It’s the final chart before Christmas number one, which means it’s a calm week before next week’s flurry of novelty records overambitiously going head to head with the X Factor winner (for, yes, they’ve gone back to gunning for the Christmas Number One this year).

Still, there’s a bit of activity this week – and some massive climbers that would have been high new entries if they hadn’t snuck into the low thirties last week…

40.  Wham! – “Last Christmas” 

This week’s token back catalogue re-entry.  Good to see Andrew Ridgley remains financially secure.

36.  Sub Focus – “Turn Back Time”

Ah, a song that rhymes “devotion” with “ocean”!  Nineties dance is truly back.  This isn’t officially a single right now, being officially released on 22 December in order to chart in the dead week after Christmas, but the album’s been out since September, allowing it to pick up sales as an album track download.

The uncredited singer is Yolanda Quartey, who’s replicating a sample from a Todd Terry track.  Weirdly, Terry still gets a co-writer’s credit, at which point you’d have thought they might as well just use the sample and be done with it.

Its Sub Focus’ third hit of the year, following “Endorphins” and “Turn it Around”, both of which made the outskirts of the top 10.

35.  Kid Ink featuring Chris Brown – “Show Me”

Kid Ink is a Californian rapper, and this is the lead single from his second album (his major label debut).  It’s got Chris Brown on it, which is always a disappointment.  The hook is a slowed-down sample of the best-known mix of “Show Me Love” by Robin S, which is a far better record, and made the top 10 twenty years ago.

33.  Justin Bieber featuring Chance The Rapper – “Confident”

Another “Music Mondays” release.  So apparently there’s one more of these, which gets the music video?  Debut hit for Chance The Rapper, who’s from Chicago.

28.  Chase & Status featuring Jacob Banks – “Alive”

This week’s highest new entry, which tells you what a dull week it is for new releases. It’s a surprisingly low placing, considering that the last two Chase & Status singles both made the top 10.  The video probably works rather better as a short film than as an advert for the song; it’s a rather bleak example of the random globetrotting that you tend to get in Rudimental videos.

Jacob Banks is a songwriter from Birmingham who is presumably being given the soft launch through guest appearances.  This is his first top 40 appearance, though he was also on a Wretch 32 single that missed the chart in August.

18.  Jessie J – “Thunder”
7.  Jason Derulo – “Trumpets”
4.  Pharrell Williams – “Happy”
3.  Leona Lewis – “One More Sleep”

Up 13, up 5, up 26, and up 31 respectively.  So it’s not exactly dead in the top half of the chart.  Pharrell’s getting traction as promotion takes off; Lewis suddenly careered up the charts after an X Factor appearance drew her Christmas single to the attention of a mainstream audience that likes it.

1.  Lily Allen – “Somewhere Only We Know”

Third week at number 1.  Of course, it has literally no chance of being number 1 next week.  But it’s still a three week number one, the longest since “Burn” by Ellie Goulding in August and September.

Current chart position of her official single “Hard Out Here”: 77.

On the album chart:

• “Swings Both Ways” by Robbie Williams returns to number 1, thanks to its gifting potential.  I forgot to mention, when this was originally number 1, that it’s officially the 1,000th UK number 1 album.  But then (a) who cares, really?, and (b) it’s a particularly dubious statistic because it’s not the 1,000th number one on this chart, it’s the 1,000th number one in the officially recognised canon – which includes other charts that predate the current one, plus a different chart that continued publishing during a strike period in the 1970s.
• “Beyonce” by Beyonce at number 5 – a surprise midweek release, charting here on two days sales.  It’s the only new album released this week.