Lists of NME number-one singles, from the British New Musical Express publication, are grouped as follows:
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| UK Albums | |||||
| Genre charts |
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| Other charts |
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The UK Singles Chart is a weekly record chart which for most of its history was based on single sales from Sunday to Saturday in the United Kingdom. Since July 2014 it has also incorporated streaming data, and from 10 July 2015 has been based on a Friday to Thursday week. As of 28 December 2023, 1420 singles have reached number one. The chart was founded in 1952 by Percy Dickins of New Musical Express (NME), who telephoned 20 record stores to ask what their top 10 highest-selling singles were. Dickins aggregated the results into a top 12 hit parade, which was topped by "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino. NME's chart was published each week in its eponymous magazine.
British Hit Singles & Albums was a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the publishing arm of the Guinness breweries, Guinness Superlatives. Later editions were published by HiT Entertainment. It listed all the singles and albums featured in the Top 75 pop charts in the UK. In 2004 the book became an amalgamation of two earlier Guinness publications, originally known as British Hit Singles and British Hit Albums. The publication of this amalgamation ceased in 2006, with Guinness World Records being sold to The Jim Pattison Group, owner of Ripley's Believe It or Not!. At this point, the Official UK Charts Company teamed up with Random House/Ebury Publishing to release a new version of the book under the Virgin Books brand. Entitled The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles, it was first published in November 2008 with a separate albums book and second edition being published over the next couple of years.
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a song by English rock band Joy Division, released in June 1980 as a non-album single. Its lyrics were inspired by lead singer Ian Curtis's marital problems and struggles with epilepsy. The single was released the month after his suicide.
"No One Knows" is a song by American rock band Queens of the Stone Age written by band members Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan. It was the first single and second track from their third album, Songs for the Deaf, and was released on November 26, 2002. "No One Knows" was a chart success, becoming the band's first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and their only single to top the US Alternative charts. The song was also critically acclaimed, receiving a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2003 Grammy Awards.
"Fallin'" is the debut single of American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys from her debut studio album, Songs in A Minor (2001). Written and produced by Keys, "Fallin'" is generally considered her signature song. It was released as the lead single from Songs in A Minor on April 10, 2001, by J Records. The official remix features rappers Busta Rhymes and Rampage.
"I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" is a song by English rock band Arctic Monkeys released on 17 October 2005, through Domino Recording Company. The song was the band's debut single and the first from their debut studio album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006). Written by frontman Alex Turner and produced by Jim Abbiss, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" is a garage rock, indie rock, and post-punk song. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 23 October 2005, and remains one of the band's best-known songs in the UK.
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV, is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence. The rules have changed many times as technology has developed, the most notable being the inclusion of digital downloads in 2005 and streaming in July 2014.
"Wasted Little DJs" is the debut single of Dundee indie band the View, taken from their first album, Hats Off to the Buskers (2007). Before its physical release on 7 August 2006, the single had reached number 73 on the UK Singles Chart on downloads only before climbing up to number 15 the following week. It spent two more weeks in the UK top 40 before dropping out altogether. In the band's native Scotland, the song reached number one on the Scottish Singles Chart.
Ruby Trax - The NME's Roaring Forty is a compilation album released by the 'rock inkie' (newspaper) NME in 1992 to commemorate 40 years of publication. The album features 40 cover versions of classic Number 1 songs by popular bands of the era, though as the NME based it on the NME's own chart, some songs did not reach number one on the British Market Research Bureau/Gallup chart. It was released in the following formats: three LPs (NME40LP), three CDs (NME40CD) or two cassettes (NME40MC), all having a total of 40 songs.
"Last Nite" is a song by American rock band the Strokes. It was released on October 23, 2001, as the second single from their debut album, Is This It (2001). It was a moderate hit for the group on the UK Singles Chart in 2001.
"I" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar featuring Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers. It was released on September 23, 2014 as the lead single from Lamar's third studio album To Pimp a Butterfly. The song uses music from "That Lady", written by and originally performed by R&B group The Isley Brothers, elements from which were re-recorded rather than being directly sampled from the original record. "I" won two awards at the 2015 Grammy Awards: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.
The Official Vinyl Albums Chart is a weekly record chart in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the music industry. It lists the top 40 most popular albums in the vinyl format each week. The chart, along with the corresponding Official Vinyl Singles Chart, was launched on 6 April 2015 to coincide with Record Store Day, and was introduced in response to the major rise in popularity of vinyl records, both songs and albums; 2014 saw 1.3 million vinyl albums sold in the UK for the first time since 1995.
