Well, if you’re going to be number one for this long, you might as well go for the record.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

That’s eight weeks, which means that Sabrina Carpenter has now spent twenty weeks at number 1 this year. Only Frankie Laine’s 28-week total in 1953 stands in the way of that being an all-time record. You could make a case that Sabrina has benefitted from a low turnover of hits this year, and so a lower number of challengers – but then again, she held “Good Luck Babe” off the top for months on end, and that’s a huge hit in its own right.

7. Charli XCX featuring Ariana Grande – “Sympathy is a Knife”

The remix version of “Brat” – “Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat” – is out this week, but since it also includes the entire original album, the OCC is classing it as a deluxe edition of “Brat” rather than a free standing album. The remixes are extensive. The original version of “Sympathy is a Knife” doesn’t sound much like this version at all, but for chart versions both versions count towards this streaming position – it’s just that the Ariana Grande version has now been nominated as the lead, so that she gets co-credit.

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In which we have Netflix to thank for avoiding another completely dead singles chart.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Seven weeks. This brings her total to 19 for the year, across her three number one singles. This either matches or beats Ed Sheeran’s total from 2021 (depending on how you feel about the chart announced on 31 December that year). The only solo act to spend more weeks at number 1 in a calendar year is Frankie Laine, who was number one for most of 1953. To match him, she’d have to stay at number one for another eight weeks, which seems wildly unlikely. Sales figures suggest a lot of the top 10 is about to be hit by the downweighting rule, so we might finally be due for a clearout.

14. KSI featuring Trippie Redd – “Thick Of It”

First time we’ve seen KSI this year. His last couple of singles both entered fairly strongly and plunged in the second week, which might suggest he’s becoming a fanbase act – but this single seems decent enough. He and Trippie Redd had a single in early 2020, “Wake Up Call”, which got to number 11; Trippie Redd’s only other top 40 single was his own “Miss the Rage”, which had a single week at number 32 in 2021.

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The top end of the singles chart remains logjammed with Mostly Sabrina Carpenter – the top six are all non-movers this week. So…

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

That’ll be six weeks.

7. The Weeknd & Playboi Carti – “Timeless”

This is the second single from the upcoming Weeknd album. The first one was “Dancing in the Flames”, which entered at number 12 a fortnight ago. It’s not doing well – after two weeks, it’s currently at number 36.

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And we’re back to another quiet week on the singles chart. The albums are busier, though.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Five weeks, with “Espresso” still at 3 and “Please Please Please” at 5. That means Sabrina Carpenter has been number one for a total of 17 weeks this year. For those who find such things interesting, this is the most weeks that a female solo artist has spent at number 1 in a calendar year since 1978 (when Olivia Newton-John managed 16 weeks).

There are no new entries inside the top 30, so we skip down to…

35. Alex Warren – “Burning Down”

A second single to join “Carry You Home”, which entered at 39 last week (and climbs). That track has been hanging around for ages in the lower reaches; this is a bona fide new release. It’s another stompy folk-pop track, and perfectly okay at what it does.

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At last, a singles chart with some actual activity.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Admittedly, the activity is not right at the top, with “Taste” spending a fourth week at number one. Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck Babe” returns to number 2 to break the Sabrina Carpenter logjam, but she still has “Espresso” at 3 and “Please Please Please” at 4. She’s now been number 1 for 16 of the last 21 weeks.

12. The Weeknd – “Dancing in the Flames”

This is the lead single from his upcoming sixth album, debuted at a one-off concert earlier in the month. He’s had bigger hits than this before, but his first week places aren’t that important – the Weeknd tends to have his that stick around forever. The track is firmly in the 80s revivalist mode we’ve come to expect from him, but he does do it very well. And there is an alternative acoustic version available, if you want to hear the song in a less 80s mode.

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Legacy acts aren’t willing to stick to the album chart any more, it seems.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Three weeks. She still has “Espresso” at number 2, and “Please Please Please” at number 5. Her album “Short N’ Sweet” is still at number 2.

4. Linkin Park – “The Emptiness Machine”

This is the lead single from Linkin Park’s eighth album, after a seven year gap. They’ve added Emily Armstrong as joint lead singer, and the band’s return to activity is clearly a big draw. Just as Oasis were able to get three tracks into the top 10 on the back of 90s nostalgia, Linkin Park get their highest chart position ever – they haven’t had a top 10 hit since 2008, and their previous peak was number 6 for “What I’ve Done.” Their earliest hit singles were back in early 2001, so in many ways they’re as much a legacy act as Oasis, but at least they’re here with new material. Their singles collection “Papercuts” is at number 8 on the album chart.

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We’re still marooned in the doldrums.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Two weeks – and again, it heads up an all-Sabrina top three, with “Please Please Please” at number 2 and “Espresso” at number 3. The album “Short N’ Sweet” drops to 2.

31. Coldplay – “We Pray”

Your highest new entry, climbing from number 44. I realise there’s a bunch of “featuring” credits on the video, but the official chart credit is just for Coldplay. This is the second single from their current album “Moon Music”. It’s an odd track – it’s one of the more interesting Coldplay tracks I’ve heard in a while, but Chris Martin’s voice somehow makes it sound like Maroon 5. Still, two top 40 hits from an album at this point in their career is a good result.

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I’m starting to think that the state of the singles chart might be less than healthy.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Yeah, that opening caption isn’t kidding about the violence. It’s cartoon violence but it does merit a parental warning when it comes from a mainstream pop act. Anyway, Sabrina Carpenter’s album “Short N’ Sweet” is out this week and enters at number 1. To put in context what a good year this has been for her career, this is her sixth studio album and her first to even make the albums top 40. Granted, some of those records were made for Disney, but 2022’s “Emails I Can’t Send” was on Island, and it only got to number 41.

A surge of interest in the previous singles is strong enough to cancel the downweighting rule (I think you need to increase sales/streams by something like 25% week on week), and so “Please Please Please” is at number 2 and “Espresso” is at number 3. Clean sweeps of the top 3 have happened before, but rarely, since in practice it wasn’t possible until the digital age. Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles have all done it.

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I remember the days when there were more than two new entries a week on the singles chart…

1. Chase & Status and Stormzy – “Backbone”

Two weeks, though the gap is closing. Number 2 is “Good Luck Babe” by Chappell Roan, which has been at that position before, three weeks ago. “Hot to Go” also climbs 12-10 to become her second top 10 hit. And let’s take a moment to acknowledge that “Austin” by Dasha is spending its twentieth week in the top 10; it’s currently at number 6, and it peaked at 5.

7. Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – “Die With A Smile”

Although Lady Gaga’s name comes first in the credit, this really feels more like a Bruno Mars song to me – it’s a soft rock ballad which is a little too interested in faithfully recreating the past to quite work for me as a song, but only because the strings seem a bit too visible for my liking. If you don’t mind that, then it’s a good single.

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We don’t get many one-week number ones these days, but “Guess” by Charli XCX featuring Billie Eilish turns out to be one of them. It’s only the second of the year – the other was “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift. “Guess” drops straight to number 4 in its second week, and gets overtaken by Billie Eilish’s album track “Birds of a Feather”. But that only climbs to 2.

1. Chase & Status and Stormzy – “Backbone”

Chase & Status released their first single in 2005, and had their first hit single in 2009. They had a long fallow period in chart terms between 2014 and 2022, but had a real resurgence last year when they had top ten hits with “Disconnect” and “Baddadan”. In total, they’ve had a respectable six top 10 hits prior to this record, but none of them got above number 5. So for their comeback phase to give them their first number one is a pleasant surprise.

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