Lost Out
The only conclusion I can come to is that my Taylor Swift invitation was lost in the post. But fortunately for you, this means I am free this weekend to talk about all this week's big new hi…oh. Never mind.
Big picture here, I've been in meditation tanks that have more movement than the UK singles charts at the present time. New songs are being released, new music is being promoted. But the great British public is having very little of it. One new track climbs into the Top 10, but this week's Top 20 singles are the same ones as last week, and there are four new arrivals between 21 and 40. Two of them genuinely new, two of them hits rising from the lower reaches. But at least all of them are 2026 releases. For these small mercies we can be thankful.
Happily though there are still stories to tell, as the era-defining No.1 single continues to get bigger and bigger. Rein Me In by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean spends its second week in a row at the top of the charts but most significantly its fifteenth in total. That puts it level with two other famous hit singles - Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet, and One Dance by Drake. Both of those however were consecutive runs, Rein Me In has so far had to have four goes at it. There are now just two singles in the whole of chart history that have spent longer at the top of the British charts. Perhaps significantly for the status of Rein Me In in the all-time pantheon, neither of those were by British artists.
I will emphasise this point once more for any newcomers. To achieve this kind of chart run is all at once easier than ever but also vanishingly difficult. Sustaining widespread popular appeal over an extended period is what most big hits do, this thanks to the charts tracking online consumption rather than discovery and purchase (all of which had a natural saturation point). But at the same time the ACR rules that relegate a song older than ten weeks if it has experienced three weeks of market-exceeding streaming decline have cut so many potential chart record-makers off at the knees Sam and Livvy's hit is the song with the most charmed of charmed lives, now into its second year of qualifying for full chart points.
So that means that Rein Me In is setting other longevity records along the way. This is the song's 37th week in total as a Top 10 hit single and its 54th in a row as a Top 40 hit. Both of these are record-equalling numbers (albeit with the inevitable caveat for the former that certain Christmas songs have clocked up a larger number). It is inevitable that both will belong solely to Fender and Dean this time next week.
Free Your Hits
The rest of the Top 5 is, shall we say, familiar, albeit with a couple of swaps. Olivia Rodrigo's Stupid Song is locked firm at No.3 but her other two hits of the moment trace a downward curve and surrender their own Top 5 status. Replacing one of them are American Girls by Harry Styles as the singer's extended Wembley Stadium residency propels his former No.1 single on a further rebound back to No.4. It had reached a low point of No.18 four weeks ago before weird things started to happen. The other vacancy is filled by another former chart-topper, Ariana Grande's Hate That I Made You Love Me which creeps back a place to No.5.
That only new arrival into the Top 10? Free Your Mind by Prospa and Clooneee which arrives at No.10 after an epic 14 week journey which would have finished off many other lesser singles. Fascinatingly, it still doesn't have a proper video to its name. Just a visualiser.
Detailed Science Bit
But speaking of epic climbers, Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas holds firm at No.9, meaning we have to wait a little longer to see how high it can rise up another chart table. I refer to the ever so slightly obscure "slowest climb to peak position" list - a pantheon that isn't often joined, particularly these days given you have to spend several months avoiding ACR. But ignoring Christmas songs (for what I hope are obvious reasons) the tracks that have spent the longest on the Top 75 before reaching their peak positions, are:
46 weeks (total). Heat Waves by Glass Animals - No.5 in October 2021
42 weeks (total). Thriller by Michael Jackson - No.9 in November 2025
39 weeks (total). A Thousand Years by Christina Perri - No.11 in September 2013
35 weeks (continuous). Rein Me In by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean - No.1 in 2026
28 weeks (total). White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel - No.7 in 1984
28 weeks (total). Perfect by Ed Sheeran - No.1 in 2017
24 weeks (total). One Day Like This by Elbow - No.4 in August 2012
24 weeks (continuous). Choosin' Texas by Ella Langley - No.9 (to date) in 2026
22 weeks (continuous). Take Me To Church by Hozier - No.2 in 2015
21 weeks (total). Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls - No.3 in October 2011
From the above, we can observe that of songs that have never reached No.1, Ella Langley's hit does indeed hold the record for the slowest unbroken climb to a chart peak.
