forty at number 36 in its fourth week in the top 100. He also makes his top forty singles chart debut this week with Phantom which matches the album position by reaching number 36.


    The remaining new entries include Idlewild at number sixteen with an eponymous album, their highest chart position for twenty years. Essex duo Good Neighbours are at number 24 with their debut album Blue Sky Mentality.


  12. For the first time in several weeks, there was a genuine contest at the top of the singles chart. Would Hunter/X and co get yet another golden week at the top or would the release of her album help Olivia Dean rise to the top? Olivia Dean’s Man I Need was at number one in the midweek updates. In Wednesday’s update it held a lead of a little over 3,500 chart units over Golden.


    There was, by contrast, never any real doubt about whether Olivia Dean’s album The Art Of Loving would top the chart. The singer-songwriter from London has had a very successful 2025. At the start of the year, she was still relatively unknown. Her only singles chart success had been with a version of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) which charted for Christmas 2021, but hasn’t returned in subsequent years. Her debut album, Messy, reached number four when it was released in 2023, but spent just that one week in the top forty.


    This year, Olivia Dean’s fortunes have improved dramatically. Last week, Man I Need was at number two for a fifth week while Nice To Each Other was also in the top ten. It is, therefore, not a surprise that The Art Of Loving has gone straight to number one. She is able to celebrate a chart double as Man I Need has at last made that final one place step up to become her first number one single. Nice To Each Other has climbed to number four. So Easy (To Fall In Love) is a new entry at number nine. Dive has plunged out of the chart from last week’s number eighteen position because of the limit of three songs by an artist in the singles chart.


    The top five in the singles chart still has two songs from the XPop Demon Hunters soundtrack. Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast drops to number two after eight non-consecutive weeks at number one. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number five with Soda Pop. The top five is completed by Raye’s Where Is My Husband at number three.


    Olivia Dean’s closest rival for the top spot wasn’t close at all, but it is still technically accurate to use the term, or at least it was until the end of the week. The eventual number two is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend. She also has a new entry in the singles chart with House Tour at number seventeen.


    Some three years after Little Mix broke up (although, officially, they are “on hiatus”), Perrie Edwards has released her first solo album under the mononym  Perrie. The album, also called Perrie, is at number three having lost its status as the closest rival for the number one spot in the latter part of the week.


    Hot on the heels of a Led Zeppelin live EP, Robert Plant is at number four with Saving Grace. Although he has been touring with a band called Saving Grace, the album is credited to Plant alone, making it his twelfth solo studio album. 


    Doja Cat has a new entry at number five with her new album Vie. Two songs from the album are in the singles chart. Gorgeous is a new entry at number 34 and Jealous Type re-enters at number 30.


    American band Geese are at number 26 with the cheerfully-titled Getting Killed. Mariah Carey has her twentieth top forty album with Here For It All at number 31. Genesis’s last album with Peter Gabriel on vocals, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, is at number 35 thanks to a “50th anniversary” edition. It peaked at number ten when it was released at then end of 1974.


    Returning to the singles chart, there are new entries that are not from albums released last week. The highest of them comes from Tate McRae who is at number six with Tit For Tat. The phrase is the reason why a hat is known as a titfer in cockney rhyming slang. Myles Smith is at number 32 with Stay (If You Wanna Dance).


    With the year now into its final quarter, the Official Charts Company has published a list of the top albums of 2025 so far. The list highlights just how much streaming of older albums influences the chart. The top album released in 2025 is Sam Fender’s People Watching, but it is only at number six overall. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number one with Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection at number two and the Oasis compilation at three. Compilations by Fleetwood Mac and The Weeknd are also ahead of Sam Fender. Fender’s time with the top-selling album released in 2025 will not last much longer as Taylor Swift released a new album today (Friday).


  13. HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast extend their run at the top of the singles chart with Golden to an eighth week. Three-quarters of the way through 2025, we have had eleven number one singles of varying quality. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number five with Soda Pop.


    Once again the Demon Hunters have thwarted Olivia Dean’s Man I Need which is at number two for a fifth week.


    This week’s highest new entry is the second single from Lewis Capaldi’s forthcoming third album. Probably - there is, as yet, no release date and no title. The first single, Survive, spent a week at number one. Something In The Heavens is at number three. His second album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent re-enters at number 40.


    Raye also has a new entry in the top five in the form of Where Is My Husband at number four. It is only the second top forty hit with the word husband in the title after Meghan Trainor’s Dear Future husband in 2015. There has never been a single anywhere in the chart with the word wife in the title although Next came close with Wifery, a number nineteen hit in 2000. Raye’s 2023 number one hit Escapism returns to the top forty at number 37.


    There are no further new entries in the top forty, so let’s have a little diversion.


    I don’t often mention a song at number 73. I also don’t generally mention something from last week’s chart. However, I am prepared to make an exception once in a while. Since Damon Albarn launched Gorillaz as, supposedly, a one-off project, his reputation as a musician has meant that many of the biggest names in music have accepted the opportunity to work with the world’s greatest virtual band. KPop Demon Hunters will never come even close.


    Gorillaz will be releasing their ninth album next March, but the track listing is already available. The collaborators this time include Johnny Marr, the late Mark E Smith and Idles. Oh, and the ever-wonderful Sparks. The Sparks collaboration, The Happy Dictator, has been released as a single and was at number 73 last week. It is, obviously, a great track and has given Sparks a first top 75 single since a new version of their debut hit This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us (featuring Faith No More) in 1997. Their last top 75 hit with a new song was Now That I Own The BBC in 1995. Sparks did have a hit with Number One Song In Heaven, Gorillaz’s Feel Good Inc is back in the charts and a Coldplay song called Sparks is also in the chart, so there are plenty of links to this week’s top forty.



    Scottish band Biffy Clyro’s first three albums all failed to reach the top forty. Their fortunes changed with the release of Puzzle in 2016 which went to number two. The next five studio albums all reached the top five with three of them topping the chart. They continue that run with their fourth number one Futique.


    Sabrina Carpenter is still at number two with Man’s Best Friend. Ed Sheeran’s Play falls to number five after a week at number one.


    The title of Lola Young’s second album has a couple asterisks added in the chart listing so I will have to guess what its full title is. I think it is I’m Only Flaking Myself. It enters at number three to give her a first top ten album D£aler, the second single from the album, returns to the top forty at number 35.


    Among the UK’s greatest lyricists is Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon whose talent for wit and story-telling has sustained the band for 35 years and thirteen albums. The fact that he is a pretty good tunesmith as well helps. The latest, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, is at number four, their highest position for a studio album. The album includes a song called The Man Who Turned Into A Chair and another called Mar-a-Lago By The Sea. I wonder what that might be about.


    Before they joined Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks released an album together. The duo and the album were both called Buckingham Nicks. Not many people noticed; the album failed to chart in the UK. Fifty-two years on, it has been released and it enters the chart at number six.


    The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack album is ineligible for the main chart as the tracks are credited to a number of different lead artists. However, the soundtrack for the latest Tron film, Ares (*checks for an unfortunate typo*) are all credited to Nine Inch Nails, so the album is eligible. It is at number twelve.


    There are four more new entries in the top forty. Joy Crookes is at number thirteen with Juniper. British DJ Sammy Virji’s Same Day Cleaning is at number 21 while Cardi B’s Am I The Drama is at 26. Octopus, Newton Faulkner’s first album for four years, is at number 27.


    The appearance of an album called Octopus provides me with an opportunity to include another chapter in Suedehead’s Guide to the English Language. Octopus derives from Greek, not Latin, which means that the plural is definitely not octopi. If octopi is a word at all, it should mean eight times pi. Technically, and etymologically, the plural is octopodes, but octopuses is a perfectly acceptable anglicised version.


  14. HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast continue their reign of terror at the top of the singles chart as Golden grabs a seventh week at number one. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast climb one place to number three with Soda Pop. The same combination are at number five with Your Idol.


    Olivia Dean’s Man I Need is at number two for a fourth successive week. Sabrina Carpenter’s Tears fall to number four. 


