This week sees the anniversary UK’s Official Charts that began back on November 14th 1952, when the then publisher of the New Music Express Percy Dickins decided that he needed some method to encourage advertisers to his new music paper.
Dickins compiled the very first charts by phoning around to a handful of his retailer friends, totting up the number of copies sold of their biggest sellers to create an aggregated chart. Thus, the first UK Singles Chart was born – with Al Martino’s Here In My Heart at Number 1.
Over the following seven decades (from the Fifties to the Teens), the UK charts have seen a dramatic number of changes – reflecting the changing face of the entertainment industry. Before February 1969 (when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) chart was established), there was no official chart or universally accepted source. Readers followed the charts in various periodicals and, during this time, the BBC used aggregated results of charts from the NME, Melody Maker, Disc and (later) Record Mirror to compile the Pick of the Pops chart. The Official Charts Company and Guinness’ British Hit Singles and albums, use as sources for the unofficial period, the NME before 10 March 1960 and Record Retailer until 1969. However, until 1969 the Record Retailer chart was only seen by people working in the industry. The most widely circulated chart was the NME one, as used by Radio Luxembourg’s Sunday night Top 20 show, as well as by ABC TV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, which had an audience of up to 6 million on ITV.
After many changes The UK Singles Chart (currently entitled Official Singles Chart) is compiled by the Official Charts Company, (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the UK, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. It is the chart used by most radio stations including our friends at BBC radio1 and radio 2.
Rod launched his solo career with a string of Number 1 hits in the Seventies – and famously kept the Sex Pistols from the summit with his 1977 chart topper I Don’t Want To Talk About It/The First Cut Is The Deepest. And in December 2019 Rod became the oldest male solo artist to ever top the Official Albums Chart. At 74 years and 11 months old, Rod beat previous record-holder Paul Simon by three months with his 10th Number 1 album You’re In My Heart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Not including The Jeff Beck Group, Python Lee Jackson, Faces, Glass Tiger or any guest vocal singles/albums Rod has a pretty impressive chart history..
Singles
6 UK Number 1’s, 26 UK Top 10s, 46 UK Top 40s, 65 UK Top 75s, 18 Weeks at Number 1, 113 Weeks in Top 10, 338 Weeks in Top 40, And 480 Weeks in Top 75.
Albums
10 UK Number 1’s, 36 UK Top 10s, 46 UK Top 40s, 48 UK Top 75s, 32 Weeks at Number 1, 272 Weeks in Top 10, 762 Weeks in Top 40, And 1178 Weeks in Top 75.
Photos By John Divers