List of songs which have spent the most weeks on the UK singles chart

The following is a list of songs that have charted for 100 weeks or more in total on the UK Singles Chart Top 100, according to the Official Charts Company (OCC).[1] The chart here is as recorded by the OCC, i.e. usually a Top 50 from 1960 to 1978, Top 75 from then until 1982, and Top 100 from 1983 onwards. In the pre-digital age, records with re-recorded vocals (for example, live versions) and remixes released with substantially different catalogue numbers did not count towards the total and were seen as new hits (see "Blue Monday" as an example). In the digital age, if versions of a record are substantially the same tune, whether the release is remixed, live or re-recorded, they are combined under one chart entry, unless the record company has requested a version to be listed as a separate entry.[2][3]

With over 400 weeks in the chart, "Mr Brightside"[4] by the Killers has had more weeks in the Top 100 than any other single in over 70 years of chart data,[5] and is also now in first place in the Top 75 long runners list (as previously used in The Guinness Book Of Hit Singles). "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi currently leads this list, with the song having been in the Top 75 for a few months longer than the records in the runners up position. "Last Christmas" has spent the most weeks in the Top 3. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has spent the most weeks in the Top 10 and Top 40. When only a Top 50 was compiled, Frank Sinatra's "My Way" set a record which still stands: 122 weeks in the Top 50 between April 1969 and January 1972. It also held the record for most weeks in the top 40 with 75, until The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" achieved its 76th week in the region in 2021 and most weeks in the top 75 with 124, which was surpassed by Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" in 2021.

The longest unbroken run in the Top 100 is 105 weeks for “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, which also holds the longest consecutive run in the top 75 (103 weeks). Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me" held the record run in the Top 50, at 56 weeks, for over 40 years[6] until beaten by "All of Me" by John Legend with 58 consecutive weeks in the top 50 (since passed by "Thinking Out Loud" with 63 weeks). The song with the most weeks at No. 1 is "I Believe" by Frankie Laine which stayed in the Top 10 for 35 weeks, 18 of them at No. 1 and a further seven at No. 2. Also noteworthy is "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, the only song released in the 1950s to appear in the lists, which achieved 36 of its weeks when only a Top 20 or Top 30 were published.

In the pre-digital era, Christmas-themed songs were often re-released in different years and several have continued to chart each year from the mid-noughties onwards. "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade has had 27 chart runs in 30 different years (1973–74, 1980–87, 1989–90 and 2006–23), while "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl has reached the Top 10 ten times and spent a record 70 weeks in the Top 20 and 84 weeks in the Top 40. In a similar but more modest way, since 2007, "Thriller" by Michael Jackson[7] and "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr.[8] have charted at Halloween in fifteen and thirteen years, respectively.

The numbers shown are up to the chart for week ending 11 May 2023.

  1. ^ "Use search button to find any song title or artist name". Official Charts Company.
  2. ^ "Getting into the charts – Meeting the chart rules". Official Charts.
  3. ^ https://www.officialcharts.com/media/657559/official-uk-singles-chart-rules-jan-2020.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  4. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts". Official Charts.
  5. ^ "Official Singles Chart Results Matching: Mr Brightside". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Engelbert Humperdinck honoured with Guinness World Record ahead of Eurovision Song Contest". Guinness World Records. 16 May 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  7. ^ "Michael Jackson". Official Charts Company. 12 February 1972. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  8. ^ "Ray Parker Jr". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 November 2015.

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