Going... Going...
We don't bury the lede on these pages, so let's be upfront. This week is the 23rd time of asking that Rein Me In by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean is the No.1 record on the Official UK Singles chart. But unless something extraordinary occurs at some point in the next few months it will almost certainly be the last.
Rein Me In's streaming sales this week amount to 39,719. That's 2.9% down on the 40,882 it posted last time out. Meanwhile the singles market itself grew by 0.94%. Rein Me In thus declines by more than the market for the third straight week. After an impressive, and in some ways astonishing, 63 weeks as a Top 100 single (53 of those when it was at risk of relegation) Rein Me In will finally be subject to Accelerated Decline rules. Its streams will halve in value, and it will probably find itself no higher than 7 or 8 next week.
But the story of the single (or this part of it anyway) still gets to end with a flourish. With 23 weeks at the summit Rein Me In as a song beats a record that was previously held by - yes! - I Believe. The latter previously held the record as the song with the most weeks at the top of the charts thanks to the combined total of versions by Frankie Laine (18 weeks) and Robson & Jerome (4 weeks).
Now For A Stat Attack
Effectively the only chart records that Rein Me In does not hold come under the "most weeks on chart" heading. It holds the record for Most Weeks In The Top 10 (45), Most Weeks In The Top 20 (61) but falls some way short of others. Most Weeks In The Top 40 (by a non-Christmas single) is presently held by Beautiful Things by Benson Boone (87 weeks) while Most Weeks In The Top 75 and Most Weeks In The Top 100 are both held by Mr Brightside by The Killers (259 and 520 weeks as of this week).
Rein Me In also for now only holds one "most consecutive weeks" record, this due to the fact that it was forced to dip as low as No.35 over Christmas last year. Consequently its 62 weeks (and counting) in a row in the Top 40 is the only benchmark it currently claims exclusively. Most Consecutive Top 10 Weeks has for many decades been held by I Believe with 35 in a row, although Rein Me In has this week equalled that. It should claim the record for itself in seven days' time, just as long as it doesn't fall too far down the rankings with ACR.
Next in its sights will be Most Consecutive Top 20 weeks, presently held by Ordinary by Alex Warren which lasted 41 cycles in 2025 before the Christmas invasion destroyed it. Rein Me In only has to cling on to the end of October to take that particular crown.
The remaining two records are both some distance away and, alas, beyond even Sam and Livvy:
Consecutive Top 75 weeks: 103 weeks (Blinding Lights by The Weeknd)
Consecutive Top 100 weeks: 109 weeks (Lose Control by Teddy Swims)
Both of those were set earlier in the decade before the Christmas tsunami became too overwhelming. Neither are going to be broken without a change in chart rules. Even if it is still being streamed in numbers by December, Rein Me In will almost certainly fall out of the Top 100 over the holiday period to be replaced by Jingle Bell Rock or some other piece of mush.
Coming Up On The Rails
As expected the ACR-induced tumble of Dai Dai opens up a void for second place (and candidate to top the charts next week). No.2 is now occupied by Movin' To The Sun by Hugel, Imael Angel and Ultra Nate which leapfrogs the stranded Choosin' Texas in the process. In doing so it takes over as Ultra Nate's biggest ever UK hit, eclipsing the No.4 peak of Free in 1997.
The increased chart profile of the track has meant renewed scrutiny over its semi-controversial origins. Movin' To The Sun isn't an AI-generated track, but it has been freely acknowledged by Hugel himself that it was AI-written. The original was the creation of Imael Angel who conjured it up on Suno. He took the idea to Hugel who crucially reworked it from scratch, remaking the instrumental and inviting Ultra Nate to sing the vocals. There's nothing left of Angel's original download in the commercial hit - although his "contribution" to it is why he gets a credit.
I don't use AI to write these words (only to proofread them). If I did, you would be entitled to denounce me as a fraud or a faker. But if I ask AI to write me a song and then record myself singing it, am I really a musician? Those are the questions that Movin' To The Sun is prompting (no pun intended) people to ask.
But let this take nothing away from Movin' To The Sun. It's a bloody amazing pop record.
She Will Always
The death of Dolly Parton midweek prompted a genuine outpouring of emotion as befitted the departure of a musical legend. Her generosity and philanthropy were all mentioned alongside appreciation of her life's work in music. It was in many ways fascinating to read how she was regarded. Few people realise her whole "living legend" status of the last few decades was deliberately engineered. Danny Nozell took over as her manager in 2005 and set about consolidating her legacy: pushing her to an international profile that she had lacked since her hit-making heyday, making Brand Dolly a thing and securing ownership of her catalogue in order to properly re-promote it.
