The UK Singles Chart (currently titled the Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40)
is compiled by 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 in ...
(OCC), on behalf of the British
record industry
The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
, listing the top-selling
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and
streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV (Official UK Top 40), is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
is currently defined by 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 in ...
(OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence. The rules have changed many times as technology has developed, the most notable being the inclusion of digital downloads in 2005 and streaming in July 2014.
The OCC website contains the Top 100 chart. Some media outlets only list the Top 40 (such as the BBC, with their Radio 1 show following the lead of
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...
's
American Top 40 in the 1970s) or the Top 75 (such as ''
Music Week
''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
History
Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...
'' magazine, with all records in the Top 75 described as 'hits') of this list. The chart week runs from 00:01 Friday to midnight Thursday.
The Top 40 chart is first issued on Friday afternoons by
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
as ''
The Official Chart
''The Official Chart'' is a long-running United Kingdom music chart programme, airing each Friday afternoon on BBC Radio 1. It airs the UK Singles Chart compiled by the Official Charts Company.
In July 2015 ''The Official Chart'' moved from ...
'' from 16:00 to 17:45, before the full Official Singles Chart Top 100 is posted on the Official Charts Company's website. A rival chart show, ''
The Official Big Top 40
''The Sky VIP Official Big Top 40 from Global'' is a radio chart show broadcast every Sunday from 4 to 7pm on Global's Capital and Heart networks, presented by Will Manning. It was started in May 2009 but the show is the descendant of ''The Ne ...
'', is broadcast on Sunday afternoons from 16:00 to 19:00 on
Capital and
Heart
The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...
stations across the United Kingdom. The Official Big Top 40 is based on Apple data only, (Apple Music streams and iTunes downloads) plus commercial radio airplay across the
Global
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
radio network.
The UK Singles Chart began to be compiled in 1952. According to the Official Charts Company's statistics, as of 1 July 2012, 1, 200 singles had topped the UK Singles Chart. The precise number of chart-toppers is debatable due to the profusion of competing charts from the 1950s to the 1980s, but the usual list used is that endorsed by the ''
Guinness Book of British Hit Singles
''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 ...
'' and subsequently adopted by the Official Charts Company. The company regards a select period of the ''
New Musical Express'' chart (only from 1952 to 1960) and the ''
Record Retailer'' chart from 1960 to 1969 as predecessors for the period up to 11 February 1969, where multiples of competing charts (none official) coexisted side by side. For example, the BBC compiled its own chart based on an average of the music papers of the time; many songs announced as having reached number one on BBC Radio and ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
'' before 1969 are not listed as chart-toppers according to the legacy criteria of the Charts Company.
The first number one on the UK Singles Chart was "
Here in My Heart
"Here in My Heart" is a popular song written by Pat Genaro, Lou Levinson, and Bill Borrelli, first published in 1952.
A recording of the song by Italian-American singer Al Martino made history as the first number one hit on the UK Singles Chart, ...
" by
Al Martino
Al Martino (born Jasper Cini; October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop croone ...
for the week ending 14 November 1952. As of the week ending 24 August 2023, the UK Singles Chart has had 1,413 different number one hits. The current number one single is "
What Was I Made For?" by
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single " Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom ...
.
History
Early charts
Before the compilation of sales of records, the music market measured a song's popularity by sales of
sheet music. The idea of compiling a chart based on sales originated in the United States, where the music-trade paper ''
Billboard'' compiled the first chart incorporating sales figures on 20 July 1940. Record charts in the UK began in 1952, when Percy Dickins of the
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') gathered a pool of 52 stores willing to report sales figures.
For the first British chart Dickins telephoned approximately 20 shops, asking for a list of the 10 best-selling songs. These results were then aggregated into a Top 12 chart published in ''NME'' on 14 November 1952, with
Al Martino
Al Martino (born Jasper Cini; October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop croone ...
's "
Here in My Heart
"Here in My Heart" is a popular song written by Pat Genaro, Lou Levinson, and Bill Borrelli, first published in 1952.
A recording of the song by Italian-American singer Al Martino made history as the first number one hit on the UK Singles Chart, ...
" awarded the number-one position.
The chart became a successful feature of the periodical; it expanded into a Top 20 format on 1 October 1954, and rival publications began compiling their own charts in 1955.
''
Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the '' NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in '' ...
'' compiled its own Top 10 chart for 22 January 1955; it was based on postal returns from record stores (which were financed by the newspaper). The ''NME'' chart was based on a telephone poll.
Both charts expanded in size, with ''Mirror''s becoming a Top 20 in October 1955 and ''NME''s becoming a Top 30 in April 1956.
Another rival publication, ''
Melody Maker'', began compiling its own chart; it telephoned 19 stores to produce a Top 20 for 7 April 1956. It was also the first chart to include Northern Ireland in its sample.
''Record Mirror'' began running a Top 5 album chart in July 1956; from November 1958 onwards ''Melody Maker'' printed the Top 10 albums.
In March 1960, ''
Record Retailer'' began compiling an
EP chart and had a Top 50 singles chart. Although ''NME'' had the largest circulation of charts in the 1960s and was widely followed,
in March 1962, ''Record Mirror'' stopped compiling its own chart and published ''Record Retailer''s instead.
''Retailer'' began independent auditing in January 1963, and has been used by the UK Singles Chart as the source for number-ones from the week ending 12 March 1960 onwards.
The choice of ''Record Retailer'' as the source has been criticised;
however, the chart was unique in listing close to 50 positions for the whole decade. With available lists of which record shops were sampled to compile the charts, some shops were subjected to "
hyping" but, with ''Record Retailer'' being less widely followed than some charts, it was subject to less hyping. Additionally, ''Retailer'' was set up by independent record shops and had no funding or affiliation with record companies. However, it had a significantly smaller sample size than some rival charts
and had all the EPs taken out the listings between March 1960 - December 1967 (the data for the now 'Official' 1960s EP chart can be found in ''
The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles
''The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles'' is a charts reference book published in October 2008. It replaces the ''Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums'', after the Guinness World Records brand was sold to The Jim Pattison Group (owner o ...
'').
On 12 August 1961, 14-year-old Helen Shapiro became the youngest female solo artist to top the chart with her single "You Don't Know" and, as of 14 January 2022, one of nine female solo artists to have topped the chart before their 18th birthday (though none of these nine acts wrote their number one hit single-handedly, with that honour falling to 19-year-old Kate Bush with "Wuthering Heights" in 1978).
In 1963, Merseybeat band Gerry And The Pacemakers would become the first act to get their first three hits at number one, an achievement not matched for another twenty years.
Before February 1969 – when the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) chart was established – there was no official chart or universally accepted source.
Readers followed the charts in various periodicals and, during this time, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' chart.
or Virgin), use as sources for the unofficial period, the ''NME'' before 10 March 1960 and ''Record Retailer'' until 1969.
However, until 1969 the ''Record Retailer'' chart was mainly seen by people working in the industry. The most widely circulated chart was the NME one, as used by
.
Before 1969 there was no official singles chart.
...