They’re changing the chart rules again!  But first…

1.  George Ezra – “Shotgun”

Our third new number one in a row.  This is more like it!  “Shotgun” entered at number 35 back in April as an album track download, vanished into the lower reaches, and returned four weeks ago when it got promoted to a single.  It’s George Ezra’s first number one, coming a little under three months after “Paradise” reached number two.

But let’s talk about the rule changes.  There are two of them, and the chart company, who’ve been trialling them for a while, say that the differences shouldn’t be drastic.  Time will tell, once people start targetting them.  First, they’re going to give more weight to paid streams than free ones.  Whether this is a good idea depends very much on what you think the chart is meant to be measuring.  From the point of view of record companies, they certainly care more about the preferences of people who pay.  Whether it makes a difference to the public is another matter.

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Another new number one!  Two weeks running!

1.  Clean Bandit featuring Demi Lovato – “Solo”

Last week Jess Glynne reached number one, with the awkward footnote that it was thanks to “One Kiss” getting hit by the downweighting rule for older hits.  As it happens, even without that rule coming into play, “One Kiss” would have fallen off the top this week.  But Jess Glynne doesn’t hang on to purge that footnote from their record; instead, Clean Bandit get their fourth number one, following “Rather Be” (2014 – yes, it was that long ago), “Rockabye” (2016) and “Symphony” (2017).  There’s also now an acoustic version of the video available, if you’re looking for confirmation of what the first line of the chorus says underneath the vocal effects.

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Well, it’s movement.

1.  Jess Glynne – “I’ll Be There”

Number one with an asterisk.  For the second time this year, a long-running number one single stays at the top long enough to get whacked by the “accelerated chart ratio” rule that downweights the streams of tracks that have been out for ten weeks, and which are three weeks past their peak.  So the hammer falls on Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa’s “One Kiss”, which swandives from 1 to 7.  It would otherwise have managed another week at number one, and since all this is a lot more visible than it was meant to be – the rule was meant to target older tracks that needed a helping kick on their way out of the top 40 – you suspect they’ll tweak the rule soon, so as to fade it in a little bit more gently.

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Another week to quietly give thanks for the Ed Sheeran rule…

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss” 

Okay, now this is getting boring.  This is eight weeks and counting.

10.  Kanye West – “Yikes”
11.  Kanye West – “All Mine”
17.  Kanye West – “Ghost Town”

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Not much happening, to be honest, but hey, we’ve got a format to keep up…

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

Seven weeks, so it’s now clearly Calvin Harris’s longest-running number one, outlasting the six weeks of Rihanna’s “We Found Love” back in 2011.  And that was a “featuring” credit, anyway.

20.  George Ezra – “Shotgun”

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A quiet week for the singles chart, less so for the albums.

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

That’s six weeks, which matches Calvin Harris’s previous best – “We Found Love” with Rihanna, back in 2011.  And that did it in two goes.  Casting about for something new to say about it, the Official Charts Company have come up with the information that this is now the longest running number one by a Scottish act since 1994 (when Wet Wet Wet’s “Love is All Around” was number one for 15 weeks).  In fact, within the last decade, the only Scottish acts to have a UK number one single were Calvin Harris himself, and Emeli Sande.

12.  Clean Bandit featuring Demi Lovato – “Solo”

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I’ll start catching up on reviews in the next day or so, but let’s get the topical stuff done first.  And sometimes the charts make this nice and easy, by having basically one record come out in a week.

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

Well, this is settling in for the long run, isn’t it?  Five weeks at number one makes this the longest Calvin Harris has stayed at number one, passing 2008’s “Dance Wiv Me”.  2011’s Rihanna collab “We Found Love” managed six, but that was in two goes.  Calvin and Dua head up a completely static top five, because it’s one of those weeks.

18.  Arctic Monkeys – “Four Out Of Five”
23.  Arctic Monkeys – “Star Treatment”
26.  Arctic Monkeys – “One Point Perspective”

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A dull week on the singles chart, with one very obvious exception.  A rather busier week for the albums…

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

Four weeks.  Granted, it’s not facing intense competition from any recent releases, with the top 10 singles merely swapping a few places – but it had eight million plus streams last week too.

14.  Childish Gambino – “This is America”

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One of those weeks where we can feel thankful they changed the rules to stop Ed Sheeran…

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

Three weeks, which makes it Dua Lipa’s biggest hit, since “New Rules” only stayed on top for two.  And it has a proper video now, too.  It’s number one in both sales and streams, so it could be here for a while.  It heads up a static top four, over Ariana Grande, Drake and Lil Dicky.

9.  Post Malone – “Better Now”
11.  Post Malone – “Paranoid” (more…)

I’ll get back to reviews shortly, but first, let’s catch up on a busy week…

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

Two weeks – Calvin Harris has number one hits fairly often but hasn’t managed a two week run since “We Found Love” back in 2011.  This still doesn’t have a proper video, so here’s a TV performance which Calvin Harris has posted on his YouTube channel.

2.  Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left To Cry” (more…)