DanChartFan

The One Week Wonders - Episode 134 First up is Woman's World by the Jags, which was at #75 on w/e 2nd February 1980. Their only other charting single was Back Of My Hand, which reached #17 in 1979. cKRxzE6bm-o Next up is the first of 4 charting singles for Christopher Cross. Ride Like The Wind was at #69 on w/e 19th April 1980. Two other versions of the song have also charted, a metal version by Saxon which reached #52 in 1988, and a dance version by East Side Beat, which was a #3 hit in 1991. 9eHh7qI8OtI Then we have the first of many charting singles for Echo and the Bunnymen. Rescue was at #62 on w/e 17th May 1980. IXuFVtPCZUo Finally for this episode we have Sweet Danger by Angelwitch, which was at #75 on w/e 7th June 1980, and was their only week of UK chart action. zD8eRBI9Qt4

Oh phooey! I used the 3rd edition of Guinness' Hit Singles to compile my initial list from 1952 up to the end of 1980, so that's how the error came into being, but in theory I've been cross-referencing against other sources, including the OCC website, which does show it on 2 weeks, so I've no idea how I missed that. I'll have to put four singles in the next episode to make up for it then.

The One Week Wonders - Episode 133 We start with the fifth and final charting single for the Lurkers, New Guitar In Town, which was at #72 on w/e 17th November 1979. aytARSW92vg Then we have the only week of chart action for Lori and the Chameleons, who were at #70 on w/e 8th December 1979 with Touch. w5-H_Lqfm24 And staying with the same chart week for the final song of this episode, we have Dr Feelgood at #73 with Put Him Out Of Your Mind. This was his last single to reach the Top 75, although a couple of singles reached #93 and #97 respectively in 1986 and 1989. SjMS5EgTDh4

The One Week Wonders - Episode 132 First up is Franco-Romanina composer Vladimir Cosma's David's Song, which was the theme to the 1979 HTV co-production of Kidnapped, based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel of the same name, which aired between April and June 1979 on ITV, but didn't reached the National Top 20 TV charts. It charted at #64 on w/e 14th July 1979, and was his only week of UK chart action. QxbKlxJMqX8 Staying with the same chart week we have Light Of The World at #72 with Midnight Groovin'. hl_us61IcW8 Finally for this episode it's the third and final UK hit for the Rezillos, who had come to fame with the song Top Of The Pops, which criticised the music show on which they were then asked to perform that single. Can't Stand My Baby and I Wanna Be Your Man had actually been the first single they released in 1977, but had missed the charts and was now being reissued. It charted at #71 on w/e 18th August 1979. I Wanna Be Your Man was the Lennon McCartney song that had been a #12 hit for the Rolling Stones in 1963-4. Ld8zm--u0R0 aAlPhmBvclo

The One Week Wonders - Episode 131 We start by skipping over Karen Young's Hot Shot, which had a week at #75 on 24th February 1979, as this was a reissue of a single that had charted the previous year. We also skip over two candidates for the list from w/e 14th April 1979. The first, at #64 was a reissue of Bobby Darin's 1959 charttoppers Dream Lover and Mack The Knife as a double a-side. The other, at #66, was another double a-side, pairing up the 1958/9 #2 hit To Know Him Is To Love Him by The Teddy Bears with Jody Reynold's Endless Sleep, the latter of which was a million selling #5 hit in the US, but had never charted in this country previously. Endless Sleep was the forerunner to a run of other 'death songs' in the years that followed, and was Jody's only week of Uk chart action in 1979, albeit probably with more than a little help from the much better know other side of the disc, so I include it here as a bonus. p7lZYoiVl30 Our three true one week wonders in this episode are from w/e 9th June 1979. The first, at #72 is Out In The Dark/Cyanide by The Lurkers. Xxyl7L47Hb8 -tZkb87vn2g Next, at #73, is Women In Uniform, which is the only week of chart action for Skyhooks. IeOtJ09FD-8 And finally tied at #74 was J Geils Band with One Last Kiss. This was their first time on chart, and the next time they reached the singles chart was in February 1982, with Centrefold, which got as far as #3. ytytqELCehA

