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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I’m going to be busy this coming week, and that means the next annotations probably won’t be until the weekend. So if you’re looking for those, and this is still the top post, that’s why. In the meantime, let’s cover this week’s chart.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

I know, you’re amazed. That’s nine weeks. But it does get hit by the downweighting rule next week, so barring a miracle, this will be the last. “Bed Chem”, which entered last week due to a quirk of chart rules, falls to 11 and is not in contention to take over. Instead, Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song” seems to be the number one in waiting, climbing to 2.

4. Rosé & Bruno Mars – “APT.”

Hey, this is great! Rosé is a member of Blackpink, but they’ve never placed a single above 17, so this is a big hit for her. Her bandmate Jennie just released a solo single too; it got to number 37. So clearly there’s more at work here than just the hardcore Blackpink fans.

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Well, if you’re going to be number one for this long, you might as well go for the record.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

That’s eight weeks, which means that Sabrina Carpenter has now spent twenty weeks at number 1 this year. Only Frankie Laine’s 28-week total in 1953 stands in the way of that being an all-time record. You could make a case that Sabrina has benefitted from a low turnover of hits this year, and so a lower number of challengers – but then again, she held “Good Luck Babe” off the top for months on end, and that’s a huge hit in its own right.

7. Charli XCX featuring Ariana Grande – “Sympathy is a Knife”

The remix version of “Brat” – “Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat” – is out this week, but since it also includes the entire original album, the OCC is classing it as a deluxe edition of “Brat” rather than a free standing album. The remixes are extensive. The original version of “Sympathy is a Knife” doesn’t sound much like this version at all, but for chart versions both versions count towards this streaming position – it’s just that the Ariana Grande version has now been nominated as the lead, so that she gets co-credit.

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In which we have Netflix to thank for avoiding another completely dead singles chart.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Seven weeks. This brings her total to 19 for the year, across her three number one singles. This either matches or beats Ed Sheeran’s total from 2021 (depending on how you feel about the chart announced on 31 December that year). The only solo act to spend more weeks at number 1 in a calendar year is Frankie Laine, who was number one for most of 1953. To match him, she’d have to stay at number one for another eight weeks, which seems wildly unlikely. Sales figures suggest a lot of the top 10 is about to be hit by the downweighting rule, so we might finally be due for a clearout.

14. KSI featuring Trippie Redd – “Thick Of It”

First time we’ve seen KSI this year. His last couple of singles both entered fairly strongly and plunged in the second week, which might suggest he’s becoming a fanbase act – but this single seems decent enough. He and Trippie Redd had a single in early 2020, “Wake Up Call”, which got to number 11; Trippie Redd’s only other top 40 single was his own “Miss the Rage”, which had a single week at number 32 in 2021.

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