Another Holy Grail
For a considerable period of time, having a Number One single whose spell lasted into double figures was an almost unattainable holy grail.
Between 1955 and 1991 remarkably, nobody managed it. Nine weeks was the ultimate limit for any mega hit single. Diana by Paul Anka was the first to hit that particular ceiling, followed in later decades by the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody (first time out), Mull Of Kintyre, You're The One That I Want and finally Two Tribes.
So when Bryan Adams broke the seal in 1991 with Everything I Do (I Do It For You) it was a quite notable feat. And as any chart historian will tell you, it opened the door to some of the other megahits of the 90s: I Will Always Love You and Love Is All Around both reaching double digits with something approaching ease.
Even in the more modern era when streaming longevity has lowered the bar for hits to spend extended periods at the top of the market, landing at least 10 weeks at No.1 is still a significant benchmark. Not least because a large number of 9-week No.1 hits of the last decade or so were cut off at the knees by a plunge to ACR just at the wrong moment.
So this week we can add Rein Me In to that pantheon, as Sam Fender and Olivia Dean spend their tenth week out of the last twelve at the top of the Official UK Singles chart. They continue to do so by a quite extraordinary margin ahead of the competition, their 56,538 reported chart units handed them a lead of more than 22,000 over their nearest challenger (Dracula by Tame Impala). In pure percentage terms, that's incredibly the widest gap of the song's tenure at No.1. It is a lead that is interruptible - as Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo proved - but one that is impossible to snuff out.
But it does mean further benchmarks galore. 10 weeks equals the No.1 run of Umbrella by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z which I guess we can regard as the record for a male/female co-credited single. Olivia Dean almost becomes - with one tiny caveat - the first British woman to have a No.1 single that stretches into double figures.
That last fact seems extraordinary - but totally true. In fact the majority of epic No.1 hits throughout chart history have been from acts born overseas. The full list of artists to have done it, in chronological order, reads as follows:
Frankie Laine (American)
David Whitfield (British)
Slim Whitman (American)
Bryan Adams (Canadian)
Whitney Houston (American)
Wet Wet Wet (British)
Rihanna (Bajan)
Drake (Canadian)
Ed Sheeran (British)
Tones & I (Australian)
Harry Styles (British)
Miley Cyrus (American)
Dave and Central Cee (British)
Alex Warren (American)
Huntr/X (South Korean/American)
Sam Fender & Olivia Dean (British)
Of these acts, Ed Sheeran is the only one to pull off the trick twice, with Shape Of You in 2017 and Bad Habits in 2021. In the grand scheme of things it is still a tiny list, proving that 10 weeks at No.1 is still vanishingly hard even with the extended chart runs that the streaming era has brought us. Only Drake and Ed Sheeran managed 10-weeks plus in the pre-ACR rules streaming era and fact that eight other singles have done it since while having to fight off the ACR axe all the while only makes their achievements more impressive.
So what is the caveat to Olivia Dean's feat of becoming the first British woman to perform on a 10-week No.1 hit? It is Drake's 2016 15 week run at No.1 with One Dance that gets in the way. The full artist credit for the track was "Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla" the latter being British singer Kyla Reid whose vocals from her 2009 track Do You Mind were sampled on the hit thus entitling her to be named in dispatches. To use football terminology, at the very least she should be credited with an assist.
Annie, Are You OK?
The record at the top of the Official UK Albums chart is… not what anyone was expecting. Certainly based on every one of the midweek sales flashes. Following last week's extraordinary sight of three collections of Michael Jackson songs all hovering near the top end of the market (an "unholy mess" as one insider confided to me), some semblance of order has returned. Having taken their eye off the ball last week, Jackson's label Sony have clearly asked for streams of all his relevant hits to be credited to just one compilation. The net result of that is both the swift and rather startling exit of Number Ones and - awkwardly - the Michael soundtrack itself from the chart, and the elevation of more comprehensive hits collection The Essential to a commanding position at No.1.