The One Week Wonders - Episode 130 All three of this episode's acts were experiencing their only week of UK chart action. First up we have Sarr Band and Magic Mandrake, which was at #68 on w/e 16th September 1978. wuOnIooWTic Then we have Cirrus and Rollin' On, which was at #62 on w/e 30th September 1978. This song had been used in a Yorkie advert, with some lyrics changed, and was released at this time on chocolate brown vinyl for that reason. 7pvpdP_emks or as it sounded on the advert. DCeQNPJtMWY Finally we have Aquarian Dream with You're A Star, which was at #67 on 24th February 1979. Abv7HHLrVP4

Sorry for the wait since the last episode. Gonna try to catch up again. The One Week Wonders - Episode 129 First up is Devo, who were at #71 on w/e 12th August 1978. 3tR2d7vtMO8 One week later and the Patti Smith Group were at #72 with Privilege (Set Me Free). 2n-QwLaYblM Finally for this episode is the only week of UK chart action for Platinum Hook, with Standing On The Verge (Of Getting It On), which was at #72 on w/e 2nd September 1978. 0f63NIDYZck

I wonder whether those people who have any tendency to watch or listen to things in strict order (of which I am one) are, almost by definition, more likely to ignore pre-compiled playlists and instead construct their own playlists, so as to achieve the 'correct' order they crave. e.g. I have randomly created playlists for certain week's singles charts (trying to find the time each week to do one for the chart from exactly 25 years previously), or chronological through say an artists career (perhaps if they have just passed) or through something else (e.g I have one for my birthday number ones through time). If there isn't a pedantic order to put the songs in, like those I mentioned, then I don't use playlists at all and just search for and select each song as I go.

That's interesting, but I notice two things that have me wondering about it. One is that it mentions singles 'previously listed' between 41-50, and the other is that the small print is shown under the heading 'Star Breakers see page 4', which creates the impression to me that the rule applies to the Star Breakers section, and that any records that had previously been in the 41-50 section were excluded from reappearing in the star breakers, though that rule would then beg the question of if there was a different rule for anything that had previously made the Top 40, or at least for anything that fell directly from the Top 40 to below 50. But then I guess 'previously listed' could instead refer to previous chart practice rather than individual singles which had already been on chart, and the reference to Star Breakers may not have been intended to be a heading. I checked a scan of Record Mirror from the same week, http://scans.chartarchive.org/UK/1975/28%2...es%20Albums.jpg , which has no equivalant note, but does show the Star Breakers list, which oddly enough was topped by Ricky Valance's Tell Laura I Love Her.

You Light Up My Life is an odd one, it has one genuine week on chart, then that chart is repeated to cover the week when no chart was compiled, then when a new chart is compiled it is a Top 30 only for one week, so a false 31-50 has been created on the OCC site, using the ordering of the repeated chart, so the OCC shows it as 3 weeks on chart. It's hard to say whether it would have got a least one more genuine week had full charts been compiled for those weeks, but still a marked contrast, as you say, to its performance in the US. I'm writing this from memory, having seen it discussed either here or on digitalspy some time ago, so I could be remembering wrong but somewhere in the early 1970s Woolworths started supplying their sales data to the BMRB to be included in the charts. They sold a lot of singles, including, I presume, holding stock of older singles after the smaller record shops had sold through, so the inclusion of their data had the effect of slowing the chart down, and of causing bigger and more middle of the road singles to stay in the charts longer, at the expense of smaller and more niche hits who would struggle to even break into the Top 50. The BMRB eventually decided to apply an exclusion rule to the 41-50 positions by striking out (i.e. listing without a numbered position) any single that was below the pure sales Top 40 and had dropped in sales for, I think, three weeks. This effectively makes the 41-50 a bit like a Breakers section in that era. I believe this exclusion rule wasn't publically acknowledged at the time (the BBC only using the Top 40 anyway, and Record Retailer and Record Mirror presumably never mentioned it), so it only emerged in the internet era that it had happened.

The One Week Wonders - Episode 128 We start today with the only week of UK single's chart action for Sidney Devine, whose Scotland Forever EP was at #48 on w/e 1st April 1978. The EP's lead track was Scotland Forever, but there were also three other tracks, Scots Wha' Hae, Flowers Of Scotland and Scottish Trilogy, the latter of which was a medley of Auld Lang Syne, Loch Lomond and Amazing Grace. gpgL_NzgP5E Next up we have the second of three charting singles for Stargard. Love Is So Easy was at #45 on w/e 15th April 1978. wZPEgB1Syu4 At this point we see another big change to the chart as on w/e 13th May 1978 it became a Top 75, and therefore the majority of one week wonders from this point on will chart even lower, and be even more obscure than thus far. And to answer Robbie's question, yes Biddu Orchestra was the highest placed one week wonder during the era when exclusion rules were applied to the 41-50 section. In fact you have to go back to 1971 to find one at that position or higher. Our final single today is Hold Your Horses, Babe by Celi Bee and The Buzzy Bunch, which was at #72 on w/e 17th June 1978. It was Celie Bee and The Buzzy Bunch's only week of UK chart action. In the US Celi, real name Celida Ines Comacho, had had a #3 hit in 1977 with Superman, from the film of the same name, and had several other hits. CD3o6cV1qDw

