The 70s- that was a blast eh- probably but I was far too young to recall it personally.  In early 1980 the BMRB compiled a top 100 best sellers of the decade which was immediately rubbished by several commentators including Alan Jones who stated that all BMRB had done was to compile a list of tracks based on panel sales in the shops they covered, i.e they did not account for the market at the time and applied nothing like a multiplier to the panel sales in order to cover the entire market.

 

So what is this list?  Panel sales have now come to light for weekly charts 1973-1975 and monthly tallies for 1976-1979 so we have a better idea (thanks to Robbie and Kobyhardian) but there are still some flaws in what we have

 

1- 1970-September 1973 does not have any panel sales and we are unlikely to ever get these

2- The official multiplier is not known for the years 1973-1979.  However an exercise was undertaken in 1975 by BMRB to establish that they were covering 5% of the total market which would create a multiplier of roughly 20 for the mid 70s at least

3- Panel sales for the 70s only cover the time when the track was in the top 50 (1973-1975) and in the top 200 best sellers of the month for 1976-1979 so whilst we know the majority of the sales, it won’t track sales outside of those parameters though they would not be significant amounts (we are talking maybe 20k or so for the bigger sellers and less for smaller hits).

4- There were time periods (certainly in the mid 70’s and probably in the early 70s too) when data for Saturday was not recorded at all, this is because in order to get the sales diaries back to BMRB for the Monday chart they often had to be picked up on a Saturday morning.

Multipliers for 1976-1979 have been calculated with the assistance of shireblogger by cross referencing BPI sales awards at the time and seeing what multiplier that might suggest.

 

So the top 100 has been compiled from the panel sales we know and estimated sales for the pre October 1973 period have been generated based on its position in the original BMRB top 100 position which would indicate the panel sales (roughly) then apply the multiplier of 20.

 

During the reveals there will be some surprises which can be accounted for in the following ways

·        Some bigger sellers are under-represented- this could be due to underestimates by the BMRB, or it could be (in minor cases) due to sales outside the top 50 or the top 200.

·        An error by BMRB over the figures it used in the decade end chart

·        The Christmas week was not compiled in the 70s at all- there are some who suggest that any sales collected that week were rolled into the subsequent week but we don’t know this.  It’s possible that BMRB used some record label information from shipments to calculate missing weeks for the end of decade list but also entirely not possible!  This chart however does include the week after Christmas (which was never included in the Y/E charts for respective years which normally ended in mid Dec).  This may account for records not ending up in strict order in the way they do in the Y/E list for respective years.

 

There are some unknowns still- it is unknown if the BMRB even bothered with a multiplier in the early days (pre the 1975 exercise)- they may just have been monitoring how many records were purchased in their sample base- this explains why they compiled the end of the 70s chart the way they did. 

 

Size of the market:

 

BPI estimated trade deliveries in the 1970s as:

1970- 41 Million

1971- 43 M

1972- 46.2 M

1973- 54.6 M

1974- 62.7 M

1975-56.9 M

1976- 56.9 M

1977- 62.1 M

1978- 88.8 M

1979- 89.1 M

 

This gives you a rough idea of the years most featured, for comparison 1992’s total sales (the lowest of the decade) were 52.9 M

So here are the top 100 best selling singles of the 70’s (not exactly accurate but certainly better than the BMRB one produced) based on panel sales!

Yes it's my first ever 70s thread!

I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up here. I first started listening to the Sunday chart countdown around 1974 so I'm more familiar with the singles from that point onwards but I should know most of the big hits from 1970-73.

I thought your next thread would be the biggest selling singles acts of the 00s.

Hopefully that will be to come.

I think we all know what the number 1 on this thread will be !

👏

11 minutes ago, mrpopquiz said:

I think we all know what the number 1 on this thread will be !

Not really there was no 10+ week #1s was there?

No spoilers though!

Edited 23 hours ago23 hr by TheSnake

Well we know what the BMRB put at No 1 yes....but as you'll see it doesn't automatically follow that the using the multiplier gives you the same results as that list...

Ooh going backwards before forwards I like it

33 minutes ago, Gezza said:

Well we know what the BMRB put at No 1 yes....but as you'll see it doesn't automatically follow that the using the multiplier gives you the same results as that list...

Now I'm intrigued !

While I remember- a word on single sleeves- singles covers were not always available widely on singles until (roughly) the mid 80s so many singles in the 70s had generic sleeves for the label. So where there is a UK record sleeve I'll use that but where there isn't I'll use a foreign release otherwise most won't be interesting to look at.

Yay I'm looking forward to a retro countdown!

Actually, does anyone of a certain age recall why, even into the late 80s, when you bought a single it sometimes came in a plain sleeve instead of the proper one, like they ordered in 400 vinyl singles but only had 300 sleeves so when they sold out you got the rubbish plain sleeve?

Oh look forward to this. MY DECADE. Fave years 74 to 77.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by CRAZY CHRIS

4 hours ago, Gezza said:

Actually, does anyone of a certain age recall why, even into the late 80s, when you bought a single it sometimes came in a plain sleeve instead of the proper one, like they ordered in 400 vinyl singles but only had 300 sleeves so when they sold out you got the rubbish plain sleeve?

