50 years of the pop charts
50 years of the pop charts
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50 years of the pop charts
1952: The UK's first official Number 1 record is Here In My Heart    by Al Martino, a nine-week chart-topper from November 1952 until the following    January, and therefore the only record ever to have been number 1 for a  whole  year.
1953: Frankie Laine manages a never-to-be-broken-not-even-by-Bryan-Adams    chart record of 18 weeks at number 1. His song I Believe is later murdered    by Robson and Jerome, who keep Oasis's Wonderwall off the top of the charts    in 1995.
1954: The Top 12 is extended to a Top 20, featuring    such classic artists as Max Bygraves, Jimmy Young, Vera Lynn and Winifred    Attwell.
1955: In January Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley    creeps into the charts at number 17. It returns to top the charts in November,    and things will never be the same again...
1956: The Top 20 is extended to a Top 30, just in  time  for the arrival of a debut single called Heartbreak Hotel. See, I told  you  things would never be the same again.
1957: Elvis Presley is the most successful chart  act   of the year with ten hits, seven of them in the chart simultaneously  in early  November. The music world is All Shook Up.
1958: Cliff Richard's Move It kick starts an unprecedented    chart career, with number 1's in the 50s (Living Doll, ...), 60s (Summer   Holiday, ...), 70s (We Don't Talk Any More), 80s (Mistletoe and Wine, ...),   90s (Saviour's Day, ...) and so nearly the 00s (The Millennium Prayer missed   by a fortnight).
1959: Buddy Holly's It Doesn't Matter Any More becomes    the first record to reach number 1 after his death. It won't be the last.    In 2002 Aaliyah and George Harrison will have two consecutive posthumous   number 1s.
1960: The Top 30 is extended to a Top 50. In the  first   week of December, seven of the records between 31 and 40 are instrumentals.    Only chart anoraks notice things like that, of course.
1961: Jolly pianist Mrs Mills is the first chart  act   to include her own name in the title of her Christmas class Mrs Mills  Medley.   One day all the top mixing DJs will follow her example.
1962: Love Me Do is the very first hit by the Beatles,    the most record-breaking chart-record-breaking band of all time...
1963: From Me To You starts the Beatles' unequalled    string of eleven consecutive number 1s, which will falter only when Englebert    Humperdink keeps Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields stuck at number 2 four years    later.
1964: Top of the Pops begins, hosted by Jimmy Saville    live from an old church in Manchester. The Beatles appear at number 1 and    number 3, and the legendary Singing Nun holds firm at number 7 (but she  doesn't  sing on the show).
1965: Tom Jones has the number 1 record on the day   I'm  born. It's Not Unusual? He's so very wrong...
1966: For three consecutive weeks in March, the  record   at number 4 falls to number 7 and the record at number 12 drops to number   17. My chart anorak has a fur-lined hood, you know.
1967: In the second week of June, during the so-called    Summer of Love, there are two tube stations in the Top 20 - Waterloo Sunset    and Finchley Central. Meanwhile a new entry from Petula Clark at number  34  advises us Don't Sleep In The Subway.
1968: Louis Armstrong is the oldest artist ever  to  reach  number 1, at the age of 66, with the wonderful It's A Wonderful  World.
1969: Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus by Jane Birkin and   Serge  Gainsbourg is the first number 1 to be banned by the BBC. Relax, it  won't  be the last.
1970: The first number 1 of the 1970s is Two Little    Boys by Rolf Harris. This rather sets the seal on the decade to come...
1971: ... Clive Dunn takes Grandad to the top of  the   charts. See, I told you so.
1972: Little Jimmy Osmond is the youngest solo artist    ever to reach number 1, four months shy of his tenth birthday, though he   seems a little young to be singing about long-haired lovers. Worryingly,  Jonathan King is in the charts at the time singing Shag.
1973: Four records go straight in at number 1 during    1973 - the greatest total until this became commonplace in the mid 1990s.    Three of them are by dyslexia-afflicted Slade (Cum On Feel The Noize, Skweeze    Me Pleeze Me and Merry Xmas Everybody) and the other is by Gary Glitter  (I  Love You Love Me Love).
1974: The Faces' number 12 hit You Can Make Me Dance    Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The   Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings) has a record-breaking   115 letters. Meanwhile the group with the most weeks on the chart in this   year is the immortal Wombles.
1975: Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody reaches the top  for   the first time, destined to be the British public's favourite record  for  the rest of time...
1976: ... unless of course Yesterday by the Beatles    is the British public's favourite record of all time. Unbelievably the song   was first released as a single as late as 1976 and only reached number  8  in the charts. Far more believably, Paul McCartney first wrote the song  using   the lyrics Scrambled Eggs.
1977: Rumours by Fleetwood Mac starts a record-breaking    477-week run on the album charts although Dreams, the highest charting single   from the album, only reaches number 24.
1978: The Top 50 is extended to a Top 75. Three  of  the  top 10 best selling records of all time in the UK are from this year  - two  by Boney M (Brown Girl In The Ring is 5th and Mary's Boy Child is 10th) and  one by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John (You're The One That I Want is  6th).
1979: January is a big month for costumed heroes,   with  the Village People at number 1 with YMCA, and smaller hits for the  theme from Superman, the theme from Dr Who, Sarah Brightman losing her heart  to a Starship Trooper, and not forgetting Elton John.