The One Week Wonders - Episode 127 We start this episode with a punk group called Jet Bronx and The Forbidden, who had their only week of UK chart action at #49 on w/e 17th December 1977 with Ain't Doin' Nothin'. The band's guitarist was (and also is, in its current incarnation, The New Forbidden) TV presenter Loyd Grossman. MVhR0t4ZUAo The week after was the Xmas chart, and was then followed by a week when no new chart was compiled, so it is standard chartology practice to repeat the previous week's chart. The first new chart compiled thereafter, for week ending 7th January 1978 was restricted to a Top 30, with the Top 50 being resumed the week after. On the OCC website however there is a full top 50 in the week when only a Top 30 was compiled, which has been achieved by identifying the records from the previous week's chart that were not in the new 30 and slotting them in in the order they appeared (though not necessarily at the position they appeared) on that previous week's chart. My initial feeling was that this was misleading and essentially the bottom 20 positions were 'wrong', but then when I though about it a bit more I realised that the only difference between the choice to repeat the xmas Top 50 to fill the gap when there was no new year chart, and the choice to flesh out the restricted Top 30 by inserting the drop out from the previous week, is that the former has been seen as standard practice in chart books since at least 1978, before my birth, and the latter hasn't. I mean essentially they are both a form of 'making up' chart positions, albeit with some form of method that is informed by other exisiting chart data. It's left me wondering if I was wrong to exclude from the my 'official' one week wonder list the 'two week wonders' and 'three week wonders' caused by repeated charts. Anyway I mention all this because the chart situation over christmas and new year 77-78 does cause a three week wonder from one week of sales, in the form of Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life, which is thus a bonus song for this episode. b07-yKnKRMQ Next up we have another punk-influenced single, albeit by an act that somewhat predates the late 70s punk explosion, having had their first single (well EP technically) Big Six on chart in 1972. The band is Judge Dread, and the single is a double A-side of Up With The Cock and Big Punk which was at #49 on w/e 14th January 1978. [NB I Can censor one of the words in that first title if Mods want me to, and change the first video from embedded to a ordinary link, so the title can't be seen that way either, but I'm hoping that in the historical context of this thread, and given the song's lyrics are written in the form of an innocent story using phrases that could be taken to mean more adult things, that this title will be OK as is.] LUK49NMyakQ TKEK0BKb-Og Finally for this episode is the third and final charting single by the Biddu Orchestra, led by Indian-born producer Biddu Appaiah. Journey To The Moon was at #41 on w/e 11th Febuary 1978. hqLvyp3ZX-w

I found it truly amazing how few there were during the mid 70s when I did the original research. I think that around late 1972 or early 1973 might be the time when Woolworths was added to the panel of record shops used for the chart (or was it WHSmiths?), which slowed the chart down and led to a new rule that stipulated some exclusions in the 41-50 section right up until the Top 75 was instigated in 1978. I'd guess that some records that otherwise would have been sub 50 in second and subsequent weeks, (or maybe in week one if it took a week for word of mouth to spread and the single to peak) benefitted from the number of singles being excluded in the 41-50 section and were thus pulled upwards into the chart on at least one more week than they otherwise would have got, thus not being a one week wonder, when on a strictly sales-based chart they may have been.

