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[fchd]

As most of you know, the last "Book Of British Hit Singles" (covering the modern era at least) was the 2nd Virgin volume over three years ago, and there seems to be very little likelihood of getting an updated volume any time soon.

With that in mind, I have used the chart data I have to create one, a "Virtual Book of British Hit Singles" if you like.

I've used the basic formats (more or less) of the Guinness & Virgin backed books, so if the mods feel this is too much like a potential copyright violation, please let me know and I'll either come up with something different or take the thread down altogether.

The charts used are the "standard" ones used in tomes like this - NME -> Record Retailer -> Music Week -> OCC. I know that some of these early charts have issues and other charts were probably more accurate at the time, but I'm afraid that boat has sailed and these are the ones that now have recognition as the charts with the necessary lineage. Also the newly created charts from 1940-52 are not included. Only the top 75 places are used, again to maintain compatibility with earlier books

As it's faaaaaaaaaar too big for a single posting, I'm splitting it up into weekly chunks, posting about a hundred artists each Monday. I'll then take amendments/corrections/additions on that part for a week, and post a revised version alongside the next part on the following Monday.



Notes on the compilation and posting of this thread, and rules and conventions applied

1. The first rule is that all rules have exceptions, common sense (and my own inconsistencies) may sometimes take precedence

2. Act names - I've tried to reflect the act names as given on the charts, occasionally this is different from that shown on the label or sleeve/cover. If the chart credit is undeniably wrong (e.g. "Elizabethan Reggae") then common sense has been used. An initial "The" from artists names has almost always been dropped, a separator of "And" is usually replaced with an ampersand.

3. Personal names - I have tried to show "real" names of performers where possible, middle names are not shown unless they have some relevance to the stage name (e.g. it would not make sense to show Rihanna's real name as just Robyn Fenty). Where the name an individual goes by is a standard short form of his/her given name (e.g. if someone known as Andy is really an Andrew), I normally haven't bothered showing this. Diactritics are shown where possible, but the software used in compiling the data has difficult with some non-ASCII characters, and the ý in Mýa. I have not shown aritst names in anything other than the Latin script, so for artists whose "real" names are written in Cyrillic, Burmese or Korean for instance, I have used the transliteration as normally shown on the charts.

4. Dates of birth/death - Shown where I have found these while checking out other details. Any additional information gladly received

5. Band membership - Normally relates to their hitmaking period only. Changes in personnel before or after this are very rarely shown

6. Featured artists - This got complex! Where a combination of lead/featured artist ONLY had hit(s) together (e.g. Gotye featuring Kimbra) they are only shown as effectively one act. Where the lead artist has had other hits but the featured one isn't, the lead artist only has a separate full entry. Where either the featured artist has other credits, or both do, both have individual entries. The same (more or less) works with normal duos - for instance Simon & Garfunkel's hits are listed under both Art Garfunkel's and Paul Simon's solo careers.
6a The OCC has sometimes changed the credit shown on the chart during a chart run. In such cases I have tried to use the most inclusive credit.

7. Where a record has been in the charts as both a "normal" A-side and a Double A-Side (whether in combination with a track by the same artist or a different artist), it is shown with separate lines (e.g. "Last Christmas" by Wham!)

8. When a record has re-entered the chart with a different artist credit, I have normally amassed the two together (e.g. "Woman In Chains"). Which artist credit I have used depends on the song itself, and a note is attached showing that an alternate credit exists.

9. Remixes/Re-Recordings/Live Versions used to be charted separately and are shown as different hits, but current practice is for all versions to be collected and charted together, so for any chart runs of such tracks since the advent of the download era are normally added to the original hit version

10. Labels and catalogue numbers are completely omitted

11. EP/LP tracks are shown where known when the chart entry was credited to an EP/LP. If an EP was released on two different CD singles, it is usually the tracks of CD1 that are listed

12. Most of the "bio" information comes straight from Wikipedia (to save time), so there is the likelihood that a number of the entries contain mistakes. Please let me know of any of these, or if there's anything that you think is significant enough to be mentioned. I have tried to keep opinions out of them, and kept references to genres to a minimum as those tend to cause more disagreements than almost anything else. Honours such as knighthoods, OBE's etc. are shown. Oscars, Grammys & Brits are a work in progress and will eventually all be shown, less high profile awards (e.g. MOBOs, Mercury Prize, etc.) are unlikely to be listed unless a particular artist has achieved something extraordinary.
12a Close family relationships between hitmakers are shown where possible, and also in some cases to other famous people (e.g. it made no sense to write even a sketchy bio for Jane Wyman and not mention she was married to Ronald Reagan)

13. Cross-references ("See also....") are a work in progress, as are the marking of US number ones. Expect these to get more comprehensive as the series goes on!

14. Alphabetisation - aritsts whose name is an acronym (and is pronounced as such), e.g. ABC are sorted as if the name is a series of spaced letters (i.e. A B C). All such acts are listed at the start of those with that initial. Where an acronymic (?) name is usually voiced as a word (e.g. ABBA) then it is indexed under that word. Numbers are treated as if they are spelled out, punctuation is ignored. Individuals are indexed firstly under their surname then their given name(s). For some artists, it can be difficult to determine whether a name is a given name followed by a surname, or whether the whole thing is to be treated as one name. In these cases (most of which involve seem to involve rappers), I have tried to use the sorting sequence used for that artist within Wikipedia categories.

15. Where an artist has had hits under two (or more) different names, they are merged (e.g. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus). With some combinations (usually European production outfits), it can sometimes be difficult to identity which pairings work under which names!

16. Nationalities - I've tried to use the nationalities where people grew up rather than the place they happened to be born. Where there is some difference of opinion I have usually come down on one side of the coin or the other. Large groups are given under the likely most-common nationality (e.g. the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is shown as Austrian, even if a number of them may not have been. Club football teams of the modern era are usually shown as "Mostly British". Anonymous cover version acts may be shown without nationality. Where a country has changed name since the person was born, I have no hard and fast rule about which name to use but hopefully this should be clear either way. Where I know a person has changed or taken on a second citizenship I have mentioned it





Data originally sourced from (not necessarily a 100% complete list): Contemporary listings of charts self compiled on and off since 1977, Chartstats, UKMix (primarily Kingofskiffle's thread of UK Charts), Buzzjack (weekly chart threads and chart vault plus input from numerous forum contributors), OCC (weekly official charts top 75), Record Mirror & Music Week (both used for checking historical data), Polyhex (top 75 runs to check data from all of the above), Guinness & Virgin Books Of British Hit Singles, Wikipedia, Discogs.com, Haven, Musicbrainz.org,45-rpm.org.uk,band and artists own websites & Facebook pages

This post has been edited by fchd: 25th December 2014, 10:40 AM