Um… happy Hallowe’en?

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden” 

Ten weeks at number 1, albeit spread over a total of fifteen weeks. It’s still a little short of Alex Warren’s “Ordinary”, which had a total of 13 weeks earlier in the year. Its lead over Taylor Swift is very tight (just under 3%) so I wouldn’t be entirely shocked if they swap places again. The top four are all non-movers, so we’re much in need of something new to break up the logjam.

17. Ray Parker Jr – “Ghostbusters”

The chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, and so this chart covers Hallowe’en. Hallowe’en has a rather intermittent impact on the chart – we had a similar influx in 2023, but it wasn’t in evidence last year. This may be a side effect of continued meddling with the rules about when a record comes off ACR (downweighting) as a result of a week-on-week sales increase. Christmas tracks are excluded from those rules, but as I understand it, Hallowe’en tracks are not, and so… well, you’ll see.

“Ghostbusters” spend three weeks at number 2 in 1984 – it was held off number 1 by Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You”. Ray Parker Jr isn’t quite a one-hit wonder in the UK, as he also reached number 13 with “I Don’t Think That Man Should Sleep Alone” in 1987. =

19. Rockwell – “Somebody’s Watching Me”

Not a Hallowe’en song at all – it peaked at number 6 in March 1984 – but it’s vaguely creepy, and apparently that will do. “Somebody’s Watching Me” was Rockwell’s only hit in the UK, no doubt boosted by the uncredited vocal from Michael Jackson. Releasing a follow-up single called “Obscene Phone Caller” probably wasn’t the smartest move either.

20. Bobby Boris Pickett – “Monster Mash”

That’s the current artist credit used by the charts – it used to be “Bobby (Boris) Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers”. This was an American number 1 in 1962, but it didn’t chart in the UK until 1973, when it reached number 3. Obviously, Pickett never had another hit single. He died in 2007 at the age of 69.

22. Olivia Dean – “A Couple Minutes”

Although this track does have a lyric video, its presence as a new entry is simply an artefact of the three-song rule – it replaces “Nice to Each Other” as her third-best selling track, and so emerges from disqualification to take that song’s place. That track was number 22 last week, so in a way this is more of a non-mover than a new entry. Her other two singles are both in the top 10: her former number 1 “Man I Need” is back up to 5, and “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” returns to its peak position of 6.

30. Andrew Gold – “Spooky Scary Skeletons”

This hasn’t charted in the UK before, so it counts as a new entry, despite dating from a Hallowe’en album that Gold released in 1996. The track is often associated with the 1929 Disney short “The Skeleton Dance”, after Disney themselves used it as a soundtrack on a 1998 VHS release.

Gold himself isn’t very well known in the UK, but some of his other work is well known. He had have a couple of hits in the late 1970s – “Lonely Boy”, which reached number 11, and “Never Let Her Slip Away”, which got to number 5. A dance version reached number 5 for Undercover in 1992.

Gold was also a member of Wax, who had a number 12 hit in 1987 with “Bridge to Your Heart”. And he wrote “Thank You For Being a Friend”, the theme to The Golden Girls. He died of heart failure in 2011, aged 59.

31. Danny Elfman – “This Is Halloween”

This reached number 14 two years ago, and it remains the only top 40 single to be credited to Danny Elfman.

40. EsDeeKid – “Century”

Finally, a second hit for EsDeeKid to join “Phantom”, currently at 28.

This week’s climbers:

• “Pussy Palace”, “West End Girl” and “Madeline” by Lily Allen climbs 12-8, 17-15, and 19-16 respectively. We’re used to seeing three album tracks chart in release week, but it’s not normal for them all to climb. The parent album climbs 4-2, overtaking Taylor Swift.
• “Thriller” by Michael Jackson climbs 33-9, for the obvious reason. This is a new peak – for all the hype around its video, “Thriller” only reached number 10 in the UK in 1983 (probably because it was the final single from the album of the same name, so a lot of people owned it already by that point).

The seven tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Nice to Each Other” by Olivia Dean, which reached number 4, lasted 22 weeks, and would still be around if it hadn’t been for the three song rule.
• “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan, after a 43-week chart run that included two weeks at number 1.
• “History” by Dave & James Blake and “Chapter 16” by Dave & Kano, which were album track new entries at 9 and 11 respectively last week. The lead single “Raindance” is still in the top 10, at number 7. Otherwise this is a precipitious drop.
• “Love Me Not” by Ravyn Lenae had a 35 week run which included four weeks at number 2.
• “Make Me Feel” by Oskar med K got to number 29 and lasted five weeks.
• “Talk To You” by Sam Fender featuring Elton John entered at 20 and only lasted two weeks.

On the album chart:

1. Florence & The Machine – “Everybody Scream”

Their/her sixth album – I’m never terribly sure whether they’re officially a band or just Florence Welch plus collaborators. It’s also their fifth number one (the other one got to number 2 because they released it opposite Drake at his peak).

5. Cat Burns – “How to be Human”

Second album, placing slightly higher than its predecessor. She had a number 2 hit single with “Go” in 2022 but seems to be firmly an albums act now.

8. The Charlatans – “We Are Love”

This is their fourteenth studio album; the last one was in 2017 and reached number 4.

12. Radiohead – “Hail to the Thief – Live Recordings (2003-2009)”

It’s a collection of live performances of tracks from their 2003 number 1 album “Hail to the Thief”. Apparently the band aren’t massively fond of that album as released, and part of the point here is to release versions of the songs with a bit more punch to them. (Stick with the video above to the second half and you’ll see what they mean.)

14. The Rock Orchestra – “Classics – Vol 1”

Debut album. The Rock Orchestra is more of an established live show on the theatre circuit than an actual band – they played the Edinburgh Playhouse earlier this year, and that’s a touring musicals venue. They do orchestral covers of rock classics, although the result is rather less Classic FM than you might think (they used to do a pretty decent version of “Chop Suey”, though it’s not on this album).

19. Tyler, The Creator – “Chromakopia”

Deluxe reissue. It reached number 1 on release last year.

20. Bob Dylan – “Through the Open Window – The Bootleg Series Volume 18”

Yet another of Dylan’s unreleased rarities compilations, but then there’s evidently interest in them, so why not? The version of this album on streaming services has a modest 42 tracks, but the true enthusiast is invited to shell out for a box set of 139.

31. Luvcat – “Vicious Delicious”

Debut album. She’s a songwriter from Liverpool, and the track above is rather good.

34. The Who – “Who Are You”

Deluxe reissue of their 1978 album, which got to number 6 at the time.

35. KT Tunstall – “Eye to the Telescope”

And finally, a 20th anniversary deluxe reissue for KT Tunstall’s debut album. It reached number 3 on release and hung around the top 40 for over a year. That’s a previously unreleased alternate video for “Suddenly I See” above, commissioned by Virgin America.