The ChartBook Website

I thought it time I added a new chart book to the collection, and created one for the UK Top 40 Singles charts, form 1952 through to the current chart (at time of writing) 18 July 2024.

This volume updates three older books created first by Guiness (in 1992 and 1996) and by Virgin (in 2009) that listed the Top 40 from 1960-the date of publication.

I wanted to add a little more information and, unconstrained by a page limit or paper size, I wanted to add something to the format. I hope I have done just that.

At £20 it is my most expensive book, but I hope that this is okay as it covers 72 years of charts, contains 2,114 pages and data from 3741 weekly charts. Designed as a digital reference, this book contains a wealth of information. Check out the sample below

To purchase, simple head over to the dedicated page on the website.

If you are interested in the UK charts, this is one of a selection of books I have made about the UK Singles charts. My 70 Years Series covers the full weekly charts – which have been at least a Top 50 since 1960, and a Top 200 (in this series) since 1994. Individual volumes can still be purchased, as can specific decades, which still come with a free gift.

My current series – about the Billboard charts – is currently (at time of writing) up to 1977, with 1978 about to be issued and this too contains the full charts as printed.

I have been wanting to do this book for a long time, and now, finally, I can!

This volume – my largest book yet – contains over 4,000 pages with the BMRB charts for 1980-1982, and then the complete Gallup Top 200 charts from 1983-1989, complete with panel sales. The book covers all Top 200 charts and lists the full weekly charts – including the starred out records, removed via exclusion rules, in there proper place. The book adds up the panel sales for the chart run and is, quite simply, my favourite chart book.

This book does come a little more expensive, at £15, but I think you will agree that the huge page count makes it worth it. The book is delivered as a link, as the book is over 50Mb in size, due to the huge wealth of information. Virtually all entires include full B-Side listings, label, catalogue number and duration, although of course some entries do miss this due to the inability to locate the records concerned.

Some of the data has been posted on the forum UKMix, and I am very grateful to both Robbie and of course kobyhadrian for supplying the original Top 200 data.

You can buy the book from the button below for £15

And you can view some sample pages below

Further volumes on the UK Chart story are coming, with a volume covering the Gallup Top 200 charts for 1990-1994 and the later charts to finish the decade planned for late 2024.

One of the things I really enjoy doing is researching a chart that has either been overlooked or not researched in the same way that I can.  Both of these are true for the two new books I’m going to discuss today.  

Record Mirror

The first book is the third version – and definitive version – of my Record Mirror chart book.  My first version was issued in 2017, and was, I think, my second chart book. I created a new version in early 2023 and do not think I issued it as I kept finding issues with the book as new scans would come to light and new information and so I decided to scrap it entirely and start again. I have not done that before, but I think this was needed as this version that I have no arrived at is so much better, in my opinion. 

I am delighted to launch this new book, as it covers a whole new chart not previously researched and fully researches the Record Mirror LP chart, the first in the UK, which, again, has never been researched properly. This means that the book now covers the full history of the Record Mirror chart since 1955 right through to the end of March 1962 when they stopped compiling their own chart in favour of the Record Retailer chart. 

Record Mirror Singles

The Top 10, later 20, singles chart runs from 1955 through to 1962, covering pretty much the whole Skiffle era, the rise of Elvis, Cliff and a host of other artists, as well as the change from the acts who dominated the early 1950’s through to the period just before the Beatles snuck onto the charts at the end of the year. 967 records by 518 artists appear, some being unique to this chart. 

The British Artists Chart

This was not a new idea, as NME had run a British Artists Chart in 1954, covering a few short weeks until they expanded their main chart from a Top 12 to a Top 20 (See the 70 Years Series issue for 1954 for a full history of that chart). The idea was a good one though, and at the end of 1955 Record Mirror started a Top 10 British Artists chart, just at the right time to cover Rock Island Line charting for the first time where it would become a Number 1 – sadly not on the main chart. The British Artists chart was a Top 10 for its entire life, finally ending in 1961. This chart is one never before researched and I do find that a shame as, apart from giving Lonnie Donegan another number 1, it does provide an interesting snapshot, particularly in the lower region, of records not yet – or never – in the national chart. By mid 1956 NME would have a Top 30, so most of these records do chart elsewhere, but the early period does offer some interesting titles for perusal.

The LP Chart

Record Mirror produced the first LP chart in 1956, 2 years before Melody Maker and while those two years of Top 5’s are now part of the official chart canon, subsequent years are not, of course, as Melody Maker had a larger chart, and those years (1958-1962) have never bene researched – until now. Some albums appear for the first time, including two I have been unable to find the durations for sadly (so maybe a 4^th version of this book will be produced?) and the full history and track listing of these albums is unique to this volume. 

The Book

I’ve had a great deal of fun putting this together, and researching from original scans of the charts as printed all the data.  I’ve had some of these scans for years, but a sizable chunk where missing and to find them all I am indebted to Brian MrTibbs from UKMix for providing scans of the missing charts.  His project on UKMix to use the Dealer Charts Record Mirror printed form 1954 through to 1961 to calculate a larger chart from these including other unknown hits is a fantastic one, and one I am happy to support. The resource has proved invaluable in the creation of the book, and in ensuring that the data is as accurate as possible.

