kingofskiffle

Released yesterday is the first volume, 1956, covering 55 pages of the charts in 1956. 1957 is coming Monday to subscribers and if you wish you can purchase individual volumes. Don't delay, add the series to your collection today!

If I'm right we only ever had 4 weeks with tied number 1's. 16 Feb 57, 8 Jun 57, 19 Apr 58 (All Record Mirror) and then 24 Jul 1982 which was the only BMRB compiled number 1 tie. It's not mentioned at all in Music Week....

To add to the celebration I have just announced by own album chart series. Details here: https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/70-years-of-the-uk-album-chart

Announcing 70 Years Of The UK Album Charts Series On 14 July 1956 Record Mirror announced Soon! Best-Selling L.P. Lists! Because, they said, of the ever increasing sales of Long Playing records and the many requests to do so, they are going to launch a First Five L.P. analysis, similar to their (and at that point NME and Melody Maker) Singles chart feature. Two weeks later, on 28 July 1956, the first Top 5 appeared, headed by Frank Sinatra and Songs For Swingin’ Lovers (Which had been 13 on their prior weeks Singles listing – one of several LP’s to make ‘Britain’s Top Twenty’ as the Record Mirror chart was sort of know). 70 years later, on 28 July 2026, the world will awake on a Tuesday morning, rather than a Saturday, to a chart announced the previous Friday where possibly (I’m writing this on Monday 13 July 2026 and will update when the facts are known) the 1446th UK Number 1 album – Madonna was number 1444 as announced on 10 July and it is likely that the Rolling Stones will be number 1445 on 17 July. Over the course of those 70 years, 1444 or so number 1 albums we have had record breakers and huge sellers and a chart expanding from 5 to 200 covering 12inch vinyl through to Cassette, CD, and now paid digital download and streaming with a bunch of strange oddities in the middle – including the number 1 albums airbrushed from history, something occurring twice in 1969 though I will also remove one with reasons. We also have of course the numerous other charts – NME, Record Mirror post 1958, Melody Maker post 1960 and of course the lesser charts such as Top Pops and the huge yet flawed Music Echo LP chart. And then, as we come to the modern era, we find other charts such as Rock, Indie, Dance, R&B and, form 1989, Compilations which are removed from the main chart. All this is covered in my 70 Years Of The UK Album Chart series, long wished for and announced today. The first issue, 1956, will come to subscribers on 27 July 2026 and, all being well, the last covering 2028 will be sent on 1 Jan 2029 – in all 73 volumes packed end to end with unmissable facts and figures. Sample pages from the 1969 volume are below. Series Contents Each volume covers a single calendar year and showcases all the known positions for the charts for that year from the UK. We cover Record Mirror Melody Maker Record Retailer/Music Week Including Budget, Mid Price and other minor charts not hitherto tabulated at all British Market Research Bureau Including some sales data available for the first time between 1973 and 1975 with expanded positions Gallup Album Charts (1983-1994) MRIB (Including some Indie charts from the period) Milward Brown compiled charts from 1994-2028 Including Scottish, Welsh, Rock, Dance, R&B and Indie as these came on stream but not all cover the full period due to gaps. Equally, some charts will appear for a short time as thats all the data that exists. … as well as other surprises along the way! Not all the charts listed feature in every issue as some where compiled for a short period and others, while researched, are not as complete as I would like. To view sample pages please look here and if you would like to purchase then details can be found here https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/70-years-of-the-uk-album-chart/#buy

I thought you were pre announcing my Album Book Series for me then! Glad the album chart is getting some love from the OCC for its birthday :)

If anybody is unsure what Melody Charts is then it's my online chart database accessible here. https://melodychartsonline.co.uk I am constantly updating the charts and while what you can see does depend on your subscription, their is a Statistics section which allows searchers through the at a for 'odd stuff' and I do try and add things into. For example, I've tried. to add in a search for doing something similar to this to help with data mining. It does not replace the thread here, but does try and allow the user to look around and see some of the more interesting stats. And if there is a statistic you want, I can always try and figure out a way of adding it into the database. And Dan I am pleased you like the website - I do not want annoying ads and dislike those - I also wonder how much money they actually generate anyway.... My website is a hobby, but I don have to have a subscription model to keep it running and updated. Plus, if enough subscribe I can finally give up my day job and do this full time! :D