    Katseye are based in Los Angeles but their members hail from the Philippines, South Korea and Switzerland as well as the USA. Their single Gabriela entered the top 100 at the beginning of the summer, but it dropped out of the top chart after four weeks. However, it returned after a two-week absence and has now cracked the top forty for the first time at number 39.


    Kehlani’s Folded has also taken its time to reach the top forty. It entered the top 100 in the same week as Gabriela’s return. This week, its seventh in the full chart, it climbs to number 33 to give her a first top forty hit since 2019.


    Lola Young’s Messy returns at number 4- after a few weeks out of the broadcast part of the chart.



    Even Suede’s biggest fans knew that their new album might not prevent Sabrina Carpenter getting a second week at number one, and so it proved last week. However, even Carpenter's biggest fans will have known that she had no chance of getting a third consecutive week. The reason? Ed Sheeran’s new album was released last week. Even though he is well short of his peak popularity, his albums still sell well and pick up a lot of streams.


    Play is said to be the first of five albums named after symbols on devices such as DVD players (remember them?), following his five albums named after arithmetical symbols. The five arithmetically-themed albums all went to number one, and now the first of his new arithmetical quintology has done the same. Play is his ninth chart-topping album and is also the second album called Play to top the chart after Moby’s mega-seller from a quarter of a century ago.


    Ed Sheeran’s nine number one albums matches the total accumulated by Bob Dylan. Only eleven solo artists have had more. Camera from the album is a new entry to the singles chart at number sixteen while A Little More re-enters at 32. Sapphire climbs to number 28. Camera is his 67th top forty single.


    Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend drops to number two after a fortnight at number one.


    Former Little Mix member Jade (Thirlwall) enters at number three with her debut solo album That’s Showbiz Baby. It has achieved the highest first-week sales for a debut album so far this year and tops the Official Record Store chart which uses sales from independent (non-chain) record shops.


    Twenty One Pilots get a fifth top ten album with their eighth studio album Breach at number four.. It concludes their quintology of albums which started with Blurryface in 2015. It is this week’s best-selling album on vinyl.


    Sophi Ellis-Bextor remains one top ten album ahead of Twenty One Pilots as Perimenopop (whatever that is) enters at number five. Selena Gomez and Nile Rogers are among the co-songwriters credited on the album.


    Careful users of English would avoid the use of the word legendary to describe a band whose existence cannot be doubted. Using the looser definition of the word, it is reasonable to describe Led Zeppelin as a legendary rock band. They released nine studio albums in thirteen years, but there has also been a succession of live albums and other compilations. They have now been joined by a Live EP. The EP is the length of many of today’s full-length albums although it has only four tracks, including the classic Kashmir (but not Stairway To Heaven). It is a new entry at number sixteen.



  15. There is still no shifting HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast from the top of the singles chart as Golden stubbornly stays there for a sixth week. The KPop film is also responsible for Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast at number four with Soda Pop.


    Olivia Dean's Man I Need remains Golden’s closest rival for the top slot, remaining at number two. Sabrina Carpenter is still shedding her Tears at number three. Disco Lines and Tinashe climb back up to number five with No Broke Boys.


    Without the limit of three songs for an individual artist Sabrina Carpenter’s When Did You Get Hot? would have been in the chart last week. This week, it is one of her three most popular songs, so it is a new entry at number nine. I have enjoyed some of Carpenter’s songs, but this isn’t one of them.


    Lady Gaga has a new entry at number thirteen with The Dead Dance. It is a third hit of the year for Gaga, and her 33rd top forty hit in a chart career that began in 2009.


    Calvin Harris enters at number 34 with Ocean, his 46th top forty hit. He is joined by Jessie Reyez whose only previous top forty hit was also alongside Harris, as well as Sam Smith.



    Sabrina Carpenter gets a second week at the top of the albums chart with Man’s Best Friend. It is the first new album to get a second consecutive week at the top since Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) in July and August last year. Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department spent two weeks at number one last December, but by then it was seven months old.


    This bit maintains the tradition of scrupulous impartiality in these notes.


    There can be no doubt that Suede are the best band ever to have existed in this, or any other, universe. They started to come to public attention when they featured on the front cover of one of the music papers (ask your parents) under the headline “Best New Band In Britain?". This was before they had released anything.


    I first saw Suede in March 1992, still two months before they released their debut single. That was with the 50-60 other people who had turned up to see them support The Heart-Throbs. Seven months later,  touts were charging £30 for tickets with a face value of £5 at another London venue. Tomorrow (Saturday), exactly 33 ½ years after that first Suede gig, I shall be seeing them for the 60-somethingth time at London’s Festival Hall.


    Their debut album, unimaginatively titled Suede, was released in 1993. It became the fastest-selling debut album since Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasure Dome in 1994 and won the second Mercury Music Prize. Shortly before the release of their second (and best) album Dog Man Star in 1994, guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler left the band. Many people speculated that his departure would lead to the end of the band, but they recruited the then-tennager Richard Oakes and carried on.


    Suede got a second number one album with Head Music in 1999, but the follow-up, A New Morning (2002), only got to number 24 and they broke up the following year. Those of us who attended the band’s “final” gig in December of that year had to hope that singer Brett Anderson’s promise that there would be another Suede album would be fulfilled.


    Even when Suede re-formed in 2010, it was officially a one-off to perform a show at the Albert Hall to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. However, that went so well that they announced new shows and, eventually, a new album. 


    Last week, they released their fifth album since re-forming, matching the five they released before the break-up. Antidepressants is meant to be the second of a trilogy of albums, so there should be at least one more to come. In the meantime, Antidepressants becomes Suede’s second number two album, following Autofiction in 2022.


    The top five is completed by three compilations. Oasis are at number three with Time Flies, Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number four and Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years - Don’t Stop is at five.


    Suede bassist Mat Osman has also published two novels, including the excellent The Ghost Theatre. By a weird coincidence, he started writing his first novel, The Ruins, at about the same time as brother Richard started work on The Thursday Murder Club. That must been that Red Rum Club should meet on Yadsruht. Their fifth album Buck, my second-favourite new album released last week, is at number seven.


    One of the 90s bands I most regret not having seen live are St Etienne whose members include Bob Stanley, another published author. This week the band get their third top ten album with International at number eight. They last reached the top ten in 1994 when Tiger Bay also reached number eight.


    Just two months after the surprise release of Swag, Justin Bieber has added 23 tracks to the original 21 and reissued it as Swag II. The album, which enters at number ten, now lasts for a little over two hours.


    Faithless enjoyed their biggest success from the mid-1990s to the early noughties with fantastic singles such as God Is A DJ, Insomnia and We Come 1. It is now eighteen years since they had a top forty single (although they came close in 2010), but they are still recording hit albums. Their latest, Champion Sound, is at number fifteen.


    David Byrne came to the attention of the music world as the singer and songwriter for the band Talking Heads, one of the most original bands of the 1980s. The band are no more, but Byrne is now pursuing a solo career. He gets a fifth solo top forty hit with Who Is The Sky? at number 34.


  16. For the fifth week, Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast sits at the top of the singles chart. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are down to number five with Soda Pop. Twenty years ago, another (much better) animated band were at number one in the form of Gorillaz with Dare. Talking of Gorillaz, they are actually in the top forty this week. The latest random song to re-enter the chart is their 2005 number two hit Feel Good Inc at number 30.


    Olivia Dean remains at number two with Man I Need.


    The five best-selling singles of the 1960s were all by Liverpool acts. Not surprisingly, four of them were by the Beatles. The exception was a bit of an oddity - or should that be Doddity? Ken Dodd was best known as a comic whose live shows were famed for their length. They regularly lasted for several hours. However, he also had a couple hit singles. One of them, Tears, sold a million copies and was the third best-selling single of the 1960s.


