UK singles chart

The UK Singles Chart is currently compiled by The Official UK Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with the chart being compiled on a Sunday afternoon. Most UK singles are released in record shops on a Monday.

The main chart contains the top 200 singles combining record sales and downloads, of which the Top 75 is generally considered as the official chart - although only the top 40 is of interest to the wider public. Some 6,500 UK retail outlets contribute sales data. No airplay statistics are used for the official UK Singles Chart. According to the Official UK Charts Company's statistics, as of July 2 2006, 1,034 singles had topped the UK singles chart. The precise number is debatable due to the profusion of different competing charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although the usual list used is that endorsed by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and subsequently adopted by The Official UK Charts Company.

The Top 40 is currently, and always has been, sold to BBC Radio 1, who broadcast all the songs from the Top 40, in reverse order, on Sundays from 4pm to 7pm. Mark Goodier and Bruno Brookes are famous for having been the presenters of this chart show for many years, but in 2003, Goodier was replaced by relative newcomer Wes Butters, who left the show in January 2005. From March 2005, the chart has been revamped with only the Top 20 singles guaranteed to be played, and now presented by JK and Joel. As of 23 July, 2006, the current UK No. 1 is "Don't Stop Me Now/Please, Please", by McFly.

The television version of the chart show, called The UK Top 40, began in 2002 on CBBC (Children's BBC), part of BBC Television, which broadcast selected video highlights and the entire top 10 countdown. It was hosted by Adrian Dickson and Konnie Huq from its inception until September 2004, and then by Andrew Hayden-Smith until the last edition on 12 June 2005.

The entire UK Top 75 can be found online on Yahoo! Music UK (formerly Dotmusic) at The Official UK Top 75 Singles along with weekly commentary by James Masterton. The complete UK charts, including the Top 200 Singles and Top 200 Artist Albums, is published by independent chart newsletter Charts Plus.

History

The first British singles chart was published in the November 14 1952 edition of the New Musical Express (NME). It was at first little more than a gimmick, a tool in the circulation war against NME's much older (and more popular) rival Melody Maker. The chart, at first a top 12, was the creation of the paper's advertising manager, Percy Dickins, who compiled it by telephoning around 20 major record stores and aggregating their sales reports. He would continue to personally oversee the compilation of the chart well into the 1960s.

The chart rapidly became one of the paper's most popular features. After only a few weeks, it started being quoted in record company advertisements and press releases. The chart also spawned imitators; Record Mirror launched its own chart in 1955 and Melody Maker in 1958.

The forerunner of today's official chart first appeared in the music trade publication Record Retailer (now Music Week) in 1960 as a Top 50, but was not immediately recognised as the definitive chart in the country. Arguably, the NME chart was still the most recognised chart, and had the advantage of widespread exposure due to its use by Radio Luxembourg. Throughout the sixties, the various different charts vied for public recognition, leading to some historical anomalies — for example, The Beatles' second single "Please Please Me" was a number one on most charts, but not in Record Retailer. To add to the confusion, the chart used by the BBC on their popular shows Pick of the Pops and Top Of The Pops was actually calculated by averaging out all the others, and so didn't agree with any of them, and was prone to tied positions.

In 1969 a truly reliable, official chart emerged, from an alliance between the BBC and Record Retailer. For the first time a professional polling organisation, BMRB, was commissioned to oversee the chart, and a pool of 500 record shops was used—more than twice as many as had been used for any previous chart. The new Official Top 50 was inaugurated in the week ending 12 February 1969.

In 1978, the singles chart was extended from a Top 50 to a Top 75.

In 1983, BMRB lost their contract to Gallup, who arranged for electronic data gathering to replace the old sales diary method of compilation. The first chart terminals appeared in record shops in 1984. As a result, in October 1987, it was now possible for the chart, incorporating sales up to close of business on Saturday, to be announced on Sunday afternoon, rather than being delayed until Tuesday as was previously the case.

