Posted November 11, 201212 yr The biggest selling single of every year revealed! (1952-1985) 10/11/2012 By Dan Lane As part of the Official Singles Chart’s 60th birthday celebrations, legendary DJ Tony Blackburn is counting down the biggest selling single of each year on BBC Radio 2! In the first of his two shows, which was broadcast earlier today (Saturday, November 10), Tony revealed the biggest selling single of each year from 1952 when the Official Singles Chart was born, up to 1985. This eclectic countdown, featured music from the likes of Vera Lynn, Slim Whitman, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Archies, Dawn, Brotherhood Of Man and The Police. You can listen back to the show via the BBC’s iPlayer Radio service. Make sure you tune in next week between 1pm and 3pm for the biggest selling single of each year from 1986 through to 2012! You can see the first show’s countdown below: YEAR SINGLE ARTIST 1952 AUF WIEDERSEHEN (SWEETHEART) VERA LYNN 1953 I BELIEVE FRANKIE LAINE 1954 SECRET LOVE DORIS DAY 1955 ROSE MARIE SLIM WHITMAN 1956 I'LL BE HOME PAT BOONE 1957 DIANA PAUL ANKA 1958 JAILHOUSE ROCK ELVIS PRESLEY 1959 LIVING DOLL CLIFF RICHARD 1960 IT'S NOW OR NEVER ELVIS PRESLEY 1961 WOODEN HEART ELVIS PRESLEY 1962 I REMEMBER YOU FRANK IFIELD 1963 SHE LOVES YOU BEATLES 1964 CAN'T BUY ME LOVE BEATLES 1965 TEARS KEN DODD 1966 GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME TOM JONES 1967 RELEASE ME ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK 1968 HEY JUDE BEATLES 1969 SUGAR SUGAR ARCHIES 1970 THE WONDER OF YOU ELVIS PRESLEY 1971 MY SWEET LORD GEORGE HARRISON 1972 AMAZING GRACE ROYAL SCOTS DRAGOON GUARDS 1973 TIE A YELLOW RIBBON DAWN FEATURING TONY ORLANDO 1974 TIGER FEET MUD 1975 BYE BYE BABY BAY CITY ROLLERS 1976 SAVE YOUR KISSES FOR ME BROTHERHOOD OF MAN 1977 MULL OF KINTYRE WINGS 1978 RIVERS OF BABYLON/BROWN GIRL IN THE RING BONEY M 1979 BRIGHT EYES ART GARFUNKEL 1980 DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME THE POLICE 1981 DON’T YOU WANT ME HUMAN LEAGUE 1982 COME ON EILEEN DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS 1983 KARMA CHAMELEON CULTURE CLUB 1984 DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS ? BAND AID 1985 THE POWER OF LOVE JENNIFER RUSH © 2012 the Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
November 11, 201212 yr Hardly "revealed" as they are well known. However what is interesting is that seem to be using the biggest selling single to be released from that year as opposed to the biggest selling within the calender year. 1981 being the example, the actual biggest seller being "Tainted love".
November 11, 201212 yr Plus the best selling single listed for 1952 is not 'Here In My Heart' by Al Martino which was the only number 1 in that first year of the charts. On the first ever chart (dated 15 November 1952) 'Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart' by Vera Lynn was at number 10 and dropped off the chart the following week, never to be seen again. I can only assume that had a chart been compiled earlier than November 1952 the record would have been at number 1 for many weeks.
November 11, 201212 yr Plus the best selling single listed for 1952 is not 'Here In My Heart' by Al Martino which was the only number 1 in that first year of the charts. On the first ever chart (dated 15 November 1952) 'Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart' by Vera Lynn was at number 10 and dropped off the chart the following week, never to be seen again. I can only assume that had a chart been compiled earlier than November 1952 the record would have been at number 1 for many weeks. Which, if true, rather makes a mockery of the 60th anniversary!
November 11, 201212 yr The biggest selling single of every year revealed! (1952-1985) 10/11/2012 By Dan Lane As part of the Official Singles Chart’s 60th birthday celebrations, legendary DJ Tony Blackburn is counting down the biggest selling single of each year on BBC Radio 2! In the first of his two shows, which was broadcast earlier today (Saturday, November 10), Tony revealed the biggest selling single of each year from 1952 when the Official Singles Chart was born, up to 1985. This eclectic countdown, featured music from the likes of Vera Lynn, Slim Whitman, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Archies, Dawn, Brotherhood Of Man and The Police. You can listen back to the show via the BBC’s iPlayer Radio service. Make sure you tune in next week between 1pm and 3pm for the biggest selling single of each year from 1986 through to 2012! You can see the first show’s countdown below: YEAR SINGLE ARTIST 1952 AUF WIEDERSEHEN (SWEETHEART) VERA LYNN How can this be no.1 when it spent just one week at no.10 on the very first chart? Al Matino spent the whole of 1952 for which there were charts at no.1!
November 11, 201212 yr How can this be no.1 when it spent just one week at no.10 on the very first chart? Al Matino spent the whole of 1952 for which there were charts at no.1! AIUI, it had been selling well for quite a while before the first chart appeared. This may help : http://tsort.info/music/yr1952.htm Edited November 11, 201212 yr by vidcapper
November 11, 201212 yr AIUI, it had been selling well for quite a while before the first chart appeared. This may help : http://tsort.info/music/yr1952.htm I was thinking that it might be based on total shipments of the song for the year, even though there was no weekly chart as such we would still have some idea of what this would be. However it turns out that it's based on the sheet music charts. An important measure of 'popularity' that might well be but it's not the same as singles sales, which is what this list is about. I wonder how well the sheet music charts correlated with the singles charts in the early years?
