This is one of those singles charts that you would struggle to describe as “healthy”.

1. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In” 

Returning to number one for a second time, and a ninth week in total. Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drop Dead” was heavily front loaded to its first week – it’s still at number 2, but “Rein Me In” has a huge lead over it and is, once again, growing in streams. It’s been on the top 40 for 45 weeks now. I wasn’t aware that this was even something that anyone bothered keeping track of, but apparently nine weeks equals the record for the most weeks at number one by a male-female duet, previously held by “You’re the One That I Want” by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. (That’s unless you think “Umbrella” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z counts, which it doesn’t. But “Rein Me In” will match it next week anyway.)

12. Noah Kahan – “Doors”
17. Noah Kahan – “The Great Divide”
20. Noah Kahan -“Porch Light” 

The maximum three tracks from Noah Kahan’s fourth album “The Great Divide”, which enters the album chart at number 1. Its predecessor “Stick Season” also reached number 1; his two previous albums were pre-breakthrough and didn’t chart.

“Doors” is kind-of-sort-of the release week single, in the sense that it was being pushed to radio, but it doesn’t have an actual video or anything. “The Great Divide” and “Porch Light” both charted as regular singles earlier in the year, and return as re-entries to the top 40. They both reached higher positions first time around, with “The Great Divide” peaking at 10 and “Porch Light” at 19. If nothing else, it’s nice to see that there’s room for someone like Noah Kahan among the artists who can max out their chart positions on releasing an album.

13. Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean”
22. Michael Jackson – “Beat It”
23. Michael Jackson – “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”

Obviously, these are here on the back of the critically-mauled officially-licensed motion picture hagiography Michael. Michael Jackson is, shall we say, not entirely unproblematic in 2026, and all three of these tracks were skipped on the BBC chart show. Then again, the selection of tracks that actually gets played on that show these days seems to be determined principally by the monkey/dartboard method so we probably shouldn’t read anything into that – the current producer seems to regard the chart as an intense nuisance that distracts them from running the regular playlist, and appears to have no concept of the idea that if you’re going to do it at all, you might as well try to tell some stories with it.

Admittedly, “everyone loves Michael Jackson” is a story you might want to tread carefully when telling, though “Thriller” seems to remain entirely acceptable for Hallowe’en playlisting. The soundtrack album “Michael – Songs from the Motion Picture” enters at number 4 on the album chart to become his 20th top ten album, and on top that, there are re-entries for his “Number Ones” album at 5, “Thriller” at 8 and “Bad” at 13.

“Billie Jean” was number 1 for a single week in 1983. “Beat It” got to number 3 the same year, and was stuck there for two straight weeks behind entirely different records. It’s not entirely surprising to learn that it was outsold at the time by David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Spandau Ballet’s “True”, but it’s a little more unexpected to discover that it was also beaten by Culture Club’s “Church of the Poison Mind” and FR David’s “Words”. “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” was a number 3 hit in 1979, held off number 1 by the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” and the Police’s “Message in a Bottle”.

27. Justin Bieber – “Yukon” 

This is just a case of tracks swapping places under the three-song rule. “Yukon” reached number 26 two weeks ago on the back of Coachella, got starred out last week, and now re-enters at 27.

31. Olivia Dean – “Baby Steps”

This is mostly an artefact of chart rules – it’s a track from her “Art of Loving” which has never been in her top three tracks on any given week before. A modest 7-inch single release has contributed a few sales this week but still only a small fraction of its overall streaming.

This week’s climbers:

• “Talk To You” by ANOTR & 54 Ultra climbs 33-29.

Ah, that’s it.

Thanks to a re-entry by Sombr’s “12 to 12” at 39, there are nine tracks leaving the top 40 this week:

• “Swim” by BTS peaked at 2 and lasted 5 weeks.
• “Pinky Up” by Katseye peaked at 14 and lasted 2 weeks.
• “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles had a three-week run as a re-entry on the back of Project Hail Mary, and peaked at 28.
• “Click Clack Symphony” by Raye featuring Hans Zimmer peaked at 11 and lasted 5 weeks.
• “She Did it Again” by Tyla & Zara Larsson managed a single week at number 40.
• “Eenie Meenie” by Sean Kingston & Justin Bieber managed a single week at 32.
• “Elizabeth Taylor” by Taylor Swift had a single week at 14 (on the back of a limited edition vinyl release, so this isn’t surprising).
• “Baby” by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris had a single week at 17.
• “Nice to Each Other” by Olivia Dean had a three-week run as a re-entry, peaking at 27.

On the album chart, “The Great Divide” by Noah Kahan is number 1.

2. Foo Fighters – “Your Favorite Toy” 

This is their twelfth album. Their last three studio albums all made number 1, but this was never really in contention – Kahan would have beaten them with his vinyl sales alone.

4. Michael Jackson – “Michael – Songs from the Motion Picture”

See above.

19. Paul Weller – “Weller at the BBC – vol 2”

Exactly what it sounds like. Volume 1 came out back in 2008 and reached number 32.

28. Kehlani -“Kehlani”

Finally, Kehlani’s fifth album, which includes the single “Folded” (number 20 last year). Kehlani has had a very erratic album chart track record in the UK – their debut “SweetSexySavage” reached number 26 in 2017, and the follow-up “It Was Good Until It Wasn’t” reached number 10 in 2020, but the next two albums missed the top 75 entirely.