List of UK charts and number-one singles (1952–1969)
Encyclopedia
The UK Singles Chart
is the official chart for the United Kingdom of singles
. The chart is compiled by The Official Chart 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 their first chart in March 1960.
No single chart was universally followed during this period. Retrospectively, Guinness Book of British Hit Singles
and The Official Chart Company have chosen canonical sources for the era: NME (November 1952 – March 1960) and Record Retailer (March 1960 – February 1969). These choices have not been universally welcomed particularly that of Record Retailer during the 1960s when charts like NME had significantly wider circulation and following. The BBC's Pick of the Pops
circumvented the lack of an official chart by aggregating the afforementioned publications to create their own chart.
Notable omissions from the canon are The Rolling Stones
' "19th Nervous Breakdown
" and The Beatles
' "Please Please Me
" which both reached number one on the NME, Disc, and Melody Maker charts, topped the BBC's Pick of the Pops aggregated chart and was announced as number one on Top of the Pops
; however, in failing to top the Record Retailer chart are not generally regarded as number-one singles.
chart was the first in the United Kingdom to gauge musics' popularity by physical sales – previously sheet music sales were used. NMEs co-founder Percy Dickins imitated the chart produced by American Billboard
magazine and began to compile Britain's first hit parade
in 1952. For the first chart, Dickins telephoned a sample of around 20 shops asking for a list of the 10 best-selling songs. These results were then aggregated to give a Top 12 chart (with 15 entires due to tied positions) that was published in NME on 14 November 1952. 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. After this Record Retailer is regarded as the canonical source until February 1969, when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB)
was formed. However, during the 1960s NME had the biggest circulation of charts in the decade and was the most widely followed.
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.
Record Mirror
compiled its own record chart
from 1955 until 1962 which was used by many national newspapers. It formed as the first rival to the existing chart published by NME. The Mirrors chart was based on the postal returns from record stores that were financed by the newspaper—rival chart, NME, was based on a telephone poll. Its first chart was a Top 10 published on 22 January 1955 using figures from 24 shops. The chart was expanded from a Top 10 to a Top 20 on 8 October 1955. In the early 1960s some national newspapers switched to using a chart compiled by Melody Maker and, ultimately, the cost of collecting sales figures by post led to the chart's demise. On 24 March 1962, the paper stopped compiling its own chart and started publishing Record Retailers Top 50.
compiled its own chart from 1956 until 1988 which was used by many national newspapers. It was the third periodical to compile a chart and rivaled existing compilers NME
and Record Mirror
. Melody Makers chart, like NMEs, was based on a telephone poll of record stores. Melody Maker compiled a Top 20 for its first chart using figures from 19 shops on 7 April 1956. 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.
compiled its own chart from 1958 until 1967, the Disc which was used by many national newspapers. It formed as a rival to the existing charts published by NME, Record Mirror, and Melody Maker. Discs chart, like two of its rivals, was based on a telephone poll of record stores. On 1 February 1958 Disc compiled its first chart which was a Top 20 using figures from 20 shops. Throughout the 1950s Discs sample sizes remained below 40 shops and in the early 1960s the sample size was increased to approximately 50 and compiled by Fred Zebadee; other rival charts had increased their samples to around 100 but this was too expensive for Disc. On 23 April 1966 the publication Mersey Beat
(which ran its own chart) was incorporated into Disc
which became Disc and Music Echo. On 26 August 1967, Disc, who was then owned by the same company as Melody Maker, stopped compiling their own chart and started using the Melody Maker chart.
was a trade paper that began compiling a record chart in March 1960. Although prior to 1969 there was no official singles chart, Record Retailer is considered by the The Official Charts Company to be the canonical source from 10 March 1960 until 15 February 1969 when Retailer and the BBC
jointly commissioned the BMRB to compile the charts. The choice to use Record Retailer as the canonical source for the 1960s has been contentious because NME had the biggest circulation of periodicals in the decade and was more widely followed. One source explains that the reason for using the Record Retailer chart for the 1960s was that it was "the only chart to have as many as 50 positions for almost the entire decade". The sample size of Record Retailer in the early 1960s was around 30 stores whereas NME and Melody Maker were sampling over 100 stores. In 1969, the first BMRB chart was compiled using postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops.
first aired Pick of the Pops
on its Light Programme
radio station on 4 October 1955. Initially airing popular songs, it developed an aggregated chart from March 1958. Using the NME, Melody Maker, Disc and Record Mirror charts the BBC cumulated them by totalling points gained in the four charts (20 points for a number one, 19 for a number two, etc.) to give a form of chart average – however, this method was prone to tied positions. Record Retailer was included in the average from 31 March 1962 after Record Mirror had ceased compiling their chart.
pioneered the United States style of commercial broadcasting
in Britain. During the World War II the station broadcast Nazi propaganda and was then used United States troops until September 1946 with English-sponsored programming resuming at the end of the year. In 1946, the Music Publishers' Association began compiling sheet music popularity charts and in 1948 British radio listeners heard their first chart show based on sales of sheet music
with Radio Luxembourg broadcasting them during a Top Twenty programme on Sunday evenings.
