Welcome to the post-Christmas chart. Christmas Day fell on a Thursday this year – the end of the chart week – and predictably, the Christmas tracks mostly vanish, leading to a vast number of re-entries filling the void. A mere four manage to cling on – apparently there were still a decent number of Christmas records being played on Boxing Day – and none of them were in the top 10.

1. Raye – “Where is My Husband”

This is Raye’s second number 1, after “Escapism” reached number 1 in January 2023. To be honest, it’s something of a post-Christmas glitch. It wasn’t even in the top 40 last week, and it has the lowest number 1 sales in months. It’s been out for 15 weeks by now and it would have been behind Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” if it wasn’t for the downweighting rule.

But it’s a great track that deserves its week at number 1, even if it does come with an asterisk. And it’s stuck around at the very top of the chart for months.

Although nobody’s really promoting their new singles right at the start of the year, we do have some legitimate new entries.

15. Tyla – “Chanel”

This came out in October, but it’s been swimming against the tide through the lower reaches over Christmas, so it’s not a surprise to see it claim a place in the top 40 now. It’s her highest position since her first UK hit “Water”, which reached number 4 in 2023. It’s grown on me. You do need to hear it with decent bass, though.

29. Tiffany – “I Think We’re Alone Now” 

Apparently it’s in Stranger Things. This was number 1 for three weeks in 1988 – it kept “When Will I Be Famous” by Bros off number 1, and fair enough, really. Although she’s really only remembered for this track, she wasn’t a one-hit wonder – she had four hits in 1988 (all placing at number 13 or above), and then never had a hit single again. It’s certainly an authentically 80s experience.

The original of “I Think We’re Alone Now” was recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967, and reached number 4 in America, but didn’t chart in the UK. The group did have a UK number 1 the following year with “Mony Mony”.

A cover by Girls Aloud reached number 4 at Christmas 2006, recorded as a bonus track for their greatest hits album “The Sound of Girls Aloud”. Supposedly a last-minute call by the band themselves (replacing a different cover that they’d been doing in their live shows), it exists in two completely different versions. The version originally included on the album is genuinely dreadful and entirely generic – it was thrown together at the last minute and it shows. The single version is a ground-up remix and a vast improvement, which at least tries to do something different with the chorus harmonies, though different is not necessarily good. The original version has essentially been erased from history – it was replaced with the single version on later pressings of the album, and the album itself is no longer available on streaming services (since it’s been overtaken by a later, more comprehensive, compilation).

32. Kato featuring Jon – “Turn the Lights Off”

One of the odder viral hits from the back catalogue, this has been used to soundtrack a meme of Jon Hamm dancing from Your Friends and Neighbours. It reached number 4 in Denmark in 2010, and had some traction in Sweden and Russia, but wasn’t a hit in the UK. Kato is a Danish producer who had a string of hits in Denmark around that time; “Jon” is Jon Nørgaard, a former winner of the Danish version of Popstars.

It’s a cover of a 2007 record by Dutch producer DJ Jose, which wans’t a UK hit either. (Kato’s version is better.)

37. Sabrina Carpenter – “Such a Funny Way”

Bonus track from the vinyl and download versions of the “Man’s Best Friend” album, belatedly added to streaming services. It’s a basically straightforward joke about her failing to grasp that she’s being ghosted, with a weird diversion in the bridge. You can kind of see why it didn’t make the cut for the main album.

40. PinkPantheress – “Stateside” 

This failed to chart on release last May, but its being repromoted.

In a sense, everything is a climber this week, but here are the tracks that reach new peaks:

• “Raindance” by Dave & Tems enters at number 5 back in November and never dropped below 13 until the Christmas deluge; it rebounds to 3.
• “End of Beginning” by Djo reached 29 shortly before Christmas and now re-enters at 7.
• “Lush Life” by Zara Larsson had a week at 39 just before the Christmas surge, and now re-enters at number 9. It reached number 3 on release in 2016.
• “I Run” by HAVEN. featuring Kaitlin Aragon climbs 39-10.
• “4 Raws” by EsDeeKid re-enters at 23 (having previously peaked at 27).
• “Think About Us” by Sonny Fodera, DoD & Poppy Baskcomb re-enters at 24 (having previously peaked at 30).

On the album chart, there are no new entries at all. “The Art of Loving” by Olivia Dean returns to number 1 for a third week – the first was back in October, and the album has yet to dip below 5.