By 1990 costs to produce the charts had risen to over £600,000. Gallup samples (depending on source) 900 or 1,500 stores each week. The trade association of UK record companies, British Phonographic Industry Ltd. (BPI), announces in January the termination the contracts with Gallup, Music Week and the BBC for 30.06.1990. On 1.07.1990, the publishing company of Music Week, Spotlight Publications/Link House Magazines, formed a new independent company, Chart Information Network Ltd. (CIN), to commission the charts. CIN cooperates with Gallup, the BBC and the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD). Initially the BPI refused to get involved in CIN's Chart Supervisory Committee (CSC) or to authorise the charts.

In November 1990, the "Next 25" section of the UK singles chart, ie. positions 76–100 with specially applied rules, ceased to be printed in the official trade magazine Music Week. Between 24 November 1990 and 6 April 1991, only Record Mirror continued to print the "Next 25".

In January 1991, CIN became a joint-venture between Music Week publisher Spotlight/Link House and the BPI. Each part pays 50% of the cost of the charts, which had then risen to £1 million, but also shares equally in the revenue. The CSC is now comprising members from Music Week, CIN, Gallup, the BBC, BARD, and the BPI. Subsequently CIN seeks to open new marketing opportunities and sponsorship deals; these include premium-rate fax and telephone services and chart newsletters Charts+Plus (published from May 1991 to November 1994) and Hit Music (published from September 1992 to May 2001).

From May 1991, the newly established newsletter "Charts Plus" featured the singles charts with positions 76–200 (plus artist albums positions 76–150, Top 50 compilations, and several genre and format charts. In September 1992, a second newsletter is created: "Hit Music" features, among other charts, the singles Top 75 plus a revived "Next 25".

In early 1993, tenders were sought for the chart compilation contract. Gallup's contract was to run out by the end of January 1994. In April 1993, BARD renewed its contracts with CIN. The BARD member companies are to provide sales data exclusively to CIN. In May 1994, CIN announced that Millward Brown, subsidiary of market research company WPP, had won the chart contract. The main points of discussion were the rising costs, advances in technology, and better access to data. CIN will control the analysis of data and also own the copyright in all of Milwward Brown's research.

On 1 February 1994, Millward Brown took over as compiler of the CIN charts. The initial size of the sample is 1,250, rising to 1,600 by April 1994. The first chart based on Millward Brown data is published on 6 February 1994 (chart date: 12 February 1994).

In November 1994, Charts Plus ceased publication, and Hit Music expands its chart coverage to an uncompressed (in other words, not applying any special rules) Top 200 Singles, Top 150 Artists Albums and Top 50 Compilations. In November 1996 the Artist Albums chart extended to a Top 200.

In November 2001 Chart Information Network (CIN) changed its name to "The Official UK Charts Company".

With its edition no.439 in May 2001, Hit Music ceased publication. By September 2001, chart enthusiast Herman Verkade entered a licensing agreement with CIN and created an independent new chart publication: Charts Plus, covering the Top 75 Singles chart plus compressed positions 76–200, as well as the Top 200 artist albums chart, Top 50 compilations, and many other format and genre charts.

In 2005, for the chart week ending 16 April, the first singles chart combining physical-release sales with legal download sales began. Several test charts, and finally an actual download-sales chart on its own, were published in 2004, but this combination within the official singles chart reflects a changing era, where sales of the physical single are falling while download sales are rising. On 17 April 2005, hosts JK and Joel commented during the broadcast on BBC Radio 1 that the incorporation of download sales had resulted in an approximate doubling of singles sales on the week. For the first week's combined chart, however, the impact of this doubling was not readily apparent at the top of the chart, although a few singles in the middle positions benefited. In general, download sales are seen to disadvantage certain genres of music while benefiting other genres.

