Okay, well, at least we’re less than a month out from Christmas. I guess.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”

Six weeks at number 1, and the same deal as last week: it’s past its peak, and it’s only number 1 Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” has been out long enough to be downweighted under the ACR rule. It’s basically marking time until the Christmas records come along to replace it.

14. Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – “For Good”
17. Cynthia Erivo – “No Good Deed”
29. Cynthia Erivo & Jonathan Bailey – “As Long As You’re Mine”

Once again, it’s not all Christmas yet. These are the maximum three tracks from the Wicked: For Good soundtrack – the cast count as one artist for the purposes of the three song rule, even though they receive individual listings on the singles chart. It’s pure musical theatre, but the first film also got tracks into the top 40, so a repeat performance is no real surprise. The places are a bit lower than last year, when “Defying Gravity” entered in the top 10 (a little nearer to Christmas, too).

We only get one of Ariana Grande’s tracks this time round, with the focus firmly on Cynthia Erivo. Actor Jonathan Bailey gets his first single chart credit.

16. Tate McRae – “Nobody’s Girl”
25. Tate McRae – “Anything But Love”

These are two tracks from the deluxe edition of her album “So Close To What”, out for the Christmas market. The album peaked at number 2 on release in March, and rebounds to number 4 this week, but it’s been surprisingly enduring – it’s never left the top 40, even though it’s spent a lot of its time in the 30s.

21. Olivia Dean – “Let Alone The One You Love” 

Olivia Dean has three singles in the top 5: “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” at number 3 and “Man I Need” at number 4, plus her guest appearance on Sam Fender’s “Rein Me In” at number 5, which doesn’t count towards her three-song limit. She also had an album track called “A Couple Minutes” lower down the chart last week, but it falls behind “Let Alone The One You Love” this week and gets disqualified under the three-song rule. This particular song isn’t a single, but it’s picked up some momentum after she performed it on Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks back.

24. Kelly Clarkson – “Underneath the Tree”

Alright, then, here we go. “Underneath the Tree” reached number 30 on release in 2013. It returned in 2018 and it’s charted every year since. Last year, it reached the top 10 for the first time, and got to number 7. Her biggest UK hit is “My Life Would Suck Without You”, which reached number 1 in 2009.

28. Ariana Grande – “Santa Tell Me”

Another well-established annual visitor, with the unusual distinction of coming from someone who’s still having regular hits. “Santa Tell Me” failed to chart on release in 2014, but it’s been here every year since 2017. Its all time peak is number 8, which it reached in both of the last two years.

33. The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl – “Fairytale of New York”

See, it’s not all American Christmas songs. “Fairytale of New York” reached number 2 on release at Christmas 1987 (it was held off number 1 by the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of “Always On My Mind”), and it’s been back every year since 2005. It hasn’t missed the top 10 since 2016, and last year it got to number 6. Shane McGowan died in 2023 and Kirsty MacColl in 2000, although surviving members of the Pogues still tour.

34. Bobby Helms – “Jingle Bell Rock”

This, on the other hand, is an invasive species from American-influenced Spotify playlists. It charted for the first time in 2019 and it’s been back ever since. It reached an all-time peak of number 5 last year. Helms died in 1997, and he does have some other hits to his credit from back in the late fifties.

35. Stray Kids – “Do It”

A fourth hit single for the K-pop boy band, though they’ve never got above number 30. It’s the title track from an album of the same name, which is out this week but doesn’t qualify for the album charts due to some packaging infringement or something – many K-pop acts don’t care about the UK album charts enough to vary their marketing to qualify for the chart, and fair enough, really. If the album had been eligible, it would have placed at number 3.

37. HAVEN. featuring Kaitlin Aragon – “I Run”

Ah. This.

“I Run” was on course for a top 10 position a couple of weeks ago, until it was pulled from streaming services in response to takedown notices, and disqualified from the chart as a result. From what we now know, the story seems to go like this. The original version of “I Run” featured an uncredited female vocal line, seemingly a sample. Before release, this vocal was widely attributed to Jorja Smith, who had nothing to do with it at all. The takedown notices come from Smith’s distributors. Reportedly, they don’t allege copyright infringement, but rather that the track “misrepresents other artists”.

HAVEN’s position is that the vocal on the original release was created by Suno AI, based on a reference vocal recorded by producer Harrison Walker. He maintains that Suno was simply asked to produce a soulful female vocal, and not to imitate any individual singer. Quite how the track came to be so widely associated with Jorja Smith is a little unclear, since I wouldn’t say that her style was all that distinctive, and Kaitlin Aragon sounds very similar on the new version. However, where HAVEN may have shot themselves in the foot was in tagging Jorja Smith on social media after the rumours started, which would have provided the hook to accuse them of actively misrepresenting the track as her work. They did tell at least one website that the vocal was not hers – but I had to hunt to find that, while it was very easy to find people connecting that track with Jorja Smith.

