The UK Albums Chart is a weekly record chart based on sales of albums in the United Kingdom; the term "Christmas number ones" refers to the records that are at the top of the chart on Christmas Day. Typically, the Christmas number one is the album that was announced as number one on the Sunday before 25 December. When Christmas Day falls on a Sunday itself, the official number one is the one announced on that day's chart. [1] As of December 2023 [update] , 65 albums have been Christmas number ones. [2]
The UK Albums Chart is based on Sunday to Saturday sales of both physical and digital albums. [3] It is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the UK music industry, [4] and each week's new number one is first announced on Sunday evenings on The Radio 1 Chart Show . [5] The album chart was first published by Record Mirror in 1956. [6] The record at number one on 25 December that year was the original soundtrack to the 1956 film The King and I , making it the first ever UK Christmas number one album; [7] The King and I soundtrack was also Christmas number one in 1957, the following year. In 1958, the original soundtrack to South Pacific became the second Christmas number one album. Staying at the top of the album chart for a total of 115 weeks, it was also number one in 1959 and 1960. [8] Soundtracks to the movies The Sound of Music and Grease also became Christmas number ones. [2]
Record labels earn as much as forty per cent of their annual sales during the festive season. [9] Speaking in 2009, music retailer Geoff Bonouvrie remarked: "The whole psychology of buying changes around Christmas. ... People's buying habits change. They are buying gifts for other people." [10] As a result of this, topping the album chart for 25 December is considered prestigious among the industry, as Christmas number one albums often sell in high quantities. Between 1986 and 2012, 23 of the 27 Christmas number one albums were featured in the top three of their respective year-end bestsellers chart.
Betting shops in the UK often run books regarding which albums will be at number one for Christmas. For example, in 2010, British bookmakers William Hill and Ladbrokes both issued odds of 2/5 on for Take That to top the album chart at Christmas. [11] [12] At the time, these were the lowest odds William Hill had ever offered for a prediction on the Christmas number-one album. [11] In 2011, Christmas by Canadian singer Michael Bublé became the Christmas number one. [13] In a statement, Bublé announced that he was "thrilled" to have achieved the feat. [14] The following year, Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé topped the chart at Christmas. [15] The 2014 Christmas number one was claimed by Ed Sheeran, who achieved the biggest one-week sales of any artist album that year with X ; [16] [17] the next year, 25 by Adele topped the Christmas chart with sales of 450,000. [18]
Following the December 1983 release of the first album in the Now That's What I Call Music series, compilation albums featuring various artists became very popular in the UK during the mid to late 1980s; [19] this is reflected in the albums that were Christmas number one during this time. From 1983 to 1987, every album at the top of the Christmas chart was a various artists compilation album, from either the Now That's What I Call Music or the Hits series. [7] The UK Albums Chart was subsequently altered so that, from 14 January 1989, releases from various artists were no longer eligible for the main album chart. [20]
As of December 2019 [update] , there have been 61 Christmas number one albums. [2] The most successful act is The Beatles, who have topped the Christmas chart with seven different albums. [7] With the exception of 1966, they reached number one on every Christmas chart from 1963 to 1969, and also topped the chart in 2000 with their singles collection, 1 . [22] The only other act to release more than three Christmas number one albums is British singer Robbie Williams, who has topped the chart with four solo albums. Williams also featured as part of Take That on their 2010 album, Progress . Take That have had three Christmas number one albums. [23]
The most successful record label is Virgin Records, who have released eight Christmas number one albums. Benefitting from sales of the Now That's What I Call Music! compilation series, Virgin achieved four of the five Christmas number ones between 1983 and 1987. [24] From 14 January 1989, compilation albums featuring various artists were no longer included in the UK Albums Chart. [20]
The UK Singles Downloads Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the music industry. Since July 2015, the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, with the chart date given as the following Thursday.
Music Week is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
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 formerly 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 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, with digital downloads being incorporated in 2005 and streaming in July 2014.
American rock band the Killers have released seven studio albums, one live album, four compilation albums, one extended play, 42 singles, four promotional singles, and 39 music videos. Part of the post-punk revival movement, the Killers are influenced by music styles of the 1980s and 1990s. The band has sold over 28 million records worldwide. The group's debut album, Hot Fuss (2004), brought the band mainstream success, spawning four UK top-20 singles, including "Mr. Brightside". The album has since been certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and height-times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), selling seven million copies worldwide.
