When I Was A Young Boy
Not for the first time recently, our weekly celebration of all that is new and current instead appears to require appreciation of things that are older. Sometimes much older.
So first we turn to the Official UK Albums chart where the machinations of record label promotion departments have chosen to reproduce 2006 for us, celebrating the (almost) 20th anniversaries of two particularly notable albums.
No.1 on the albums chart this week 20 years ago was Rudebox by Robbie Williams. A record whose two-decade anniversary is notably not being commemorated this week. However just behind in second place was The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, the emo-rockers' concept masterpiece which was propelled to the kind of heights they had never scaled before. Partly due to its overall quality but of course mostly down to its signature track Welcome To The Black Parade which had previously taken the group to the top of the singles chart for the first and only time.
Far and away the group's most successful album, the presence of Robbie Williams above them that week meant it seemed they were destined never to have a No.1 long player - and indeed they never came close to the Top 10 ever again while active recording artists. At least not until earlier this year when a re-release of Danger Days landed once more at No.2.
So the headlines this week are largely being grabbed by said 20-year-old record. An anniversary re-release of The Black Parade propels it - and the group - to the top of the charts for the very first time.
It briefly looked as if they may have had competition from a record of similar vintage. The late Amy Winehouse's celebrated Back To Black album is actually 20 years old NEXT week, but an anniversary edition was made available in time for the charts this week anyway. That album actually charted at No.3 first week out but eventually fought its way into contention, topping the charts twice early the following year and then once more in the summer of 2011 following the singer's untimely death.
To have the two albums chart next to each other in the way the early midweek flashes suggested would have been quite the sight, but Back To Black faded to sit instead at No.4 (still its highest placing for over 15 years), out-consumed by two rather more contemporary releases.
Everyone Gets Their Chance
Mind you, to stay with the albums chart for the moment, many bemoan the way newly released albums tend to pop an early week number and then plunge to the depths never to be seen again. The presence in the market of records that have genuine streaming range however does mean this week the top end of the chart features albums all with one particular thing in common. The two re-released oldies are joined by records by Olivia Rodrigo, Fontaines DC, Michael Jackson and Olivia Dean meaning the Top 6 is entirely made up of albums that either are or have been No.1.
Still Bringing It
Over on the Official UK Singles chart it is as you were at the top end. The arrival of Jamie Miller's Babydoll at the top of the pile last week prompted an even greater wave of love towards the song, and the net result is for its streams to have taken off into the stratosphere. No.1 for the second week running the track posts an enormous chart sale of almost 70,000 units - a total bested by just two other tracks in 2026 and the highest since Taylor Swift dumped the physical version of I Knew It I Knew You onto the market back in June. Paid sales of the track reached an interesting new high of almost 10,000 on their own - discounted pricing of the song in online stores a savvy response by the label who realised Babydoll had an appeal for a maturer market (i.e. your mum) as well as the streamers which had already propelled it to the top.
Both solo and duet versions of the song benefitted from the discount, indicating the label see them largely as equals. But the fascinating split remains - the solo version dominates on Spotify where there is no video available. Over on YouTube the duet rules all - the only one of the two with a formal clip to its name.
The prospect of an entirely static Top 5 did not come to pass thanks to an energetic rearrangement of the existing incumbents. Temu Ari.. I mean Tate McRae is a non-mover at No.2 with Housewife while Ashe moves to a new peak of No.3 with Stop The Wedding. Incidentally, her latest single, the gorgeous Philly-drenched Lasso Me The Moon, makes a tantalising chart bow of its own this week as it sneaks to No.89.
Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan in turn slide a place to No.4 to sit above the decidedly static Sienna Spiro. Giving us the entertaining sight of the two "Expectation/Expectations" tracks (the only two such named songs in chart history, remember) sitting side by side.
Still Got It Girl
For Top 40 new entries there are but a tiny handful, and would you believe it the biggest of these is too a revived catalogue track. To call it an 'oldie' would be a slight misnomer - Angel Of My Dreams by Jade is after all only two years old. Her solo debut, the breathtaking epic by the former Little Mix star first scaled No.7 in August 2024. A track so diverting and so defining, it had the unfortunate side effect of ensuring that none of her subsequent singles that year were able to withstand comparison despite their own merits.
This week it has enjoyed newfound virality after it became the soundtrack to Kylie Jenner's surprise runway appearance at the recent Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Jade then leaned into this by celebrating the use online and indeed performed the song last week at the Mercury Prize ceremony at which its parent album That's Showbiz Baby had been nominated. Of course that has brought it back to the charts too, and so Angel Of My Dreams re-debuts at No.13 this week. At just two years old it probably doesn't count in any way as an oldie - just a contemporary track getting a whole new set of flowers.
Freaky
The 2026 calendar means the annual surge of interest in horror-adjacent tracks is effectively spread over two different chart surveys. Their peak will come this weekend for sure, but for now we see new peaks of interest in some obvious and newly-arrived members of the canon.
Thriller by Michael Jackson rockets 39-17 (analysts in America are actively wondering if it is on track to top the Hot 100 for the season) while lower down we see ripplings of interest in Tame Impala's Dracula (No.68) and Zombie from The Cranberries (No.80). More will inevitably follow next time around.
There are just two other new arrivals in what is by any standards a bloody quiet week. First up is a further Fontaines DC album cut Mimesis which makes its bow at No.34 having swapped places with Demolition to take over as their third-biggest and thus third chart-eligible hit of the moment.
Stop Your Crying
Harry Styles' biggest hit of the moment remains his oldest, solo debut Sign Of The Times which has had more than a cup of coffee on the charts this year and which still refuses to fade away as it rises a place to No.25 this week. But his label apparently haven't forgotten the old school art of pushing singles from a current album. A hitherto unnoticed cut from his Kiss All The Time Disco Occasionally, Coming Up Roses has lately been promoted to full single status and even grew a video this week. That's prompted it to make its full chart bow and it now impacts the Top 40 at No.35. That makes it the third biggest of five tracks from the album to chart this year - although it still trails No.1 hits Aperture, and American Girls, which are the biggest of them all.
And that's your lot. I can only work with what I'm handed after all. I note nervously that the window of opportunity for new hits to establish themselves visibly before the inevitable swamping of the charts with Christmas songs is rapidly closing. That's the moment when we do indeed become utterly swamped with oldies. There are just five more chart weeks left before things start to get absurd, surely time for something new to position itself.
Meanwhile, here's Ashe to spread some more joy into your lives. If either one of her hits ends up a January No.1 I'll be in paroxysms of joy.