So while that volume covers data that been long un-researched, my other book covers a set of data that has been well researched, just not in the way I have done it.

The Billboard Decade Series – 1940-49

Record Research have compiled 3 versions of the 1940-1954 era of their data. The first was issued in 1973 as a paperback, covering the Best Sellers In Stores chart only from 1940 to October 1955 and listing just Artist, Title, Label, Cat Number and of course Peak, Weeks and Entry date. The second was issued in 1994, adding the Juke Box and Disc Jockey charts and covering only the period 1940-1954, with a cut off at the start of their 1955-current Top Pop Singles series. In this listing peaks on the three charts were shown, but weeks and peak and entry date were an amalgamation of the data from those three constituent charts. I really love the Record Research books, but this is the one area I dislike – but each author has the right to make the books they produce as they wish, and at least he researched the data accurately which I always appreciate. I cannot fault his books in any other aspect.  This version also failed to list the B-Sides, and song writers.  However, the 2002 version, the third and most recent, fixes both of these issues and was one of the first Record Research books I bought.  It’s a wonderful volume, still on sale, and one I recommend purchasing.

However, I always like to see the full data for a single chart together, including writer and B-Side together, like Record Research’s more recent volumes including the new 17^th edition of the Top Pop Singles book. So, to that end, I created the Decade Series for the Billboard Pop Charts, and include full chart data for each of the three main charts – Best Sellers In Stores, Juke Box and Disk Jockey.  I have also included full data for the four regional charts (East Coast, Mid-West, South and West Coast) Billboard produced for the first half of the decade. None of this data has been produced anywhere else in this form. 

If you’re interested in buying my volume, then check out this page here.

It is planned that further decade books will follow, right up to the present day, but readers should also follow my 85 Years Of Billboard Charts series, which began in August 2023 and which should end in mid 2025, and will cover, at one year per volume, each year from 1940 through to the then current 2025. 

If you are interested in purchasing, then please do, and keep checking back as I have other chart books on the way – including a Top 200 for the 1980’s for the very first time!

I’ve spent some time today tidying up the website and consolidating all the information about the UK Decade Series in one easy to find page. This new page is here and I hope that all the links work.

I’ve also added a new option that allows the purchase of all 7 UK Decade volumes for the price of £60, a saving of £10. Of course if you purchase the Decade from the 70 Years series, then the relevant Decade volume is also included with that for free, so you can decide which set you wish to buy.

Billboard Series Updates

The 1947 year for Billboard has been issued, and more are on their way. I’m enjoying putting these together and thank you so much to those who have purchased so far. An ever growing number are doing so and I am pleased you’re all so keen on this series. The current issue features 5 charts, and I thought I’d add a sample here for you to view and see a selection of the pages within.

It’s quite a large sample – 5Mb – but that is because Idid not wish to reduce the image quality, so you can see in full the quality of what you are getting.

I’m happy to answer queries via email – lonnie “@“ the chart book.co.uk – written that way to stop the spam bots! – so do please drop me a line or leave a comment if you have a query or question.

I couldn’t not do a Billboard series could I? With most of the charts available easily enough to put into the database, and a wealth of data from places like Discogs and Wikipedia to augment the data, I just couldn’t resit.

I do know of course that Record Research have bene making – and continue to make – chart books from the Billboard charts. The recent launch of their Top Pop 1990-2022 book caused the most number of book sales they ever had in a day, so they are still going strong and their books are still the definitive for accuracy.

So.. why should I do my own series then?

Well, mostly it was because I wanted to focus on a specific chart and see the data pertaining to that chart in one place. Record Research do combine multiple charts into a single line of data – and I do get why in a printed volume. In an online PDF book, I can have an almost limitless number of pages with ease. The new series will feature never before revealed statistics, such as biggest drop in the chart, highest climb, highest new entry, etc. Just have a look at the sample pages from several issues to see the type of data included.

I’ve also been able to make use of colour to highlight various facts, which I hope make it an enjoyable read.

I do understand that their will always be some who wish that I had done a different chart set for my next series (UK Albums keeps getting asked about!) but I do have a plan and as 70 Years of UK Albums is coming up in 2026, I think you can figure out what the series after Billboard Pop Singles might be…

For now though, I hope you subscribe – or find an issue or two you like – or a decade or two you like! – and have a read through the data.

Since the 70 Years series began in February 2022, completing in June 2023, I have been flat out running to ensure that has gone to time – something which has not always been plain sailing. At the time of writing this post, I have still got a couple of Decade volumes to produce as well as some tidying up of the database.

I’ve updated the website today with the 1990’s and 2000‘s decade volumes (Top 100’s) to purchase, should you wish to. Subscribers to the 70 Years Series 1990’s decade or 2000’s decade get these automatically. The next volume will be covering the singles charts for 2010-2019, as that is also promised for the 70 Years subscribers. But what after that? What can I tempt you with as forthcoming hidden gems?