I wanted to give an update on what’s been being changed with the database over the last few weeks. A keen-eyed subscriber noted that the UK and USA releases all had the same label. This was true for download entries and was not actually meant to be the case (except of course in a few instances when they do have the same label of course). What had happened is that an import field had been left blank when I wrote the code, meaning that no country was assigned on import. This, in turn, meant that entries combined when they should not have. The database fix was easy, but untangling the imported entries was not the work of a moment! Three weeks later I think I’ve got them all, but if you do sot an error then please use the ‘Error?’ buttons on pages to report anything that looks wrong. Prior to this I had been adding in more charts and have now gone ahead and amended the various headers and released some older charts. A not complete list is below – it’s not complete because there are over 90 charts within the database and so I don’t want to list them all! Just because a chart is listed, does not mean that it is complete as some have just a few weeks of data as that’s all I have managed to type up. I also want to explain a bit about how I gather the data for this database. Over the decades many wonderful chart books have been produced by many wonderful people and some are present in my library. I use these to assist with cross checking – if, for example, I get a total week count of 12 weeks but the book says 13 I go digging further to ensure I’ve not messed up somewhere. All the charts though are hand typed by myself from original scans of the charts. The Billboard Best Sellers In Stores, for example, come from actual scans Google Books made in about 2012 of 1940-2010 Billboard’s, supplemented by viewing original copies in the British Library (either physical volumes or microfilm copies) and taking photographs. This has thrown up a few cases of charts being incorrectly printed and corrected in the following week or elements printed on later pages that have been found which seem not to be present elsewhere, or not in all sources. Equally, the images of the records on Discogs etc have been used for correct label credits and correct catalogue numbers – as the charts themselves sometimes did not use the correct details. So adding all of these does take some time and while the data is, for the charts created for my books, more or less in the right format a lot of work does still need to be done to amend the format of that into the format here – in the books all the B-Sides come as a single line, while here I want to list all the tracks in the right order and with their durations and correct as listed on the label credits, something that few other sources do. Also, some charts here have not been researched in this way at all. The regional Best Sellers from America have never had their actual weekly charts typed and presented with the correct peak positions and chart runs shown, and charts like New Age Albums have never been researched. I’m in the process of adding in the Honor Roll Of Hits for 1945-1963 and that has, as far as I can see, never been replicated since publication. All this is to explain why sometimes it can take a while to add in a chart that a reader may want to see but, if I have it, I shall try and add it. And then, of course, we have archives of other charts such as Variety’s American charts which, I think, I have the full collection of and which again seem never to have been researched properly. Please also have a look around and explore the new Statistics page, and look at the data that this produces. If there are statical information you’d like to see then let me know as I am sure I can create it and put a page together for your favourite chart or favourite statically detail. While only a couple of charts are available for free members, please do use your free sign up as a way of viewing what is on offer and, if you like the system, please consider subscribing. https://melodychartsonline.co.uk Here is that edited listing of some new charts added or expanded in the last few weeks:- - BBC Averaged Singles Chart - Billboard Adult Contemporary - Billboard Best Sellers In Stores - Billboard Best Sellers In Stores Regions: East - Billboard Best Sellers In Stores Regions: Midwest - Billboard Best Sellers In Stores Regions: South - Billboard Best Sellers In Stores Regions: West Coast - Billboard Harlem Hit Parade - Billboard New Age Albums - Disc Singles - Disc Singles Chart Bubbling Under - Missing Charts - 1940-1952 - Record Mirror Album Charts - Record Mirror Best-Sellers By British Artists - Record Mirror Single Charts - The Big Top 40 - The Big Top 40 Northern Ireland - The NME Singles Charts - UK Airplay Chart - UK Dance Singles - UK Indie Singles - UK Indie Singles Breakers - UK R&B Singles - UK Rock Singles - UK Singles Year So Far - UK Streaming Singles - UK Video Streaming Singles - Year End Record Mirror Best-Sellers By British Artists - Year End Record Mirror Singles

I wanted to write a little about some of the features of the database. Firstly please do get in touch if their is a feature you feel should be added that is not currently present (Please note some features are for paid subscribers and so are not available for the free tier unfortunately). Today I am looking at the Annual Listing and Number 1 Listing, which is far more than just a number 1 listing. Annual Listing This feature allows for any chart to be taken and displayed by Title and Artist and sorted either by the year it first achieved its peak chart position or by its peak position reached in a calendar year. For a Peak Chart Position that's across the whole of the charts within the database. So if we take Wham and Last Christmas as I have currently got 2025-present listed, this will show in the 2025 listing only as that's when it peaked. If, however, we change to Calendar Year then it appears in both 2025 and 2026 as the calendar year takes positions within the period 1 January to 31 December inclusive. This listing automatically ranks the records and divides them up into sections by Peak Position reached. I also display composers, catalogue number and if you press the small plus at the end then you also get the records chart run appearing below its entry. Clicking on the position (or date) loads that weeks chart. The Number 1 Listing This is also accessed from the main menu and is far more than just a listing of the number 1 records. The position can be changed and so it can show you a listing of the records peaking at number 2. Or number 3. Or number 45. In addition, it can also show any record that landed at that position ten for one week. Chart runs can be combined and, if so, a symbol appears to show that the run has been combined. When looking at peaks outside of the number 1, there will be gaps as, of course, sometimes record stays for a while at one position before climbing to a peak higher up. For example, looking at the Number 2 listing, for the main UKSingles chart, we see only 1 record peaked at 2 between 14 Nov 1952 and the end of April 1953. If we change to appeared at then we see 8 in the same period. The listings are all ranked, so the number in sequence appears next to the details and a * shows if the record entered at that position. Do you know what the second ever record to enter at number 2 was? I hope you will check these features out and let me know if you would like to see other elements within the database. Data Update I am currently adding 1960-1969 for the UK Singles. These are in the process of being checked to ensure that they have come across properly from the offline database into the online database as, while the import is very fast, I am slightly distrustful at the moment as the import is new. Equally, if the system is not doing quite what you think it should do then please let me know. I had some memory issues last night once the new UK data was loaded as pages where running up giants their data limits and thus not loading. Some pages may seem slow to load and if so that will be the data caching in the background. I am also going through and updating the Artist Splitting which allows the Artist History to work properly. Once charts are released this should all work fine, but while they are being processed it's a manual job to do the splitting for now. I can get AI to do it but it can confuse some artists if I do that! Hope you do check out the pages above and do please remember that some features listed are only for the relevant tiers.

