For two weeks, Kenya Grace’s “Strangers” has held off cässo’s “Prada” by a tiny margin. This week, “Strangers” drops to number 4. Is it finally cässo’s time? No, of course it isn’t.

1. Taylor Swift – “Is It Over Now (Taylor’s Version)”
2. Taylor Swift – “Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version)”
5. Taylor Swift – “‘Slut!’ (Taylor’s Version)”

The maximum three songs from “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”, which enters the album chart as her 11th number 1. These three are all previously unreleased “vault” songs, which understandably get the most attention from her fanbase.

I’d say these songs have placed in reverse order of interest? “Is It Over Now” is very much what you’d expect from a song that didn’t make the cut for a Taylor Swift album, and what sort of lyric is “Oh Lord, I think about jumping / Off of very tall somethings”? “Now That We Don’t Talk” is a rather better break-up song, and “‘Slut!'” appears to be a song about the reaction from her famous boyfriend’s fans.

Nobody is mad enough to release major singles against a Taylor Swift album, and so the rest of our new entries are mostly tracks that people have presumably found on their Hallowe’en streaming playlists. Most of them are the usual suspects, but we start with a surprise new entry:

14. Danny Elfman – “This Is Halloween”

This is a song from the soundtrack of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s never previously registered on the top 100, and you have to assume that it’s simply found its way onto the Hallowe’en playlists of enough streaming services to pick up some traction. It’s far enough ahead of everything else that it can’t just be here for that reason, but it’s a truly odd new entry even in the circumstances.

It’s the only hit single for Danny Elfman, although his 1989 score for the Batman movie did make number 45 on the album charts. He was also a member of Oingo Boingo, best known for “Weird Science”, but that wasn’t a hit in the UK.

20. Michael Jackson – “Thriller”

Rather more predictably, here’s “Thriller”. The Hallowe’en streaming does seem to have been a bigger thing this year, since last year this only got to number 41 – perhaps it’s to do with where Hallowe’en fell in the week. Despite its iconic status, “Thriller” only reached number 10 on its release in 1983.

21. Ray Parker Jr – “Ghostbusters”

Look, Hallowe’en is not like Christmas. The options are more limited. This spent three weeks at number 2 in 1984, stuck behind Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You”.

29. Bobby “Boris” Pickett – “Monster Mash”

This scraped to 38 last year, but its UK peak was in 1973 when it got to number 3.

38. Wheatus – “Teenage Dirtbag”

Apparently it’s having one of its periodic resurgences on TikTok. It spent two weeks at number 2 in 2001, held off by… um, “Whole Again” by Atomic Kitten, which feels like a judgment on the part of the British public that hasn’t aged brilliantly. While “Teenage Dirtbag” had some success in the early days of digital as a perennial download, it hasn’t been in the top 40 since 2012.

This week’s climbers:

• “DNA (Loving You)” by Billy Gillies featuring Hannah Boleyn climbs 13-12.
• “Rich Baby Daddy” by Drake featuring Sexyy Red & SZA climbs 17-15, so it is indeed more than just an album track doing well on first release.
• “Liquor & Cigarettes” by Chase & Status and Hedex featuring ArrDee climbs 20-18.
• “Agora Hills” by Doja Cat climbs 28-26
• “Me & U” by Tems climbs 36-34.

Leaving the chart this week:

• “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift was number 3 last week but gets disqualified under the 3-song rule.
• “City Boys” by Burna Boy peaked at number 14 but lasted 9 weeks.
• “Can’t Play Myself (A Tribute to Amy)” by Skepta peaked at 28 and lasted two weeks.
• “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift was number 35 last week and again gets disqualified, though it would probably have left the top 40 anyway.
• “Rush” by Troye Sivan only got to 15 but stuck around for an impressive 15 weeks.
• “What I Was Made For” by Billie Eilish was a one-week number 1 and also lasted 15 weeks.
• “Calm Down” by Rema continues to oscillate around the number 40 mark.
• “Used To Be Young” by Miley Cyrus peaked at 12 but lasted a respectably 9 weeks.

The longest-running track on the top 40 is still “Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa, currently at 35, and with a 23-week run.

On the album chart, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift is number 1, and we’ve covered that. The rest of the chart is busy.

2. OMD – “Bauhaus Staircase”

Oh, that’s a nice looking video. This is OMD’s 14th album. its predecessor reached number 4 in 2017, but number 2 is their highest position since their greatest hits album in 1988.

4. Duran Duran – “Danse Macabre” 

It’s a Halloween album. Really, it is. Duran Duran have made a Halloween album. You might think that sounds like a side project, but it lands only one place below 2021’s “Future Past”.

5. James Blunt – “Who We Used To Be”

That is not what I expected from a James Blunt single. I mean, it’s five years too late, but nice try, James. His last studio album, in 2019, got to number 3. He maintains a clean sweep of top 10 places with his albums.

7. Casisdead – “Famous Last Words”

This guy’s been around for a decade or more but he’s never actually released an album before. There was a rumour at one point that he was one of the people behind geriatric rappers Pete & Bas, who are a whole rabbit hole of their own. He probably wasn’t, though. Good single.

10. Alfie Boe – “Open Arms – The Symphonic Songbook”

Exactly what the title suggests – yes, that’s an operatic version of U2’s “Run” in the video above. He and Michael Ball have had a string of very successful pop-classical albums, and this gets the same position as his last solo album from 2018.

23. Simple Minds – “New Gold Dream – Live From Paisley Abbey”

Paisley Abbey? Since when is that a live music venue? Well, it’s not – this is simply an audio release of an audience-free performance of their 1982 album (which reached number 3 on release) that they filmed for Sky Arts.

25. Brent Faiyaz – “Larger Than Life”

Last year’s album “Wasteland” got to number 6. This is officially a mixtape rather than a full album, so decide for yourself if that explains the difference.

29. Billy Bragg – “The Roaring Forty 1983-2023”

Career retrospective.

31. Fizz – “The Secret to Life”

Indie supergroup, at a fairly low level of supergroup. Adorably, the Official Charts website has got them confused with The Fizz, which is one of the splinter versions of Bucks Fizz, and a very different band.

33. Gaslight Anthem – “History Books”

Reunion album, to a very muted commercial reception. Their previous album, 2014’s “Get Hurt”, reached number 4.

39. Daniel O’Donnell – “How Lucky I Must Be”

Irish MOR veteran with his 49th top 75 album. Understandably, Daniel O’Donnell does not generally trouble himself with making videos for his singles. This is a terrible shame, because last year he released this Halloween themed video for two of his Elvis covers. It’s… well, see for yourself.