At long, long last, the weekly turnover of number one singles comes to an end, as Rihanna’s “We Found Love” stays at the top for a second week – the first record to do so since “Glad You Came” by the Wanted in July.

Instead, this week’s highest new entry comes in at 3 – “Stereo Hearts” by Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine.

This equals the peak of their 2007 (or 2006, if you’re American) breakthrough single “Cupid’s Chokehold”.  You know, the one that sampled Supertramp.  They had three top ten hits from that album, and they haven’t released anything since, though frontman Travie McCoy also had a number 3 hit last year with “Billionaire”.

 Adam Levine is the lead singer of Maroon 5, for those of you struggling to place the name – their single “Moves Like Jagger” is still at number 2.  As for “Stereo Hearts”, it’s a bit bland and radio-polished for my tastes, but I can’t deny it’s got a great chorus.  Beyond that, there’s not really much to be said about it.

But the fact that I’ve just been writing about Rihanna and the Gym Class Heroes must be a source of great disappointment to last year’s X Factor winner Matt Cardle, whose first “proper” single “Run For Your Life” sputters onto the chart at number 6 – and drops to 19 in the midweeks.  Technically, Cardle’s first hit was his Christmas number 1 “When We Collide”, but the coronation singles always do well.  The real question is how he does with a regular release.

It’s not like they haven’t tried.  He’s been promoting this pretty heavily, he played it on the first X Factor live show, and it’s written by new X Factor judge Gary Barlow, who’s still racking up hits with Take That.  Unlike some previous winners, who’ve been greeted with a contractual-obligation burial, I think this slab of Coldplay-lite is Simon Cowell’s idea of trying.

But number 6!  As happenstance would have it, that’s exactly the same place McElderry’s single “Ambitions” landed – and his career was promptly taken out back and shot, albeit that he’s subsequently managed to relaunch himself as a pop-classical crossover act.  Cardle had better hope the album does better.  It’s currently at number 2 on the midweeks, so all is not lost.

The start of the X Factor live shows naturally results in a burst of chart activity, helped by the decision to do a load of current hits on the first show.  So – and I’ll link here to the X Factor versions – Christina Perri’s “Jar of Hearts”, now 15 weeks out, leaps back to its previous peak of number 4.  Ed Sheeran’s “A Team” is back up to 9.  “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj re-enters at 21.  And, intriguingly, “Best Thing I Never Had” by Beyonce re-enters at 27.  That’s an interesting one because it was performed by Craig Colton on the second live show, suggesting that it made the chart on the strength of only a few hours of sales on the Saturday night.   The midweeks have it climbing to 22.

Away from the reality shows, but perhaps not that far away, Charlene Soraia’s tea-advertising cover version of “Wherever You Will Go” climbs from 20 to 7, while the Calling’s original version re-enters at 25.  And for no apparent reason that I can discern, there are re-entries at 28 for Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night”, at 36 for David Guetta’s “Little Bad Girl”, and at 38 for Kanye West’s “Power”.

Way down at the bottom end of the chart, there are three actual new entries for new records.  Number 30 is “Lego House” by Ed Sheeran (whose previous two singles are both still on the chart), no doubt helped by a bunch of remixes.  Unusually, the official video is a live acoustic version on a canal.

Number 37 is “Crush on You” by Nero, the fifth single from their album, and diminishing returns are clearly setting in.  It’s essentially a distorted cover version of the Jets’ 1987 single – and while it’s not Nero’s strongest single, the video is pleasingly deranged.

And at number 40, “Pass At Me” by Timbaland featuring Pitbull.  Video pitch: “Arses.  Also, product placement.”