Mad Dogs
It's the heat, it has to be. What else could have made the UK charts go ever so slightly batshit this week. Where the new No.1 is in fact an old one. And several new entries are also old ones. Back for their own vintage moments of glory.
To start, while I'm not saying I called this last week, I did actually call this last week.
No longer benefitting from the boost from her initial batch of physical sales, Sabrina Carpenter slumps back a place, Manchild yielding with grim inevitability to the still onrushing juggernaut that is Ordinary by Alex Warren. He's back at No.1 again, this now the track's 13th non-consecutive week at the top of the Official UK Singles chart. It also means the unbroken streak goes on. What used to be vanishingly rare is now common, 2025 joining every single year since 2009 in seeing at least one single enjoy two spells at the top of the charts.
However, just as Ordinary notches up its 1 millionth chart sale, the end is finally in sight. A return to No.1 notwithstanding, the track will next week finally slump to ACR and next week will likely end up at around 5 or 6 instead. Thanks for the memories fella, it has been a fun ride. But I think it is time for someone else to wear the crown for a bit.
Dior And The Belmonts
The top end of this week's chart is largely bereft of movement, save for one spectacular climb. Dior from MK and Chrystal takes a flying leap to land at No.5 on its second week around. That's more than enough to make it the biggest ever credited chart hit for the veteran producer, eclipsing the No.7 peak of the two tracks we mentioned last week: 17 from 2017 and Asking from 2023. This is however to overlook his crucial role in the 1995 No.3 peak of Push The Feeling On by Nightcrawlers (starring John Reid who passed away this week). Although not directly credited, that hit version arrived in the form of the "MK Dub Revisited Edit" which has gone on to be sampled with alarming regularity by other hits ever since - most recently by Riton's Friday in 2021 - which was itself a No.4 hit. Also, for now, a bigger chart hit than Dior.
Everything else that climbs this week does so gently and gradually, but that still means steady progress for Olivia Dean's Nice To Each Other (up 2 to No.16), Lola Young's One Thing (up 1 to No.18), The Glen by Levi Heron (up 2 to No.24) and Say My Name by Morgan Seatree (up 3 to No.29).
Old And New - Together At Last
Between 30 and 40 there are no fewer than six Top 40 new entries. Well, new-ish. Four of them are new. Two of them come from the depths of the Spotify back catalogue. So let's dive in.
Leading the charge is a track that effectively breaks the seal on the BTS military service hiatus. First out the army and out of the blocks into the studio was J-Hope, and with Killin' It Girl he lands himself his biggest solo hit to date with a No.30 new entry, eclipsing the No.37 peak of On The Street from 2023. His solo hits do however all have one important thing in common - they are bubble tracks in the truest sense of the word. Charting for one week before vanishing from sight. Second-guessing these things is a dangerous business but I think we are on common ground assuming this hit will be no different.
Ahead of their forthcoming eighth studio album Twenty One Pilots make the Top 40 for only the fourth time in their career as The Contract lands at No.33, one place higher than the debut and peak position of last year's Overcompensate. We can note now as we did then, their biggest chart hit remains 2016's Top 5 smash Heathens which seems likely to remain by some distance their biggest singles chart success.
This probably should have been bigger, and perhaps it will end up that way, but for now the mouth-watering combination of Mark Ronson and RAYE represents nothing more than a No.34 hit single. If you are at this moment contemplating what Suzanne sounds like (if you haven't already heard it) then I am pleased to confirm you are correct. Because it is exactly what a Mark Ronson and RAYE collaboration would be expected to sound like: lots of brass, sixties jazz vibes, and Ms Keen giving it her very best Amy Winehouse on what is clearly intended to be an attempt to recapture the magic of Valerie. I'll leave fate to decide where this ends up. But we note the one thing RAYE currently lacks. Another big hit to follow up that memorable time in 2023 when 21st Century Blues landed every award going. She hasn't really had one since.
This Broke Me
No.37 hit No Broke Boys began life as a track on Tinashe's Quantum Baby album which came out last year. Hitherto uncharted it surfaces now thanks to a radical reworking by a co-credited Disco Lines, aka American DJ Thadeus Labuszewski. The result is transformative and the best pop record of the week by a country mile. If any of this week's new arrivals turns into a bigger hit, I truly hope it is this one.
Oldies
So those were the new, what about the old? Two back catalogue tracks escape ACR and take unexpected bows just inside the Top 40. First is Rock That Body from The Black Eyed Peas. Not necessarily one of their most fondly remembered hits, it first crept to a No.11 peak in the spring of 2010. Tik Tok and a rapidly spreading dance challenge now propels it back to prominence, leading to its arrival at No.35.
Five places below on the bottom rung are Coldplay not with Viva La Vida or Yellow, bottom end of the chart hardy perennials both, but instead Sparks which first appeared on the group's debut album Parachutes almost exactly 25 years ago. Pinpointing the reason for this revival is trickier, but it seems to have been prompted by a semi-viral video of the group performing it at Las Vegas earlier this month. It means Coldplay do have their full quota of permitted hits, all with back catalogue tracks. The aforementioned Viva La Vida and Yellow are at 95 and 99 respectively.
Finally to a curious albums chart where the largely hitless James Marriott surges his way to a No.1 record with his album Don't Tell The Dog topping the pile with a relatively healthy sale of about 15,000. Oasis' hits collection Time Flies is a surprise No.2 as anticipation for their reunion gigs builds (although the release of more physical formats helps), but most headlines are reserved for the No.3 album of the week. Sabrina Carpenter's Short N' Sweet spends its 43rd consecutive week as a Top 5 record, setting a new record for a solo studio album. Elvis Presley's GI Blues is just ahead with 44 weeks straight, but by common agreement this is a soundtrack album rather than a studio recording even if it still means he holds the record for a solo artist. For now.
