''The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles'' is a

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

reference book published in October 2008. It replaces the ''

Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' (originally known as ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles'' and ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums'') was a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the publishing arm of t ...

'', after the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

brand was sold to The Jim Pattison Group (owner of ''

Ripley's Believe It or Not! ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' fea ...

''), who decided that UK chart books were not a core part of their new global acquisition (especially as the contract was due to expire anyway). The last edition was published by Guinness World Records in 2006 and covered all chart hits between 1952-2005. Two years later

Ebury Publishing Ebury Publishing is a division of Penguin Random House, and is a publisher of general non-fiction books in the UK. Ebury was founded in 1961 as a division of Nat Mags and was originally located on Ebury Street in London. It was sold to Cent ...

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

took over the contract from

The Official Charts Company The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...

to publish the re-branded version of the book under their

Virgin Books Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing ...

brand. Published as ''The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles'' in November 2008 without the album charts information (as the Virgin/Official ''Hit Albums'' book was to follow in 2009), but with the data pertaining to the EP chart (as featured in

Record Retailer ''Record Retailer'' was the only music trade newspaper for the UK record industry. It was founded in August 1959 as a monthly newspaper covering both labels and dealers. Its founding editor was Roy Parker (who died on 27 December 1964). The titl ...

in separate listings to the standard singles chart), published between March 1960 and December 1967. ''The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles'' was last updated in 2010 with Volume 2 being edited by Dave McAleer, Andy Gregory and Matthew White.The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles, Volume 2 by Dave McAleer, Andy Gregory and Matthew White (Virgin Books/Ebury Publishing/Random House/Official Charts Company )

Content

The first edition of the book lists every act to have a chart hit in the UK top 75 singles chart between 1952-2008 (first quarter of the year). Unlike its predecessor, it only lists the chart weeks spent in the top 40 if the single has ever charted high enough during its chart run to do so, while Guinness listed all weeks spent in the top 75. Selected acts have a mini-biography with their entry in the book, while other sections of the book have reports on the charts, such as how they have changed due to the event of digital downloads having an effect. The main section of the book contains the Top 75 UK hit singles, which are separated into the artists; solo singers, duets, groups and bands. The song titles, along with the highest UK Chart position, and number of weeks in Top 40 are included. The first edition featured this information along, with a list of all the songs in an A-Z list at the end of the book, for easy reference. The second edition of the book, referred to as 'Volume 2', was published in 2010 and had a number of changes, including the addition of a new section listing all the UK No. 1 singles from 1952 until the book was completed in early 2010. It also gave more information about each artist underneath their names, such as the lead singer, the year of birth, nationalities and a brief history or overview. This information is similar to that seen in the Guinness UK hit singles and album books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Virgin Book of British Hit Singles British record charts Books about pop music Virgin Books books 2008 non-fiction books 2008 in British music