Initially download sales were only counted in determining a song's chart position only if there is a physical equivalent sold in shops at the time. This new chart rule was controversial. To highlight it, Gorillaz released 300 copies of their single "Feel Good Inc." on April 12 2005, a month before its general release. This allowed it to chart at 22 and remain in the Top 40 for a longer period. A second compromise in 2006, aiming to protect the "physical" single and non-internet owning customers, now allows singles to chart on downloads the day before their physical release. Black Eyed Peas and Ne*Yo both charted early as a result, and on April 2 2006, "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley became the first song to top the charts on music download sales alone[1]. Physical sales are still an important part of the chart, however, with songs rarely reaching the Top 10 on downloads alone.

Comparison of UK singles charts prior to 1969

New Musical Express
Launched the first UK singles sales chart (a top 12) on 14 November 1952, initially compiled on a points system, from a sample of 15-30 from a pool of 53 shops. The chart was expanded to a Top 20 from 1 October 1954, a Top 30 from 13 April 1956 and a Top 50 from April 1983. The sample size was initially 15-30 shops, expanded to 70 by the early 1960s and 150 by June 1963. NME compiled its own chart until 28 May 1988, after which it used the Network Chart (compiled by MRIB for broadcast on commercial radio in the UK in direct competition to the official chart show on Radio 1, and hosted at the time by David Jensen) for some years.

Record Mirror
Launched a top 10 singles chart on 22 January 1955, later expanded to a Top 20 and then Top 30. Discontinued in March 1962 when Record Mirror began taking the Record Retailer chart.

Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was hugely influential in the 1950s and 1960s, but never had its own chart. It launched a Top 20 based on Melody Maker's sheet music chart as early as 1948 and switched to using the NME Top 20 singles sales chart at the start of 1960. During the 1970s, the chart fractured into multiple genre charts.

Melody Maker
Launched a Top 10 singles sales chart in April 1956, alongside (but eventually superseding) the sheet music chart it launched ten years earlier. The chart became a Top 50 in September 1962. Its sample size was 30 at launch, expanding to 110 by 1963, 150 by 1965 and 220 by the time it merged with the Disc chart in August 1967.

Disc & Music Echo
Launched a top 20 singles chart in February 1958, based on a sample of 25 shops. It expanded to a Top 30 with a sample of c.75-100 shops by 1966. The chart became a Top 50 in April 1966 and merged with Melody Maker's chart in August 1967. Due to Disc's lower circulation and smaller sample size, its chart is not generally considered as important as other charts of the same period.

Record Retailer
Trade magazine Record Retailer launched a Top 50 singles chart on 10 March 1960. Its sample was only 30 shops to begin with, growing to 40 by March 1962, 60 by March 1963 and 80 by 1969. This was the only major singles chart to exclude EPs, which had their own separate chart until 30 November 1967. EPs were allowed into the main singles chart from that point on, just in time for The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour to enjoy a chart run which peaked at #2.

British Broadcasting Corporation
Introduced Pick of the Pops on 4 October 1955, fortnightly until the end of the year, then weekly thereafter, based on an average of the Record Mirror and NME singles charts (and probably also Melody Maker from April 1956).

Building the canon

While the BBC/Record Retailer chart is almost universally accepted as definitive for the period from February 1969 onwards, there is some controversy over which charts should be considered "correct" prior to this. The most common solution to this problem is to regard the Record Retailer chart as the correct one from its inception in 1960, and the NME chart before that. This approach originated with the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, first published in 1977. However, it may be argued that almost nobody considered the Record Retailer chart to be canonical at the time of publication, at least until Record Mirror began publishing it as well. Some chart reference books simply take Record Mirror as their source from the start; this is the approach taken by The Top 20 Book compiled biannually by Tony Jasper from 1978 to 1994 and Rock File, an annual publication during the 1970s whose "Chart Log" feature was effectively the forerunner to "British Hit Singles", as well as numerous books by Dave McAleer. The result of this approach is a chart that begins in 1955, and joins up with the Record Retailer chart (and so agrees with the Guinness book) in 1962.