    The above paragraph is a rather convoluted way of introducing this week’s highest new entry - a different song called Tears performed by Sabrina Carpenter. Following the release of her new album last week (see below), she has two new entries in the singles chart this week. There would, no doubt, have been more of her songs in the top forty without the three-song limit. Tears is at number three and My Man On Willpower is at seven. Manchild has rebounded 22 places to number four. Espresso will have dropped out of the top 100 as a result of the aforementioned three-song limit. Since it entered the chart in April last year, it has only dropped out because of Christmas or there being three more popular Carpenter songs that week. This time last year, Espresso was the third most popular Carpenter song and was at number three.


    Since Tyler The Creator released his ninth studio album Don’t tap The Glass in July, the song Sugar On My Tongue has been in the top 100 without breaking into the top forty. Until this week - it is a new entry at number 35.


    Fred Again, Skepta and Plaqueboymax are back at number 40 with Victory Lap. The song reached number four in early summer.



    When Sabrina Carpenter released her debut album Eyes Wide Open in 2015, not many people noticed. The next four albums were greeted with a similar level of indifference. Most singers with that lack of success would have been lucky to have got as far as recording a third album. Carpenter managed  to release a sixth, Short ‘n’ Sweet, in 2024.


    By the time Short ‘n’ Sweet was released, Sabrina Carpenter had two number one singles to her name. She got a third immediately, giving her a chart double as the album also went to number one. All that patience, by both Carpenter and two record companies, had finally paid off. In subsequent weeks, her fifth album and an EP belatedly entered the albums chart.


    The difficult thing about a hugely successful album is that you need to follow it up. Now, barely a year after the release of Short ‘n’ Sweet and just a few weeks after that album finally left the top ten, that follow-up has arrived in the shape of album number seven Man’s Best Friend. To the surprise of nobody, it has gone straight to number one. By around this time next year, we will know for certain whether it can match Short ‘n’ Sweet’s record-breaking run in the top five. I suspect we will know a good deal sooner than that.


    Sabrina Carpenter’s “sales” of 85,500 units are the highest of the year so far for a non-British artist. The overall 2025 high is the 107,000 units achieved by Sam Fender’s People Watching. Short ‘n’ Sweet is back up to number six. Emails I Can’t Send, released in 2023, hits a new peak of number 21.


    Dublin-born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, recording as CMAT also needed some patience, albeit not as much as Sabrina Carpenter.  After a lack of success in the UK with her debut album, her second release Crazymad, For me was nominated for the 2024 Mercury Music Prize and reached number 25.. The follow-up, Euro-Country,  has been released just in time for this year's nominations which will be announced on Wednesday (10 September). It has received very good reviews and is a new entry at number two. It is the first ever charting album to include a track called Jamie Oliver Petrol Station which is, by the way, a very good song.


    It is a long time since Canadian Bryan Adams was boring the nation rigid with his long-running number one, but he is still recording. He gets a twelfth top ten album with Roll With The Punches at number three.


    Oasis are at number four with their Time Flies collection.


    The top five is completed by Swedish band The Hives at number five with The Hives Forever Forever The Hives. It follows three other bizarrely-titled top- ten albums.


    Nova twins are at number 27 with Parasites & Butterflies, the same position as that achieved by their Mercury Prize-nominated Supernova in 2022. 


  17. The dictionary definition of hell might well be attending a singalong screening of the KPop Demon Hunters film. Nonetheless, many people seem to have decided to put themselves through that particular form of torture. People who chose to stay at home and watch it on Netflix have contributed to making it the most-watched film of all time on the streaming platform.


    Meanwhile, the animated film continues its grip on the upper reaches of the singles chart. Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast remains at number one for a fourth week. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number four with Soda Pop and also at number six with Your Idol.


    Olivia Dean climbs to number two with Man I Need. The top five is completed by No Broke Boys by Disco Lines and Tinashe at number three and Chappell Roan’s The Subway at number five.


    Doja Cat gets her second top forty hit of the year with Jealous Type at number thirteen. As with many of her hits, it by no means terrible, but it also isn’t particularly good. Two Jealous songs have topped the chart. Alvin Stardust spent a week at number one in 1974 with Jealous Mind and Roxy Music’s version of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy was number one for a week in 1981.


    Olivia Dean’s Dive entered the top 100 and has remained there for most of the time since then, dropping out a coup[le times because of the rule restricting the number of songs one artist can have in the chart at the same time. Now it is back as one of her three most popular songs and enters the top forty for the first time at number 31. Lady Lady has dropped out to make way for it. The overall result is positive as Dive is a much better song than Lady Lady.


    Rockabilly revivalists Stray Cats had a number of top forty hits in the 1980s. Last year some stray young goats followed them into the top forty with Chk Chk Boom,a song that entered and left the chart while I was on holiday without me noticing. Now South Korean boyband Stray Kids (yes, another one) are back with Ceremony at number 37. To put it mildly, it is dreadful. I’m now listening to the New Order song of the same name to recover.


    This week’s random new entry is a track from Rihanna’s 2007 album Good Girl Gone Bad. Breakin’ dishes enters at number 40 to give Ms Fenty her first top forty hit since 2022. She hasn’t released an album since Anti in 2016. Before that, she had released seven albums in as many years up to 2012. Breakin’ Dishes is Rihanna’s 51st top forty single.


    There is also a random re-entry in the form of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida at number twenty. It has been in the chart for most of the year but has now been given a boost after the Official Charts Company allowed it to revert to the Standard Chart Ratio, meaning that its streams now have the same value as those of newer songs. The song topped the chart in 2008. Oh, and there’s another one. Their first big hit Yellow (number four in 2000) has received the same treatment, so it is back at number nineteen.


    Last weekend Chappell Roan was one of the headline acts at the Reading and Leeds festival. There was a time when the audience, largely rock fans, would have recoiled in horror at this. However, her performance was very well-received and Hot To Go returns to the chart at number 28.



    The Hope & Anchor pub in Islington became well-known in the 1970s as one of the venues to host early gigs by a number of punk bands including The Stranglers. It also featured in the video for Madness’s One Step Beyond single. A chance meeting with another band at an open mic night in the pub in 2010 led to Wolf Alice getting their first gig as a support act to April In The Shade. That band went nowhere, but Wolf Alice have done rather better. Their first two albums reached number two before the third, Blue Weekend, went to number one in 2021. They now have a second chart-topping album with their fourth release The Clearing.


    American alternative metal band released their first album in 1995 and have continued to put out a new set every few years since then. For a long time their biggest success was with their eponymous 2003 release which peaked at number seven. However, a combination of a loyal fan base and low albums sales saw them beat that with their two most recent releases, both of which made it to number five. They now get a new high with Private Music at number two.


    Some people are forever saddled with being known more for who they are not than for who they are. Laufey will always be known to many people as the Icelandic female singer-songwriter who isn’t Bjork. Her full name is Laufey Lin Bing Jonsdottir which also makes her the Bing who isn’t Crosby. This week she gets her first top ten album with A Matter Of Time at number three.


    The dictionary definition of optimism might well be booking tickets for the final dates of this year’s Oasis reunion tour. Nonetheless, the Gallaghert brothers have - so far at least - avoided a massive falling-out and the tour has now moved on to the USA. Their Time Flies collection remains in the top five, at number four. A highly expensive boxed set of all their studio albums is at number 39.  Alex warren’sYou’ll Be Alright Kid is at number five.


    Irish folk band Kingfishr (sic) are at number seven with Halcyon. Pendulum are at number eight with Inertia, their first new album for seven years.


    Artists, and their record labels, now find themselves with a decision to make once an album has been recorded, mixed, edited etc. If they are enjoying singles chart success, perhaps for the first time, there is a temptation to get the album out top the public as soon as possible. However, that is likely to mean releasing it for download and streaming only with physical copies coming along later, thereby potentially consigning it to a lower chart position. Sombr currently has three songs in the top forty, so it is understandable that his record label decided to release his album I Barely Know Her without waiting for physical copies. The best of the songs are very good although there are a couple that I would describe as filler. For now, it is at number ten. It remains to be seen whether it climbs higher when physical copies are available.