When programme administrator Derek Johnson heard about NMEs chart in the 1950s, he passed them on to disc jockeys at Radio Luxembourg who aired a chart rundown each night. The NME chart was used by Radio Luxembourg throughout the 1950s and 60s and is said to have given "the chart acceptance and credence".
was a pirate radio
station that operated from the MV Galaxy
of the coast of Essex
. Founded and financially backed by American Don Pierson
the station introduced contemporary hit radio
, popular in the United States, to the UK. The Fab 40
was the weekly playlist and was each Sunday as a chart based enitely on airplay
. The station closed on 14 August 1967 when the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect, Later, rivals to the official chart would factor airplay into their charts.
was founded initially as a regional bi-weekley publication on 13 July 1961. In 1963 it began compiling a Top 20 chart based on around 10 stores and became a national paper. The charts and paper became weekly on 24 April 1964 and, following an investment in September 1964 by Brian Epstein
, expanded the chart and sample size to become the first publication to announce a Top 100 on 3 December 1964. On 6 March 1965 the paper was rebranded Music Echo & Mersey Beat, which later that year became Music Echo, and by 16 April 1966 the chart was no longer published—the following week the newspaper was incorporated into Disc
becoming Disc and Music Echo.
stores. The charts and paper became weekly the following month. Rebranded Music Now by 1970, the chart and paper ceased publication the following year.
Edit by chart considered the canonical source: NME •
Record Retailer
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
is the official chart for the United Kingdom of singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
. The chart is compiled by The Official Chart Company and the beginning of an "official" singles chart is generally regarded as February 1969 when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB)
BMRB Ltd
BMRB Ltd is the longest established market research agency in Britain, dating from 1933. The company conducts the following types of research: media, social and public policy, customer, employee and omnibus....
was formed to compile the chart in a joint venture between the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Record Retailer
Record Retailer
Record Retailer was a trade newspaper for the UK record industry. It was founded in August 1959 as a monthly newspaper covering both labels and dealers. Its founding editor was Roy Parker...
. Charts were used to measure the popularity of music and, initially, were based on sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
. In 1952, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
imitated an American idea from Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine and began compiling a chart based on physical sales of the release. Rival publications such as Record Mirror
Record Mirror
Record Mirror was a British weekly pop music newspaper, founded by Isadore Green and featured, news articles, interviews, record charts, record reviews, concert reviews, letters from readers and photographs. The paper became respected by both mainstream pop music fans and serious record collectors...
, Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, Disc
Disc (magazine)
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly and Disc and Music Echo ....
began to compile their own charts in the mid-to-late 1960s. Trade paper Record Retailer
Record Retailer
Record Retailer was a trade newspaper for the UK record industry. It was founded in August 1959 as a monthly newspaper covering both labels and dealers. Its founding editor was Roy Parker...
compiled their first chart in March 1960.
No single chart was universally followed during this period. Retrospectively, Guinness Book of British Hit Singles
Guinness Book of British Hit Singles
British Hit Singles & Albums was a music reference book published in the United Kingdom by HiT Entertainment's "Guinness World Records". It listed all the singles and albums featured in the Top 75 Charts in UK, as compiled by the editors of British Hit Singles & Albums...
and The Official Chart Company have chosen canonical sources for the era: NME (November 1952 – March 1960) and Record Retailer (March 1960 – February 1969). These choices have not been universally welcomed particularly that of Record Retailer during the 1960s when charts like NME had significantly wider circulation and following. The BBC's Pick of the Pops
Pick of the Pops
Pick of the Pops is a BBC Radio programme, originally based on the Top 20 UK singles chart and first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1955. It transferred to BBC Radio 1 from 1967...
circumvented the lack of an official chart by aggregating the afforementioned publications to create their own chart.
Notable omissions from the canon are The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
' "19th Nervous Breakdown
19th Nervous Breakdown
"19th Nervous Breakdown" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones.The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during their 1965 tour of the United States. The song was recorded during the Aftermath sessions between 3 and 8 December 1965 at RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood,...
" and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Please Please Me
Please Please Me (song)
"Please Please Me" is a song and the second single released by The Beatles in the United Kingdom, and the first to be issued in the United States. It was also the title track of their first LP, which was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single...