It was rare to pick up picture sleeves in the 70s at all until the late 70s. They were mainly early incentives to buy a new single but the big retailers like Woollies were more into being a bit cheaper than proper record shops and generic label sleeves prob helped with their mass sales and margins. I'm guessing! I have quite a few picture sleeves from around 1974 but they were mostly flop singles that ended up in the bargain bin of a specialist store. My first treasured picture sleeve was gatefold Wizzard and their xmas classic. Its also the original version not the 1981 re record that charts every xmas. So i am glad i bought that one early as a Roy Wood fan. I also bought Forever his solo hit but that was generic Harvest label sleeve so i suspect they were just hoping to outdo Slade with the cover helping Wizzard.

Another reason was demand for stock running out on popular hits suddenly popular so they imported from France with generic sleeves where the uk printing was picture or coloured vinyl. Im still bitter about the tattier sound quality of a Rat Trap imported copy that i bought which turned to be a French printing logo. Pah!

Really enthusiastic to see these results im still baffled by sales lists for this decade outside the big ones. 🤩

I base my own "sales chart" ratios on a 1976 top 50 chart printed in a book about the uk music industry. They didnt give song or artist info but what i presume were based on panel sales data also mentioned previous week chart positions so i worked out it was one of the weeks that Fernando was at the top end. So i have that data i could repeat if i dig out the book. I doubt it would make much difference to your figures though!

15 minutes ago, Popchartfreak said:

It was rare to pick up picture sleeves in the 70s at all until the late 70s. They were mainly early incentives to buy a new single but the big retailers like Woollies were more into being a bit cheaper than proper record shops and generic label sleeves prob helped with their mass sales and margins. I'm guessing! I have quite a few picture sleeves from around 1974 but they were mostly flop singles that ended up in the bargain bin of a specialist store. My first treasured picture sleeve was gatefold Wizzard and their xmas classic. Its also the original version not the 1981 re record that charts every xmas. So i am glad i bought that one early as a Roy Wood fan. I also bought Forever his solo hit but that was generic Harvest label sleeve so i suspect they were just hoping to outdo Slade with the cover helping Wizzard.

Another reason was demand for stock running out on popular hits suddenly popular so they imported from France with generic sleeves where the uk printing was picture or coloured vinyl. Im still bitter about the tattier sound quality of a Rat Trap imported copy that i bought which turned to be a French printing logo. Pah!

Really enthusiastic to see these results im still baffled by sales lists for this decade outside the big ones. 🤩

I base my own "sales chart" ratios on a 1976 top 50 chart printed in a book about the uk music industry. They didnt give song or artist info but what i presume were based on panel sales data also mentioned previous week chart positions so i worked out it was one of the weeks that Fernando was at the top end. So i have that data i could repeat if i dig out the book. I doubt it would make much difference to your figures though!

Ah thanks. I remember buying "London nights" by the London boys in 1989 and being annoyed that I didn't get the proper sleeve but just a plain black one. If I remember correctly it tended to affect records which were nearer the end of their chart life and falling down the charts so what you say makes sense.

100. LE FREAK- Chic (518,800)*

 

1978

16 weeks in chart

Peak position: 7

 

Synonymous with the disco era now this was Chic’s biggest hit of the decade, this track is an homage to the legendary Studio 54 in New York, although it wasn’t an overly positive experience for the band.  Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were invited to the club by Grace Jones who failed to tell the bouncers she was expecting guests and the pair were subsequently refused entry with the phrase “f*** off”- that was changed by the pair for the song to freak off and then freak out

99. SUBSTITUTE- Clout (518,900)

 

1978

15 weeks in chart

Peak position: 2

 

A track first recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1975 but a flop here when released, it was covered three years later by this all female group who almost bagged themselves a chart topper were it not for Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.  The group were from South Africa which meant that under equity rules of the time they were banned from performing on UK TV as a sanction against apartheid.  The track was also covered famously by Gloria Gaynor as the original A-side to “I Will Survive” before getting flipped.

98. SHE- Charles Aznavour (520,000)

 

1974

14 weeks on chart

Peal position: 1

 

Described at times as “France’s “Sinatra”” Aznavour was actually born in Armenia, he had already recorded over 20 albums by the time this track was released.  It proved his breakthrough here after it was picked up as the theme to the show “Seven Faces Of Woman” on British TV and it helped send the track to No 1 for a month making him the first solo French act to make the top here, it appeared again in the late 90s when used in the film “Notting Hill” covered by Elvis Costello.

It kicks off with a classic! Love Chic (well I only know the big singles) and that’s definitely a song I’d think of quite quickly if asked to name tracks from the 70s.

She is quite a lovely song really. It’s not a genre I’d really listen to but it definitely has that timeless feel that the best love songs from the era have.

Much less familiar with Substitute and I can’t say it’s one I’ll likely return to. It was alright but pretty unremarkable to me.

A couple of classics to start

Thank you to the bouncers at Studio 54 for providing the inspiration for a disco classic, and with 6 weeks at number 1 in the US, making Nile and Bernard very rich !

I bought Substitute with my pocket money - what a great record - better than the original.