There’s a podcast one post down!  Go listen to that!

But if you’re here for the chart…

1.  Calvin Harris & Sam Smith – “Promises”

Five weeks.  Not much more to be said about that, so…

13.  Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – “Shallow”

Welcome to the post-imperial phase of Lady Gaga’s career.  After a string of big hits between 2009 and 2011, her last two albums struggled to get traction beyond their lead singles.  Diminishing returns have plainly set in, so a drastic change of tack is called for.  And here it is: she’s turned to acting, in a country-rock musical.  It’s a remake of A Star is Born, originally dating from 1937, but also done with Judy Garland and James Mason in the fifties, and Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in the seventies.  Bradley Cooper, who also directs the film, is naturally making his first appearance on the singles chart.  The reviews have been glowing.

In fact, “Shallow” isn’t that far removed from some of Lady Gaga’s previous torch songs, even if the arrangement shifts into a different genre; the writing credits include both her and Mark Ronson.  It’s her biggest hit since “Perfect Illusion” reached number 12 in 2016, but that track plunged straight out of the top 40 the next week, establishing her firmly as a fanbase act; this must stand a decent shot of doing better.

21.  Lil Wayne featuring Kendrick Lamar – “Mona Lisa”
28.  Lil Wayne featuring XXXTentacion – “Don’t Cry”

These both come from his album “Tha Carter V”, which enters at number 5 this week.  It’s his highest placing album to date, after “Tha Carter 4” reached number 8 in 2011.  But since there are only two of its tracks in the singles chart, it seems reasonable to guess that these are being cherrypicked for their guest stars.

30.  DJ Snake featuring Selena Gomez,  Cardi B & Ozuna – “Taki Taki”

DJ Snake trying his hand at reggaeton, basically.  Ozuna is a Puerto Rican reggaeton artist; Cardi B and Selena Gomez aren’t, but they have the name value (and they do speak Spanish).

37.  MK x Jonas Blue x Becky Hill – “Back & Forth”

This is MK’s follow-up to “17”, which reached the top ten; again, it’s throwback euphoric house piano stuff.  Becky Hill previously appeared on MK’s 2016 single “Piece of Me”, which only managed 37.

This week’s climbers:

• “Happier” by Marshmello featuring Bastille moves from 4-2.  It’s now the highest placing Marshmello single (his first hit “Silence” reached number 3), and matches the previous best of Bastille (from “Pompeii” and “Of The Night”, both back in 2013).
• “Electricity” by Silk City featuring Dua Lipa climbs 7-4.
• “In My Mind” by Dynoro & Gigi D’Agostino climbs 8-5.
• “Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora climbs 14-6.  This allows the Official Chart Company to claim that she has now had more top ten hits than any other British woman.  There’s a bit of an asterisk next to that, since it involves counting her guest appearances on “Hot Right Now” by DJ Fresh (2012), “Black Widow” by Iggy Azalea (2014), “Doing It” by Charli XCX (2015), and “Lonely Together” by Avicii (2017), plus a co-billing with Liam Payne on “For You (Fifty Shades Freed)” earlier this year.  But if you do count those, she has a total of 13 top ten hits.  The previous record of 12 was set by Shirley Bassey in 1973, and was kind-of matched by Petula Clark in 1988, assuming you count the two versions of “Downtown” as different singles.
• “Lose Without You” by Freya Ridings climbs 20-9.
• “Be Alright” by Dean Lewis climbs 18-11.
• “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco climbs 17-12, overtaking 2008’s “Nine in the Afternoon” to become their highest placing hit ever.
• “Just Got Paid” by Sigala x Ella Eyre x Meghan Trainor featuring French Montanac vaults 33-17.  The debut Sigala album “Brighter Days” enters at 14.
• “Thunderclouds” by LSD finally crawls into the top 20, moving 23-18.
• “Better” by Khalid moves 31-24.
• “Beautiful” by Bazzi featuring Camila Cabello moves 36-33.

On the album chart…

1.  Rod Stewart – “Blood Red Roses”

This is his thirtieth studio album and his ninth number one; most of the others naturally came during his 1970s heyday, but there was also “Time” from 2013.  He’s now 73, but such is the state of the album market that this isn’t even a record for the oldest act to have a number one – Paul Simon had a number one at the age of 74 a couple of years back.  (The record for the oldest living artist to have a hit album is technically held by Vera Lynn, who got a compilation album into the charts at the age of 100.)

2.  Cher – “Dancing Queen”

Along similar lines, here’s 73-year-old Cher with an album of Abba covers.  Its predecessor, from 2013, made number 4, but she hasn’t been as high as number 2 since her greatest hits collection in 1992.  Cher has a small role in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, so this isn’t quite as random as it might first seem.  The video above is another in the increasingly bloated genre of “slightly famous women lipsync the song because #feminism”.

Number 5 is the Lil Wayne album, and…

8.  Chas & Dave – “Gold”

A greatest hits collection released just as Chas Hodges died of cancer.  Their biggest hit single was “Ain’t No Pleasing You”, which reached number 2 in 1982.  Even in their prime, they were a weird anomaly in the chart – two middle-aged blokes trading in a blend of Cockney music hall singalong and vaguely contemporary pop-rock.

10.  Nile Rodgers & Chic – “It’s About Time”

First time an album has appeared on the chart with Nile Rodgers as the credited artist, but Chic had some hit albums in 1979.

Sigala are at 14, and…

15.  Kodaline – “Politics of Living”

Both previous Kodaline albums made the top 5, so this is a definite tailing off.

19.  Logic – “Ysiv”

Fairly standard for a Logic album over the last couple of years.  The other single from this album has Ryan Tedder on it.

27.  Seasick Steve – “Can U Cook”

He’s had top ten albums over the last few years, so this is very much on the low side for him.

29.  Foster & Allen – “Putting on the Style”

This has been fairly standard for the Irish light entertainment veterans over the last decade, i.e. round about number 30.  Clocking in at fifty tracks, the album includes the sitcom tribute above.

30.  Joe Strummer – “Joe Strummer 001”

Best known from the Clash, of course.  This is the first time one of his solo albums has made the album top 40 (and I’m counting his albums with the Mescaleros at the turn of the century).  It’s a rarities compilation, and the track above is an alternate version of the Clash’s final single “This is England”.

34.  Soft Cell – “Keychains and Snowstorms – The Singles”

Self-explanatory greatest hits album.  Soft Cell’s biggest hit was their 1981 number 1 “Tainted Love”, but everyone knows that, so let’s go with the number 2 “Torch”.

38.  Tom Petty – “An American Treasure”

It’s a four-CD box set of rarities, coming a year after Tom Petty’s death.

And finally, at number 40, “Golden Boy” by Kojo Funds, which had a hit single earlier in the year (“Check”).  It’s his debut album.