We study particle systems with singular pairwise interactions and non-vanishing diffusion in the mean-field scaling. A classical approach to describing corrections to mean-field behavior is through the analysis of correlation functions. For bounded interactions, the optimal estimates on correlations are well known: the $m$-particle correlation function is $G_{N,m}=O(N^{1-m})$ for all $m$. Such estimates, however, have remained out of reach for more singular interactions. In this work, we develop a new framework based on linearized correlation functions, which allows us to derive robust bounds for systems with merely square-integrable interaction kernels, providing the first systematic control of correlations in the singular setting. Although at first not optimal, our estimates can be partially refined a posteriori using the BBGKY hierarchy: in the case of bounded interactions, our method recovers the known optimal estimates with a simplified argument. As key applications, we establish the validity of the Bogolyubov correction to mean field and prove a central limit theorem for the empirical measure, extending these results beyond the bounded interaction regime for the first time.