The One Week Wonders - Episode 126 First up is Southern Comfort by Opportunity Knocks winner Berni Flint, whose first single, I Don't Want To Put A Hold On You, had reached #3 earlier in 1977. Despite Tony Blackburn's enthusiastic prediction in the intro of the video below, Southern Comfort managed one week at #48 on w/e 23rd July 1977, and was the last time he reached the charts. Here's a TOTP performance, but as that would have been re-recorded with the TOTP orchestra (as per the shows rules in that era) I also have put a link underneath to a rip from the original record, albeit taken from a rather scratched copy apparently. cFN1wBptXco Next is the second and last charting single for Delegation, who were at #49 on w/e 20th August 1977, with You've Been Doing Me Wrong. Again here's a TOTP performance, and link underneath for the original single. GI7EE2pPET4 Finally for today is the fourth and final charting single by Joe Dolan, I Need You, which reached #43 on w/e 17th September 1977. His biggest single was his first, Make Me An Island, which reached #3. KNVYMa213GM

The One Week Wonders - Episode 125 The first single for this episode is the only week of UK chart action for Liverpudlian band Buster, who were at #49 on w/e 19th June 1976 with Sunday. They had several more hits in Japan though. zTtDvDXWO1c Next up Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes are Reaching For The World, which was at #48 on w/e 2nd April 1977. It was another 7 years, in April 1984, when they charted again, with Don't Give Me Up. h4GVlhvsgtY Finally for this episode we have the only week of chart action for Garnet Mimms and Truckin' Company, with What It Is, which was at #44 on w/e 25th June 1977. mmnKnOKws7U

The One Week Wonders - Episode 124 We start with New World's 5th and final UK charting single, Rooftop Singing, which was at #50 on w/e 12th May 1973. rzFlSE8VxsQ Next is another single released to tie in with an FA Cup Final. This time the 1975 final, a London derby between West Ham and Fulham. In the run up to match Tony Rees and The Cottagers released Viva El Fulham, a version of Sylvia's Y Viva Espana with new lyrics referencing the club's manager and player's. The claim 'this year we're gonna win the cup' within the lyrics proved wrong though, and nearly million people watched on 3rd May 1975, split between the two main channels, as West Ham beat Fulham 2-0. They may not have won the match, but they did at least get the single to #46 for w/e 10th May 1975, and it's probably no suprise it didn't make a second week. jRgHtLYNjQE And we then move forward a whole year to another Cup final single. This time the match was between Manchester United and Southampton and about 23 million people watched it across both main channels on 1st May 1976. The single was by Manchester United Footbal Club and called Manchester United, which does make it rather tricky to search for in the online era, but would I suppose have sufficed in the seventies. It's the work of Tony Hiller, who co-wrote Brotherhood of Man's singles, though I'm not entirely sure if he wrote this, or just produced it, as he claims (double) writing credit for it on his website, but in the description for this video, uploaded by him, he says that Martin Buchan wrote it and he produced it, so even the man himself seems to be contradictory about it. The single reached #50 on w/e 8th May 1976. The match would end in a shock upset, as second division Southampton beat Manchester United, so again it's no surprise that single only got one week on chart. Perhaps the moral here should be to spend less energy on the official single, and more time planning for the actual match... loo3busgRHE

The One Week Wonders - Episode 123 We start this episode with the Henry Mancini theme tune to the western crime drama series Cade's County, which was airing on ITV on Wednesdays, immediately after Coronation Street. It picked up UK viewing audience of around 6 to 7 million homes, and the highest rated one I can find (I have a lot, though not all, TV ratings charts of the 70s) was on Wednesday 26th April 1972, which had an audience of 7.4m homes (about 16.3 million people probably). Henry's theme was at #42 on w/e 25th March 1972, and he wouldn't chart again until the Main Theme from the Thorn Birds got him back in the charts in February 1984. LxaU0ndfcC8 A few places lower in the same week, at #47 were Christie with their 3rd and final charting single Iron Horse. L8zt1V043hg At this point we skip over another Carpenters' single, I Won't Last A Day Without You, which initially charted for one week at #49 on w/e 29th September 1972, but due to the quirk that the chart listed only it for one week of the disc's overall run, and only the other side, Goodbye To Love, for the other 15 weeks of the disc's run. In any case I Won't Last A Day Without You was eventually reissued in 1974 reaching #32, hence why we are skipping it. The final single for this episode is Millie Jackson's debut on the UK charts with My Man, A Sweet Man, which was at #50 on w/e 18th November 1972. Millie would have to wait until March 1984 to chart again, with I Feel Like Walkin' In The Rain. Vm7q9e1z2IM