" which both reached number one on the NME, Disc, and Melody Maker charts, topped the BBC's Pick of the Pops aggregated chart and was announced as number one on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
; however, in failing to top the Record Retailer chart are not generally regarded as number-one singles.
Main charts
New Musical Express (NME)
The New Musical Express (NME)NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
chart was the first in the United Kingdom to gauge musics' popularity by physical sales – previously sheet music sales were used. NMEs co-founder Percy Dickins imitated the chart produced by American Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine and began to compile Britain's first hit parade
Hit parade
A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined by sales and/or airplay. The term originated in the 1930s; Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936...
in 1952. For the first chart, Dickins telephoned a sample of around 20 shops asking for a list of the 10 best-selling songs. These results were then aggregated to give a Top 12 chart (with 15 entires due to tied positions) that was published in NME on 14 November 1952. 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
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
until 10 March 1960. After this Record Retailer is regarded as the canonical source until February 1969, when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB)
BMRB Ltd
BMRB Ltd is the longest established market research agency in Britain, dating from 1933. The company conducts the following types of research: media, social and public policy, customer, employee and omnibus....
was formed. However, during the 1960s NME had the biggest circulation of charts in the decade and was the most widely followed.
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.
Record Mirror
Record Mirror
Record Mirror was a British weekly pop music newspaper, founded by Isadore Green and featured, news articles, interviews, record charts, record reviews, concert reviews, letters from readers and photographs. The paper became respected by both mainstream pop music fans and serious record collectors...
compiled its own record chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
from 1955 until 1962 which was used by many national newspapers. It formed as the first rival to the existing chart published by NME. The Mirrors chart was based on the postal returns from record stores that were financed by the newspaper—rival chart, NME, was based on a telephone poll. Its first chart was a Top 10 published on 22 January 1955 using figures from 24 shops. The chart was expanded from a Top 10 to a Top 20 on 8 October 1955. In the early 1960s some national newspapers switched to using a chart compiled by Melody Maker and, ultimately, the cost of collecting sales figures by post led to the chart's demise. On 24 March 1962, the paper stopped compiling its own chart and started publishing Record Retailers Top 50.
Melody Maker
Melody MakerMelody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
compiled its own chart from 1956 until 1988 which was used by many national newspapers. It was the third periodical to compile a chart and rivaled existing compilers NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
and Record Mirror
Record Mirror
Record Mirror was a British weekly pop music newspaper, founded by Isadore Green and featured, news articles, interviews, record charts, record reviews, concert reviews, letters from readers and photographs. The paper became respected by both mainstream pop music fans and serious record collectors...
. Melody Makers chart, like NMEs, was based on a telephone poll of record stores. Melody Maker compiled a Top 20 for its first chart using figures from 19 shops on 7 April 1956. 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
Disc (magazine)
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly and Disc and Music Echo ....
, owned by the same company as Melody Maker, stopped compiling their own chart and started using the Melody Maker chart.
Disc & Music Echo
DiscDisc (magazine)
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly and Disc and Music Echo ....
compiled its own chart from 1958 until 1967, the Disc which was used by many national newspapers. It formed as a rival to the existing charts published by NME, Record Mirror, and Melody Maker. Discs chart, like two of its rivals, was based on a telephone poll of record stores. On 1 February 1958 Disc compiled its first chart which was a Top 20 using figures from 20 shops. Throughout the 1950s Discs sample sizes remained below 40 shops and in the early 1960s the sample size was increased to approximately 50 and compiled by Fred Zebadee; other rival charts had increased their samples to around 100 but this was too expensive for Disc. On 23 April 1966 the publication Mersey Beat
Mersey Beat
Mersey Beat was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College...
(which ran its own chart) was incorporated into Disc
Disc (magazine)
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly and Disc and Music Echo ....
which became Disc and Music Echo. On 26 August 1967, Disc, who was then owned by the same company as Melody Maker, stopped compiling their own chart and started using the Melody Maker chart.
Record Retailer
Record RetailerRecord Retailer
Record Retailer was a trade newspaper for the UK record industry. It was founded in August 1959 as a monthly newspaper covering both labels and dealers. Its founding editor was Roy Parker...
was a trade paper that began compiling a record chart in March 1960. Although prior to 1969 there was no official singles chart, Record Retailer is considered by the The Official Charts Company to be the canonical source from 10 March 1960 until 15 February 1969 when Retailer and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
jointly commissioned the BMRB to compile the charts. The choice to use Record Retailer as the canonical source for the 1960s has been contentious because NME had the biggest circulation of periodicals in the decade and was more widely followed. One source explains that the reason for using the Record Retailer chart for the 1960s was that it was "the only chart to have as many as 50 positions for almost the entire decade". The sample size of Record Retailer in the early 1960s was around 30 stores whereas NME and Melody Maker were sampling over 100 stores. In 1969, the first BMRB chart was compiled using postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops.