    Royel Otis make their chart debut with their second album Hickey at number fourteen. Stray Kids (see above) are at number 22 with Karma (not Chameleon or Police). Rudimental return to the chart after a four-year absence with Rudim3ntal at number 31.


    Ten years ago Tyler The Creator reached number sixteen with Cherry Bomb. A new edition of the album has done half as well. It is at number 32.


    Over their long career, The Who have played several gigs at various cricket grounds around the country. A recording of their gig at Surrey’s ground The Oval in 1971 is at number 40 (I think).




  18. Golden, the single whose credited artists take nearly as long to say as the length of the song itself, spends a third week at number one. HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and All had a healthy lead in Wednesday’s update so we may have to endure this for a while yet. The best single with the word Golden in the title is Suede’s Life Is Golden whose video was filmed in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat which has been abandoned since the Chernobyl disaster.


    Disco Lines and Tinashe continue their steady progress up the chart. No Broke Boys climbs one place to number two. Chappell Roan’s Subway is at number four. Time for another deep breath. Soda Pop by Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast, Dave Dee, Dozy Beaky, Mick and Tich is at number three. The same artists are at number six with Saja Boys.


    MK and Chrystal slip one place to number five with Dior.


    At the start of this year Olivia Dean had one hit single to her name - a random version of The Christmas Song that charted in 2021 and hasn’t been seen again since. She had a couple weeks in the top forty with a new song at the start of this year, but in the last few months her chart career has really taken off. She reached the top[ ten for the first time, alongside Sam Fender, in June before getting her first solo top ten single shortly afterwards. 


    Olivia Dean now has four singles in the chart. As only the lead artist is counted, her duet with Sam Fender doesn’t count towards her limit of three songs in the chart. She has two new entries this week. Man I Need is at number eight, immediately becoming her highest charting solo single, while Lady Lady is at number 38. The gap in chart positions is a fair reflection of the quality of the two songs.


    Gunna has a new entry at number 34 with WGFT, an entity that features additional contributions from Burnah Boy. Frankly, I wish they hadn’t bothered. At a guess, WGFT either stands for Wednesday Goes ‘Fore Thursday or We Give Free Tea.


    Twice, appropriately enough, have two songs in the chart, adding to the KPop Demon Hunters tally.. Takedown is joined by Strategy at number 35. Incidentally, the ‘w’ in the word two used to be pronounced. Its retention in the spelling preserves the link with words such as twelve, twenty, between and, of course, twice. As a further aside, I have no idea why there is no ‘u’ in forty. I'd love it to be because it means the letters are all in alphabetical order, but it probably isn’t.


    Anyway, back to the actual top forties. The introduction of the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR), whereby the value of streams is cut by half for a song that has been in the chart for at least ten weeks and has seen reduced streams for the last three weeks, has made it more difficult for a song to spend prolonged periods in the top ten. Benson Boone’s feat of getting two lengthy runs in the upper tier is, therefore, particularly notable. It first reached the top ten in February of last year (cue Killers song going through head) and stayed there for seventeen successive weeks before going on to ACR. 


    Beautiful Things returned to the top ten in February this year (having increased its streams by enough to get it back on the standard ratio) and remained there for another 16-week run. It has remained close to (or back in) the top ten ever since. That is, until this week. Another three weeks of declining streams means that it is back on ACR and it slumps to number 32. It has now spent a total of 34 weeks in the top ten and 54 weeks (just over a year) in the top twenty. That total of 54 weeks is more than any non-Christmas single in UK chart history. The longest consecutive run in the top twenty is still held by Mr ‘Acker’ Bilk’s Stranger On The Shore which had a 37-week run beginning in December 1961.



    Now it is time for the latest episode in the occasional series UK Town With Little Or No Musical History. Wikipedia’s list of musicians to have come from Bedford includes people such as members of Squeeza and Keane, but Tom Grennan is really the only one to be anywhere near a household name. Even he is hardly rated alongside the likes of Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran in the fame stakes. Still; Grennan has achieved something that neither Sheeran nor Swift has managed this week - he has the number one album in the UK. Time for yet another deep breath. Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be is Grennan’s third number one album following Evering Road (2021) and What Ifs & Maybes (2023). His 2018 debut Lighting Matches reached number five.


    Each of American singer-songwriter Conan Gray’s albums has peaked higher than its predecessor in the UK. That continues this week as Wishbone lands at number two. Anyone with a vinyl copy who doesn’t live the sleeve art cou;ld always burn it, thereby creating some Wishbone ash.

    Oasis still have two albums in the top five. Their Time Flies compilation is at number three, one place ahead of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. Outside the top five, Definitely Maybe is at number nine.


    Nottingham band As December Falls have fallen into the habit of releasing albums in the summer. The last of those albums, Join The Club, gave them their first taste of chart success when it reached number eleven two years ago. This week the follow-up, Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine is at number eight.


    Alison Goldfrapp’s second solo album, Flux, is at number thirteen. US country singer Jordan Davis has a top forty album at the third attempt with Learn The Hard Way at number 25. OneRepublic may have had six top ten singles, but their popularity has declined somewhat since then. A compilation under the boring title The Collection is at number 29.


    A brief episode in the occasional series Albums By Acts From Brighton now. Black Honey are at number 31 with Soak.


    Now it’s time for a bumper episode in the regular series This Week’s Anniversary releases. The first of two this week is a sign that things are getting silly. For reasons best known to her record company, we get a first anniversary edition of Billie Eilish’s Hit me Hard And Soft. The original release topped the chart last year and has remained in the top thirty since then. The anniversary edition sees it back in the top ten at number ten. Former One Directioner Niall Horan gets a fifth anniversary edition of his chart-topping Heartbreak Weather. The album re-enters at number 23 having last been in the top forty just a couple weeks after it was released.


    While Bedford's list of successful musicians is rather short, Sheffield’s list is substantially greater. Many of the acts on the list, such as Pulp, Arctic Monkeys and Reverend And The Makers played some of their early gigs at The Leadmill in their home city. Sadly, a dispute with the landlord led to the venue closing at the end of June. As a southerner, I never got to visit one of the country’s best-known smaller venues, but its loss will be heavily felt by Sheffield’s musicians and music fans. Arctic Monkeys' excellent 2013 release AM is one of the albums that now has a permanent place in the top forty. Its current run started in July 2022 and it has now accumulated 306 weeks in the top forty.



    Finally, many thanks to John (Popchartfreak) for his commentaries while I have been on holiday, enjoying the French sun, food and wine and getting through plenty of books. Thanks to the ereader, my days of suffering from abibliophobia are now consigned to history.


  19. MK and Chrystal’s single Dior spends a second week at number one. Lewis Capaldi's Survive therefore remains the only 2025 number one to spend just seven days at the top. Only two other songs have been single-week number ones in the last twelve months.


    Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild remains at number two. She has accumulated a total of fourteen weeks at number two to add to her 23 weeks at number one in the singles chart giving her a total of almost nine months in the top two since June last year. Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas climb three places to number three with Blessings. It is Harris’s 25th top five hit and Douglas’s first. Her first chart hit was as a featured artist on an MK song.


    Justin Bieber sprang a surprise last week by releasing a new album. Surprise album releases are always a risk. Part of the risk is that they will come without any single releases to build up momentum before the album is released. Predictably, three songs from the album (the most allowed in the chart by one artist under current rules) are in the top forty. Unusually though, one of them is much higher than the other two. That song is Daisies which is a new entry at number four. Yukon is at number 32, one place ahead of All I Can Take. Bieber has now had 60 top forty singles, 28 of them reaching the top ten. The charting songs just happen to be the first three tracks on the album. The fact that third track Yukon is not very good (the other two are decent enough) perhaps put casual listeners off hearing any more of it.


    Ed Sheeran’s Sapphire climbs four places to a new peak at number five.


    There is just one other new entry to report. Sadly, it’s more K-Pop, this time in the form of a new single from Blackpink. Jump is their first single for two years and it is a new entry at number eighteen. Their only single to chart higher was a collaboration with Lady Gaga which reached number seventeen.


    Still on the subject of K-Pop, Golden from the soundtrack of a film about it climbs into the top ten at number nine.


