In association with MusicWeek


course of history Charting the


The Official Singles Chart has undergone a multitude of significant changes in the past six decades, just like the music it represents and rewards


The 1950s


Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock was one of the most significant rock’n’roll No.1s in the UK during the ‘50s


Best-selling single of the decade: Bill Haley & His Comets, (We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock (1955)


When Pat Genaro, Lou Levinson and Bill Borrelli were writing romantic epic Here In My Heart in the early 1950s, they wouldn’t have given a second thought to the Official Singles Chart - mainly because it didn’t exist. But by the time swoon-some


crooner Al Martino had recorded his version, the wheels were in motion: the track became the first ever UK No.1 single on November 14, 1952, making history in more ways than one. The buying public were a


committed bunch back then - the song stayed in the top spot for nine consecutive weeks before dropping down the chart, a record that has since only been beaten by five tracks: Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It For You (16 weeks), Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around (15), Slim Whitman’s Rose Marie (11) David Whitfield’s Cara Mia (10), Rihanna’s Umbrella (10)


and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You (10). The singles chart itself was born in the pages of the New Musical Express, thanks to the magazine’s co-founder Percy Dickins. Seeing the success of


topped by Martino’s historic track, which also hit No.1 in the US. As the NME’s chart became increasingly popular amongst readers - and advertisers - the publication expanded its list into a Top 20 weekly sellers in 1954,


‘NME co-founder Percy Dickins published the first UK chart - his competitors soon followed suit’


the Billboard chart in the US - which had collated sales of sheet and recorded music since 1940 - Dickins began compiling a Top 10 list of best-selling songs based on retail data. The NME’s first singles chart was based on sales data from around 20 record shops, phoned in to the magazine. It contained 12 songs,


and then into a Top 30 two years later. Unfortunately for Dickins, his success hadn’t gone unnoticed: NME rival Record Mirror began compiling its own Top 10 in 1955, followed by Melody Maker in 1956 - the latter boasting of being the only chart which also took into account sales data from Northern Ireland.


Smash hits around this time included Jimmy Young’s Unchained Melody (1955), Dean Martin’s Memories Are Made Of This (1956) and Frankie Laine’s A Woman In Love (1956). It wasn’t long before demand for an album chart grew, and this time it was Record Mirror that got there first, launching a Top 5 in July 1956 - a month which saw Teenagers Feat. Frankie Lymon top the Singles list with Why Do Fools Fall In Love? They might have pre-dated the


baby boom and teenage culture explosion of the 1960s, but there were plenty of signs in the 1950s Singles chart that rock’n’ roll was becoming a more prevalent force: towards the end of the decade, No.1 tracks such as Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls Of Fire (1958), Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock (1958) and Cliff Richard & The Shadows’ Living Doll (1959) were positively drenched in hormones compared to the decade’s earliest No.1s. Innocent 1953 chart-toppers, for instance, included Jo Stafford’s You Belong To Me and Kay Starr’s Come-A- Long-A-Love plus Frankie Laine’s I Believe and Hey Joe.


www.officialcharts.com 05


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