Yes and I am even adding the actual BBC chart from the 1955-1969 period thats is never more spoken about.... The charts are official. You can utilise points within to make your own and you can (as a platinum user) add your own charts (so if you wanted to add a personal chart) but otherwise these are all proper. (Adding own charts is there but coming in 2027 once I get some more testing done on it).

But they are? I thought I had been clear that these are the correct charts just in a much better format than the official websites list them. And listen, people absolutely do not have to pay if they choose not to. What your paying for is basically a much better formatted chart experience and much more data around the records such as duration, composers, images etc and proper chart histories and track listings which the official websites do not do. Hence why I'm doing this.

I understand but actually this is no different from buying a book which is likewise 'behind a paywall' (you have to pay to read about the chart data within the book). The free tier is there for people to explore and see but the time and effort to work through the data and produce and curate is what is being paid for. I get some may not like that but there are clear costs involved in the data and I can't put this up without some sort of paywall.

I'm in the process of adding in 1954 UK Singles which should go live some time today. For Billboard fans I've also added the Juke Box Race chart from 1945, an early R&B chart. I want to mention that the term "race records" was coined in 1922 by Okeh Records. In hindsight, the term 'race record' may seem derogatory but at the time the African-American press routinely used the term the Race to refer to African Americans as a whole and race man or race woman to refer to an African-American individual who showed pride in and support for African-American people and culture.

Hahah I know what you mean! Looking at the stats for that week will be amazing as they leap up the data. Okay, as your the second person in about 20 minutes to ask for the UK 1960's charts I'll add 1954-1969 UK next. :)

