The UK Singles Chart is the official chart for the United Kingdom of singles. The chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company and the beginning of an "official" singles chart is generally regarded as February 1969 when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) was formed to compile the chart in a joint venture between the BBC and Record Retailer. Charts were used to measure the popularity of music and, initially, were based on sheet music. In 1952, NME imitated an American idea from Billboard magazine and began compiling a chart based on physical sales of the release. Rival publications such as Record Mirror, Melody Maker, Disc began to compile their own charts in the mid-to-late 1960s. Trade paper Record Retailer compiled its first chart in March 1960.
This list covers the period from the start-up of the BMRB in February 1969 to the last independently compiled charts of NME and Melody Maker in May 1988 (after which both published the Market Research Information Bureau chart).[1] This period includes the point at which compilation of the UK Singles Chart was taken over by Gallup in January 1983.
During these 19 years, there were a total of 343 canonical number-ones, plus an additional 149 that are not recognised by the Official Charts Company. From 1969 to 1971, the figure also included additional number-ones from Top Pops (which changed its name to Music Now in 1970); in 1969, six of the non-canonical number-ones only reached the top of their charts, a figure that would never be repeated.[2] 36 non-canonical number-ones only made the top of NME's charts, while Melody Maker had 44 stand-alone number-ones. Eleven of the number-ones in the Official Charts' canon did not make the top of any of the other charts.
Notable differences between the canonical and non-canonical charts include the Christmas 1980 season, when NME and Melody Maker had Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry at number-one while the canonical seasonal number-one was "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" by St Winifred's School Choir. One of the more controversial instances of the BMRB era involved the Sex Pistols' anti-monarchy single "God Save the Queen," which NME had at number-one during the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[3][4] The single, released by Virgin Records, was the highest-selling single of the week[5][6] but had been banned by the BBC and some major retailers.[3] To prevent it from reaching the top of the BMRB chart, for one-week compilers "decreed that shops which sold their own records could not have those records represented in the chart", thus sales from Virgin Megastores were not counted.[7] Despite reaching number-two on the official chart, it is sometimes referred to as reaching number one.[8][9][10] However, "God Save the Queen" reached no higher than number five on the Melody Maker chart.
On 15 February 1969, the BMRB was commissioned in a joint venture by the BBC and Record Retailer to compile the singles and album charts. BMRB compiled the first chart from postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops.[11] The sampling cost approximately £52,000 and shops were randomly chosen and submitted figures for sales taken up to the close of trade on Saturday. The data was compiled on Monday and given to the BBC on Tuesday to be announced on Johnnie Walker's afternoon show and later published in Record Retailer (rebranded Music Week in 1972).[2] However, the BMRB often struggled to have the full sample of sales figures returned by post. The 1971 postal strike meant that data had to be collected by telephone but this was deemed inadequate for a national chart, and by 1973 the BMRB was using motorcycle couriers to collect sales figures.[2] A World in Action documentary exposé in 1980 revealed corruption within the industry; stores' chart-returns dealers would frequently be offered bribes to falsify sales logs.[12]
New Musical Express (NME)
ABBA, who had a total of eleven number-one singles between 1974 and 1982 – nine of which topped the official charts, and an additional two not recognised in the Official Charts Company's canon.
The New Musical Express (NME) chart was the first in the United Kingdom to gauge musics' popularity by physical sales – previously sheet music sales were used. NME's co-founder Percy Dickins imitated the chart produced by American Billboard magazine and began to compile Britain's first hit parade in 1952.[2][13] Other periodicals produced their own charts and The Official Charts Company and Guinness' British Hit Singles & Albums regard NME as the canonical British singles chart until 10 March 1960.[11] After this Record Retailer is regarded as the canonical source until February 1969, when the BMRB was formed. However, during the 1960s NME had the biggest circulation of charts in the decade and was the most widely followed.[2][7]
After 1969, NME continued to compile charts in the 1970s and 1980s and ended its time as the longest running independently compiled in May 1988.[1]
Paul McCartney with wife and Wings band member Linda. McCartney wrote the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre" which was the best selling record of the decade; in 1976 the band had two additional number-ones (one on each of the "other" charts) that are not recognised in the Official Charts Company's canon.