    After three weeks of declining streams, two songs with long runs in the top ten have gone on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR). With the value of their streams now halved, the songs have been banished from the upper tier. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not has crashed nineteen places to number 22 after thirteen weeks in the top ten. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club slums 25 places to number 30 after a massive 22 weeks in the top ten. Alex Warren’s thirteen-week number one Ordinary has been on ACR for four weeks but is still picking up enough streams to remain in the top ten.



    In the music industry the Isle Of Wight is generally better known for its festival than for its musicians. The only bands of note from the island are Level 42 and, more recently, Wet Leg. The latter band topped the chart in 2022 with their eponymous debut album. Now they have done so again with their second set Moisturizer. While I haven’t yet heard the whole album, I have found the tracks I’ve heard so far rather disappointing.


    There are still three Oasis albums in the top five and they all fall one place this week. The Time Flies compilation is now at number two, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory is at three and debut album Definitely Maybe is at five.The band has now spent 162 weeks in the top ten of the albums chart and 1,001 weeks in the top forty. If anyone has a list of artists with 1,000 or more weeks in the top forty albums, perhaps they would like to share it with us.


    Completing the top five is the aforementioned album by Justin Bieber, Swag, at number four. It is his seventh top ten album. Those albums have spent a total of 55 weeks in the top ten.


    After a short absence, the person who writes the Official Chart Company’s albums chart summary has chosen to remind us of his or her fondness of the word multihyphenate. This time s/he has used it to describe Burna Boy. As in the past, its use is a bit of a stretch as all his listed talents are in the music industry. A true multihyphenate might for example, be a successful songwriter /  performer as well as being an acclaimed actor and writing as best-selling novel. Anyway, Burna Boy is at number six with No Sign Of Weakness.


    While she has been absent from the singles chart for some time, Amy McDonald is still capable of making it into the albums chart. The Scottish singer has reached the top ten with every studio album and she continues that run with Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For at number eight.


    We have heard a lot recently about how Teddy Swims. However, Scottish DJ and producer Joshua Mainnie would like to inform us that Barry Can’t Swim. Loner, his second studio album under that moniker, is at number ten.


    It will already have become clear to regular readers that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet has dropped out of the top five after a record-breaking 46 weeks. In fact, the number of high new entries and the endurance of three Oasis albums means that it has dropped out of the top ten. It stands at number eleven this week.


    There are two other new entries in the top forty. Let God Sort Em Out, a collaboration between Clipse, Pusha T and Malice, is at number sixteen. Californian singer-songwriter Giveon is at number 38 with Beloved. 


    Now that the school holiday has begun, I will be heading for France next week to enjoy some sunshine (I hope). Therefore, for the next four weeks, Popchartfreak will be delivering his alternative chart commentary.


  20. Regular readers will know, or will have guessed, that I write at least some of a week’s commentary before the chart is unveiled on Friday. In particular, I might write about the number ones in one or both charts. If the race is close, I have two main choices. I can write two alternative versions. When the chart was announced on a Sunday (and that last happened ten years ago), I would often write two alternative versions. That has become more difficult with the chart being unveiled on a weekday.


    My tactic now tends to be a little different. I can write paragraphs about each of the contenders, including the significance of each of them getting to number one. Then, when the final outcome is announced on Radio 1, I can just write a short paragraph saying what has happened. 


    That strategy works reasonably well when there are two contenders for number one. It becomes rather more awkward when there are four. That made things difficult this week when the top four were separated by only around 2,000 sales. Clearly, I am not going to write 24 different versions to allow for each possible permutation. So, let’s stick with the other alternative.


    One of the contenders, although it was in third place on Monday, was last week’s number one, Lewis Capaldi’s Survive. He spent seven weeks at number one with Someone You Loved, but each of his four subsequent chart-toppers spent just a week each at number one. By Wednesday’s update, it looked very likely that Survive would be a fifth seven-day wonder as it had fallen to number four.


    The song in pole position on both Monday and Wednesday was last week’s number two, Dior by MK featuring Chrystal. If it finished the week still at the top of the pile, it would be a first number one for both artists. This would be a particularly impressive achievement for MK whose first chart entry came in 1995, although he didn’t reach the top forty until the same song, Always, reached number twelve.


    Also in contention was Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild. Two of her three number one singles last year had two spells at number one in their chart run, and all three spent at least four weeks at the top. Two of those songs were at numbers one and two last week. Manchild’s performance to date, then, is modest by comparison.


    The fourth possibility has spent nineteen weeks in the top forty so far, more than the other three combined. Ravyn Lenae’s Love me Not has spent four weeks at number two, but by last week it was at number four. Could it finally climb to the top in its twentieth week in the top forty?


    So, what happened? MK duly gets that first number one in a thirty-year chart career as Dior climbs three places to the top. Sabrina Carpenter climbs to number two with Manchild. Ravyn Lenae spends its twentieth week in the top forty at number three. Lewis Capaldi gets another seven-day number one as Survive drops to number four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains tethered at number five.


    It’s just as well there was an exciting contest at the top of the chart as there is a distinct lack of brand new songs in the top forty. To make it even more boring, the sole brand new song is the 97th top forty hit from Drake, What Did I Miss? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I missed a large part of the “song” as I couldn’t bear it any longer. It is at number 27.



    Last week’s list of new album releases was very short. A cunning record company could have looked at the list and changed the release date for one of their relatively unknown artists in the hope that they would bag the number one. However, none of them did so. That has left us with a top four comprising three albums from the same band and an album that has taken up permanent residence in the top five.


    The final outcome highlighted one of the issues many people have with the way streams contribute to the albums chart. A single stream of a song can contribute to three different chart entries. It contributes to the song’s standing in the singles chart, the studio album on which it appeared (if any), and a Greatest Hits-type album (if any). 


    In the wake of their first gigs since their acrimonious split, it is not surprising that the most-streamed Oasis songs are from their first two albums, and that many of those songs also appear on their Time Flies compilation released in 2010. The track listing of Time Flies is heavily biased towards those two albums, meaning that streams of that whole album will contribute significantly towards both those parent albums and Time Flies. 


    That helps to explain why Time Flies is the most popular Oasis album in the chart this week and it has gone all the way to the top. It went to number one when it was released. Fifteen years later, it finally gets a second week at the top.


    Their debut album Definitely Maybe clocked up its 600th week in the full chart (top 100) last week. Like Time Flies, it only spent one week at the top when it was released. That album had to wait thirty years for a second week at the top last year. It is at number four this week.


    Oasis’s biggest album in chart terms is their second set (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. Once again, it initially topped the chart for one week. However, it went on to spend a total of ten weeks at number one between its debut in October 1995 and March the following year. It has spent104 more weeks (two years) in the chart than Definitely maybe.


    Returning, briefly, to the singles chart, note that I specifically referred to brand new songs. There is another new entry, but it isn’t a new song. Acquiesce by Oasis, the song in question, was originally the b-side of Some Might Say, the band’s first number one single. As with many Oasis b-side, it could easily have been a single in its own right but only appeared on an album when they released Masterplan, a collection of b-sides. In their comeback shows it has been the second song in their set, following the predictable opening song Hello. As one of thew few songs where the Gallagher brothers share the lead vocals, it was a logical choice to be part of the set opening. It now makes its chart debut at number seventeen. It is the band’s 27th top forty hit. The song was certified platinum (300,000 “sales“) just three months ago. Now it leaves the list of songs that have been certified platinum without ever making the top forty. Thanks to DanielCarey at Buzzjack for that information.


    Two other Oasis tracks return to the top forty, and they are both higher than the Drake new entry. Justice! Live Forever became Oasis’s first top ten hit when it reached number ten in 1994. Following the announcement of new dates last year, it returned to the top forty at a nwe peak of number eight. It is back again at number nineteen.


    Another Oasis number one, Don’t Look Back In Anger returned to the chart in 2017 when it became an unofficial Manchester anthem following the terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in the city. It was also one of the songs that returned last year and now returns at number eighteen.


