A strong contender for the most predictable number 1 of the year, but there are a couple of less obvious records further down.

36.  Jamie T – “Zombie”

You’re a few years late for that bandwagon, mate.  This is the lead single from “Carry on the Grudge”, his first album in five years, which oddly comes out in the same week and enters the album chart at number 4.  It’s a bit meat and potatoes, really.  His biggest hit single was “Calm Down Dearest”, which made the top 10 in 2007, but we’re evidently past that phase of his career.

22.  Jessie Ware – “Say You Love Me”

Moving in the right direction!  This is the second single from Ware’s album “Tough Love”, which comes out on Monday.  The first one was “Tough Love”, which got to 34 in August to give her her first hit single.  So – despite making records that sound like a more natural fit for the albums market – Ware is managing the crossover to the UK singles chart.  Strangely, her biggest singles success to date has been in Belgium, where two of the singles from her previous album made the top 10.

19.  Gorgon City featuring Zak Abel – “Unmissable”

This is Gorgon City’s third hit of the year, following “Ready for your Love” (number 4 in February) and “Here for You” (number 7 in April).  We’re on to the third single from the album here, so diminishing returns are par for the course.

Singer Zak Abel makes his debut chart appearance; you can see him doing the song on his own here.  (Call me a nitpicker, but it’s not technically an acoustic version if you’re using an electric piano…)

12.  Ella Eyre – “Comeback”

Her second solo single, following “If I Go” (number 16).  It’s a pretty good break-up song, and it really could have gone higher.  She also has a writing credit on the Sigma/Paloma Faith single “Changing” that got to number 1 a few weeks ago.

11.  Labrinth – “Let It Be”

That’s surprisingly low.  This is Labrinth’s first single in his own right since 2012, when “Beneath Your Beautiful” got to number 1.  It’s the lead single for his upcoming second album, and he’s becoming an odd artist to get a handle on.  This guy started off as a producer for Tinie Tempah, confused everyone by signing with Simon Cowell as his one “real” artist, and has always had an unusually broad range in his releases.  This one sees him having a crack at some sort of soul/ELO hybrid, which results in something that starts off sounding like a modern Take That record, goes a bit quirkier when it hits the chorus, and and winds up turning a bit John Barry at the end.  I quite like it, and it certainly deserved to go higher than this.

7.  The Magician featuring Years & Years – “Sunlight”

The Magician is Belgian producer Stephen Fasano.  It’s his chart debut.  He used to be part of a duo called Aeroplane, who haven’t had any hits either.  The singer on this track is Olly Alexander, but he’s generously given the featured artist credit to his band Years & Years.  They’re a bit more of an alt-electropop outfit – see their single “Traps” – making their credit on this single seriously incongruous.

1.  Meghan Trainer – “All About That Bass”

Climbing 32 places to number 1, after charting last week on streaming alone.  This isn’t a record – jumps from outside the top 40 to number 1 have occurred, though almost invariably because of some similar distribution oddity.  The largest jump from within the top 40 is 38-1 (“So What” by Pink in 2008), and the Sugababes have done it from 35 once.  I’m pretty sure there were similar factors in both cases.

A 33-to-1 jump does, however, match the unlikely chart trajectory of Captain Sensible’s version of “Happy Talk”,  a novelty hit in 1982.

The 1980s were weird.

On the album chart:

• “Wanted on Voyage” by George Ezra climbs to number 1 after 14 weeks out, while both his singles are now in the top 10.  He seems to have hit the tipping point.
• “Carry on the Grudge” by Jamie T is the highest new entry at number 4, as already noted.
• A reissue of “What’s The Story (Morning Glory)” by Oasis enters at 7.
• “Art Official Age” by Prince enters at 8, and its sister album “Plectrumelectrum” by Prince and 3rdeyegirl is at 11.  Here’s “Funknroll” from the higher-placed album.
• “R-Kive” by Genesis at 10, which is a retrospective box set.
• “Hesitant Alien” by Gerard Way at 14.  Solo debut from the frontman of My Chemical Romance.  Single: “No Shows”.
• “Wonder Where We Land” by SBTRKT at 16.  The second album for what’s basically producer Aaron Jerome.  Surprisingly, the first one didn’t chart, despite getting plenty of good reviews.  Single: “New Dorp. New York”.
• “Fantasia” by Lucy Kay at 18.  Another Britain’s Got Talent alumnus knocking out a collection of the Classic FM standards.
• “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone” by Lucinda Williams at 23.  Veteran American songwriter making only her second appearance on the UK album chart.  Single: “West Memphis”.
• “The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets” by the Marmozets at 25. Alt-rock five-piece from Yorkshire, made up of two sets of siblings.  Debut album.  Single: “Captivate You”.
• “Live at Wembley Arena” by Abba at 30 – a bootleg of this concert has been circulating since the BBC broadcast it in 1979, but this is its first official release.
• “Greatest Hits” by the Levellers at 32.  Not to be confused with their 1998 album “One Way of Life – The Best of the Levellers”.  They’ve released three more albums since then.  Strangely, their best known song “One Way” missed the top 40; their biggest hit single was “15 Years”, which peaked at 11.  That doesn’t have a video on YouTube, though, so here’s the follow-up “Belaruse”.