In association with MusicWeek


The 1970s


The Official Singles Chart entered the 1970s with a new Official status. The system of postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops across the country was running smoothly until Britain was hit by its first national postal strike in 1971.


Bypassing the picketers, record sales data was initially collected by phone, a method which was ultimately deemed inadequate leading to the British Market Research Bureau to release a fleet of motorcycle couriers to collect the precious sales data. In 1973, Slade scored a Christmas No.1 with one of history’s most popular and enduring Yuletide rockers Merry Xmas Everybody, which spent five weeks at the top of the chart from December 15. In fact, 1973 was something


of a bumper year for Slade, with Noddy Holder and the gang scoring three Number 1’s in total. Cum On Feel The Noize landed atop the mountain on March 3 and would stay there for four


Slade had a hugely successful decade - Merry Xmas Everybody stayed at No.1 for five weeks


Best-selling record of the decade: Wings, Mull Of Kintyre/Girls’ School (1977)


Christmas No.1s, with the latter hitting the top on November 29 and remaining there for nine weeks.


All-comer records were broken


weeks, while Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me hit the pinnacle on June 30 and remained No.1 for three weeks. Merry Xmas Everybody was Slade’s sixth No.1 single and stayed in the Official Singles Chart well into February 1974. Indeed, the Seventies hosted


an impressive clutch of iconic Christmas No.1 singles that have more than stood the test of time.


Aside from Slade’s seasonal staple, Mud’s Lonely This Christmas topped the chart in 1974, Johnny Mathis’ When A Child Is Born took pole position in 1976 and Boney M’s Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord grabbed the coveted Christmas title in 1978. Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In


The Wall (Part 2) and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody were also


by a Christmas No.1 that you’re unlikely to hear playing in department stores in December: Wings’ Mull Of Kintyre landed at No.1 on December 3, 1977 and stayed there for nine weeks. It was the first single to sell more than 2 million copies in the UK. Other standout No.1s in the decade included ABBA’s Waterloo (1974), David Bowie’s Space Oddity (1975) and Donna Summer’s disco classic I Feel Love (1977).


effort Band Aid emptying consumer wallets during 1984’s festive season with Do They Know It’s Christmas?. The song was the biggest selling single in the chart’s history, selling a million copies in its first week alone. It would maintain its title until 1997, when it was toppled by another not-for-profit release, Elton John’s Candle In The Wind. 1984 was the decade’s most


prolific year for UK single sales, hosting five out of the Top 10 earners of the Eighties. Coming in just below Band Aid was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax. Boosted from a disappointing No.67 debut by widespread controversy and a


BBC radio ban, the single would eventually hit the No.1 spot on January 24 where it would stay for five weeks eventually selling almost 2 million copies in the UK alone. Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called


To Say I Love You and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Two Tribes were the third and fourth biggest selling singles of the 1980s with ‘84’s Top 5 run ruined only by Human League’s 1981 hit Don’t You Want Me? George Michael’s 1984 single Careless Whisper was the eighth biggest seller of the decade.


By the end of the Eighties, the music industry’s format shift was picking up speed. CDs and cassettes we already firmly part


of the album landscape, but soon entered the world of the single too – by the end of 1987, CD singles became eligible for the Official Singles Chart for the first time, with ‘cassingles’ joining them in 1989 - complete with plenty of fanfare in the pages of Music Week.


The Eighties also saw the first


ever single to hit the charts based on import sales alone. That’s Entertainment by Jam charted on February 7 1981 and peaked at No.21 despite not being released as an official domestic UK single.


Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and


company would go on to round off the decade, spending three weeks as the Official


Best-selling record of the decade: Do They Know It’s Christmas?, Band Aid (1984)


Number 1 during Christmas 1989 with Band Aid II’s re- recorded version of their fundraising hit Do They Know It’s Christmas? Participants included Kylie, Cliff Richard, Wet Wet Wet and Bros.


www.officalcharts.com 07


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