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[kingofskiffle]

I am delighted to announce the launch of a new book series – 70 Years Of The UK Singles Charts.

This will be a subscription series, where each volume covers a full calendar year with one each from 1952 to 2022. The first issue – 1952 – is launched to subscribers on 1 February 2022, with the final issue arriving in June 2023 (covering the charts for 2022).

In December 2018 I began to rebuild my database with precisely this anniversary in mind and now, three years later, the database is ready to launch the series. After 70 years and almost 60,000 charting records (in the full Top 200 where appropriate) this year’s anniversary is a point I was never going to miss.

Each issue will include a full chart history for that year, but will also include a wealth of other information derived from the database.

Each book includes some brand new information, never before calculated in this level of detail.
Chart History
As appropriate, chart rule changes are highlighted. It’s not always easy to know what was and was not allowed and sometimes odd records appear and then vanish, so this section will bring together as much information as possible about how the charts were compiled at the time.
Milestones
These are a listing of the important chart changes, such as frozen weeks, chart size changes, etc.
Chart Age
A new metric, looking at the average age of each week’s chart. This is found by adding up the weeks on chart column and dividing by how many records are present. This has been calculated to answer the question ‘What is the age of this week’s chart?’ and ‘Is this the youngest/oldest chart?’ Only the Top 130 and Bottom 130 chart weeks are shown as we have about 3650 chart weeks from 1952 to 2022 .
Number 1’s
Number 1 lists are always shown in books about the UK charts, but this listing is different as it will showcase an image of the record cover for the first time.
The Top 500 Artists
One of the things I enjoyed twenty years ago was buying the new Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles and looking at where my favourite artists had moved to in the list of Top artists. Each issue will present a list of the artists and their ranking to date, with where the artist was on the previous years’ listing. Equally, from 1960 decade listings will be presented showing where the artists line up per decade.
Full Chart History
As usual, the full chart history will be presented in alphabetical order by artist showing entry date, weeks on chart, peak position, title, composers, b-side, label, catalogue number and duration. From 1973 the BPI awards will also be shown. Full listings showcase all re-entries, even if the record only dropped off the chart for one week.
The Annual
This is a listing of the records by peak position within the year, and shows all records that charted during the calendar year. This listing type has been created for the USA, but not for the UK.
Weekly Charts
The full weekly charts are presented here, so that readers can see in full the accurate and complete charts for each week.
The Hit Log
This is also something never before published – a listing of all records to chart but in the order in which they first entered the charts, together with a picture of the entry.
BPI Awards (from 1973)
The BPI began listing awards for records from 1973 and these are now listed alongside the chart entries and weekly charts, showing the highest award granted to that point. A listing is also presented of the awards by award date here, using the best available information to assign full details to the records.

Sample
A sample of the 1953 volume - with low quality images to reduce file size - is attached here.
https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/wp-content/u...lectedPages.pdf

Purchasing
There are numerous ways to purchase:
First, you can become a subscriber and pay £10 a month for 15 months to receive the full set of issues and 8 free gifts at various points (See below).

https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/70-years-of-...singles-charts/

Free Gifts!
At the end of each decade subscribers to that decade will receive a copy of the decade series book associated with that decade at no extra cost.
At the end of the full series, a single volume book will be produced that will cover all the charts from 1952 through to 2022, in the same format as the Decade Series.

More Purchasing Options
You can also purchase a set of issues (broken down by decade). Each decade costs £25 (1950’s decade costs £20 and the final ‘decade’ of 2020, 2021 and 2022 costs £7.50) and subscribers will get a free gift at the end of their decade subscription (Subscribers to the 2020 Decade set will not get a free gift for those three years).
Finally, you can opt to purchase individual years at £4 each. These do not come with any free gifts.



Individually By Decade By Subscribing
Total Cost £280 £177.50 £150
(And 7 free gifts). (And 8 free gifts)
SAVING £102.50! SAVING £130 over buying individually!

Subscribers pay roughly £2.14 per issue if they subscribe for the full set, a 46% saving!

You can pre-order each volume now, via the website
https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/70-years-of-...singles-charts/

Pre-Order by Decade
The 1950’s (Covering 1952-1959) (Costs £20 and consists of 8 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 1960’s (Covering 1960-1969) (Costs £25 and consists of 10 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 1970’s (Covering 1970-1979) (Costs £25 and consists of 10 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 1980’s (Covering 1980-1989) (Costs £25 and consists of 10 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 1990’s (Covering 1990-1999) (Costs £25 and consists of 10 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 2000’s (Covering 2000-2009) (Costs £25 and consists of 10 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 2010’s (Covering 2010-2019) (Costs £25 and consists of 10 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below – and free gift of the Decade Series volume for this decade.)
The 2020’s (Covering 2020-2022) (Costs £7.50 and consists of 3 issues released weekly – issue dates in the table below)

https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/70-years-of-...singles-charts/

Anticipated Release Date Year
01-Feb-22 1952
08-Feb-22 1953
15-Feb-22 1954
22-Feb-22 1955
01-Mar-22 1956
08-Mar-22 1957
15-Mar-22 1958
22-Mar-22 1959
29-Mar-22 1960
05-Apr-22 1961
12-Apr-22 1962
19-Apr-22 1963
26-Apr-22 1964
03-May-22 1965
10-May-22 1966
17-May-22 1967
24-May-22 1968
31-May-22 1969
07-Jun-22 1970
14-Jun-22 1971
21-Jun-22 1972
28-Jun-22 1973
05-Jul-22 1974
12-Jul-22 1975
19-Jul-22 1976
26-Jul-22 1977
02-Aug-22 1978
09-Aug-22 1979
16-Aug-22 1980
23-Aug-22 1981
30-Aug-22 1982
06-Sep-22 1983
13-Sep-22 1984
20-Sep-22 1985
27-Sep-22 1986
04-Oct-22 1987
11-Oct-22 1988
18-Oct-22 1989
25-Oct-22 1990
01-Nov-22 1991
08-Nov-22 1992
15-Nov-22 1993
22-Nov-22 1994
29-Nov-22 1995
06-Dec-22 1996
13-Dec-22 1997
20-Dec-22 1998
27-Dec-22 1999
03-Jan-23 2000
10-Jan-23 2001
17-Jan-23 2002
24-Jan-23 2003
31-Jan-23 2004
07-Feb-23 2005
14-Feb-23 2006
21-Feb-23 2007
28-Feb-23 2008
07-Mar-23 2009
14-Mar-23 2010
21-Mar-23 2011
28-Mar-23 2012
04-Apr-23 2013
11-Apr-23 2014
18-Apr-23 2015
25-Apr-23 2016
02-May-23 2017
09-May-23 2018
16-May-23 2019
23-May-23 2020
30-May-23 2021
06-Jun-23 2022

https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/70-years-of-...singles-charts/

Do please ask any questions!


This post has been edited by kingofskiffle: Jan 3 2022, 10:40 AM