All this means that the circumstances of “I Run” may well be very fact-specific, but an interesting precedent. Anyhow, it was restored to streaming services midweek and so limps into the chart at 38 on the basis of less than a full week’s streaming.

39. Zara Larsson – “Lush Life”

Originally a number 3 in 2016, but it’s gone viral on TikTok following her current tour.

40. Shakin’ Stevens – “Merry Christmas Everyone”

There is a shorter edit of this video on YouTube, but I find the incredibly protracted opening the most compelling bit of the video. This was the Christmas number 1 in 1985, and it’s been back every year since 2014. It made number 6 in 2019-2022 (yes, all three years), but it’s fallen a bit short of that in later years, so it may have peaked. It got to number 12 last year.

This week’s climbers:

• “Where is My Husband” by Raye climbs to number 2 after four weeks at number 3.
• “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” by Olivia Dean climbs 4-3.
• “Rein Me In” by Sam Fender & Oliva Dean climbs to a new peak of 5, having previously entered at number 6 in June. It’s never fallen below 17.
• “Last Christmas” by Wham! climbs 19-9.
• “Century” by EssDeeKid climbs 16-10, while “Phantom” climbs 15-12 and “4 Raws” climbs 35-27. He’s about to get shouldered aside by the Christmas records, but this is a significant commercial breakthrough and gives him his first top 10 hit.
• “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey climbs 22-13.
• “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee climbs 38-23.

The fourteen (!) tracks leaving the top 40 this week are:

• “WGFT” by Gunna & Burna Boy, after a 14-week run peaking at 22.
• “Back to Friends” by Sombr lasted 34 weeks and peaked at 7.
• “FU & UF” by Skye Newman had a four week run, peaking at 16.
• “House Tour” by Sabrina Carpenter peaked at 17 and lasted eight weeks.
• “Pussy Palace”, “Madeline” and “West End Girl” by Lily Allen peaked at 8, 16 and 16 respectively, and all lasted 4 weeks.
• “Something in the Heavens” by Lewis Capaldi peaked at 3 and lasted 9 weks.
• “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter was a re-entry at 38 two weeks ago.
• “Love in a Bottle” by the Cast of Hazbin Hotel had a single week at 29.
• “Chains of Love” by Charli XCX had a single week at 26.
• “The Day That I Die” by Lewis Capaldi had a single week at 27.
• “A Couple Minutes” by Olivia Dean had a three week run, peaking at 13, before getting disqualified under the three-song rule.
• “Feel Good Inc” by Gorillaz lasted 11 weeks and peaked at 22.

On the album chart:

1. Aerosmith & Yungblud – “One More Time”

This improbable collaboration only barely qualifies for the album chart – it’s a five song EP. It’s Yungblud’s fourth number one album, but remarkably, it’s Aerosmith’s first. Their previous best was number 2 with “Get a Grip” in 1993. It was kept off number 1 by Cliff Richard.

At a running time of 19 minutes, this breaks the record for the shortest number 1 album ever, which had stood at 22 minutes since 1958. The previous record holder was Elvis Presley’s soundtrack to King Creole.

5. Olly Murs – “Knees Up”

This is the first time he’s failed to place an album at either 1 or 2, but considering he’s been around since 2010, that’s not a bad track record.

6. James – “Nothing But Love – Definitive Best Of”

As you’d expect these days, this career retrospective is a collector’s box set – the vinyl version runs to five discs and it finds time to include both single versions of “Sit Down”.

8. Madness – “Hit Parade”

I don’t really understand why we need yet another Madness compilation, but evidently it still sells a few copies.

9. The Beatles – “Anthology 4”
29. The Beatles – “Anthology Collection”

“Anthology” has been reissued for Disney Plus with an extra disc, and they have at least made it available separately for people who bought the previous version of the set. The Beatles’ name can still command some attention, even if we’re at the point of releasing “Helter Skelter (Second Version, Take 17)”.

10. Sub Focus – “Contact”

No hit singles from this album, but it’s Sub Focus’s highest position on the album chart (beating 2013’s “Torus” by one place).

37. Stone Roses – “The Very Best Of”

Finally, the Stone Roses’ greatest hits compilation gets a surge of streaming following the death of bassist Mani at the age of 63.