Singles are a type of music release that typically have fewer tracks than an extended play or album; during the 1950s, sales of singles in the United Kingdom were compiled by the magazine New Musical Express (NME), and published weekly as a record chart. The singles chart was founded in 1952 by Percy Dickins of the NME, who wanted to imitate the hit parade that featured in the American magazine Billboard; before this, the popularity of a song had been measured by its sales of sheet music.[1] Dickins sampled twenty shops, asking which their ten biggest-selling singles were. His aggregated list of sales was then published in the NME on 14 November 1952 as a Top 12 chart.[1] The NME's chart is considered by the Official Charts Company (OCC) to be the canonical UK Singles Chart during the 1950s;[2] it was expanded to a Top 20 on 1 October 1954.[3]
Sales of records significantly increased in the mid-fifties, following the birth of rock and roll. As a result, the top ten biggest-selling singles of the 1950s were all released in the latter half of the decade.[4] The biggest-selling single of this period was "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, which became the first single ever to sell more than a million copies in the UK.[5]
Singles
edit| No. | Single | Artist | Record label[a] | Year[a] | Sales | Chart peak[a] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Rock Around the Clock" | Bill Haley & His Comets | Brunswick | 1955 | 1,390,000 | 1 |
| 2 | "Diana" | Paul Anka | Columbia | 1957 | 1,240,000 | 1 |
| 3 | "Mary's Boy Child" | Harry Belafonte | RCA | 1957 | 1,170,000 | 1 |
| 4 | "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" | Emile Ford & The Checkmates | Pye | 1959 | 920,000 | 1 |
| 5 | "Jailhouse Rock" | Elvis Presley | RCA | 1958 | 880,000 | 1 |
| 6 | "What Do You Want?" | Adam Faith | Parlophone | 1959 | 820,000 | 1 |
| 7 | "Living Doll" | Cliff Richard & The Drifters | Columbia | 1959 | 770,000 | 1 |
| 8 | "All Shook Up" | Elvis Presley | HMV | 1957 | 740,000 | 1 |
| 9 | "Love Letters in the Sand" | Pat Boone | London | 1957 | 710,000 | 2 |
| 10 | "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" | Buddy Holly | Coral | 1959 | 680,000 | 1 |
References
edit- General (chart positions)
- Maconie, Stuart (11 January 2008). "The golden age of pop". The Times. London. ISSN 0140-0460. OCLC 6967919. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
- Specific
- ^ a b Williams, Mark (19 February 2002). "Obituary: Percy Dickins". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 476290235. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Smith, Alan (December 2007). "50s & 60s UK Charts – The Truth!". davemcaleer.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
- ^ "Key Dates in the History of the Official UK Charts". London: Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 10 January 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ Ash, Russell; Crampton, Luke; Lazell, Barry (1993). The Top 10 of Music (illustrated ed.). London: Headline. ISBN 978-0-7472-0798-6. OCLC 29519791. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ Westbrook, Caroline (14 January 2005). "The history of the chart-topper". London: BBC News. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "Artist Chart History". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.