This week heralds the 60th Anniversary of the birth of the weekly UK singles music chart. In those 60 years, according to the Official Chart Company, Britons have bought 3.7 billion singles. This amazingly equates to enough seven-inch vinyl records to stretch 16 times round the earth!! So it’s official the UK is a nation of pet and music lovers!!
When I was a lad in the 1970s, the release of the weekly Radio 1 Chart on a Tuesday lunchtime was the highlight of the week. In those days, the vinyl record sales returns from the designated record shops from the previous week, would be processed by phone and hand on a Monday on behalf of Radio 1 by the British Market Research Bureau ( BRMB ). In the 1970s the new chart was unveiled on Radio 1 by Johnnie Walker ( and later Paul Burnett ) on a Tuesday lunchtime at 12-45pm after Newsbeat. It was a big deal in those days and for those that missed it, it was repeated on the Breakfast Show the following morning, when Noel Edmonds ( and later Dave Lee Travis / DLT ) ran down the new Top 30, playing the highest entries and highest climbers and the No1.
There was a further rundown of the Top 30 at the start of Top of the Pops on BBC1 on a Thursday evening at 7-30pm. However the chart climax was always at 6pm on a Sunday on Radio 1 and Radio 2, with the Top 20 Chart
Rundown. The combined audience was huge for the chart show presented by Tom Browne ( he of the silky, smooth James Mason-esque dulcet tones ), who somehow crammed all twenty songs into an hour. Originally the show ran for three hours as “Solid Gold Sixty” when it was launched in 1972. It later expanded to the Top 40 and a two hour show, under Tom Browne’s successor, Simon Bates who took over the helm in 1978. As a footnote, Tom Browne was not a Disc Jockey at all, but a trained actor. He was selected as presenter of the most listened to programme on Radio 1 in the 1970s, because of his excellent vocal delivery and ability to read a script with total slick!!
The Official Charts Company indicate that singles sales peaked in the late 1970s and 1980s, before the era of CDs and digital downloads, when 640 million vinyl singles were sold. This is borne out by the Top 10 Best Selling Singles of All Time –
Top 10 Best Selling Singles of All Time
1) Elton John – Candle in the Wind (4.8 million copies) 1997
2) Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Xmas (3.51m) 1984/5
3) Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (2.13m) 1975 & 1991
4) Wings – Mull of Kintyre (2.05m) 1977
5) Boney M – Rivers of Babylon / Brown Girl In The Ring (1,995,000 copies) 1978
6) Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax (1.91m) 1984
7) Beatles – She Loves You (1.89m) 1963
8) John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John – You’re The One That I Want (1.87m) 1978
9) Robson Green and Jerome Flynn – Unchained Melody (1.82m) 1995
10) Boney M (1.79m) – Mary’s Boy Child 1978
What are your chart memories? What is your all time favourite single? Let us know in the Reply Box below.
Celebrate your favourite song of the last 60 years in your home or office, by ordering your favourite song in a vinyl or CD format; single, album or album cover; framed and mounted as a picture disc souvenir. You can also personalise it with an inscribed / engraved plaque……
ORDER NOW…….. www.myfirstrecord.co.uk/
Also available – the DVD of your favourite film or TV programme framed with a personalised engraved plaque……. ORDER NOW…….. www.myfirstrecord.co.uk/
Framed vinyl records, framed CDs and framed DVDs with a personalised plaque, make unique presents or original gifts for a special celebration ie a Wedding ( Wedding First Dance Song ), an Engagement Party ( Our Song ), a House Warming Party ( New Home ), a 21st, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th Birthday ( How about the No1 song on the day you were born ), a Silver, Ruby or Golden Wedding Anniversary, Father’s or Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day!! THE PERFECT PERSONALISED PRESENT!!
Leave A Comment