Charts analysis: Rolling Stones extend span of No.1 albums to more than 62 years

The Rolling Stones have the opposition licked, as they stroll to a No.1 debut with 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, as the UK albums chart celebrates its 70th anniversary. Racking up first week consumption of 38,016 units (20,891 CDs, 12,825 vinyl albums, 471 cassettes, 2,074 digital downloads and 1,755 sales-equivalent streams), Foreign Tongues is the legendary band’s third consecutive No.1 album, albeit on considerably lower consumption than 2016 blues covers set Blue & Lonesome, which was their first new album in more than a decade, and had first week consumption of 105,830 units; and follow-up Hackney Diamonds, which sprinted to a 72,204 opening frame in 2023. The Stones were also No.1 in September 2020, when the reissued and expanded 1973 album Goats Head Soup topped on sales of 13,107 units. Already the oldest band to have a No.1 album, and the one with the longest span of chart-toppers, they lengthen their lead in both categories. Comprising lead vocalist Sir Mick Jagger, who will be 83 a week on Sunday (July 26), fellow founder member Keith Richards (82) and ‘new boy’ Ronnie Wood (79), who didn’t join until 1975, they are the first group to have a No.1 album with an average age of more than 80. Paul McCartney – who plays bass on Foreign Tongues track Covered In You – and Tom Jones are the only solo acts to have an album of new material top the chart as octogenarians. Twelve of Foreign Tongues’ 14 songs are Jagger/Richard originals, two of which were co-written by producer Andrew Watt, and two more by session musician Matt Clifford, who plays keyboards in their tour band. There’s also a cover of 2007 Amy Winehouse hit, You Know I’m No Good, and Beautiful Delilah, a 1958 song by Chuck Berry, whose Carol, from the same year, was on their first album 62 years ago. Foreign Tongues extends The Rolling Stones’ span of No.1 albums to more than 62 years, and is arguably their 13th No.1 album, following their eponymous debut (1964), The Rolling Stones No.2 (1965), Aftermath (1966), Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile On Main Street (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973), Emotional Rescue (1980), Voodoo Lounge (1994), Blue & Lonesome (2016) and Foreign Tongues (2023). If chart-topping reissues of Exile On Main Street and Goat’s Head Soup are included alongside their similarly high-achieving originals – Exile On Main Street and Goats Head Soup returned to the summit in 2010 and 2020 respectively, with extra content – their tally of No.1s to 15. However, those same sources don’t credit the only group with more No.1 albums – The Beatles – with a 16th chart-topper for the 2017 return to No.1 of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, even though it too had masses of new material in some of its 50th anniversary editions. To muddy the waters still further, when BMRB became the UK’s first official chart compilers in 1969, the chart was carried by both Record Retailer and Record Mirror – the former being renamed Music Week in 1972, the latter consumer magazine being folded into Music Week in 1991. With earlier deadlines, Music Week initially ran the album chart a week in arrears of Record Mirror. They caught up in October 1969, which meant missing a week’s chart. The missing chart was the one in which supergroup Blind Faith’s eponymous only album was dethroned by The Rolling Stones’ compilation Through The Past Darkly (Big Hits Volume 2). It was published in Record Mirror, but Music Week simply skipped that week and showed positions which were really from two weeks prior as ‘last week’ for continuity purposes. The only group to have new No.1 albums in six different decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2010s, 2020s), The Rolling Stones have indisputably had 12 No.1 studio albums, the most by any group, surpassing The Beatles’ tally of 11. Ahead of them are solo star Taylor Swift (13). Robbie Williams also has 12 (excluding his Better Man soundtrack, on which multiple other singers take lead, and XXV, which includes re-recordings and re-ocrhestrations). With The Rolling Stones replacing 67-year-old Madonna’s Confessions II (1-9, 7,758 sales) at the top, we have the oldest pair of consecutive No.1 artists in the chart’s history. New Jersey rock veterans My Chemical Romance’s fourth and last studio set, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, racked up impressive first week sales of 32,766 on debut in 2010 – but in those halcyon days that only sufficed for a No.14 placing. Now reissued in an expanded (and slightly late) 15th anniversary deluxe edition, it returns for the first time since, and carves out a new peak of No.2 (16,380 sales), becoming their third Top 10 entry. The band broke up in 2014 and reunited five years later, but have yet to release a new album. Their ongoing tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their magnum opus, The Black Parade, help that album to levitate 25-21 (4,855 sales) – a 1,005-week high – while their 2014 compilation, May Death Never Stop You: The Greatest Hits, rises 41-33 (3,916 sales), to achieve its highest placing since it debuted at No.15, 642 weeks ago. No.2 in 2006, The Black Parade is their biggest seller (1,211,392 units), followed by second album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, a 2004 release that peaked at No.9 on reissue last year (644,299 units) with the aforementioned 2014 May Death… compilation, which debuted and peaked at No.15, third (476,156 sales). Boy band December 10, whose formation was documented in 2025 Netflix series Simon Cowell: The Next Act, reached No.68 in February with first single Run My Way. Two further singles have failed to chart but they have been busy drumming up support, with a selection of live shows, including at the O2 Bristol Academy yesterday (July 16), instore photo opportunities at half a dozen HMV shops and more, including multiple formats and lowball pricing, their EP, On Your Side makes a very respectable debut at No.5 (13,035 sales). Bring Me The Horizon score their sixth Top 10 and ninth Top 75 entry with Count Your Blessings: Repented (No.6, 11,327 sales), a completely re-recorded version of their seminal first album, Count Your Blessings, which debuted and peaked at No.93 in 2006. The Sheffield rockers, still comprising 2004 founder members – 39-year-old vocalist and keyboards player Oli Sykes, 40-year-old bassist Matt Kean, 40-year-old drummer Matt Nicholls and 42-year-old lead guitarist Lee Malia – topped the chart with 2019 album Amo and 2021 follow-up Post Human. Their biggest seller, however, is fifth album, That’s The Spirit, which reached No.2 in 2015, and has to-date consumption of 442,686 units. The original Count Your Blessing was certified silver in May, and has to-date consumption of 62,204 units, ranking ninth in their canon. In the top five for 40 weeks in a row since debut last October, Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving finally loses its grip, subsiding to No.7 (8,345 sales). The rest of the Top 10: You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love (3-3, 16,350 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, The Essential (4-4, 16,090 sales) by Michael Jackson, Visitor (2-8, 8,318 sales) by Sienna Spiro and 50 Years: Don’t Stop (8-10, 7,257 sales) by Fleetwood Mac. The Great Divide (7-11, 6,805 sales) by Noah Kahan, The Ones That Got The Plays (10-13, 6,340 sales) by Katy Perry, Thriller (9-16, 5,595 sales) by Michael Jackson and Kiss All The Time: Disco, Occasionally (6-17, 5,269 sales) by Harry Styles all vacate the Top 10. Rapper Future is set for his 12th No.1 album in his native USA this weekend with new studio set, The Real Me. He has yet to top the chart here but The Real Me debuts at No.27 (4,636 sales), becoming his 16th charted album on this side of the Atlantic, and his 13th to breach the Top 40. Frozen Charlotte (No.29, 4,458 sales) is the seventh solo album by Jack White, the first five of which made the top five for the 51-year-old singer/songwriter. A chart regular since 1999 when he was 50% of The White Stripes – alongside former wife Meg – White has also charted as a member of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. In all his guises, Frozen Charlotte is his 20th Top 75 album. Two concerts at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week by veteran heavy metal band System Of A Down helped lift their eponymous 1998 debut into the Top 75 for the first time. Jumping 108-58 (2,560 sales), it becomes the fifth charted album for the act. That is their entire studio oeuvre, which they have not added to since 2005, although after a 2006 break-up they have been back together since 2010. Overall sales of the set, which previously