Web Page No 2602

27th July 2019

It’s a Hit, It’s Number 1

1st Picture. New Musical Express

2nd Picture. The Melody Maker

3^rd Picture. The Record Mirror

4^th Picture. Thank Your Lucky Stars

It’s a Hit, It’s Number 1 but where did it start? Where did the figures come from? The more you look into it the more complicated it becomes!

Before the compilation of sales of records, the music market measured a song's popularity by sales of sheet music. The idea of a chart based on sales originated in the United States, where the music-trade paper Billboard compiled the first chart incorporating sales figures on 20^th  July 1940. Record charts in the UK began in 1952, when Percy Dickins of the New Musical Express (NME) gathered together a pool of 52 stores willing to report sales figures. 

For the first British chart Percy Dickins telephoned approximately 20 shops, asking for a list of the 10 best-selling songs in their shop. These results were then aggregated into a Top 12 chart and were published in the NME on 14^th November 1952, with Al Martino's "Here in My Heart" being awarded the number-one position.

The chart became a successful feature of the New Musical Express and it was soon expanded into a Top 20 format on 1^st October 1954. At this time rival publications began compiling their own charts. The Record Mirror compiled its own Top 10 chart for 22^nd January 1955; it was based on postal returns from record stores (which were financed by the Record Mirror).

The NME chart at the time was based on a telephone poll. Both charts expanded in size, with Mirror's becoming a Top 20 in October 1955 and NME's becoming a Top 30 in April 1956.  Another rival publication, The Melody Maker, began compiling its own chart; it telephoned 19 stores to produce a Top 20 for 7^th  April 1956. It was also the first chart to include Northern Ireland in its sample.

The Record Mirror began running a Top 5 album chart in July 1956 which from November 1958 onwards was run by the NME. But in, March 1960, Record Retailer began compiling an EP  chart and also had a Top 50 singles chart. 

Although the NME had the largest circulation of charts in the 1960s and was widely followed in March 1962 The Record Mirror stopped compiling its own chart and published The Record Retailer's chart instead. 

Record Retailer began independent auditing in January 1963, and has been used by the UK Singles Chart as the source for number-ones since the week ending 12^th March 1960. The choice of The Record Retailer as the source has often been criticised; however, the chart was unique in listing close to 50 positions for the whole decade.  Additionally, the Retailer was set up by independent record shops and had no funding or affiliation with record companies. However, it had a significantly smaller sample size than some rival charts.

Before February 1969 (when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) chart was established), there was no official chart or universally accepted source. Readers followed the charts in various periodicals and, during this time, the BBC used aggregated results of charts from the NME, Melody Maker, Disc and The Record Mirror to compile the Pick of the Pops chart.  However, until 1969 the Record Retailer chart was only seen by people working in the industry.

The most widely circulated chart, the one we all knew was the NME one and this was the chart used by Radio Luxembourg's legendary Sunday night Top 20 show, as well as by ABC TV's Thank Your Lucky Stars, which had an audience of up to 6 million on ITV.

And there was I thinking for years that there was only one Hit Parade, how wrong can you be?

Just a few thoughts to be going on with

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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On this day 27^th July 1960 -1965

On 27/07/1960 the number one single was Good Timin' - Jimmy Jones and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 27/07/1961 the number one single was Temptation - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 27/07/1962 the number one single was I Can't Stop Loving You - Ray Charles and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 27/07/1963 the number one single was Confessin' - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 27/07/1965 the number one single was Mr Tambourine Man - Byrds and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.