That all meant that there was a curious disconnect between the level of celebrity she enjoyed at the end of her life and the historic popularity of her work on these shores. I saw more than one person expressing surprise that when they went to check out all of her hits they discovered she had actually had precious few.
However, those she did have are back in sight, as the late star enjoys three hits inside the Top 15 this week. Leading the way is Jolene which re-enters at No.9. Originally recorded in 1973 and released a year later, it did not become a UK hit until two years later, reaching No.7 at the urging of Terry Wogan who was generally the driving force behind many C&W chart singles in the late 70s. It returned to the chart in 2014 following her performance at Glastonbury when it hit No.52 although the song has also been a hit of varying sizes in covers by Strawberry Switchblade (No.53 in 1985), The White Stripes (No.16 in 2004) and most recently Beyonce's radical re-imagining (No.8 in 2024).
Next in line is 9 To 5, Dolly Parton's theme song from the movie (and subsequent musical) of the same name. This actually underperformed first time around, only reaching No.47 in 1981 as what was at the time only her second ever chart single on these shores. A No.75 hit in 2014, again after Glastonbury, it now becomes a proper hit for the first time ever with a new entry at No.12. Its existence famously caused Sheena Easton's 1980 hit of the same name to re-titled Morning Train (9 To 5) when it was released in America the following year - although that did not stop the Scottish singer topping the American charts.
Finally there is Islands In The Stream, the Bee Gees-penned song that they originally intended for Diana Ross but which became an international smash hit as performed by Dolly alongside Kenny Rogers. Peaking at No.7 here in the first weeks of 1984 it remains her joint-biggest hit single and this week makes a chart return at No.13. To modern day audiences the song is perhaps best known for the 2009 Comic Relief remake by Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon (credited in character as Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn West) which had a week of glory at the top of the charts.
Dolly Dealing
That any of these songs are here at all is impressive, as news of her passing broke late on Tuesday, meaning just two days of consumption has driven these chart positions. They all were gifted an ACR reset as seems only appropriate but in actual fact are way, way down the actual streaming tables. That Dolly has three hits this week is, for now, entirely down to a surge of sales support. Jolene is No.3 on the sales chart but No.30 on streams. 9 To 5 is No.6 sales and No.33 streams while Islands In The Stream is No.5 sales but only No.35 streams.
The second-most purchased Dolly Parton song last week was actually her original version of I Will Always Love You which is No.4 on the old school sales table. But it only reached No.96 via streams and so doesn't qualify as one of her three biggest hits this week. It would otherwise be just outside the Top 20.
Stop Me Now
An act (pleasingly) punching above their weight are Fontaines DC. First released a week ago, Marianne is the lead single from their forthcoming fifth studio album Dopamine Chamber, set to emerge in October. The single this week vaults fully 41 places to rest at No.19, easily eclipsing any of their previous releases to become their highest charting single to date.
Meanwhile from the "all good things come to those who wait" file, at No.38 is Stop The Wedding from American singer-songwriter Ashe. It is only her second chart single on these shores, its predecessor being Moral Of The Story which reached No.31 in 2020 after its use on the soundtrack of the movie To All The Boys: PS I Love You. The new single is, we presume, taken from a yet to be announced new album and is quite excitingly diverting - its chorus resembling Big Shot by Billy Joel in some very pleasing ways. The track is written by Noah Conrad, the creator of her previous hit, although the credits are notably devoid of any mention of her regular collaborator Finneas O'Connell with whom she formed The Favors, their own debut album having been released last year.
Perfect 1
No.1 on the albums chart is Paul Heaton, topping the charts solo for the very first time with his new album Jenius after previously doing so with The Beautiful South and in tandem with Jacqui Abbott (his first band The Housemartins never had an album that charted higher than No.3).
I'll leave you this week with the thought that the prospect of a new No.1 next week brings with it the possibility that it will be there with a disturbingly low sale. Rein Me In bows out with a chart sale (sales and streams combined) of just 40,241 units. Movin' To The Sun is in second place still some distance behind on just over 26,000, numbers with which it may well end up No.1 by default. This is now the 10th week in a row that the No.1 single has posted fewer than 45,000 units, a run we haven't seen since the summer of 2007 (at the dawn of the download era) when it was at this level for 11 weeks in a row. Unless something - anything - storms in to take up the crown next week then we will equal that run for the first time in the streaming era.