    Sabrina Carpenter prevents Oasis filling up the whole to three. Her Short ‘n’ Sweet album is at number three. Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour Collection is at number five.


    As a proud pedant, I regard a self-titled album to be one where the artist has chosen the title rather than leaving it for someone else to do. An album that sheares its name with that of the artist is eponymous. However, Kate Tempest's new album is literally self-titled. That is what it is called. It is this week’s sole new entry at number 25.


    This week’s anniversary edition is of Hard-Fi’s 2005 debut Stars Of CCTV. The album originally went to number one, as did its successor Once Upon A Time In The West. Sadly, they released just one more album (which reached number nine) before splitting up. The new edition is at number eighteen.


  21. After being dislodged from number one last week by the return of Alex Warren’s Ordinary, Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild returns the compliment by going back to the top this week. Three of Carpenter’s number one singles have now returned to the summit after being toppled. 


    It used to be a rarity for songs to return to number one, but it has become more commonplace in recent years. However, an ABAB pattern (with songs alternating single weeks at number one) is still unusual. It last happened in 1969 when The Scaffold’s Lily the Pink and marmalade’s version of Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da spent four weeks swapping places with each other. One of the Scaffold members went under the name of Mike McGear. His real name was Mike McCartney whose brother was a Beatle and who wrote On-La-Di-Ob-L-Da. If we ever get an ABACAB pattern, perhaps there will be a Genesis rerelease to celebrate it.


    Thanks to Liam Sota at Buzzjack for pointing out that Sabrina Carpenter and Alex Warren have occupied the number one spot for an astonishing 36 of the last 62 weeks. Their total for all previous weeks was precisely zero. They did, of course, have an excuse for most of those weeks as they hadn’t been born.


    Even though Ordinary returned to number one last week, it did so with fewer streams than the previous week. A further decline means that it is now on the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR) and the value of its streams are now halved. As a result, it has fallen to number nine. It is almost certain that it would still be at number one if its streams were still counted in line with the Standard Chart Ratio (SCR). Readers will have their own views on whether a song should be denied weeks at number one by this chart rule.


    MK and Chrystal’s Dior moves up three places to number two while Ravyn Lenae stays at number three with Love Me Not. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club falls to number five, its lowest position since February.


    Fred Again is back in the chart again with this week’s highest new entry at number four. He is joined on Victory Lap by skepta (who features on another new entry much lower down the chart) and PlagueBoyMax (not his real name) who enters the chart for the first time.


    Rossi. joins the ranks of artists who insist on having a full-stop as part of their name as he enters at number 33 with High On Me. It features Jazzy who gets a fifth top forty hit as a result.


    Pinkpantheress scores her sixth top forty single with Illegal at number 36. Her biggest hit remains Boy’s A Liar which reached number two in 2023.


    Sombr gets his third top forty single with We Never Dated, a song that certain Beach Boys feel to it. A fitting tribute to Brian Wilson, and a lovely new entry for the summer. His other two hits are still in the higher reaches of the chart.


    After several years performing without chart success, Sammy Virji enters the top forty for the first time with Cops And Robbers at number 39 with the help of featured artist Skepta, someone with a rather longer chart history. Let’s just say it’s not my thing. The best chart single with the word robber in its title remains The Clash’s Bankrobber. 


    Gracie Abrams’ former chart-topper That’s So True returns at number 38. It hasn’t fallen any lower that number 41 since it entered the chart last October, surviving even the wave of Christmas songs.



    In most weeks, the first albums chart update shows a number of new entries spread throughout the top forty. Many of those albums won’t make the chart by the end of the week. This week, things were a little different.The number of new entries in the top forty was seven, a fairly standard number. However, all of them were in the top ten, including the whole of the top five. By Friday, the top four were all new entries. The one survivor from last week’s top five ensured that a chart record continued.


    Yungblud’s new album Idols started the week at the top and stayed there all week to give the Doncastrian born Dominic Harrison his third consecutive number one. It follows Weird! (2020) and Yungblud (2023).


    The UK chart’s favourite spoonerism Benjamin Coyle-Larner, recording as Loyle Carner (see what he did there?) enters at number two with his fourth album Hopefully. That optimistic title beats his two previous albums which both got to number three.


    American sister-fronted band Haim are at number three with I Quit. They are one of the bands rumoured to be filling one of the vacant slots at this weekend’s Glastonbury Festival. Another act rumoured to be playing are Pulp whose excellent album Moree topped the chart two weeks ago. It continues is relative gentle slide this week (compared with most similar acts) by falling to number 29.


    Benson Boone released his debut album Fireworks and Rollerblades in April last year, just after Beautiful Things climbed to the top of the singles chart. The album reached a rather disappointing number sixteen. His second album American Heart has done rather better by debuting at number four. Beautiful Things remains in the top forty, at number fourteen this week.


    The aforementioned sole survivor from last week’s top five is Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet. It therefore extends its record-breaking run (for a studio album) to 44 weeks in the top five.


    The Official Charts Company’s (OCC) chart summariser seems to have tired of using the word multihyphenate, so has resorted to hyperbole instead this week by describing Aitch as Manchester's finest. This comes in a piece which also describes the presence of three Oasis albums in the top forty. Aitch doesn’t appear to be Manchester’s finest mathematician (that, arguably is Alan Turing who worked at the university and has a statue there to commemorate him) either as he has called his sixth album 4. It is at number seven.


    Thankfully, the unnamed OCC writer didn’t describe the little-known metal band Malevolence as Sheffield’s finest. One of the genuine contenders for that title have already had a mention here. He has listed their names though and one of them (Alex Taylor) has a name very similar to that of the singer with another of the contenders. Malevolence make their chart debut with their fourth album Where Only The Truth Is Spoken at number 32.


    The final new entry comes from Lucy Spraggan who is at number 36 with Other Sides Of The Moon. Whether she is referring to sides other than the dark one, I know not. 


    Among the re-entries are Lana Del Rey’s 2012 debut album Born To Die at number and Oasis’s Definitely Maybe at number 37. These are both due to current or imminent UK tours. There may be others next week resulting from coverage of Glastonbury on the BBC this weekend. Make the most of it. There is no festival this year and there are suggestions that a streaming service might outbid the BBC for the next contract, running from 2028.


  22. Whatever you may think of Lewis Capaldi’s music, it is surely hard as a fellow human being not to sympathise with him for his experience at Glastonbury two years ago. His Tourette’s syndrome forced him to abandon his set. This year, he chose to play his first live show since then at the same venue and he wowed the audience in a way many of his critics may be reluctant to acknowledge. Oh, and his first cousin once removed, former Doctor Peter Capaldi, joined Franz Ferdinand for Take Me Out in a genuine surprise appearance. Just for the record, Capaldi had enjoyed a highly successful acting career before becoming the twelfth Doctor.


    Where was I? I seem to have got distracted, just for a change. Ah yes, Lewis Capaldi.  His Glastonbury appearance just happened to coincide with the release of a new single, Survive. Isn’t it amazing how these things work out? Coverage of his first live appearance for two years and a bunch of CD copies have combined to give Capaldi a sixth number one single. His debut album, Divinely Inspired To A Hellish Extent is back in the top forty at number fifteen. It was released in 2019, spending ten weeks at number one, and was last in the top forty in April last year. This is its 248th week inthe top forty.


    Dior by MK featuring Chrystal is still at number two. Sabrina Carpenter’s manchild falls to number three after a second non-consecutive week at number one. Ravyn Lenae is down one place to number four with Love Me Not. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is still at number five. It has been in the top five since the middle of February, a run of 21 weeks.


    Alex Warren’s first new song to be released after Ordinary’s marathon run at number one was ended by the application of chart rules might have been expected to be a high new entry. However, On My Mind enters at a rather modest number 37. It features Rosé which could have been bad news. Thankful, this song is a vast improvement on Apt.


    It is many years since I went to the cinema. The last film I saw there was The Imitation Game. One of the types of film least likely to tempt me back would be a K-Pop film. It is safe to say that I am not part of the target audience for K-Pop Demon Hunters. The song How It’s Done by Huntr/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami does nothing to change that. The number of people who disagree with me and have streamed it makes it a new entry at number 40.


