The

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

is a weekly

record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include ...

which for most of its history was based on single sales from Sunday to Saturday in the United Kingdom. Since July 2014 it has also incorporated streaming data, and from 10 July 2015 has been based on a Friday to Thursday week. As of 13 May 2021, 1386 singles have reached number one. The chart was founded in 1952 by Percy Dickins of ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' (''NME''), who telephoned 20 record stores to ask what their top 10 highest-selling singles were. Dickins aggregated the results into a top 12 hit parade, which was topped by "

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 ...

. ''NME''s chart was published each week in its eponymous magazine. The sources, in accordance with the official canon of 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 ...

, are the ''

'' chart from 1952 to 1960; the ''

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 ...

'' chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official UK Singles Chart from 1969 onwards.

Turnover of number ones

The calendar year that has featured the most UK number ones is 2000, which featured 42 singles reaching the top spot; the year with the fewest number ones is 2016 with 10, followed by 1954. The act that has achieved the most number ones is American entertainer

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

, who has topped the chart 21 times – Presley's second number one, " Jailhouse Rock", was the first single ever to debut at the top of the chart. The most successful band are

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

, who have achieved 17 number ones on the chart. The Beatles' first chart-topper, "

From Me to You "From Me to You" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released in April 1963 as their third single. It was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The song was the Beatles' first number 1 hit on what became the official U ...

", reached number one in May 1963. In the 1970s, the required number of sales needed to top the chart was roughly 150,000. During 1992, when few releases were reaching number one, sales of CD singles were low: songs needed to sell only 60–70,000 each week to remain at the top. In 2000, when turnover of number ones was high, tracks could often sell between 100,000 and 200,000 copies in a single week. UK chart commentator

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

remarked in 2003: "When record sales are high, public interest in a song expires very quickly and this creates a need for ever more new product to take its place." Sales figures improved in 2008 and continued into the early 2010s, peaking in 2013, before declining over the next few years as

audio streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

became popular. Eventually, streaming was incorporated into the sales chart. Numberones

Number ones in each year

References

External links

Official UK Singles Top 100
at the

The Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart
at

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 ...

UK number 1 chart singles since 1952
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Kingdom, number-one songs

Turnover of number ones

Number ones in each year

See also

References

External links