peaked at No.92, stand at 649,144, making it their second most-consumed album behind sophomore release, Toxicity, a 2001 album that peaked at No.13 and has to-date consumption of 782,722 units. Also new to the Top 75: Live From The Cathedral (No.30, 4,001 sales), the 10th chart entry, and last album by The Specials, following the 2022 death of lead singer Terry Hall, recorded at the cathedral in their home city of Coventry. The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack set is No.1 for the seventh week in a row and 50th time in total on the compilation chart, on consumption of 3,583 units (253 Yoto cards, 24 digital downloads and 3,306 sales-equivalent streams), the lowest for a No.1 compilation for 56 weeks. Overall album sales are down 0.72% week-on-week to 2,403,439 units, 2.95% below same week 2025 sales of 2,476,610. Physical product accounts for 287,802? sales, 11.97% of the total. PHOTO: Mark Seliger

Charts analysis: Breaking down a new chart record for Rein Me In

Sam Fender & Olivia Dean make chart history as Rein Me In secures its 16th (non-consecutive) week at No.1 to pass Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet – a 15-week topper in 1994 - to become the longest-running No.1 ever by a British act. It thus matches (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams – 16 weeks at No.1 in 1991 – with the only song in chart history to sustain for longer being American crooner Frankie Laine’s 1953 behemoth, I Believe, which spent 18 weeks at the summit. The release of a pink vinyl 7-inch single couldn’t prevent consumption of Rein Me In from falling 1.66% week-on-week to 41,014 units (174 vinyl singles, 401 digital downloads and 40,439 sales-equivalent streams), its own lowest level for 21 weeks, and the lowest for a No.1 for 50 weeks. Its streaming has underperformed compared to the market for two weeks in a row, and another negative week would see it enter ACR for the first time, surely ending its No.1 status – although I suspect that the demand for its new 7-inch variant was greater than it seems this week, and that more will be shipped in the coming week. Rein Me In is in the Top 40 for the 55th week in a row, shattering the previous record of 54 weeks set by Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud in 2014/2015. It also raises its tally of weeks in the Top 10 to 38, including 28 in a row. Its overall consumption now stands at 1,992,323 units, comprising 8,315 7-inch singles, 24,514 digital downloads and 1,959,494 sales-equivalent streams. Rein Me In’s continued occupation of the top slot is as much due to a very soft market as anything else. Every record in the Top 10 suffers reduced consumption in the latest frame, apart from the only song to reach a new peak, Choosin’ Texas (9-5, 25,038 sales) by Ella Langley and Free Your Mind (10-10, up 53 to 21,675 sales) by Prospa & Cloonee. Olivia Rodrigo’s Stupid Song claims a fourth straight week at No.2 – its entire chart career thus far - with consumption of just 25,954 units. That is less than half of its first week tally, and the lowest for a No.2 single since Ed Sheeran’s Afterglow tallied 25,725 units five and a half years (287 weeks) ago. The rest of the Top 10: Hate That I Made You Love Me (5-3, 25,706 sales) by Ariana Grande, Billie Jean (3-4, 25,077 sales) by Michael Jackson, American Girls (4-6, 24,575 sales) by Harry Styles, I Knew It I Knew You (7-7, 23,449 sales) by Taylor Swift, The Cure (6-8, 22,860 sales) and Drop Dead (8-9, 22,784 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo. Madonna and Sienna Spiro have the top two albums, and also land the week’s highest new entries, with tracks taken from them – in reverse order. Spiro’s first full-length album, Visitor, is home to Great Expectation, which debuts at No.32 (11,7642 sales), becoming the 20-year-old’s sixth hit. Also from the deluxe version of the album, and the Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack, Material Lover falls 14-15 (17,158 sales), while her highest-charting song, Die On This Hill, which reached No.9, rebounds 86-19 (16,082 sales) after exiting ACR. Danceteria is arguably the most commercial track on Madonna’s Confessions II album, and the second hit from it, following No.29 Sabrina Carpenter collaboration, Bring Your Love. Debuting at No.38 (11,124 sales), it is Madonna’s 74th Top 75 and 41st Top 40 entry. A surprise release from Beyoncé, thought to