    How It’s Done is not the only thing from K-Pop Demon Hunters to enter the chart this week. There is more. Eek. Your Idol by (take a deep breath) Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee (yes, really) and K-Pop Demon Hunters Cast is at number 34. I assume Uncle Tom Cobley and all were unavailable. Huntr/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami do their lack of magic again on Golden which is at number 31. With all of the BTS members having completed their compulsory military service, they have promised a new album for next year. Oh joy.


    Among the many non-movers in the top forty this week is Lola Young’s One Thing. It has spent four of the last five weeks at number nineteen. 




    It has become part of the Glastonbury tradition that there will be a few slots across the weekend designated either as TBA (To Be Announced) or by the use of an obviously fake band name. Some of the acts are a genuine surprise, while other names have been widely guessed before the festival gets underway. For example, it was no surprise that the band billed as Patchwork turned out to be Pulp. Note that the “denials” were very much along the lines of the “We have no plans to…” non-denial used by politicians. Obviously, Pulp were brilliant. Lewis Cpaldi’s set was also not on the original schedule.


    The earliest non-surprise was an appearance by Lorde, a riff from whose song Green Light was used to introduce the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage some years ago. She used her appearance to play her new album, Virgin, in full, an unusual way to use a festival appearance. It is more common to use it as a chance to do something akin to a greatest hits set, but why waste a golden opportunity to plug a new album?


    As with Lewis Capaldi, the free promotion of a Glastonbury slot has benefitted Lorde immensely. Although her previous three releases have all reached the top five, Virgin becomes her first album to top the chart. What Was That, a single from the album re-enters the top forty at number 35. It reached number eleven in May.


    Many people used the enforced extra spare time given by measures to protect thee population against Covid to learn new skills. Bruce Springstten used the time to trawl through his vast archive of unreleased songs. He released one such collection back in 1998 which covered material recorded before 1983. His new collection, Tracks II: The Lost Albums covers the period from 1983 to 2018. As the title suggests, the seven-CD set is not just a random collection of songs. Springsteen has arranged the songs effectively to create seven separate albums. Despite the inevitably high cost (although a single-CD highlights collection is also available), the album has made it to number two.


    Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number three in its 45th consecutive week in the top five. It was already the longest consecutive run in the top five for a studio album. Now it is also the longest run for a solo album, beating Elvis Presley’s GI Blues soundtrack album. Ed Sheeran’s Tour collection is at number four.


    London-born, US-based, self-proclaimed Scot Rod Stewart filled Glastonbury’s popular Legends slot on Sunday afternoon. Guess what? He just happened to release a new hits compilation last week. What are the chances? Despite the fact that hits compilations are a bit redundant in the streaming age, Ultimate Hits is at number five.


    Oasis’s long-awaited live comeback starts this weekend in Cardiff. Their hits compilation Time Flies is at number six. Definitely Maybe is at number 26 and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory is at number fourteen.


    Veteran singer Barbra Streisand just about sneaks a 30th top forty album. The Secret Of Life: Partners Volume Two is at number 40. It is a collection of duets featuring singers such as Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey and Sting.


  23. After it was replaced at number one last week, people might have thought that Alex Warren’s Ordinary had had its time at the top. The first signs that they were wrong came on Sunday when it was back at number one in the first update of the week. It is still there at the end of the week, giving it a thirteenth week at number one in total. It thereby creates another chart record. Its return to the top after an initial twelve week run shatters the record set by Frankie Laine’s I Believe way back in 1953. That song’s first run at number one lasted for nine weeks before it lost its hold on the top spot. However, after just one week, it returned and stayed there for a further six weeks. It then bounced back up again for a three week run. Its total of eighteen weeks at number one remains a record over seventy years later.


    The return of Alex Warren to the top spot means that Sabrina Carpenter’s fourth number one Manjchild comes to an end after just one week. Of course, she may yet return to extend her run.


    Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not remains at number three with Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club another non-mover, at number four. The big mover of the week is MK and Chrystal’s Dior which jumps twelve places to number five.


    Most of this week’s new entries come from, or feature, acts with a relatively long chart history. The first (measured simply by the order in which I am covering them)comes from Twenty One Pilots who made their top forty debut with Stressed Out in 2016. They haven’t exactly been regular visitors to the top forty since then. The Contract, a new entry at number 33, is only their fourth single to reach the top forty although others have spent time in the lower reaches of the chart.


    Mark Ronson’s first chart outing came in 2003 when Ooh Wee reached number fifteen. His first major success came with his 2007 album Version, a collection of cover versions with guest singers. That included his version of The Zutons’ Valerie with Amy Winehouse on vocals. Ronson had previously produced many of the songs on Winehouse’s classic back To Black album. Suzanne, a new entry at number 34, features vocals from Raye and is Ronson’s thirteenth top forty hit, his first since 2019.


    Regular readers will know that I am a bit of a Sparks fan. Unfortunately, old age and the need to be up for work in the morning meant that I didn’t see either of their London gigs this week. However, thye band does join the list of chart acts whose name has also been the title of a top forty single. Rather unexpectedly, it has happened because Coldplay’s song Sparks, from their debut alum Parachutes released in 2000, is a new entry at number 40. Coldplay made their singles chart debut in the same year.


    The song which least deserves to be described as being from an act with a long chart history is the one where that act, Tinashe, is the featured artist. In fact, all three of her top forty hits since 2015 has seen her in a featuring role. On No Broke Boys, which enters at number 37, she plays second fiddle to Disco Lines, a new name to the top forty.


    The exception to the established acts rule comes from BTS member J-hope. His first top forty single as a solo artist came as recently as 2023. He now gets his second with Killin’ It girl at number 30. It features GloRilla which I’m guessing isn’t their real name.


    The Black Eyed Peas’ Rock That Body has been allowed back in to the top forty at number 35. It reached number eleven in 2010.



    The writer of the Official Chart Company’s write-up of the albums chart is still proudly using their new word, multihyphenate. This week they have used it to describe James Marriott, the Brighton-based musician who has a surprise number one album this week. His previous album reached number seventeen but a social media fanbase has propelled Don’t Tell The Dog all the way to the top.


    A combination of a new (very expensive) vinyl edition and the imminence of their live comeback has lifted Oasis’s Time Flies compilation to number two.


    Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number three. It has been in the top five for 43 consecutive weeks, a new record for a studio album. It has a little way to go to beat the South Pacific soundtrack album which entered the top five in April 1958 and stayed there until October 1961. It spent 114 weeks at number one, including the whole of 1959.


    For many years Van Morrison was one of the most highly-acclaimed singer-songwriters. Chart watchers have also been able to comment on the fact that Astral Weeks, an album which regularly features on critics’ lists of the best albums of all time, was not a hit. Later albums have been more successful. His reputation took a bit of a knock when he rai9led against measures taken to protect people from Covid, including recording a song about it. However, his latest album, Remembering Now, has been well received and it is a new entry at number eleven.


    To the delight of many, The Cure reached number one with their Songs Of A Lost World album topped the chart last year. They have now released an album of remixes o songs from that record and it is at number nine this week.


    New York rapper Lil Tecca is at number seventeen with Dopamine. AJ Tracey 37 with the cheerfully-titled Don’t Die Before You’re Dead.


    Last week saw the sad news of the death of Brian Wilson, the last surviving of the three brothers who formed The Beach Boys. It is impossible to exaggerate just how revolutionary songs such as God Only Knows and Good Vibrations sounded when they were released in 1966, almost sixty years ago. The news came too late to influence last week’s chart but their 1983 compilation The Very Best Of The Beach Boys is at number 32 this week.


  24. After many weeks when Alex Warren’s Ordinary finished well clear of all  rivals at the top of the singles chart, he finally faced a real challenge this week. It came from Sabrina Carpenter with her new single Manchild.