1980: Going Underground by the Jam is only the tenth    record in the history of the chart to go straight in at number 1. From 1995   onwards, there isn't a year when less than ten records enter the charts  at  the top.
1981: Abba's Lay All Your Love On Me reaches number    7 in the charts, giving them a chart career with singles peaked at every   number from 1 to 7. Later in the 1980s the Eurythmics will manage exactly   one single peaking at every number from 1 to 10 except 7.
1982: The biggest ever jump to number 1 inside the   Top  40 is made by Happy Talk from Captain Sensible, shooting straight to   the top from number 33, back in the days when an appearance on Top of the   Pops actually meant something.
1983: In 1983 Prince first releases the song 1999   (number  25), then re-releases it in 1985 (number 2), re-releases it again   in January  1999 (number 10), and re-releases the earlier re-release in December  1999  (number 51).
1984: Wham's Last Christmas sells a million copies   but  fails to reach number 1 because Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas   is  there instead. This year also sees three consecutive million-selling  number  1s from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, George Michael and Stevie Wonder.
1985: You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead  Or  Alive  takes 15 weeks to climb the Top 75 to the number 1 position. Later   in the  year Jennifer Rush takes one week longer to get there with The Power   Of Love.
1986: A Levi's commercial helps Reet Petite by Jackie    Wilson to the number 1 slot, a record-breaking 29 years and 6 weeks after    it was first released in 1957.
1987: From 4th October the Top 40 is now announced   live  on Sunday evening's Radio 1 chart rundown, rather than being released   on the following Tuesday. By topping the charts either side of this change,   Pump Up The Volume by M|A|R|R|S becomes the only record ever to spend exactly   twelve days at number 1.
1988: In January AC/DC reach number 12 with Heatseeker,    their highest ever chart placing. No other act has had as many as 27 hits    with ever achieving a Top 10 record.
1989: Jive Bunny become only the third act to reach    number 1 with their first three singles, following in the footsteps of Gerry   And The Pacemakers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. This record is later demolished   by Westlife, whose first seven singles all debut at number 1.
1990: In September, the chart compilers are unable   to  separate the Steve Miller Band and Deee-Lite for the number 1 position   based  on identical weekly sales. They apply an obscure rule placing The  Joker above  Groove Is In The Heart because it has had the greatest increase  in sales,  although this rule is later revoked to allow records to hold equal   chart positions in future.
1991: Everything I do (I do it for you) by Bryan  Adams   spends a record-breaking sixteen consecutive weeks at number 1. During  those   16 weeks I leave my job, apply for a mortgage, attempt to buy a new  flat  50 miles away, which falls through, then buy another flat next door,  and move in. Yes, it felt like Bryan was number 1 forever.
1992: Indie band The Wedding Present release one  hit   record each month through the year, equalling Elvis's 1957 record of  12 hit  singles in a year.
1993: Mr Blobby is the first chart act to have a  number   1 with an eponymous single. Four months later Doop repeat the feat.  Both  records also share the feat of being 100% rubbish.
1994: Wet Wet Wet spend 15 consecutive weeks at  number   1 with Love Is all Around, one week short of Bryan Adams' record.  They are   knocked off the top spot by Whigfield with Saturday Night, the  first ever   debut hit by an artist to enter the chart at number 1.
1995: Robson and Jerome become the third act to  take   Unchained Melody to number 1, following Jimmy Young and the Righteous  Brothers,   and followed by Gareth Gates seven years later. The two Soldier  Soldier boys  achieve the ninth best selling single of all time (...and, be very afraid,  Gareth's mate Will Young is currently 12th in that list with Evergreen)
1996: During the World Cup, the Fugees and Baddiel,    Skinner and the Lightning Seeds take it in turns to replace each other at   number 1. First Killing Me Softly replaces Three Lions, then Three Lions   returns to the summit, and finally Killing Me Softly wrestles the title back  again. Three Lions will be back for a further three weeks at the top two years later.
1997: Candle In the Wind 97 is the best selling  single   of all time. Performed live by Elton John only twice, it sold 4.86  million   copies in the UK and 37 million worldwide.
1998: The Spice Girls say Goodbye to a brief but  meteoric   chart career. The most successful all-girl group of all time achieve  eight   number one records in less than three years, while their only other  hit (Stop)  is a number 2.
1999: One-hit wonders The Wamdue Project have a  hit   with the longest chart title not to repeat any letters - the 14 different    letters of King Of My Castle. Is this anorakky enough for you?
2000: From 24th June to 9th September, every week   sees  a new record top the chart. This 12-week stretch is the longest of  such instances  in chart history. This year also holds the record for the  most number 1s in a year, all 42 of them (or 43 if you count Westlife's Christmas   offering which dribbled across two millennia).
2001: Pure And Simple by Hear'say is the fastest  selling   single ever released by a group, shipping over half a million copies  in its  first week. The group later spontaneously combust and can probably  now be  found cleaning floors in burger restaurants.
2002: Elvis overtakes the Beatles as the act with   the  most number 1 records (18) and then, in the week of the chart's 50th   anniversary,  Westlife move into fourth place in that list behind Cliff Richard.