A case may also be made for considering the NME chart to be the correct one for at least part of the 1960s, since it was arguably the one followed by the most people. Similarly, Melody Maker's charts could be considered correct for the same period because they drew on the largest number of shops for their compilation. (However, the latter is less practical since unlike the NME charts, the Melody Maker charts have never been reprinted and are therefore difficult to obtain.)

The Official UK Charts Company have adopted the Guinness solution as defining the official chart canon, however different approaches continue to exist.

Criteria for inclusion

In order to qualify for inclusion in the UK singles chart, a single must meet the following criteria:

It must be available on one or more eligible formats. Eligible formats are CD, DVD, Vinyl, Cassette, MP3 download and flexi disc. Digital Compact Cassette and MiniDisc formats are not eligible.
All formats must contain the featured track or a version/remix of it.
Only three formats can be included in a single's sales. Sales of any additional formats are disregarded when calculating a single's chart position.
The single must meet a minimum dealer price requirement, to prevent record companies from making cut-price deals with retailers.
Each format must have no more than three different tracks on it, though each song may appear in any number of different versions.
The maximum running time for any format is 20 minutes if more than one different song is featured, or 40 minutes if only one song is featured in multiple versions/mixes.
A "mini CD" format is now recognised for chart purposes. It can have a running time of up to ten minutes and can feature no more than two tracks. It must be a 8 cm CD and sold in a single jewelcase. Its minimum price requirement is lower than the regular CD single. This cheaper alternative was first recognised in October 2003 as part of a drive to make singles more attractive to buyers in the face of widespread music downloading, despite this size of CD being used in many other countries (such as Japan) for single releases for many years.

The full chart regulations also place limits on how chart singles can be packaged and what free gifts can be offered to purchasers. The full regulations can be downloaded from the Official UK Chart Company website or obtained by post from them.

Charts and the music industry

The record industry places a fair amount of importance on the UK singles chart. Music singles are mostly sold as a way of promoting the artist's album; the singles themselves usually make a loss. A single that charts in a high position, or makes it to number 1, is therefore good advertising for the album. Sometimes stickers are even placed on the album mentioning the popular singles.

Because the record industry is mostly interested in the highest position which a single reaches, there is usually a wave of promotion of the single before it comes out, in the hope that people rush out to buy the single in its first week of release. This means that most singles enter the charts at a certain position, and then fall down the chart in subsequent weeks. Singles that climb the charts and spend a number of weeks at a high position are now rare, and usually denote 'super' singles, which manage to enter the public consciousness and appeal to a wide range of people. However until at least the late nineteen eighties, the situation was very different. At that time singles usually took several weeks to climb to a high position in the charts, and it was rare and remarkable for a single to go straight in at number 1.

An effect of this competition for high chart positions is that a number of high-profile "battles" have taken place in which singles released on the same day have become the focus of media attention concerning which will sell the most copies in their first week and therefore enter the chart higher. The first and most famous example was in August 1995 when the Britpop groups Oasis and Blur released their respective singles "Roll With It" and "Country House" on the same day. The outcome was that "Country House" entered the chart at number one, and "Roll With It" at number 2, and the rivalry was widely reported in the mainstream news media. Another high-profile battle occurred exactly 5 years later in August 2000, when "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" by Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor beat "Out Of Your Mind" by Truesteppers featuring Dane Bowers and Victoria Beckham to the number one position. On this occasion the main media interest was in the supposed rivalry between the featured female vocalists on the two records. On both occasions, the press and TV coverage is generally believed to have increased sales for all parties. The last highly-publicised chart battle occurred in 2004, between pop divas Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, when they released 'Toxic' and 'Red Blooded Woman' respectively in the same week. Eventually, 'Toxic' went straight in at #1, while Kylie struggled in at #5. Many tabloids thought Kylie would have won the battle.

