Harry Styles has an album out, and nobody else is going to take that on.

1. Harry Styles – “American Girls”
5. Harry Styles – “Ready, Steady, Go!”

Together with former number 1 “Aperture” (which rebounds to number 4), these are the maximum three tracks from the album “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally”, which enters as his third number one album. (His second album, “Fine Line”, only got to number 2, but still spent over a year in the top 10.) If it wasn’t for the three-song rule, the entire album would have charted.

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Okay, we’re into March and the singles chart is finally starting to pick up a bit.

1. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In”

Three weeks. “Rein Me In” has been on the top 40 for 37 consecutive weeks, and it’s not that unusual for big tracks to hang around that long. But it’s actually growing – this is as big a weekly score as it’s ever had. It’s still only number one because “Man I Need” is on ACR, but even that is now marginal.

3. Alex Warren – “Fever Dream”

The previous Alex Warren single, “Eternity”, also entered at number 3. This is certainly a change of tack from his previous singles, since at least it’s an upbeat track. The video is very much Trying Too Hard, but the single itself is acceptable in a Maroon 5 kind of way. “Ordinary” is still hanging around at number 16, which is insane.

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It’s a quiet week for new entries, but we do at least have some songs making a march towards the top of the chart.

1. Sam Fender & Oliva Dean – “Rein Me In” 

Second week and somehow, after all this time, it’s actually continuing to grow. Once again, if it wasn’t for the downweighting rule, the rightful number 1 would be Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need’ (by a wide margin). And once again, the official number 2 is another Olivia Dean single, “So Easy (To Fall In Love)”.

The top end of the chart actually has quite a bit of activity this week, but not in terms of new entries.

23. Twenty One Pilots – “Drag Path”

This is a new mix of a track that was previously released as an exclusive for purchasers of a digital album. It seems to be a different mix in an attempt to square the demand for wider release with a desire to honour the original promotion of the track as exclusive. Reportedly the original version is better.

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Alright, then – it’s Monday, I’m still running late, let’s run through this.

1. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In”

This has been on the chart since last June, and managed to cling on at the bottom end of the top 40 even during Christmas. The height of Christmas aside, it’s been in the top 10 since November. Despite all that, it’s not quite a default number 1 – somehow, it’s managed to avoid the downweighting rule even after all this time. This is actually the highest weekly consumption it’s ever recorded.

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Well, it took a month and a half but at last 2026 gives us a busy chart.

1. Taylor Swift – “Opalite”

“Opalite” already reached number 2 as an album track on release in October, and it was still inside the top 20, but it’s being promoted as a single now, complete with video. Supposedly she had the video idea while appearing on the Graham Norton Show, which is why everyone who was on that episode has cameos in it.

It’s an obvious choice of single and the only thing it really had going against it was the fact that it had been out for so long already. But although it’s way past its initial peak, its streams more than doubled over the last week, which means that it jumps from 15 to 1. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s only her sixth number 1 – the others are “The Fate of Ophelia” (2025), “Fortnight” (2024), “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)” (2023), “Anti-Hero” (2022) and the incongruous “Look What You made Me Do” (2017).

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Another singles chart that might politely be described as “sluggish”…

1. Dave & Tems – “Raindance” 

Returning to number 1 for a second week, in its fifteenth week on the chart. Harry Styles’ “Aperture”, which always struck me as the sort of track that only a top-tier star could get to number 1, takes a bit of a nosedive in its second week, dropping straight to number 4. “Raindance” is also losing streams, but it becomes number 1 pretty much by default – and by the fact that it’s made it to week 15 without getting hit by the downweighting rule. Once again, if we didn’t have that rule, the number one would be Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” by a mile. But it’s been out for 25 weeks and got hit by the rule after its first peak ages ago.

10. Noah Kahan – “The Great Divide” 

This is the lead single from his upcoming fourth album, the follow-up to his breakthrough “Stick Season”. Obviously his biggest hit is “Stick Season” itself, number 1 for seven weeks in early 2024, but he has had other hits – “Dial Drunk”, “Northern Attitude” and “Forever” all made the top 40, and he appears on the single version of Sam Fender’s “Homesick”, which reached number 5.

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Well, there aren’t many new entries this week, but at least they’re notable.

1. Harry Styles – “Aperture” 

This is the lead single from his upcoming fourth album, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally”. The last album was 2022, and we haven’t heard from him in the top 40 since its final single “Satellite” in 2023. Now in his thirties, he’s the sort of star who can get away with releasing a track like “Aperture” – it’s the longest number 1 of the century at over five minutes, and takes its time on a slow build. On a first listen, I was wondering if he’d discovered the Postal Service. It’s a grower, though, for all its lyrical obscurity and liminal-spaces video.

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You’d think more people would see the lack of competition in January as an opportunity. But no.

I mean, seriously, brace yourself for anticlimax after the fold.

1. Dave & Tems – “Raindance” 

We do have a new number one, although it’s hardly a new record. This track entered at number 5 alongside the release of the parent album back at the start of November, and has never dropped out of the top 30, even during the Christmas deluge. It’s now being promoted as an actual single, hence the video above, but it’s basically the same record that’s been hanging around the top 10 for the better part of three months. Dave’s romantic ballads never do much for me, honestly, and this strikes me as Just Fine.

It also carries the same asterisk that I’ve repeated for the last few weeks: if it wasn’t being downweighted under the ACR rules, Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” would be number one. Admittedly, it’s quite impressive that “Raindance” has been out for thirteen weeks without getting hit by ACR.

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We’re starting to get back to something approaching normalcy – which is to say, one big name has released a single.

1. Djo – “End of Beginning”

Two weeks, and streams are up significantly from last week. Which is a bit weird, because all the other Stranger Things tracks fall off a bit last week, and this already had a decently long run in the top 10 two years ago. It’s still number 1 with an asterisk: if it wasn’t subject to downweighting, then “Man I Need” by Olivia Dean would be number one. But not by much, in fairness.

6. Bruno Mars – “I Just Might”
28. Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – “Die With a Smile”
36. Bruno Mars – “Locked Out of Heaven”

Lead single from his fourth album. It’s the sort of extremely polished retro soul pastiche that you’d expect from, well, the lead single from a Bruno Mars album, but it’s hard to deny that he’s very good at this sort of thing. Maybe if you’re going to be optimistic in 2026, it helps to combine it with nostalgia.

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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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