    In Monday's update, Manchild had a fairly clear lead over Ordinary. However, by Wednesday the lead had narrowed leaving the final outcome in doubt. The lack of an additional update yesterday (Thursday) was perhaps a hint that  Sabrina Carpenter’s lead had either stabilised or even increased.

    Whether the lack of news on Thursday was a hint or not, Alex Warren has finally been toppled. Ordinary is down to number two after a far from ordinary twelve weeks at the top. Only four songs have had a longer continuous run at the top. Two of them are by Canadian solo artists, Drake and Bryan Adams. One is by a Scottish band, Wet Wet Wet, and the other is by an English singer, Ed Sheeran.


    That finally leaves the way for a new chart-topper. Sabrina Carpenter had three number one singles last year. Manchild is her first of 2025. All four songs have used only one word in the title although one of them did use that word three times. Neneh Cherry’s song of the same name reached number five in 1989.


    Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not is back down to number three. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is at number four. Thanks to Jimwatts at Buzzjack for pointing out that Pink Pony Club is the ninth song to spend eighteen consecutive weeks in the top five and the first by a female solo artist.


    Sombr’s Undressed falls one place to number five. He is also at number seven with Back To Friends.


    Ed Sheeran’s new album is still a few months away. Sapphire, a new single from the album, enters at number nine. The song has a slightl;y odd start before becoming one of Sheerans lively songs. It is his 43rd top ten, and 65th top forty, hit.  His 42nd top ten hit Azizam is one place lower, at number ten. The cover art for Sapphire is very similar to that of Moby’s album Play. Play just happens to be the title of the forthcoming Sheeran album.


    As a follow-up to The Days, Chrystal has made a shameless pitch to receive some free stuff by teaming up with MK to release a song called Dior. That has to be more attractive than a weekend in Milton Keynes. The song is a new entry at number seventeen.


    Teddy Swims’ Lose Control has spent the last five weeks outside the top forty. In that time, it hasn’t dropped any lower than number 45. This week it is back up to number 40. Chappell Roan’s Good Luck Babe returns at number 38 and Gracie Abrams’ That’s So true re-enters one place higher.



    It is very easy for me to find out when I first saw Pulp perform live. It was the day that Arsenal played Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup final, 15 May 1993. How is that significant? It was at the Highbury Garage, Arsenal were still playing at Highbury and Pulp were a band from Sheffield.


    At the time, Pulp were a band who had been together for 15 years but were still playing at small venues. The Garage had a capacity of just 600. However, they were finally starting to get noticed and the following year they had their first top forty single with So You Remember The First Time?


    Back at the Garage gig, it was immediately apparent that Jarvis Cocker was a brilliantly flamboyant front-man. By August the following year, they were playing on the main stage at the Reading Festival and I was in the audience once again. Unusually for a festival set, they played a new song. So new that Jarvis Cocker had only finished writing it the day before. That song was Common People, the one that gave them major chart success the following year. Indeed, it was at number three this week thirty years ago.


    Jarvis Cocker also demonstrated his stage presence in one of my favourite Top of the Pops performances. Cocker had written Walk Like A Panther for Sheffield band All Seeing I. The song featured vocals by another Yorkshireman Tony Christie. However, when the band were asked to perform on Top of the Pops Christie was unavailable, so Cocker stepped in to take his place (although Christie’s vocals were also in the background).


    Pulp have disbanded and re-formed twice, re-forming most recently in 2023. The first re-formation was purely for live dates with no new album. This time, though, Jarvis Cocker decided that he had enough material (some written several years ago) to treat fans to something new. The result is More, an album which is very Pulp-like, meaning that it is mostly great. It becomes their third number one album after the classic Different Class (1995) and This Is hardcore (1998).


    The Official Charts Company (OCC) have reported excitedly that Addison Rae has scored her first top five album this week with Addisn at number two. As it is her debut album, the bit about it being her first in the top five is not really big news. Still, they have to generate headlines somehow.


    What is rather more noteworthy is that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number four. While two places below its more customary spot, its 42 successive weeks in the top five is a record for a solo female artist. Her previous five albums didn’t get anywhere near the top five although the EP Fruitcake did spend a week at number five last December, a year after it was released. Carpenter announced this week that she will be releasing a new album in August.


    Somebody at the OCC seems to have come across the word multihyphenate this week as it has been used to describe both Addison Rae and Little Simz. It doesn’t mean someone who uses lots of hyphens. Instead it means someone with several professions or skills. Little Simz is an actor as well as a rapper which apparently qualifies her as a multihyphenate .Her sixth album Lotus is at number three.


    Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection falls three places to number four.


    Marina Diamankis, now performing simply as Marina having dropped the Diamonds bit, is at number seven with Princess Of Power.


    With two Larsens and a Poulsen in their line-up it is no surprise that Volbeat are a Danish band. Their ninth studio set God Of Angels Trust is at number 24, giving them a fourth top forty album. American punk band Turnstile are at number eleven with Never Enough.


    This week’s anniversary edition is My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. My Chemical Romance’s second album reached number 34 when it was released twenty years ago. This new edition is at number nine.





  25. Alex Warren’s Ordinary spends a twelfth week at number one in the singles chart. Just four other songs have had a twelfth successive week at number one; all four of them managed at least one more week at the top. Ordinary now has the second longest time at the top for a first number one as the lead artist, behind Drake’s One dance which spent an interminable fifteen weeks there in 2016. He had spent time at number one before, but not as the lead artist. He was the featured artist on Rihanna’s What’s My Name.


    Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not goes back up to number two. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club slips to number three. It is in its seventeenth successive week in the top five. Sombr’s Undressed is still at number four. He now has two singles in the top ten as Back To Friends climbs to a new peak of number nine. Skye Newman’s Family Matters climbs to number five.


    The highest new entry of the week is Tate McRae’s Just Keep Watching at number ??? The song features in a film about people who drive cars very fast without actually going anywhere. It is co-written by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder who seemed to have a new entry almost every week a few years ago.


    Two of the remaining three new entries are also by female solo artists. Olivia Dean had her first hit with a Christmas song in 2021. However, she didn’t get another hit until earlier this year when It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be reached number 36. She now gets her second hit of the year with the rather soporific Nice To Each Other at number 28.


    One place above Olivia Dean, at number 27, Addison Rae has a new entry with Fame Is A Gun. As with Dean, this is Rae’s third top forty hit and her second this year. Her first hit was rather more recent though. Diet Pepsi was in the top ten last year. Fame Is A Gun has rather more life to it than the song one place below.


    Levi Heron gets his first top forty hit with The Glen at number 37. It is a dance remix of a song originally recorded by Scottish folk-rock act Beluga Lagoon in 2019. Levi Heron is both the first Levi and the first Heron to be named on a UK chart hit. The original version reached number 25 in the Sales Chart earlier this year.



    The top of the albums chart sends two very clear messages this week. One is about the state of the albums market in the middle of the 2020s; the other is more about a specific artist.


    Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection returns to number one. The album hasn’t been particularly successful by Sheeran’s standards. This is only its second week at the top after it climbed to the summit at the start of the year. Its presence at the top of the chat this week is a clear indication of just how low albums sales are.


    After spending a sixth non-successive week back at number one last week, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is now back in the more familiar surroundings of the number two spot. The album went straight to number one when it was released last autumn before falling one place to spend the first of a record-breaking 26th (and counting) week in second place.


    The second clear message is that the career of Miley Cyrus, never a massive album-selling artist, may be on the wane. In a low-sales week, her new album Something beautiful can only get to number three. Furthermore, there has been no hit single from the album.


    Two more compilations complete the top five. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years Don’t Stop collection is at number four. The Weeknd’s Highlights is at five.


    Garbage, one of those 90s indie bands who are still around, are at number 24 with Let All That We Imagine be The Light. Their seventh studio album is their lowest-charting set. Their previous low was with Strange Little Birds which peaked at number seventeen in 2016.


    The National released a new album at the end of last year but it didn’t get anywhere near the top forty. Their singer Matt Berninger has fared rather better with his second solo album. Get Sunk, which I prefer to his band’s material, is at number 27.