Number 1 quirks

Since the inception of the UK Singles chart, many issues have arisen about certain singles and whether or not they should have made number 1 - this controversy has caused much dispute on a few number 1 singles and it has affected the singles chart over the years.

There was a period of time when the entire record industry took a break for the Christmas period. This resulted in no compiling of new charts over Christmas week and obviously therefore no airing. When electronic sales record took over from written ideas, it became much easier to compile the charts, however staff still required time off, unlike today when Radio 1 is still happy to air the Christmas chart. Usually, it would result in no new change at the top, however, there was one exception; the Christmas period of 1980. A frenzy of buying John Lennon singles had begun as he had just been shot dead a few weeks earlier. This resulted in "(Just Like) Starting Over" topping the charts, however, this was dethroned after a mere seven days by "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma". However, after this stayed at the top for a week, many people had bought the re-issued Christmas classic, "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon, and the new chart compiled, actually had John Lennon at the top. However, this chart was never published and thus, it is omitted from lists of number ones. By the time things returned to normal after the festive season, "Imagine" had topped the chart, but technically, John Lennon has three-peated on top of the chart, something no other act has been able to achieve.

In the week including the Queen's massive jubilee celebration at Windsor in June 1977, the Sex Pistols were due to release their second single, "God Save The Queen", expressing great contempt for royalty. There was wide speculation and rumour that the Sex Pistols were going to be number 1 for this historic week, however, the shock was Rod Stewart retained his position on top of the chart for a fourth week with "I Don't Want To Talk About It/The First Cut Is The Deepest". Rumours then began to circulate that people had fixed the chart to avoid controversy, which even resulted in the New Musical Express placing "God Save The Queen" at number 1 in their chart.

In the 1950s, singles had frequently shared the number 1 position for a week, due to sales ties. This had never been an issue ever since, however in the 1980s, a new chart rule was instituted if this did ever become the case again; the single whose sales had increased most from the previous week would reside above the other. In September of 1990, "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band and Deee-lite's "Groove Is In The Heart" sold enough copies to both reach number 1, but because of the rule, Deee-lite were relegated to number 2 and "The Joker" topped the chart. In order to avoid controversy, the media published that "The Joker" had sold eight more copies than "Groove Is In The Heart".

In 1987, Steve Silk Hurley's "Jack Your Body" topped the charts for 2 weeks, but in fact it should have never been there! The 12" actually exceeded the maximum playing time to qualify as a single and therefore Jackie Wilson's re-issue of "Reet Petite" should have enjoyed a 5th week at the top and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" was deprived of a week at the top, to increase its total to 3.

Crazy Frog, no stranger to controversy and hate, snatched the top spot in early 2005 with Axel F, much to the displeasure of Coldplay, whose single had been outsold 3 to 1, and many tabloids and the general public, who felt that it took Number 1 from the advertising overkill. With restrictions on Jamster's advertising placed after this "fiasco", no Crazy Frog single has reached higher than #5.

Sponsorship

There has been much controversy over the fact that the UK Singles Chart has, for many years, been sponsored by various companies. This in itself would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that the chart is broadcast exclusively on BBC Radio 1, a public owned radio station which cannot sell advertising or sponsorship. The singles chart sponsorship is, however, sold by the Official UK Charts Company, and so the BBC does not receive any money from the deal. They have, in the past, mentioned the name of the sponsors when doing the chart rundown and this has in effect allowed the sponsors to do indirect advertising on a publicly owned radio station.

For many years the chart was sponsored by worldpop.com, a music website. However, in 2004, Coca Cola became the sponsors of the chart instead. For a while, the BBC continued the practice of mentioning the sponsoring company during the chart show, however there was a huge backlash against this - partly caused by controversy elsewhere over allowing sugary/fatty foods and drinks to be advertised to children.

The BBC initially stuck to its guns, but eventually came to an agreement whereby the name would be dropped from its on-air broadcast.

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