By convention, the Christmas Number One is whatever happens to be number one on Christmas Day, which in practice means whatever was the most popular track in the seven days ending on the Thursday before Christmas. That’s the chart that people try and launch campaigns for. But this week’s chart is the one that covers Christmas itself, running from December 23 to 29. That means half a week of the heaviest Christmas listening, followed by… well, a few days of Not That, but it turns out that the Christmas side absolutely predominates. And so…

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

The Christmas number 2 of 1984 returns to number 1 after a week of being interrupted by LadBaby’s charity single. We’ll come back to him. For now, let’s just note that “Last Christmas” has now spent a total of three weeks at number 1 – two this year, one in 2020.

The disappearance of the novelty singles means there are gaps at the bottom end of the chart, and so we do have some tracks entering the top 40 – all of them back Christmas records, naturally.

(more…)

Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it brings deep sighing.

1. LadBaby – “Food Aid”

And you thought it was tiresome when Simon Cowell got the Christmas number one every year. Mark Hoyle has now had the Christmas number 1 five years running, which, yes, means he’s beaten the record that he previous set with the Beatles. This had a certain fluke charm in the first year, but it’s now starting to feel like someone trying to establish himself as a national institution even though you probably never hear of him the rest of the year.

(more…)

And there was me thinking that Mariah Carey was guaranteed to sit at number 1 through to Christmas. But no! We have a surprise!

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

I mean, kind of. After all, this was number 3 last week, and it also sneaked a week at number 1 over Christmas 2020. But still, it’s some sort of turnover at the top, which is nice.

The march of Christmas singles slows down this week, simply because there are so many in the top 40 already that there’s no room for any more. The result is a very quiet singles chart with one notable exception…

(more…)

Ah. Already, then?

1. Mariah Carey – “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

We’re now firmly into the Christmas deluge, and in the absence of a particularly strong incumbent number 1 – Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” had already been there for six weeks – Mariah Carey makes to number 1 already. She had two weeks at number 1 over Christmas 2020 but had the decency that time round to wait for another week.

Some purists hate this sort of thing, but the reality is that this is what people are actually listening to – in fact, Carey has to overcome the permanent downweighting of back catalogue material. You could see it as a sign that nobody really cares very much about modern music but I suspect it’s at least as much a case of the long tail suddenly converging on Christmas records at this time of year.

(more…)

It’s the first chart of December, what did you think was going to happen?

1. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”

That’s six weeks. Still two weeks to go until it matches LF System’s “Afraid to Feel” – in fact, three number ones this year have had longer runs than six weeks.

18. Brenda Lee – “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”

Right, then, here we go. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was recorded in 1958, and reached number 6 in the UK at Christmas 1962. It did nothing in the early years of the streaming era, but it’s charted every year since 2016. Last year, it made its all time peak of number 5.

(more…)

From the look of it, we’re now in the holding pattern where it’s too near to Christmas for anyone to bother releasing big singles, but the Christmas takeover hasn’t hit yet. Which means…

1. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”

Five weeks. The previous number 1, “Unholy” by Sam Smith & Kim Petras, spends its fifth week at number 2. You get the idea. The only new record in the top 10 is…

9. Clavish featuring D-Block Europe – “Rocket Science”

This is the debut hit for North London rapper Clavish, though he’s placed a few tracks in the lower reaches of the top 75. Obviously having D-Block Europe on the track helps, but it’s not as if they routinely get into the top 10 either – in fact, their only previous top 10 hit was “Overseas”, which reached number 6 last year. It’s familiar musical territory if you’re heard DBE before, but it’s one of the good ones.

(more…)

No. Not that. Not now…

1. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”

But first… Taylor Swift gets her fourth week at number one. This has grown on me, to be honest. It is a return to Taylor Swift banging on about fame, but it’s a better version of that song than many of her previous singles in the same vein.

We’re going a long way down for the first new entry…

18. Bugzy Malone & TeeDee – “Out of Nowhere”

Bugzy Malone had another track get to number 39 in September, but this matches his all-time peak of 18 with “M.E.N. III”. It’s a weird track – more mainstream dance than typical UK rap, but a bit too wonky to quite count as that either.

(more…)

It’s another week when a major album release dominates the singles chart. But first…

1. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”

That’s three weeks, which is her longest run at number 1. Her only previous number 1 single is 2017’s “Look What You Made Me Do”, which lasted two weeks. (Yes, really. Forty-three top 40 hits, and that’s the only other one that made number one.)

3. Drake & 21 Savage – “Rich Flex”
5. Drake & 21 Savage – “Major Distribution”
7. Drake & 21 Savage – “Circo Loco”

That’s the maximum three tracks from their album “Her Loss”, which enters the album chart at 1. It’s Drake’s second album of the year, after “Honestly Nevermind”, which reached number 2 in June. That got three singles into the top 10 as well, but the highest got to number 7, and that one had… er, 21 Savage on it. Drake now has a total of 37 top 10 hits, thanks in part to album tracks, and this is his fifth number 1 album.

(more…)

Taylor Swift, it turns out, can dominate the top 10 for two weeks in a row.

1. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”

Two weeks. The parent album “Midnights” remains at number one for a second week. The other two tracks that charted from it, “Lavender Haze” and “Snow on the Beach”, drop out of the top five… but only to numbers 6 and 8.

3. Rihanna – “Lift Me Up”

Huh. And there was me thinking that a new Rihanna single was bound to be challenging for number one. She hasn’t had a single out, even as a guest vocalist, since 2020 (when she appeared on a PartyNextDoor single that got to number 12). She hasn’t released a single of her own since 2016. So you’d think this would be a bigger deal. I mean, number 3 is quite a big deal. But bigger.

(more…)

The chart rules were changed a few years back to limit the number of tracks by the same artist to three, after Ed Sheeran and Drake managed to swamp the top ten. In practice, not that many acts have shown the ability to swamp the top end of the chart when they release a new album. But there are some.

1. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”
3. Taylor Swift – “Lavender Haze”
4. Taylor Swift featuring Lana Del Rey – “Snow On The Beach”

The maximum three tracks from “Midnights”, which obviously enters the album chart at number 1. It’s her ninth consecutive number one album, including her re-recordings of “Fearless” and “Red”, as well as the two folk-style albums she released during the pandemic. With “Midnights”, we’re back to mainstream pop and songs about her celebrity status, which is… kind of what I was glad to see her moving away from? “Anti-Hero” is one of her better songs in that mode, but it still feels like a step backwards.

(more…)