A No.2 album upon first release (James Blunt getting the better of him that time), the album has now been No.1 twice almost 13 years apart, last topping the charts for a seven week run in the summer of 2009 following the singer's death.
This rather surprising elevation robs us of the result of a chart battle that had absorbed people for most of the week. For a start, it denies the ever-controversial Kneecap from the honour of landing the first ever No.1 album featuring songs performed in Gaelic. They instead have to content themselves with a No.2 entry for Fenian, despite shifting almost 24,000 copies.
Meanwhile, at No.3 is former Spice Girl Melanie C whose ninth album Sweat debuts with a strong sale of its own of almost 20,000. Her chances of making No.1 alerted people to the strange truth that no solo record by a Spice Girl has ever made it to the top of the charts. In fact Sweat is still the highest charting of any of them - her own solo debut Northern Star peaked at No.4 in 2000, as did Geri Halliwell's Schizophonic and Emma Bunton's A Girl Like Me in 1999 and 2001 respectively.
She's Just The Girl
But back to Michael Jackson, and rightly so, as the sudden renewed surge of interest in his classic hits has resulted in all of last week's chart returners consolidating their position in quite spectacular fashion. Leading the charge is Billie Jean which jumps 13-4. His first ever No.1 single when it landed a week at the summit in 1983, it has remained one of his signature songs with its video remaining forever iconic despite having fewer of the production values of later offerings. Rather topically it was ejected from the top of the charts by Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler - the Welsh singer sadly in the news herself this week as she battles serious health issues. Billie Jean has now been a Top 10 hit on three separate occasions, as noted last week it also peaked at No.10 in the wake of the singer's death in 2009.
Jacko now has two Top 10 hits to his name as Beat It similarly soars 22-10, this too the highest it has ranked since it first peaked at No.4 also in 1983. Meanwhile, the more vintage Don't Stop Til' You Get Enough reaches another modern day peak of No.15.
When you take a step back and consider it, this is a quite astonishing sight. None of the three hits could be regarded as forgotten gems, as many viral revivals often are. These are still some of the most famous pop singles ever made, the leading two literally 43 years old. But they still sound as fresh and exciting as ever. And here they are being consumed (if not necessarily discovered) by a whole new generation of music fans.
Look further down and there's an even older Michael Jackson vocal on the Top 40. His three solo hits are joined by I Want You Back as credited to the Jackson 5 which lands at No.33. The song that introduced the brothers to the world and featuring an 11 year old Michael on lead vocals, it originally made No.2 back in 1970. It has returned to the charts twice in the years since, first in 1988 when a remixed version made No.8 and then once more in the wake of the singer's death in 2009 when it crept to No.43.
With Lush Life and Beauty And A Beat both still maintaining a presence among the chart leaders, it does mean that four of this week's Top 10 singles are all tracks at least ten years old. And only two of them - Fever Dream and Homewrecker - are hits released in the current calendar year.
Shine On - At Last!
This is all because the "told you so" moment finally comes true. First released in June last year as a teaser single for the album whose name it shares, Midnight Sun by Zara Larsson finally becomes a Top 10 hit in its 19th week as a chart single. It surges 19-7, all thanks to one particular remix.
In fact, Zara Larsson released not one but ten remixes this week, launching a new edition of her album entitled Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, in which every single one of the original tracks now features additional vocals from a female star. But the title track remains the standout, additional vocals from Britain's PinkPantheress now the difference-maker between a mid-table and a massive chart hit. This of course is nothing more than a quid-pro-quo following Larsson's own appearance on PinkPantheress' Stateside earlier this year. And it was the fact that she appeared in the track's video in full on Midnight Sun-era costume was effectively the easter egg that correctly convinced fans that the return collab was happening. Long since departed to ACR, Stateside nonetheless retains a Top 40 presence and is this week's No.34 hit.
Although an entirely separate release, the Girls Trip edition of Midnight Sun has enough base tracks in common to be able to inherit the chart history of the original, meaning it re-debuts on this week's albums chart - strangely enough at the exact same No.36 position it occupied on its only other week of chart life last October.