Note I use Top 75 as a benchmark here for consistency, as until 2007 that was the fullest extent of "official" chart places. However, if we follow the lead of Official Charts and retcon those older 75-100 chart runs to incorporate them into our total counts the table now looks like this:
61 weeks. Thriller
57 weeks. A Thousand Years
55 weeks. Iris
55 weeks. One Day Like This
47 weeks. Heat Waves
36 weeks. Rein Me In
33 weeks. White Lines (Don't Do It)
30 weeks. Perfect
25 weeks. Choosin' Texas
24 weeks. Take Me To Church
Yes, acknowledged. Thriller possibly should also be "starred-out" here as just like Christmas songs it has an inbuilt advantage as a seasonal perennial meaning it has accumulated its chart total over a great many years. If you can think of any others I may have missed, please feel free to note in the comments below and I'll edit the table accordingly.
Speaking of Christmas songs, just for completeness the song with the actual most weeks on the chart before reaching its peak is for now All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey which hit No.1 in December 2020 in its 104th week as a chart single. Last Christmas by Wham followed suit a year later, but its first ever week at the top of the charts was "only" its 97th week as a chart hit. There's an interesting study to be made of which Christmas songs have taken the longest to hit a chart peak - someone remind me to look at this in late December when we run out of other things to speak of. After all, last year Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree reached a new peak of No.3 after 87 total weeks on the chart. Meanwhile Driving Home For Christmas has 91 weeks to its name to date, but has yet to climb above No.10, a position it first scaled in week 68.
Kickyball
World Cup update: Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy continues to not be quite as rubbish as it sounds, the relentless playing of the track prior to each kick off propelling it one place further to No.18. The adopted anthem of the England Team, Wonderwall, by Oasis got another in-stadium airing following their victory over DR Congo midweek and moves up to No.32. Meanwhile the equally vintage Three Lions is up once more to No.35.
Fresh Blood
So what of the four brand new arrivals. The week's highest new entry belongs to Sombr as the American singer-songwriter notches up his seventh chart single in a little over 12 months. My Body Isn't Ready debuts at No.27 and so already beats the No.31 in-and-out performance of his last single Potential. All three of his 2026 singles (Homewrecker being the first) are presumed to form part of the tracklisting for a still to be announced second album.
Injecting some much needed new life into the charts' current crop of dance hits, Movin' To The Sun is a suitably topical new arrival from Hugel and collaborators which arrives at No.31 in its third week on the full chart. Credited vocals on the track are from Imael Angel and most intriguingly Ultra Nate whose friendship with the French producer has paid off with her first chart appearance since 2005. The song would be a joy to hear even without that fun detail.
Good Grace
Gracie Abrams is still in search of a true hit single this year. Her last cut Hit The Wall debuted impressively at No.18 two months ago, but that turned out to be its peak as it rapidly plunged downhill from there. Follow-up Look At My Life makes a more lowkey start with an arrival at No.39. I can't help but think we won't be looking at it after this though. She's still without anything resembling a worthy follow-up to No.1 smash That's So True.
Bringing up the rear, British rap hero of yore Aitch is at No.40 with RMB (Ring My Bell), this track now three weeks old having moved 42-50-40 during its chart life so far. The title is no red herring, the track based heavily around disco classic Ring My Bell, a No.1 hit for Anita Ward back in 1979 and whose vocals are sampled here. What people love the most is the track's video, bringing all of the cute once more with another starring role for Aitch's sister Gracie - herself the subject of his 2022 No.6 hit My G.
Wowzers Indeed
Finally for this week, the albums chart also hands us a story to tell. The Wow Signal from Muse manages to interrupt the reign of Olivia Rodrigo and debuts at No.1; their tenth studio album now becomes their eighth to reach the very top.
Official Charts have this week also launched their series of events marking the 70th anniversary of the Official UK Albums chart, which will arrive at the end of July. This is per a revised canon which was introduced in 2004 to incorporate the Record Mirror Top 5 listing which began at that time, Songs For Swinging Lovers by Frank Sinatra officially the first No.1. The original Guinness chart books preferred to use the debut of the Melody Maker albums chart as the historical start, but that did not debut until November 1958.
To mark the occasion, a new Hall Of Fame award has been created, to be presented to the act with the biggest-selling single or album of any given year. Snow Patrol are the first winners, Gary Lightbody here with the latest addition to the wall of his downstairs toilet, presented for their 2006 album Eyes Open.
Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody presented with the first-ever Official Charts Hall Of Fame Award, marking the 20th anniversary of Eyes Open, the UK’s biggest album of 2006. Credit: Official Charts.
