Say, you don’t think it’s the first chart of December, do you?

39.  Wham! – “Last Christmas”

Yes, the annual invasion of the festive back catalogue is upon is.  This is the seventh year running that “Last Christmas” has seen enough of a seasonal surge to make the top 75.  Last year it got to 36.  Originally a number 2 hit in Christmas 1984, when it had the misfortune to get stuck behind Band Aid.

38.  Ed Sheeran – “Make It Rain” 

One for the Ed Sheeran completists – a cover version that he did for the penultimate episode of Sons of Anarchy.  The original is by Foy Vance, a songwriter who once toured as Ed’s support act.  Thanks to Wikipedia, posterity is also informed that Vance appeared in an episode of Stars In Their Eyes twenty years ago, when he did the bloke from the Commitments.

With “Don’t” and “Thinking Out Loud” both still on the charts, Ed has three hits this week.  More of him later.

21.  Sia – “Chandelier”

Rebounding from 40, I believe because somebody did it on X Factor.

18.  The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl – “Fairytale of New York”

Yes, apparently there are still people out there who are only just figuring out they want a copy.  I guess new people enter the age range every year.  But even so, this is the tenth straight year that “Fairytale” has returned to the top 40.  And its position in the midweeks?  Nine.  Its highest position was number 2 on its original release in 1987.

17.  Mariah Carey – “All I Want For Christmas Is You”

Every year since 2007 for this one.  Its highest chart position was number 2 back on its original release in 1994.  It’s probably the most recent song to have joined the pantheon of unquestioned Christmas perennials.

16.  Ella Henderson – “Yours”

Back to normal service.  X Factor alumnus Henderson had a number 1 hit in June with her debut “Ghost”, but the follow-up got to 7, and this is at 16 (and going no further in the midweeks).  In fairness, this one comes after the release of the parent album “Chapter One”.  It’s actually a rather good ballad, and deserved to go higher.

7.  Blonde featuring Melissa Steel – “I Loved You”

Either there’s a very schizophrenic promotional strategy for Melissa Steel, or her promotion as a solo act is prompting other labels to dust off her session singer work.  This is her fourth chart appearance of the year – her own single “Kisses for Breakfast”, and her appearance on Krishane’s “Drunk and Incapable” are both pop-reggae tracks, and she actually appears in the videos to promote them.  But Kove’s “Way We Are” and Blonde’s “I Loved You” are straightforward dance tracks in which she doesn’t appear at all.

Blonde are producers Adam Englefield and Jacob Manson.  The song is a cover – the original is a 2004 album track by Tamia, a Canadian singer whose only UK chart appearance was as the guest singer on “Into You” by Fabolous, which got to 18 in 2003.

2.  Union J – “You Got It All”

Union J are the own brand One Direction, also brought to you by the House of Cowell.  They finished fourth on X Factor two years ago, and this is the first time they’ve made the top 5.  Normally a boy band doesn’t make it to album 2 with that sort of performance, but Cowell apparently sees something in them.  The script had this being their first number one single in a quiet week, and they were indeed on top of the midweek charts.

But it appears that the song – which is wretched boy band ballad schlock – had pretty much zero appeal outside the fan base, who had all bought it in the first couple of days, so that sales tailed off alarmingly by the end of the week.  The current midweeks show the song set to drop straight out of the top 20, which is the sort of thing we haven’t seen since the heyday of McFly.  (Incidentally, their single “Air Guitar”, which entered the chart last week at 12, drops to 62 this week.)

These guys are not One Direction – at least, not with material like this.

1.  Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”

All of which leaves the way clear for a surprise return to the top by Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”, five weeks after it previously got to number 1, and twenty-four weeks into its chart life.  It won’t be there next week, but it’s still a remarkably testimony to the fact that Sheeran really does have an appeal way beyond his fan base.

On the album charts, a very quiet week.

• “III” by Take That at 1.  Their seventh number one album.  All the post-reunion studio albums have topped the chart.  The single “These Days” was number 1 a couple of weeks ago.
• “Rock or Bust” by AC/DC at 3.  The hardy Australian perennials always do well.  Number 3 is actually on the low side for them – their last two studio albums got to number one.  Here’s the title track – it sounds exactly like you’d imagine, but nobody’s buying AC/DC albums to hear them experiment.
• “McBusted” by McBusted at 9.  I’ve already mentioned the fate of “Air Guitar”.
• “A Musical Affair: Live in Japan” by Il Divo at 20.  Sorry, Japan.
• “Sound of a Woman” by Kiesza at 40.  Ouch.  After a number 1 single with “Hideaway”, and a follow-up that made the top 5, you’d think the album would do better than this.  Evidently not.