Tones & I's Dance Monkey gets an eleventh week at number one, a record for a solo female artist. Rod Stewart gets his tenth number one album.

Tones & I claims a new chart record with an eleventh week at number one. Rod Stewart climbs to the top of the albums chart.

Tones & I remains at the top of the singles chart with Dance Monkey. Her eleven-week run is the longest run at number one for a female solo artist, excluding appearances as a featured artist. She goes a week ahead of Rihanna’s Umbrella and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. Her feat is made even more remarkable by the fact that it took her nine weeks to get to number one in the first place. A decline in streams for three successive weeks in any of her time at the top would, therefore, have seen Dance Monkey switched on to the Advanced Chart Ratio (ACR) whereby the value of the song’s streams would have been halved. That point is likely to be reached in time for next week’s chart so this is almost certainly its last week at the summit, for now at least.

Ed Sheeran and Stormzy (plus Burna Boy) move up one place to number two with Own It. Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now is back up one place to number three. Lewis Capaldi falls to number four with Before You Go. Arizona Zervas stays sat number five with Roxanne. Ellie Goulding’s version of Joni Mitchell’s River climbs to number eight giving Goulding a first top ten hit since On My Mind in 2015.

Harry Styles releases his new album today (Friday) and he has been busy promoting it over the last week or so. That included an appearance on Graham Norton’s show last week when he performed Adore You. That song enters at number eleven this week. It is the third song from Fine Line to reach the top forty, three times as many as he managed from his debut album.

There is another batch of old Christmas songs entering the top forty this week but, before we get to those, there is one festive newcomer that just misses out on the top forty. As was the case with last week’s actual new entry, it is a new version of a song by a very well-known songwriter. This time, the song itself is also very well-known, having been a hit twice before the download and streaming era meant that the best-known Christmas hits returned to the chart every year.

John Lennon’s version of Happy Christmas (War Is Over) was originally a hit in 1972 when it reached number four. It returned to the chart in the wake of his assassination, peaking at number two behind his most famous song, Imagine. Now, for some inexplicable reason, John Legend has decided to record a version of his song and it is a good deal worse than might have been expected. Many people seeing the midweek updates will have assumed that the credit “John Legend” was a misprint or even glanced at it and misread it as “John Lennon”. Alas, no, but there is at least the consolation that it hasn’t quite made the top forty. It enters at number 41.

On, then, to this week’s list of seasonal re-entries and time to roll out a marathon credit once again. Yes, it’s the inevitable return of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by (deep breath) Wizzard featuring vocal backing by The Suedettes plus the Stocklan d Green Bilateral School First Year Choir with additional noises by Miss Snob and Class 3C at number 34. The song was originally released in 1973, as was Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody. That song is back at number 36.

Two original songs by contemporary female artists return once again. Leona Lewis’s best single, One More Sleep, is at number 29. Kelly Clarkson is at number 39 with Underneath The Tree. A rather older song by a female artist, Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree returns at number 32.

Tones & I held on to the number one spot in the singles chart with ease this week, but the competition at the top of the albums chart was a lot closer with two albums that entered the chart a fortnight ago battling it out with the first album of new material by The Who for well over a decade. The Who led the way in the week’s first update but they were overtaken later in the week by Rod Stewart.

The veteran London-born Scot held on for the rest of the week meaning that You’re In My Heart becomes his tenth number one album, 48 years after Every Picture Tells A Story became his first. He becomes the tenth artist to spend a total of thirty weeks or more at the top of the albums chart.

Rod Stewart’s ascent to the top means that three of the albums that entered the chart two weeks ago have now reached number one. Someone with a comprehensive database may be able to tell us when that last happened!

Robbie Williams slips back to number two after a week at the summit with Christmas Present. He will be hoping to return to the top in the Christmas chart next week.

Many chart fans will think of The Who as one of the most successful chart acts never to have had a number one single. Perhaps even more surprisingly, they have only ever spent one week at the top of the albums chart - in 1971. Their combined tally of one week at number one puts them behind the likes of Jive Bunny, Richard & Adam and Bob The Builder.

While they looked like they might finally add to that modest total this week, they finish the week at number three with Who, their first album of new material form thirteen years. The Who’s failure to top the chart with their eponymous album also means that the title of that sole chart-topping album, Who’s Next, has not proved prophetic.

Michael Ball and Alfie Boe’s Back Together climbs one place to number four, swapping places with Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent.

As mentioned above, former One Directioner Harry Styles releases his new album today. It comes one week after his erstwhile bandmate Liam Payne released his debut solo album, LP1 (geddit?). The former talent show contestant enters at number seventeen.

One of the many criticisms of television talent shows is that audiences can be manipulated into voting for a particular act, regardless of whether they were any good. This was thought to have reached its peak in the 2016 series of Britain’s Got Talent which was won by Richard Jones. He appeared in full military uniform (keeping quiet about the fact that he was a bandsman rather than a front-line soldier) and performed some basic magic tricks. In the final, he didn’t even bother with much magic; he just told a story and still managed to win the public vote.

Fast forward three years and someone else in uniform tried the same trick and threw in a sob story for good measure. Colin Thackery turned up in his Chelsea Pensioner’s uniform (hoping nobody would twig that he was too young to have served in the Second World War) and told the audience that he was a widower, something he has in common with many men in their late eighties. He then proceeded to sing. His singing wasn’t bad, but nor was it anything special.

Nevertheless, he too went on to win the show. Naturally that means an album which sees him become one of the oldest ever chart debutants with Love Changes Everything at number thirteen.

Continuing with the talent show theme, Camila Cabello made her name as a member of Fifth Harmony, a band formed on the American version of X Factor in the same way that One Direction were formed on the UK version of the show. Her debut album reached number two last year. The follow-up fares rather less well; Romance is at number fourteen.

From talent show contestants we move on to someone who has done stints as a talent show judge, Kylie Minogue. Following the success of the Golden compilation which topped the chart last year, she enters at number 23 with Golden - Live In Concert.

While aRoderick tops the albums chart, a Rodrick gets this week’s last new entry. Rodrick Moore Jr., aka Roddy Ricch, enters at number 39 with Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial. After the overnight news, I’m not sure we want a reminder of Harry Enfield’s ‘80s character Loadsamoney.

Jack Savoretti’s Singing To Strangers re-enters at number 27. Stereophonics’ Kind is back at number 35 and George Ezra returns at number 40 with Staying At Tamara’s.