Melody Maker compiled its own chart from 1956 until 1988 which was used by many national newspapers.[2] It was the third periodical to compile a chart and rivaled existing compilers NME and Record Mirror. Melody Maker's chart, like NME's, was based on a telephone poll of record stores.[2][1]Melody Maker compiled a Top 20 for its first chart using figures from 19 shops on 7 April 1956.[2] During the 1950s, sample sizes ranged from around 14–33 shops and on 30 July 1960 the phoning of record shops was supplemented with postal returns; the first chart to use this method sampled 38 stores from 110 returns. On 26 August 1967, Disc, owned by the same company as Melody Maker, stopped compiling their own chart and started using the Melody Maker chart.[14] In its 9 February 1963 edition, Melody Maker disclosed that it received chart returns from 245 retailers and that its chart was audited by auditors supplied by Middlesex County Council.[15] By the end of 1969, however, with the establishment of the BMRB, Melody Maker and NME had reduced their sample pool to 100 stores.[16]
Top Pops was founded initially as a monthly publication in May 1967. In May 1968 it began compiling a chart based on the telephone sample of 12 W H Smith & Son stores. The charts and paper became weekly the following month. Rebranded Music Now by 1970, the chart and paper ceased publication the following year.[1]
Gallup
Rick Astley(pictured in 2017) had the distinction of charting the last non-canonical number-one in 1988 with "Together Forever."
On 4 January 1983, compilation of the UK single and album charts was taken over by Gallup who began the introduction of computerised tills which automated the data collection process.[2][11] The chart was based entirely on sales of physical singles from retail outlets and announced on Tuesday until October 1987, when the Top 40 was revealed each Sunday, due to the new automated process.[17] Gallup would continue to compile the single and album charts for a few more years past the elimination of NME and Melody Maker's independently compiled charts after the 14 May 1988 issues and their switching starting the next week to charts compiled by the Market Research Information Bureau.,[1] until 30 June 1990 when the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) terminated its contract with them[18][19] and switched to a new entity, Chart Information Network[nb 1], which would change its name to The Official UK Charts Company in November 2001.
Comparison of chart number-ones (1969–1988)
Key
1–10
The number of weeks spent as a number-one single on a chart regarded as canonical by the Official Charts Company.
No
The single did not reach number one on the chart regarded as canonical at the time.
1–10
The number of weeks spent as a number-one single on a chart regarded not as canonical by the Official Charts Company.
No
The single did not reach number one on the listed chart (which was not regarded as canonical at the time).
*
One of the weeks as number-one single was spent jointly with another single and, for the purposes of sorting, is considered less than acts whose time at number one was outright.
The canonical sources referred to above are BMRB for number ones 266–512 and Gallup for number ones 512–608
Edit by chart considered the canonical source: BMRB • Gallup
↑ This number-one record was not a single but a five-track extended play (EP) with "Too Much Too Young" as the lead track.[47] The rules now require at most four distinct songs to be eligible for the UK Singles Chart.[48] Although the EP is credited to The Special A.K.A. on the record sleeve the record label credits The Specials.[49]
↑ The first three weeks of this record's number-one run was from the last three charts compiled by the BMRB; its last week at number one was from the first chart compiled by Gallup. Its run is thus divided accordingly.
↑ "Last Christmas" peaked at number two in the official UK Singles Chart on its original release in December 1984, but eventually reached number one on the chart week ending 7 January 2021.
↑ "Jack Your Body" was released on a 12" single that was over 25 minutes long, exceededing the maximum time for a record to be classified as a single. The track should have been classified as an album instead (as it was in NME) and, during the two weeks it spent at number one, "Reet Petite" would have been number one for a fifth week and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" would have become number one a week earlier.[50]
Related Research Articles
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.
The Official Charts Company is a British inter-professional organisation that compiles various official record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
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.
The Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB) was a music chart research company that operated in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 2008. It was best known for compiling the chart data for The Network Chart Show which was broadcast by many TV and radio shows, as well as being published in many music newspapers and magazines. MRIB also compiled other genre charts for the United Kingdom.
Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Osborne, Roger (1995). Forty Years of "NME" Charts (2nded.). Pan Macmillan. ISBN0-7522-0829-2.
Warwick, Neil; Kutner, Jon; Brown, Tony (2004). The Complete Book Of The British Charts: Singles and Albums (3rded.). London: Omnibus Press. ISBN1-84449-058-0.
Coryton, Demitri; Murrells, Joseph (1990). Hits of the '60s: the million sellers. London: B.T. Batsford. ISBN0-7134-5851-8.
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