'Rein Me In' becomes the longest running number one single in UK chart history

[Gaz90]

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's duet "Rein Me In" has broken a chart record that stood for 73 years, spending 19 non consecutive weeks at number one on the UK's Official Singles Chart and surpassing Frankie Laine's 1953 hit "I Believe," which had held the record at 18 weeks since the chart's earliest days. The song has since extended its own record even further, logging a 20th week at the top shortly after breaking the milestone.

The path to the top was anything but quick. "Rein Me In" first entered the chart back in June 2025 and took nearly eight months and 35 weeks on the chart before finally reaching number one in February this year, the slowest climb to the top spot in UK chart history, beating the previous record held by Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud." Along the way it briefly lost the top spot to Harry Styles' "American Girls" in March, only to reclaim number one just seven days later and never really relinquish it again.

The record breaking run happened in stages rather than one continuous streak. The song has spent blocks of three, five, five, and six weeks at number one so far, tying and then surpassing Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" as the longest running number one by a British act along the way, before also passing Bryan Adams' 16 week reign with "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" from 1991. Beyond the headline record, the song has also racked up the longest uninterrupted run in the UK Top 40 at 58 consecutive weeks, the longest continuous stretch in the Top 10, and the most total weeks inside the Top 10 for any non Christmas single ever.

The achievement is especially significant for both artists individually. It's Fender's first ever number one single despite three previous UK number one albums, with his best known anthem "Seventeen Going Under" having only reached number three back in 2021. For Dean, it's her second chart topper following her earlier solo hit "Man I Need." The Official Charts Company presented Fender with an Official Chart Record Breaker Award to mark the occasion, and with the song still sitting at number one and showing no clear signs of slowing down, it remains unclear just how much further this particular reign will extend

HISTORY IS MADE! Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's Rein Me In breaks 73-year record to become longest-running Official Number 1 single everwww.officialcharts.com

[Coder65]

Fender getting his first number one single after three number one albums is a funny quirk of how singles and albums charts work so differently from each other. Some artists just build entire careers around album sales without ever quite cracking the top of the singles chart specifically

[CobyOlaleye]

The way it broke the record in stages, tying one milestone then passing it then tying the next one, is actually more compelling as a narrative than if it had just blown past everything in one continuous run. Each week added a bit more drama and suspense to whether it would actually get there. Frankie Laine's record standing for 73 years made this feel like something that was never actually going to happen again in the streaming era specifically, given how differently people consume music now compared to 1953. Watching it fall this dramatically, and then keep extending afterward, makes the whole thing feel even more historic

[Craig]

The Top 40 and Top 10 longevity records mentioned alongside the number one record are just as impressive as the headline achievement itself, maybe even more so in terms of what they say about the song's actual staying power with listeners.

Fifty eight consecutive weeks inside the Top 40 without a single gap is an enormous sustained run of consistent popularity, not just a song that happened to get lucky with a few scattered weeks at number one through unusual chart mechanics. That kind of sustained chart presence suggests genuine, lasting listener affection for the song rather than some kind of quirky chart gaming or algorithmic anomaly explaining the whole thing. Songs that dominate charts through gaming or unusual release strategies tend to fade fast once the initial push wears off. This one clearly has real, durable staying power with actual listeners well beyond whatever initially launched it up the charts

[LurkingLegend]

The streaming era chart dynamics probably explain a lot of why this record fell now specifically rather than at some earlier point over the past few decades. Older chart eras were driven much more heavily by physical single sales concentrated in the first week or two of release, which naturally favored quick, explosive runs at the top rather than slow, sustained streaming momentum building gradually over many months.

A song like this one can keep climbing back to number one repeatedly as streaming numbers ebb and flow with radio play, playlist placement, and general cultural momentum, in a way a physical single from the 1950s or even the 1990s never really could. That structural shift in how the charts actually work makes long, discontinuous reigns like this one considerably more achievable now than they would have been in any previous chart era

[Sega26]

St James' Park performance mentioned in some of the coverage is a nice touch given Fender's own well known connection to Newcastle United specifically. Nice full circle moment for a hometown artist performing a massive hit at his own club's stadium. Those kinds of moments tend to become the stuff of local music folklore for years afterward

[Jaguar]

Wonder how this affects both artists' upcoming album or tour plans, since a single this dominant for this long tends to create serious momentum worth capitalizing on quickly. Would expect a lot of touring and promotional activity built directly around this song specifically over the next year

[Depot76]

Thirty five weeks just to reach number one in the first place is such a slow burn compared to how most chart toppers usually work these days. Feels like it snuck up on everyone rather than being some obvious hit from the moment it dropped

[Enterprise]

Curious what the actual ceiling looks like here before something finally knocks it off for good. Twenty weeks and still climbing is already remarkable, but is there any realistic scenario where this thing hits 25 or 30 weeks total before it's finally done. Would be an unprecedented number if it somehow kept going that long