BBC's Pick of the Pops
The BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
first aired Pick of the Pops
Pick of the Pops
Pick of the Pops is a BBC Radio programme, originally based on the Top 20 UK singles chart and first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1955. It transferred to BBC Radio 1 from 1967...
on its Light Programme
BBC Light Programme
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...
radio station on 4 October 1955. Initially airing popular songs, it developed an aggregated chart from March 1958. Using the NME, Melody Maker, Disc and Record Mirror charts the BBC cumulated them by totalling points gained in the four charts (20 points for a number one, 19 for a number two, etc.) to give a form of chart average – however, this method was prone to tied positions. Record Retailer was included in the average from 31 March 1962 after Record Mirror had ceased compiling their chart.
Radio Luxembourg
In the 1930s, Radio LuxembourgRadio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
pioneered the United States style of commercial broadcasting
Commercial broadcasting
Commercial broadcasting is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship...
in Britain. During the World War II the station broadcast Nazi propaganda and was then used United States troops until September 1946 with English-sponsored programming resuming at the end of the year. In 1946, the Music Publishers' Association began compiling sheet music popularity charts and in 1948 British radio listeners heard their first chart show based on sales of sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
with Radio Luxembourg broadcasting them during a Top Twenty programme on Sunday evenings.
When programme administrator Derek Johnson heard about NMEs chart in the 1950s, he passed them on to disc jockeys at Radio Luxembourg who aired a chart rundown each night. The NME chart was used by Radio Luxembourg throughout the 1950s and 60s and is said to have given "the chart acceptance and credence".
Big L's Fab 40
Big LWonderful Radio London
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 16 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England...
was a pirate radio
UK pirate radio
UK pirate radio was popular in the 1960s and experienced another surge of interest in the 1980s. There are currently an estimated 150 pirate radio stations in the UK...
station that operated from the MV Galaxy
USS Density (AM-218)
USS Density was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She was built to clear minefields in offshore waters, and served the Navy in the Pacific Ocean....
of the coast of Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. Founded and financially backed by American Don Pierson
Don Pierson
Donald Grey Pierson was a businessman and civic leader in Eastland, Texas. He founded the British pirate stations Wonderful Radio London, Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio during the 1960s...
the station introduced contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
, popular in the United States, to the UK. The Fab 40
Fab 40
The "Fab 40" was a weekly playlist of popular records used by the British "pirate" radio station "Wonderful" Radio London which broadcast off the Essex coast from 1964-7.-Basis of the chart:...
was the weekly playlist and was each Sunday as a chart based enitely on airplay
Airplay
* Airplay is the amount of time a song is played on the radio.It may also refer to:* AirPlay, an audio & video streaming technology from Apple Inc.* Airplay , Foster & Graydon music project from 1980* Citroën C1, Citroën C1 Airplay...
. The station closed on 14 August 1967 when the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect, Later, rivals to the official chart would factor airplay into their charts.
Mersey Beat
Mersey BeatMersey Beat
Mersey Beat was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College...
was founded initially as a regional bi-weekley publication on 13 July 1961. In 1963 it began compiling a Top 20 chart based on around 10 stores and became a national paper. The charts and paper became weekly on 24 April 1964 and, following an investment in September 1964 by Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
, expanded the chart and sample size to become the first publication to announce a Top 100 on 3 December 1964. On 6 March 1965 the paper was rebranded Music Echo & Mersey Beat, which later that year became Music Echo, and by 16 April 1966 the chart was no longer published—the following week the newspaper was incorporated into Disc
Disc (magazine)
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly and Disc and Music Echo ....
becoming Disc and Music Echo.
Top Pops
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 & SonW H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
stores. The charts and paper became weekly the following month. Rebranded Music Now by 1970, the chart and paper ceased publication the following year.
Comparison of chart number-ones (1952–1969)
Key- – The number of weeks spent as a number-one single on a chart regarded as canonical by The Official Charts Company.
- – The single did not reach number one on the chart regarded as canonical at the time.
- – The number of weeks spent as a number-one single on a chart regarded not as canonical by The Official Charts Company.
- – 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 canoncial sources referred to above are NME for number ones 1–97 and Record Retailer for number ones 97–265
Edit by chart considered the canonical source: NME •
Record Retailer
| No. |
Artist | Single | NME |
Record Mirror |
MelodyMaker |
Disc |
RecordRetailer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks at number one | |||||||