Jump On Me Baby
Not for the first time this year we must note the prevailing chart rules that mean Midnight Sun remains credited to Zara Larsson online, much like Tame Impala's Dracula whose most popular mix features the similarly invisible JENNIE. A reminder to that No.1 single Rein Me In is also technically a jump-on remix, the original version on the People Watching album sees Sam Fender perform the song solo. But because the single was outside the Top 40 when the Olivia Dean version was released she is able to be credited - and thus the performer of a 10-week No.1 hit.
We Press On
That circularity would be a terrific place to finish, but for the fact there is actually so much more to speak of. Almost lost in the mix this week is a new single from another owner of a double-digit No.1 single. Joining his No.5 hit Fever Dream on the chart, Fine Place To Die becomes Alex Warren's second chart hit of the year as it opens its own account at No.20. Both tracks, we presume, are from a still-to-be-announced new album. But meanwhile they share chart real estate with the still evergreen Ordinary, its ACR status meaning it remains confined to mid-table despite still - more than year on - being streamed enough to qualify for a Top 5 placing under normal circumstances. It is No.21 for the second week running having surged back to No.14 four weeks ago after previously falling as far as No.23. People still cannot get enough. Oh my my.
Expired Chemicals
Here though is where it gets barmier. Originally a little-noticed No.46 hit in the summer of 2015, Go from The Chemical Brothers makes an astonishing modern-day chart debut at No.22. The occasion is the track's presence on the soundtrack of Netflix production Apex, something that has prompted the track to surge in streams and indeed escape ACR status organically - hence this reappearance this week. It belatedly becomes the first Top 40 hit for Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands since The Salmon Dance peaked at No.27 in 2007.
Lower-rung hits on the climb: Free Your Mind by Prospa and Cloonee enjoys a 32-23 surge this week and shows little sign of that momentum coming to a halt. Earrings by Malcolm Todd is now a No.26 hit, but although it is still climbing Talk To You by Anotr and 54 Ultra can only shift up a single rung to No.28.
Grandma's Juno Pose
The most talked-about release of the week was surely the cross-generational meetings of musical minds that debuted to great acclaim at Coachella last month. Madonna's collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter on Bring Your Love is the opening official gambit from the former's forthcoming Confessions II album, a companion piece to her 2005 Confessions On A Dancefloor album. I say "official" as there has already been one low-key promotional single I Feel So Free which peaked at No.90 a couple of weeks ago. Bring Your Love, on the other hand, fares a little better and lands at No.29 - down from its early midweek flashes but still enough to just about justify the hype. The house revival track (allegedly featuring a sample of Inner City's Good Life, but I'm yet to spot it) is diverting enough, but it doesn't say anything particularly new and would in truth not have sounded out of place on the original Confessions album. Does Sabrina's presence on the cut give it staying power and the potential to go further? I'm not sure this isn't just a passing novelty.
Languishing
Even if you spend weeks languishing just outside the Top 40 there is still hope. No, this doesn't refer to New Religion which once more is not a Top 40 hit but instead dips to No.52. Instead this is all about Self Aware from Temper City, a track which has moved 61-51-51-45 in the last month but now is finally with its head above the parapet at No.36. The alt-rockers are Israeli and the track itself is the one you have probably half-heard on the radio in past weeks and wondered out loud if it is either Hozier or the Arctic Monkeys trying something new. And in that sense it is well worth three minutes of your time.
Meanwhile, the parade of revived older hits just keeps on coming. The two biggest wtf moments of the week come thanks to Katy Perry's The One That Got Away which re-enters at No.41, fully 14 years after it first peaked at No.18, swiftly followed by the second revival in three years of Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield which comes back to life yet again at No.42. The former is down to the release on YouTube last week of the "director's cut" edition of the video, a more cinematic edit of the original that was previously the stuff of legend - viewed only by those who watched the cinema screenings of the 2011 movie My Week With Marilyn. As for the latter - your guess is as good as mine. But there will be a trend about it somewhere for sure.