be an updated version of a song first demoed but not released in 2013, Morning Dew (Donk), debuts at No.66 (7,891 sales). It is her 84th hit, including 15 with Destiny’s Child, and her first for more than two years. There’s only a handful of games left but World Cup fever continues to shape the chart, with the Official Anthem of the 2026 tournament, Dai Dai by Shakira & Burna Boy rising to a new peak (19-13, 19,180 sales), while her 2010 Freshlyground collaboration Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) moves 43-42 (10,214 sales). England’s presence in the Quarter Finals of the competition feeds growing support for their unofficial anthem, Wonderwall, a No.2 hit for Oasis from 1995, which surges 32-11 (20,591 sales), with the fact that Oasis are reportedly set to announce 2027 dates in the week also providing a boost. From the following year, No.1 smash Three Lions by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds first saw service as the official England anthem for that year’s Euros but has been pressed back into service at every Euro/World Cup since. It swells 35-21 (13,964 sales) this week, having reached No.20 when the last World Cup was staged in 2022, and No.8 during the 2024 Euros. Wonderwall’s to-date consumption is 5,562,955 units. Some data appears to be missing for Three Lions, but the original has consumption in excess of 2,543,702 units, while the 1998 version has sold 625,916 copies. Journey’s 1982 single Don’t Stop Believin’ – No.62 when first released but a No.6 hit in 2010 – has been used extensively for the US World Cup campaign, sparking social media exposure, and escapes ACR to re-enter at No.27 (12,223 sales). Up 28 places last week, dance track Movin’ To The Sun makes substantial gains for Hugel, Imael Angel & Ultra Naté again, climbing 31-22 (13,902 sales). It is No.1 on the digital downloads chart for the second straight week (1,666 sales). There are new peaks for: Talk To You (17-14, 19,054 sales) by Anotr & 54 Ultra, My Body Isn’t Ready (27-26, 12,312 sales) by Sombr, Sue Me (64-60, 8,523 sales) by Audrey Hobert and Kingdom Of Fear (63-62, 8,268 sales) by Cameron Whitcomb. A No.8 hit when first released in 2010, Swedish singer Robyn’s Dancing On My Own made a brief return to the chart in 2015, reaching No.57 after being performed on Britain’s Got Talent by Calum Scott. Featured in new Netflix movie Voicemails For Isabelle to the extent there is even a mention of a ‘Robyn dance party’, it makes a further chart incursion this week, re-entering at No.43 (10,067 sales). Widely regarded as a gay anthem, it is Robyn’s most-consumed track, and simultaneously becomes her first million seller, with to-date consumption of 1,003,469 units, surpassing even her 2007 No.1 hit With Every Heartbeat (697,585 units). As for Scott, he finished sixth in the final of Britain’s Got Talent, and then went on to record his own, stripped-down version of Dancing On My Own, which peaked at No.2 in 2016, and has since gone on to achieve consumption of 3,654,385 units, making it the 62nd biggest track of the 21st century. Scott had one more Top 10 hit (Where Are You Now? with Lost Frequencies) although his second most-consumed song is You Are The Reason – initially solo but later a duet with Leona Lewis – which only reached No.45 in 2017, but has to-date consumption of 2,040,832 units. It is the 498th biggest song of the 21st century, and the 56th biggest of the era NOT to make the Top 40. No.1 for 15 weeks in 2016, One Dance by Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla was the third longest-running No.1 of all-time, until Rein Me In passed it this week. It was powered by a sample from German-born British singer Kyla’s dance hit Do You Mind, which was released in 2008 and peaked at No.48 in 2009. A viral revival with more than 4.5m posts on TikTok, Do You Mind was officially re-released in May, and now re-enters the chart at No.58, with consumption of 8,605 units, raising its career cume to 350,852. One Dance, meanwhile, is on 5,150,386 units, and had slightly higher consumption this week than Do You Mind – 8,970 – but is on ACR, and not in the chart. Overall singles consumption is up 0.23% week-on-week to 30,807,452 units, 1.73% above same week 2025 sales of 30,284,451 units. Paid-for sales are down 7.18% week-on-week at 256,055, 8.34% below same week 2025 sales of 279,341.

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