Melody Charts Online – Finally Here! After three years of work I’m launching Melody Charts Online, a new chart database designed specifically for chart enthusiasts. The goal is simple: make it easy to explore chart history, artist chart careers and chart runs and record releases in ways that traditional chart listings don’t allow. You can explore it here: https://melodychartsonline.co.uk Over the last few months I’ve spent virtually all my spare time building the architecture behind the site, and I’m now at the stage where I can begin opening it up to the world. The database has been built with chart fans in mind — the aim is to get you directly to the information you want and allow you to explore the relationships between artists, releases and chart history. What makes Melody Charts Online different • Composer data for virtually every charting song • Full track listings for albums, singles and EPs • Fully linked data so you can see how tracks appear across different releases and albums • Automatic chart statistics which update whenever a new chart week is added • Historical charts typed directly from original magazines and archive scans One of the key things that sets the database apart is the depth of the linking. Composer data, track listings and chart data are all connected, allowing you to explore how songs and releases appear across multiple artists and albums. Click an artist see their history and click on a track from an album or go directly to a weekly chart with that album included. All at your fingertips. ⸻ Current database coverage The database is constantly being expanded and updated. As you will appreciate there is a lot of data to add in and this is not an easy migration as I want to ensure accuracy. At present it includes: • Most 2026 singles charts from the UK and USA • Early Billboard charts from 1940-41 (1942-45 currently being checked) • Early Billboard album charts from 1945 • UK charts from 1952–53 • Release images and track durations (some are still to be added but most are in and this is the bottleneck for adding new records) • Chart statistics which automatically update when new chart weeks are added More charts are being added regularly as I continue entering historical data. If there is a specific chart you would like prioritised, feel free to let me know and I will try to move it up the list. Subscription Details Subscriptions are handled securely through PayPal, and you can sign up either direct or using a debit or credit card. Plans are available monthly or yearly (with discounts for annual subscriptions). Any issues at all please email me and I will do my best to put it right Free Features • No adverts or pop-ups • Access to Top 10 only for:  • UK Singles Chart  • UK Albums Chart  • Billboard Hot 100  • Billboard Top LPs • Search titles and artists (Top 10 entries only) • Artist history limited to those four charts and Top 10 entries Note: some early charts before 1960 contain fewer than 10 entries. Silver £7.45 per month £86.90 per year Features • Unlimited chart searches • All charts available to full depth • Full database search of titles and artists • Complete artist chart histories • Track listings for albums, EPs and singles • Weekly charts visible 4 weeks after being added • Artist history and release pages display full chart runs Gold (Most Popular) £9.95 per month £112.80 per year Includes all Silver features plus: • Filter charts by genre • Edit genre tags on tracks and releases • Export chart data as PDF • Composer and producer information where available • Composer currently available for around 90% of entries • Producer data available for most albums • Charts visible 1 week after being added Full access costs £9.95 per month — about 33p per day, roughly the price of three coffees a month. Platinum £14.95 per month £164.45 per year Includes all Gold features plus: • Historical UK Singles and Albums sales data  Coverage mainly 1973–1994 but note this is not yet in the database • Ability to add charts to the database (planned feature expected in 2027)  Available after bespoke training given for free to ensure data accuracy • Charts visible immediately after being added • Ability to request priority chart additions • Priority email support for database issues  Typical response time around 48 hours Why it isn’t free This is probably the question I get asked most often. The data in the database has been gathered over more than 27 years, and obtaining it has involved thousands of pounds spent on books, magazines, archive access and other sources. Because of that, it simply isn’t possible to make everything freely available. The subscription cost is kept intentionally modest considering the scale of the data available. Currently Melody Charts Online contains: • 46,000+ chart positions • 67 charts • 3,400+ releases And more to come! The main database being migrated into the site contains over 6.5 million chart positions, plus another 5 million album entries, all of which will gradually be added over the next few years. Importantly, the plan is not to increase prices as the database grows. Things you can try on the site • Look up an artist and view their complete chart runs • Explore early Billboard charts from the 1940s tracking bands and multiple versions of different tracks. • Browse composer credits across charting songs • View full track listings for albums and singles • Export chart data as PDF (subject to tier) If you enjoy digging into chart history, spotting chart run patterns or exploring the data behind releases, this site was built for exactly that kind of chart obsession. If you’d like to take a look, you can access and subscribe here: https://melodychartsonline.co.uk I’ll also be sharing more about what the database can do over the coming days.

As long requested, I have finally prepared two new UK Singles Annuals. They are for 2023 and 2025. Both contain the same information - but for their respective years. I have added 7 UK Singles charts (including the one compiled by Billboard and three streaming charts). Each book is about 3,000 pages and covers each one of the chart weeks for the calendar year 2023 or 2025. This Singles Annual contains 7 charts - These are The UK Singles Chart The Official Digital Download Chart The Audio Streaming Chart The Video Streaming Chart The All Streaming Chart The Big Top 40 Billboard UK Songs All charts exist in full - as far as has been published - and contains all of the data that is covered within the 70 Years series. The volume contains the following sections for each chart Chart Age – Top 130 Weeks Chart Age – Bottom 130 Weeks Number 1’s Most Weeks By Artist – Top 500 Most Weeks By Artist – New Entries Most Weeks By Artist – Top 500 – Top 75 Only (Main UK Singles only) Most Weeks By Artist – Top 500 – 2020’s Decade Most Weeks By Artist Most Weeks By Title The Annual Artist History Details The Artist Analysis Weekly Charts Top 150 Highest New Entries Top 150 Highest Re-Entries Top 150 Biggest Falls Within The Chart Top 150 Biggest Climbs Within The Chart Top 150 Biggest Falls From The Chart Top 150 Artists With The Most Hits Top 150 Longest Runner On Chart Top 150 Longest Runner On Chart (By Chart Run) Hit Log – All Entries With Images Hit Log – Compressed view (Various sizes based on the chart size that exists) Alphabetical Title Listing All this in full colour, with the listings including BPI Awards and composers, as well as full Catalogue number and label details. All re-entries listed in detail. All yours for £4! To purchase, please go to my website here - 2023: https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/2026/01/16/the-uk-singles-annual-2023/ 2024: https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/2025/02/01/the-uk-singles-annual-2024/ 2025: https://www.thechartbook.co.uk/uk-singles-annual-2025/ I added the link for 2024 should you not have yet purchased this volume. Please note - the book is supplied as a Dropbox link and is supplied via email rather than automatically due to the size. Please allow up to 24 hours for delivery, although the volume is usually issued within a few minutes of cleared payment being received. And if you would like to view a selection of pages from the issue, please look at the advert for it here which is for the 2024 volume - 2023 and 2025 are the same layout.