The One Week Wonders - Episode 122 First up is Mary Hopkin, who was at #46 on w/e 30th July 1971 with Let My Name Be Sorrow. It'd be almost five years before she had one final single in the charts, If You Love Me (I Won't Care) which charted in March 1976 and reached #32. TKKq5tFj-pU We skip over The Carpenters' Merry Christmas Darling, which originally had a week at #45 on w/e 1st January 1972, as it returned to the charts when it was reissued in 1990, and instead look at #47 the same week, which was comedian Charlie Drake with Puckwudgie. This was Charlie's 5th and final single to reach the single's chart, coming just over 11 years after his fourth, My Boomerang Won't Come Back. Rexpn1QoFAw Finally we have a bit of a two for one with our last single of this episode. The musical Jesus Christ Superstar debuted in 1970 as a concept album, and Murray Head, as Judas, sang Superstar, a track that was initially released as a single in late 1969, ahead of the album, but didn't chart here. By 1972 a 4 track 'maxi-single' was released of tracks from the album, and the chart chose to list two of them together, by different artists. So alongside Murray Head's Superstar was Yvonne Elliman, as Mary Magdalene, singing I Don't Know How To Love Him. The maxi-single was at #47 on w/e 29th January 1972. 6L49YHy-xms PFw7K5-MV8I

The One Week Wonders - Episode 121 We are only too aware now of what damage pollution has done to our planet, but our first song today was an anti-pollution song from 1971, so we've known for at least 50 years that we ought to change our ways. The single is Why by Roger Whittaker, which was at #47 on w/e 3rd April 1971. It's one of at least ten distinct songs called Why that have entered the singles chart, the most successful being the one that was a charttopper for Anthony Newley and later a big hit for Donny Osmond. Interestingly the b-side of this Roger Whittaker single features his cover of the Ralph McTell song Streets Of London, which at the time was purely a track on Ralph's 1969 album Spiral Staircase, but would later be a hit single in 1974 when he himself re-recorded it. JKjhtN6iUX0 NB the above video uses what I assume is the recorded single, with a more orchestral sound. The below link is from a live performance on European television (Swedish I think?) which is more gentle sounding than the above one, which I think suits the song more. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMyjbjmQZ2w The next entry on our One Week Wonder list was the first 7" release on the BBC's own label, with the catalogue number BBC RESL 1, which was at #49 in the same week as Roger Whittaker's single above. The artist is variously referred to as Early Music Consort, Early Music Consort Of London, and David Munrow (the conductor behind them) and the release is either 'Theme from The Six Wives Of Henry VIII' if you believe some books, 'The Six Wives Of Henry VIII' if you believe the record sleeve, or 'Henry VIII Suite (EP)' if you believe at least one other book. From what I can gather it contains various musical pieces that were used to at least some extent on the acclaimed Spring 1970 BBC2 series Six Wives Of Henry VIII, though whether or not one of the six tracks on the EP was the actual theme (as in what was heard over the opening credits) I don't know. The series had been granted a repeat run on BBC1 in Jan/Feb 1971, and so this release would appear to be off the back of that. The series didn't enter the Network Top 20 television charts in either the original BBC2 run or the BBC 1 run, so I can't tell if it would have gained more viewers the second time around, having been promoted to the main channel, and if this was the impetus for releasing the music on vinyl. Sadly I can't find any trace of the music on video streaming or audio streaming services of any kind, and I also cannot find any uploads of any of the original episodes on any video steaming site either, so cannot provide a link to anything other than the discogs entry I'm afraid. Please do let me, and everyone who reads this, know if you are aware of anywhere online that we can hear this music, or see part or all of an episode. https://www.discogs.com/The-Early-Music-Con.../master/1036509 Finally we end with Anglo Trinidadian duo Mac and Katie Kissoon, and their version of the Middle Of The Road charttopper Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. It was at #41 on w/e 19th June 1971. The duo had to wait for 3.5 years to have another hit, Sugar Candy Kisses, which hit #3 in 1975, and would go on to have a further three hits in the 18 months after Sugar Candy Kisses. VnJ0QMZ6lwI

Interesting to see that a few weeks ago we had the first charttopping posthumous artist in some time, at least as far as the singles chart is concerned. And it served to remind me that I hadn't got round to listening to the new Eminem song yet. I've just done so, and as much as I'm impressed by the speed of his rapping, I don't think I'll especially want to listen to it again. Also interesting to note that the 2010s were the first decade when there were no posthumous charttoppers on the singles chart (unless you take the mathematically/chronologically correct view that a decade actually starts with a year ending with a one, and ends on a year ending with a 0).