Irish boy band Westlife have released twelve studio albums, sixteen video albums, one live album, three karaoke albums, thirty-eight singles, twenty-one promotional singles, nine compilation albums and fifty-four music videos. Formed on 3 July 1998, the group was made up of singers Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Brian McFadden. The band was signed under Simon Cowell, Clive Davis, and Jordan Jay and under record labels' BMG, S Records, Arista Records, Sony BMG, Syco Music, Sony Music Entertainment and RCA Records from 1998 to 2012 and currently on Universal Music Group and Virgin EMI Records from 2018. The last four members remained active until their last live concert performance in the Europe's third largest stadium Croke Park on 23 June 2012 and have reunited on 3 October 2018 for new music and tour. Based on the British Phonographic Industry certifications, the group have sold more than 32 million records and videos in the United Kingdom alone across their 20-year career–8.8 million singles, 12.5 million albums and 1.5 million videos. Their biggest selling album is their first Greatest Hits compilation, followed by Coast to Coast, with seven of their albums selling one million copies or more. Their biggest selling video is "Where Dreams Come True", which has sold 240,000 copies to date.
American country music singer Carrie Underwood has released nine studio albums, one greatest hits album, and 29 singles. Underwood rose to fame after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was released in 2005 and is the fastest-selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. It also became the best-selling solo female country debut in Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) history, as well as the top-selling debut album of any American Idol contestant in the United States.
British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse released two studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, five extended plays, 15 singles, three video albums and 14 music videos. Winehouse has sold over 30 million records worldwide, including 1.75 million singles and over 3.98 million albums in the United Kingdom. She has also sold approximately 3.4 million songs and 2.7 million albums in the United States.
The American singer Lady Gaga has released five solo studio albums, two collaborative studio albums, four film soundtracks, three remix albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, two live albums, 40 singles, and 14 promotional singles. Gaga made her debut in August 2008 with the studio album The Fame, which peaked at number two in the United States, where it was subsequently certified triple Platinum, while topping the charts in Austria, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Its first two singles, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", reached number one in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and for the latter, becoming the world's biggest single of the 2009 calendar year. The album spawned three more singles: "Eh, Eh ", "LoveGame" and "Paparazzi". The latter reached the top ten in many countries worldwide, and number one in Germany.
The singles discography of Australian singer Kylie Minogue consists of eighty-three singles as lead artist, eight singles as a featured artist, nine charity singles and twenty-four promotional recordings. Referred as the "Princess of Pop" by various media outlets, she has sold more than 80 million records worldwide. In Australia, she has a total of ten number-one singles, twenty-three top-ten hits and forty-seven top-forty entries. In the United Kingdom, with seven number-one singles, eleven singles that peaked at number two, thirty-five top-ten hits and fifty-two top-forty entries, she is the twelfth-best-selling singles artist and the third-best-selling female artist of all time to date, selling over 10.1 million singles.
The albums discography of Australian singer Kylie Minogue consists of seventeen studio albums, nine live albums, thirteen compilation albums, nine extended plays (EP), thirteen remix albums and four box sets. She is recognised as the highest-selling Australian recording artist of all time by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), with an estimated career sales of over 80 million units worldwide. Minogue has eight number-one albums on the ARIA Albums Chart, the most for any female Australian artist. In the United Kingdom, she holds the record for being the first female artist to score a number one on the Official Albums Chart in five consecutive decades, from the 1980s to the 2020s.
The Official Classical Singles Chart was a record chart based on downloads and streaming of classical music in the United Kingdom. Each week's chart was compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) and was first published on Monday afternoon on their official website. The chart ran for 140 weeks from 2012 to 2015, during which time a total of 23 singles by 22 artists reached number one. The most successful artist was the Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi, who topped the chart with three singles for a total of 54 weeks, while the most successful record label was Decca Records, which spent 89 weeks at number one with six singles. Einaudi's track "I Giorni" from his album of the same name spent 51 weeks at number one, longer than any other single. In January 2013, following the release of Einaudi's album In a Time Lapse, singles by the pianist accounted for 13 of the Top 20 on the Official Classical Singles Chart. Martin Talbot, managing director of the OCC, described him as one of the chart's "biggest and most consistent stars".
The albums, artists and number of weeks at number one are those given by The Official UK Charts Company:
... retailers representing more than 3,500 over the counter shops, home delivery retailers and a wide range of digital stores ...
... January 1989: Artist and compilation albums are separated out to create two different charts, the Official Artist Albums Chart and the Official Compilations Chart. ...
... This actually did happen back in 1988 when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday (the usual chart day). This resulted in the chart show being broadcast a day late on Monday 26th and with the industry agreeing that the crowning of Cliff Richard as that years Christmas Number One would take place then. ...