November 11, 201212 yr I was thinking that it might be based on total shipments of the song for the year, even though there was no weekly chart as such we would still have some idea of what this would be. However it turns out that it's based on the sheet music charts. An important measure of 'popularity' that might well be but it's not the same as singles sales, which is what this list is about. I wonder how well the sheet music charts correlated with the singles charts in the early years? Well Al Martino went: 7-3-2-2-{1}-1-* *indicates when the first singles chart was compiled so that matches pretty well. Vera Lynn's chart run goes: 9-3-{1}-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-3-3-3-3-5-4-7-10-* which also matches up.
November 11, 201212 yr A lot of this show was nonsense. Distant Drums, In The Summertime, Tainted Love were the actual best sellers of 1966, 1970 & 1981 respectively & not what Phillip Swern decided on. Plus (i'm pretty 99% certain) thae Are You Lonesome Tonight was the top seller of 1961 & not Wooden Heart. Edited November 11, 201212 yr by davetaylor
November 11, 201212 yr A lot of this show was nonsense. Distant Drums, In The Summertime, Tainted Love were the actual best sellers of 1966, 1970 & 1981 respectively & not what Phillip Swern decided on. Plus (i'm pretty 99% certain) thae Are You Lonesome Tonight was the top seller of 1961 & not Wooden Heart. However what is interesting is that seem to be using the biggest selling single to be released from that year as opposed to the biggest selling within the calender year. 1981 being the example, the actual biggest seller being "Tainted love". That's what they're doing instead of 'deciding'. :D
November 11, 201212 yr That's what they're doing instead of 'deciding'. :D Definately not the case. If that was the case you'd of had Rock Around The Clock for 1955, Merry Christmas Everybody from 1973 & Bohemain Rhapsody from 1975. Trust me. This programme is reknown for coming out with confusion. Whatever happened to proper BBC producers like Roger Pusey & the late great Bernie Andrews, & not some ex-Capital Radio Unique Broadcasting mob? Good Griefna! :cry: Although no lists of best selling singles exist for 1952-69, as all charts (in those days) were based on points & NOT sales. And it's pretty much a big mockery, as the BBC did their first Top 20 on 29th March 1958 with David Jacobs. Edited November 11, 201212 yr by davetaylor
November 11, 201212 yr The OCC were seemingly the compilers of the list - the article in liamk97's initial post is taken from the OCC website http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/t...1952-1985-1699/ Edited November 11, 201212 yr by Robbie
November 11, 201212 yr The OCC were seemingly the compilers of the list - the article in liamk97's initial post is taken from the OCC website http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/t...1952-1985-1699/ Well as we know Robbie, even they do not have access to chart sales info, previous to 1994. This particular list, just contradicts itself, & there doesn't seem to be any continuity method to it. A bit of a mess. Methodically we know that "The Harry Lime Theme" & Anton Karas was the best seller of 1950 & "Too Young" with the almighty Jimmy Young, was the best seller in 1951. Edited November 11, 201212 yr by davetaylor
November 14, 201212 yr I'll throw in my tuppence worth. Split sales haven't always been used in this compilation.. If this was the case, The New Seekers, You Won't Find Another Fool, was 1974's biggest seller, not Mud. It charted at the end of 73 and went to the top in January 74, and sold way more than Mud did, over 800,000.
November 14, 201212 yr Like I said Mr Tibbs. It's a mess. Also (similar to whay you say), according to the crap that is Wikipedia & Tiger Feet...Billy Don't Be A Hero sold more than Mud! Totally wrong of course, but Wiki says 755,000 for Paper Lace & 730,000 for Mud, during the 70s decade, as a whole. Absolute nonsense on Wiki & much the same pre 82, from the OCC. Who's running this? Tony Blackburn, Phillip Swern or Unique Broadcasting!
November 17, 201212 yr This is now back on again, on radio 2. Here is the full list: 1986 The Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way 1987 Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up 1988 Cliff Richards - Mistletoe and Wine 1989 Black Box - Ride On Time 1990 Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody 1991 Bryan Adams - Everything I Do, I Do It For You 1992 Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You 1993 Meat Loaf - I Would Do Anything For Love, But I Won't Do That 1994 Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around 1995 Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody/White Cliffs Of Dover 1996 Fugees - Killing Me Softly 1997 Elton John - Candle In The Wind 1997/Something About The Way You Look Tonight 1998 Cher - Believe 1999 Britney Spears - Baby One More Time 2000 Bob The Builder - Can We Fix It? 2001 Shaggy feat. RikRok - It Wasn't Me 2002 Will Young - Anything Is Possible/Evergreen 2003 Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love? 2004 Band Aid 20 - Do They Know It's Christmas? 2005 Tony Christie feat. Peter Kay - Is This the Way to Amarillo? 2006 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy 2007 Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love 2008 Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah 2009 Lady GaGa - Poker Face 2010 Eminem feat. Rihanna - Love the Way You Lie 2011 ADELE - Someone Like You 2012 Gotye feat. Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know Edited November 17, 201212 yr by ♪ Thermometer ♫
November 17, 201212 yr Yeah, clearly only sales of that particular year only have been used - for 2009 'Poker Face' had sold more than I Gotta Feeling by December 31st, but then IGF sold loads well into early 2010 and is now comfortably ahead.
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