The One Week Wonders - Episode 120 Today's first single is the second final time in the UK charts for Edison Lighthouse, one year after their charttopper Love Grows. It's Up To You Petula was at #49 on w/e 30th January 1971. 70GCvYb6OA8 In February and March 1971 there was a postal strike, at a time when chart data was collected in little sales diaries posted on Sunday to the BMRB. Obviously this was a major headache for the continuation of the charts. They found alternatives ways of getting the singles data, and were able to collect enough for a top 40 rather than the usual top 50, though they ceased the album chart until the stike was over. Weeks ending 6th February 1971 to 20th March 1971 are thus only Top 40s. In the first of those weeks Grand Funk Railroad gained its only week of Uk chart action at #40 with Inside Looking Out, who know's if they would have another week or more if the 41-50 portion of the chart had existed in those weeks. This must also be one of the longest singles ever, at not far off 10 minutes. NxcOxvEsE_Y In 1970 Edwin Starr had a number three hit with the protest song War, which was also a US charttopper. The follow-up Stop The War Now was at #33 on w/e 20th March 1971 Zlpfe83keGo

It ran a lot deeper than whether or the OCC credited her on the chart or not. If an artist wasn't on the front of the CD/Tape/Vinyl then DJ's and television presenters usually didn't mention them (at least not beyond the odd 'fun fact' in passing), neither did the charts (whether the Official OCC, the Pepsi network chart, or others like local radio station charts etc), so the chart books did not explicitly credit her either. The shelf edge labels in HMV/Virgin also wouldn't have credited her, and after the single dropped down and was moved to the A-Z section for older singles it would have surplus copies all filled under Eminem, none under Dido. Magazines like Top Of The Pops and Smash Hits would also have referred to it as a purely Eminem single. Bottom line is that the record label chose to credit the single only to Eminem (which made sense as Dido's part was purely sampled) and that is how it was perceived at the time by the majority of people. I understand that Dido's name was in the small print inside the CD sleeve, but that's not what people at the time would have considered to be what it meant to be a 'credited artist' for a single. I bet there must be a lot of other singles that have other artists tucked away in the small print that were never considered to be 'credited artists' at the time. I think what has happened is the rise of iTunes, then Spotify, and to an extent the rise in the internet in general, has understandably conflated the 'credited artists' on the front and those only mentioned in the small print, into one 'artists' line, so there is no concept of a difference in the two for those people young enough to not remember the pre iTunes days. But it did used to be a significant difference. As a by-the-by I also find it very irrating when download and streaming sites put the 'featured artists' bit at the end of both the artist line AND the title line when there is no good reason to do so. I don't need telling twice about the featured artist, especially when the main artist is only being mention once, and the featured artist is definitely not an actual part of the song's actual title. I can just about accept that occasionally there will be a well know song (say by Ed Sheeran) then a further version is put out that also has a featured artist added, and that in those circumstances it could be important to the record label to ensure fans can differentiate between the well known Ed-only version, and the new variant with the featured artist, so they can made be aware that a new version exists, and that using the title line for that could be seen to make sense. But I don't believe it is necessary to do it for every single featured artist on every single track that has ever existed. The OCC's chart pages even do this for singles in the 1970s and further back, when there is truly no reason to do so as there was almost certainly only that one version of such a single back then anyway (well perhaps a 7" mix and 12 mix etc). Anyway rant over lol...

Leo Sayer appears in the official video for Meck's Thunder In My Heart Again, but that may be a case of sampling video of him as well as sampling his vocals from 1977.

