Welcome to the annual dead chart. The Christmas songs are all gone (well, aside from Tom Grennan at number 30) and a torrent of re-entries replace them, without much in the way of actual new music just yet.

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

So, Gracie Abrams again. This was number 1 for five weeks before Christmas, spent three weeks being shunted down the chart, and now rebounds from number 21 to claim a sixth week at number 1. She also has “I Love You I’m Sorry” at 36 and “Close to You” at 37.

20. PAWSA & The Adventures of Stevie V – “Dirty Cash (Money Talks)”

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The final chart of the year covers the streaming period from 20 to 26 December, which means it covers the heaviest days of Christmas streaming. The one post-Christmas day makes no difference to that, and what we get is a chart in which the Christmas records surge even further, shouldering everything else aside. On top of that, the two biggest non-Christmas records both get hit by the downweighting rule this week, and drop straight out of the top 20 as a result. It’s a weird chart.

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

This is reassuringly normal, though. “Last Christmas” spends its third week at number 1 this year, and its tenth in total. It will be gone next week. So will all of the new entries listed below – and there are new entries, courtesy of the festive playlists.

30. Darlene Love – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”

This charted for the first time in 2018, when it reached an all-time peak of 22. It’s been back most years since (2020 was the exception), usually landing in the 29-31 range. Love’s only other solo hit in the UK was “All Alone on Christmas” from the soundtrack of Home Alone 2, which reached number 31 at Christmas 1992. She was also the lead singer on “He’s a Rebel” by the Crystals (number 19 in 1962). I say “by the Crystals”, but “credited to the Crystals” would be more accurate – that particular track was recorded by Love’s group the Blossoms under their name because the real Crystals were off on tour at the time.

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In which the Christmas number one is quite uneventful, really.

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

Here we are again, with a back catalogue track as the Christmas number one, despite the disadvantage of being on permanent downweighting. “Last Christmas” is spending its second week at number 1 this year, its ninth in total. It was number 1 at Christmas 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Last year it was number 1 for four weeks, mind you. That won’t be happening this year. Next week’s chart will probably still be dominated by Christmas music, since Christmas Day is Wednesday and the chart period runs from Friday to Thursday. The week after that, it will all vanish, and George Michael won’t cross our mind against for another 11 months. (Seriously, when was the last time you heard anything else by him?)

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Oh well, here we are again.

1. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

You know the drill: “Last Christmas” reached number 2 on release in 1984, because that was also the year of Band Aid. It was originally a double A-side with “Everything She Wants”. It resurfaced as a digital download in 2007, and it’s been back every year since 2011. It reached number 1 for the first time at Christmas 2020 – more accurately, on the first chart of 2021. It had another two weeks at number 1 at Christmas 2022, and it spent four weeks at number 1 in 2023.

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You know what to expect here: it’s the first chart of December and the annual back catalogue march is underway as Britain turns on its festive playlists.

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

Five weeks. At this point, it is here on a technicality – if the Christmas back catalogue wasn’t subject to the downweighting rule, then “That’s So True” would be outside the top 5.

8. Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas”

There’s a new mix of this track available, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original; it’s a new backing track using vocals taken from all the versions done over the years. That’s the version above, and physical sales of that version have made a big contribution to its position. But for chart purposes it’s being treated as simply another mix of the same track.

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It’s been a long time since we had a genuinely busy week. Now we’ve got one, and surprisingly, it’s not just the Christmas records that are responsible.

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

Four weeks. She must have a good chance of hanging on until whatever Christmas record dethrones her, since she heads up a static top 3. Bear in mind that almost all the Christmas records are at the disadvantage of being permanently downweighted, because they’re back catalogue tracks – Abrams would have been number one this week anyway, but not by much.

4. Kendrick Lamar – “Squabble Up”
5. Kendrick Lamar & SZA – “Luther”
6. Kendrick Lamar featuring Lefty Gunplay – “TV Off”

The maximum three tracks from his sixth album “GNX”, which got a surprise release and enters at number 1 on the album chart. His only previous UK number 1 album was “To Pimp a Butterfly” in 2015; the two albums since then both got stuck at number 2. “Damn” (2017) landed behind Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” in its seventh week, but “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers” (2022) was beaten by the first week sales of a Florence & The Machine album that had far less staying power.

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We may be about to be hit with the Christmas deluge, but it turns out we’re getting one last surge of actual new entries before the snowfall.

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

That’s three weeks. It has peaked, though. The top 3 is static, with “Sailor Song” at 2 and “APT” at 3.

4. Sam Fender – “People Watching”

This is the lead single (and title track) from his third album. The previous two albums both went to number 1, though, and a three year gap has done him no harm. It’s only his third top ten hit, and one of those was as a guest on a Noah Kahan single. The other was his biggest hit, “Seventeen Going Under”, which reached number 3. This one is on similar lines, although I’m fairly sure it’s the only hit single of the year to mention kittiwakes.

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Already? Already?!?

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

Two weeks, with a widening gap over the number 2 single, Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song”; “APT” by Rosé and Bruno Mars fills out a static top 3. “I Love You I’m Sorry” drops to 20, while “Close to You” re-enters at 31 to give her a third hit. That’s a new peak for it; it previously got a single week at 35 in June.

12. Myles Smith – “Nice to Meet You”

Well, at least someone has released a regular old single and seen it enter at a reasonably high position. This piece of MOR jauntiness is the second top 40 hit for Myles Smith, after “Stargazing”, which peaked at number 4 in October and is still on the chart at 24. His overall chart record is rather mixed: the follow-up to “Stargazing” was “Wait for You”, which missed the top 50. And the parent album “A Minute” is also out this week, but it only reaches number 63.

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Another desperately quiet week, and at this point it’s unlikely that anything else is going to break through before the Christmas flood starts. So: pretty much all you need to know about 2024 in popular music is that Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter had a breakthrough year. And maybe, on a lesser scale…

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

This is the single from the deluxe edition of her album “The Secret of Us”. It entered at 19 two weeks ago, vaulted to number 3 last week, and now reaches number 1. By the way, it is an unquestioned number one, as it would have beaten Sabrina Carpenter even if she wasn’t subject to the downweighting rule. I’m surprised that ‘That’s So True” has jumped to number 1 this quickly, given that her previous single “I Love You I’m Sorry” – her first major hit – is still at its peak of number 4, and took nine weeks to get there. It’s a decent enough track, if very much school-of-Taylor-Swift, and I guess it’s nice to see something finally making speedy progress to the top in a chart that’s been extremely slow this year.

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This is a week where the impact of the downweighting rule is awkwardly obvious, as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” reaches its tenth week on the chart, and (since it’s several weeks past its peak) the downweighting rule kicks in. And that results in it dropping from number 1 straight to number 11. Without that rule, it would still be number 1. I have some sympathy with the need to find a way of clearing out the dead wood, given how long major hits continue to pick up zombie play before people finally clear them off their playlists. But there has to be a subtler way of doing it.

Anyway, with that asterisk duly applied…

1. Gigi Perez – “Sailor Song”

Gigi Perez joins the one-hit wonders list, climbing to number 1 in her eleventh week on the top 40 (and her fourth in the top 10). It’s a perfectly nice record, but I’m honestly surprised that it’s had enough broad and sustained appeal to get here. That said, it is the lowest-scoring number one of the last year, with the equivalent of just over 39,000 sales.

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