We’re past Christmas, but we only have a couple of new releases for 2026. What can fill the gap? Well, there’s the season finale of Stranger Things.

Welcome to 1980s week.

1. Djo – “End of Beginning” 

This isn’t from the soundtrack of Stranger Things, but it is by one of the cast. It kind of counts as back catalogue itself, though, because it was already a hit last year, and got to number 4 then. He hasn’t had any other top 40 hits, so for now he goes onto the list of pure one-hit wonders. “End of Beginning” has a 5% lead over Taylor Swift at number 2, though again there’s an asterisk: if it wasn’t on ACR, Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” would be number 1 by a comfortable margin.

There are six back catalogue entries this week, thanks to Stranger Things, and they join the Kate Bush and Tiffany tracks from last week. It’s like early December, but with Now That’s What I Call 80s instead of with Christmas songs. One difference is that, because they’re not Christmas songs, these tracks are eligible for an ACR reset – they come off downweighting if they have a big enough week-on-week climb, so they’re on an equal footing with new releases.

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Welcome to the post-Christmas chart. Christmas Day fell on a Thursday this year – the end of the chart week – and predictably, the Christmas tracks mostly vanish, leading to a vast number of re-entries filling the void. A mere four manage to cling on – apparently there were still a decent number of Christmas records being played on Boxing Day – and none of them were in the top 10.

1. Raye – “Where is My Husband”

This is Raye’s second number 1, after “Escapism” reached number 1 in January 2023. To be honest, it’s something of a post-Christmas glitch. It wasn’t even in the top 40 last week, and it has the lowest number 1 sales in months. It’s been out for 15 weeks by now and it would have been behind Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” if it wasn’t for the downweighting rule.

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This is the dead chart – it covers sales and streams from 19-25 December, but it’s not the Christmas Number One, because that was last week. So it’s pretty much just what people had on their Christmas playlists. The BBC don’t even broadcast the post-Christmas chart because it’s so irrelevant; they use the week to do the top 100 of the year instead, despite the minor technicality that the year hasn’t finished yet. So, now that I’ve really sold you on reading this…

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas” 

Returning to number 1 for its second week this year, and its twelfth week in total. We do have some entries at the lower end of the chart, though, as the Christmas also-rans make their big push to scrape above the number 40 mark.

29. Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Merry Christmas”

This was number 1 for three weeks at Christmas 2021, although the actual Christmas number one that year was Ladbaby’s charity cover of the song. It passed its third anniversary during last year’s Christmas season, meaning that it went onto permanent ACR. Number 29 is where it ended up last year too.

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I don’t normally do these on Fridays, but it’s the Christmas number one, so why not? Christmas is next Thursday, and so this will be the reigning number one on Christmas Day. Next week’s chart will also be overrun with Christmas records – even more so, in fact, because it’ll cover streaming in the seven days up to Christmas Day itself. But this is the one people care about.

1. Kylie Minogue – “XMAS”

No, it’s not Wham. This is an Amazon exclusive, which in theory puts it at a disadvantage (though its streams on YouTube will count, now that an official video has been released there). The flip side is that it gets heavily promoted on Amazon Music’s Christmas playlists… but that’s not why it’s number one. Gwen Stefani’s single is an Amazon Music exclusive too, and it’s at number 60.

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Well, it’s the second week of December, what did you expect?

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

“Last Christmas” returns to number 1 for its eleventh week in total. It reached number 2 on release at Christmas 1984 (because that was the year of Band Aid), but it’s reached number 1in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. As a back catalogue Christmas single, it’s on permanent downweighting – Christmas records are expressly excluded from the normal rules that allow old records to come off downweighting if they have a surge of interest – but it really makes no difference. If “Last Christmas” wasn’t being downweighted, it would have beaten the number 2 single (Raye’s “Where is my Husband”) by more than two to one.

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Alright, it’s December, bring on the flood.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” 

Seven weeks total, which means it overtakes “Anti-Hero” as her longest-running UK number one. Although “Anti-Hero” did it in six consecutive weeks, while “Fate of Ophelia” had a two week interruption by Olivia Dean. One odd thing about Taylor Swift is that despite her juggernaut status, she’s only actually had five number 1s, and none of the others stayed there for very long: “Look What You Made Me Do” had two weeks in 2017, “Is It Over Now (Taylor’s Version)” had a single week in 2023, and “Fortnight” had a single week last year.

“Fate of Ophelia” peaked a while back, and goes onto ACR downweighting next week, so barring a miracle, this will be its final week at number one. Raye’s “Where is my Husband” is number 2, so the question is whether it can sneak a week at number 1 before getting Whammed. My money’s on “no”.

18. Laufey – “Winter Wonderland”

This was a Spotify exclusive two years ago, and since it’s still less than three years old, it isn’t on permanent downweighting. In other words, it’s not competing on a level playing field with the other Christmas records, but next year it will be.

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Okay, well, at least we’re less than a month out from Christmas. I guess.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”

Six weeks at number 1, and the same deal as last week: it’s past its peak, and it’s only number 1 Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” has been out long enough to be downweighted under the ACR rule. It’s basically marking time until the Christmas records come along to replace it.

14. Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – “For Good”
17. Cynthia Erivo – “No Good Deed”
29. Cynthia Erivo & Jonathan Bailey – “As Long As You’re Mine”

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Oh god, already? Really?

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” 

Five weeks total. Its streams are down, and it’s not that far ahead of “Golden” at number 2 (about 6%), but the bigger point is that it’s now number 1 with an asterisk – if we didn’t have the downweighting rule, this week’s number one would be “Man I Need” by Olivia Dean, and by a comfortable margin at that.

19. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

What the hell is wrong with you people? This is the chart measuring the period 14-20 November. That’s more than a month before Christmas. And yet even with permanent downweighting against it, “Last Christmas” is already at number 19. God help us.

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This week, drama! But first…

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”

This again? Yes, this again. It had a three week run at the top before, and then got knocked off for two weeks by “Golden” on its third run. “Golden” looks to finally be tailing off properly, and so “Fate of Ophelia” returns to number 1 with a 7% lead. It heads a rather stale-looking top 10, with Swift at 1, 6 and 9, HUNTR/X at 2 and 9, and Olivia Dean at 4, 5 and 8. (Raye and Dave round out the chart.) In fact, there aren’t any new entries in the top 20.

Well… officially.

…?  HAVEN. – “I Run”

Okay, so this is a weird story. “I Run” was number 9 in the midweeks  and clearly on course to make the top 10. It’s a UK garage track based around what appears to be a sampled female vocal. It’s actually quite good. The name HAVEN. hasn’t been used before, but the credited writer is a guy called Harrison Walker – presumably this one.

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Um… happy Hallowe’en?

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden” 

Ten weeks at number 1, albeit spread over a total of fifteen weeks. It’s still a little short of Alex Warren’s “Ordinary”, which had a total of 13 weeks earlier in the year. Its lead over Taylor Swift is very tight (just under 3%) so I wouldn’t be entirely shocked if they swap places again. The top four are all non-movers, so we’re much in need of something new to break up the logjam.

17. Ray Parker Jr – “Ghostbusters”

The chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, and so this chart covers Hallowe’en. Hallowe’en has a rather intermittent impact on the chart – we had a similar influx in 2023, but it wasn’t in evidence last year. This may be a side effect of continued meddling with the rules about when a record comes off ACR (downweighting) as a result of a week-on-week sales increase. Christmas tracks are excluded from those rules, but as I understand it, Hallowe’en tracks are not, and so… well, you’ll see.

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