The One Week Wonders - Episode 119 We start today with a bonus. Al Martino's Spanish Eyes initially entered the charts at #49 in w/e 22/08/1970. It then removed itself from the One Week Wonder list by returning to the chart for 21 weeks in 1973, peaking at #5. Here he his singing the song on German television back in 1967. enIdTGckjKs The first genuine one week wonder today is The Seagull's Name Was Nelson, which was at #45 on w/e 7th November 1970, and was the only week of chart action for Peter E Bennett and The Co-operation Choir. 5q0Jzw4IecM Next up is Shirley Bassey with The Fool On The Hill, which was at #48 on w/e 2nd January 1971. FC7QYOSV_Bs Finally for today we have Melanie, who had previously debuted in the singles chart on w/e 26th September 1970 with Ruby Tuesday, which reached #9, and remained on chart until w/e 26th December 1970, before re-entering at #43 on w/e 43 on w/e 9th January 1971. Then something strange happens. The same disc, Buddah 2011 038, is listed at #39 in the chart for the w/e 16th January 1971, but this time it's the other side of the disc, What Have They Done To My Song Ma, which was listed, and was thus reckoned to be a new entry, it then dropped out the charts the week after never to return, so becomes a one week wonder. I'm not entirely sure if the public genuinely started asking for the other side in that last week on chart, or if they had been asking for it the week before when it re-entered and the chart hadn't picked up on that, or if in fact it was a compilation mistake on that final week that led to the wrong side being listed, but the chart as it stands makes this a one week wonder. I do know that the New Seekers version of the same song entered for a week at #48 on w/e 17/10/70, and re-entered at 44 for a further week on 31/10/70. Early versions of Guinness show both the Melanie version and the New Seekers version (on a 2nd re-entry) as being at #39 in w/e 16th January 1971, but later editions show only two weeks for the New Seekers version, rather than 3, and only shows Melanie getting as high as #39. Another point of confusion I noticed when looking for the youtube video is that the title varies, even across multiple official uploads, between What Have They Done To My Song Ma and Look What They've Done To My Song Ma. iL9APRcYTGE

So did the Tuesday lunchtime reveal (or Wednesday if there was a Bank Holiday Monday) and the Thursday evening Top Of The Pops only ever deal with the Top 20 in the BMRB era? I think the Sunday chart show would only mention up to position 40 in that era (though not necessarily play them all), and therefore 41-50 was a Music Week/Record Mirror only thing? Since the magazines came out towards the end of the week they could still just about influence that same sales week, but the majority of music buyers, I guess, didn't buy Music Week or Record Mirror in the first place, and the Sunday chart show being after the sales week ended means a play on that show could only influence the next chart but one if many listeners were then moved to go out and buy a new entry they had just heard below #20. I think part of the increase in 'blip-starts' (a single dropping out in its second week then returning in week 3) from 1969 would presumably just be down to the new BMRB chart being the one that was now used for Radio 1 and TOTP, so now anything that poked into the bottom end would potentially get noticed, whereas in the pre-BMRB Record Retailer days it may not have done if it wasn't also popping into other magazines charts, since Record Retailer's chart wasn't widely referred to by music buyers, or typically displayed in record shops. Sorry I'm probably just repeating what you said, but in different words... Anyway I have tallied up some statistics today, covering 1952 to 1972 singles that dropped out immediately after their first week on chart. tot = total number of singles that dropped out immediately after being a new entry ow = number of one week wonders (i.e. singles that never returned) w3 = number of singles that returned in week 3 (the blip-starters) w4 = number of singles that returned in week 4 and so on... w11+ = number of singles that returned later than week 10 [all cases so far actually returned over a 100 weeks later, and sometimes more than 1000 weeks later] year tot ow w3w4 w5w6 w7w8 w9w10w11+ 1952 07 03 02 02 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 1953 29 15 08 02 02 02 00 00 00 00 00 1954 21 10 08 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 1955 35 27 03 02 01 01 00 00 00 01 00 1956 45 27 05 07 03 00 00 02 00 00 01 1957 27 19 03 03 00 01 00 00 01 00 00 1958 29 19 08 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 1959 38 24 07 04 01 00 01 00 00 00 01 1960 89 65 18 01 01 01 00 02 00 00 01 1961 41 28 12 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 1962 18 15 02 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1963 16 11 03 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 1964 15 12 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1965 22 14 04 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 1966 34 22 09 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 1967 17 03 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 1968 15 13 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1969 23 11 09 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 1970 21 09 10 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 1971 23 09 13 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1972 15 06 06 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 Obviously 1952's data isn't terribly significant given there were only 7 chart weeks (and the last of those yields no data here due to it being repeated in the week when no chart was compiled). There are a relatively huge number of records in the data for 1960. I think that's partly because of the extension of the chart from 30 to 50 places, and partly is down to the early teething problems the new Record Retailer chart had due to its low sample size. So blip-starts had been happening here and there prior to 1969, especially 1953-4, 1958-61 and 1966, but by 1969 they (so far) either equal or exceed the number of one week wonders, rather than the latter significantly outweighing the former. I haven't searched for all the blip-starts from 1973 onwards yet, but I have already identified all the one week wonders up to early 1983, so do know that there are relatively few one week wonders between 1973 and the Top 75 beginning in 1978, so it would be difficult for the blip-starts to not exceed the one week wonders in those years too.