70 Years Corrections

Once the final decade volume is completed, I’ll be going back and making corrections to the 70 Years series; ones subscribers have kindly pointed out and also ones that kept in as I went along. These do mean that the hit counts will change, as sometimes I’ve combined records I shouldn’t have. Some errors corrected here have bene ones copied across from the original database and I found one that had been entered from the old excel sheets I started to create in 2001! No idea how many times I’ve gone over the data to look for corrections, but I suspect this is just par for the course here. All chart books have errors and of course no author wants them to be present!

I shall also be offering the series as a digital download to subscribers, so that I can showcase the cover images at higher resolution. Some are still very poor, but better resolution is always good; even if that does make the file sizes much larger!

Record Mirror Version 2

Once the 70 Years corrections are made, I shall turn my attention to the Record Mirror charts. Brian, from UKMix, has scanned all the images of every single Record Mirror chart that exists and so I now have a full and verified run of them. I’m going through, correcting the database (some error correction resulting in changes from books dating back to the 1970’s) and will then create a new Record Mirror book, including their Singles and Album charts for the first time.

This should be the most up-to-date and correct account of these charts, so one I am most looking forward to producing.

Billboard

The Billboard Hot 100 turns 65 in August 2023, and so I am going to be marking this anniversary in a way similar to the 70 Years UK series. More details coming soon, but I am looking at how to add to the wealth of data Joel Whitburn’s Record Research company has put together, and so do not want to simply duplicate what they have done. I do not believe in doing that, as if I was going to do that it’s just much easier to buy their books. Stay tuned for more info.

UK Album Charts

And of course we have the next volume in the UK album chart decade series. It’s nearly done… just need to find some more album durations! The problem is, this is not an easy task and it can take several hours to locate. I’ve been half tempted on a few occasions to simply buy the album and time the tracks… I have;t yet, but I can absolutely see why Joel Whitburn decided to purchase them all for us Billboard chart collection! It does make archive research much easier.

Other Projects

And finally, we have other projects – some of which come from ideas generated by my readers. So is there a book/series/project you think I should create? Or a chart I should utilise? The database has lots of information, so adding new charts is always fun for me. What do you think I should do? Drop me an email to lonnie@thechartbook.co.uk and let me know if you have any thoughts.

I’ll also try and blog a little more often…. But I’ve said that before and then I get fascinated by the data and lose all track of time!

Way back in 2017 I issued the first volume in my Decade series, the 1950’s, showcasing each decade of the UK charts as a single volume. Today I launch the next – the 1980’s. This volume is the biggest yet – partially explained by the huge increase in chart size. In 1960 we had a Top 50, 1978 a Top 75, and in 1981 a Top 100 (sort of as we got a ‘Next 25’ below the main Top 75) and finally 1983 saw the start of the Top 100 (okay Top 75 and Next 25 Compressed).

The huge delay between the two volumes – 1970 issued in 2018 and 1980 issued in 2022 – has in part been because I completely re-wrote the database in the intervening 4 years. This was needed due to the huge number of mistakes and missing information. This volume includes missing information as well – well gaps were this should be – but it is significantly less due to the research I have undertaken.

I want to take a moment here to mention that I am largely one person doing this all on my own, and while I do have help and assistance for the internet and from the wonderful people on UKMix (Thank you Robbie and kobyhadrian in particular) it is still a project driven by myself. Joel Whitburn’s company Record Research have a team of people (or had in the 1980’s and 1990’s) to put their books together. So if things are wrong I do apologise, and hope that you will gently remind me and I will amend.

The 1980’s are a particularly important decade to me – I was born then and some fantastic songs appear, disappear and careers are made. Simon Cowell’s hit factory of the early 2000’s is foreshadowed by the Stock-Atkin-Waterman hit factory of the late 1980’s and we see the start of Mariah, Madonna and Kylie. Elvis may be gone but Cliff lives on and finishes the decade on a high (as he almost does for the 1990’s as well!)

I’ve enjoyed imensly putting this volume together, painstakingly going over every entry and every record, ensuring I have a cover of almost all of them and verifying as much information as I can. This is the first book anywhere to list the composers and the B-Sides, as well as the duration of the singles and EP’s. While some of this is missing, it’s the first publication to draw all of this together.

I’m working my way through the 1990’s volume now and it won’t be as long before that comes out. Both the 1990’s and 1980’s volumes will eventually come in two versions. Currently, the 1980’s is available as a Top 100 volume. A Top 200 volume will be issued next year and I anticipate that to be a huge volume. I had hoped to include the full weekly charts in it, but that may have to wait for a separate volume due simply to size. The 1990’s will also be issued in two varieties – a Top 100 and a Top 200.

Hope you enjoy the 1980’s volume, if you do purchase. All subscribers to the 1980’s decade of the 70 Years Series get a free copy, so if you are not a subscriber to that, do check it out.

On holiday in the Lake District, one evening by the fire, my wife and I were talking and she asked me why I liked the charts so much. I tried to explain. My wife is not a fan of the charts, but that does not stop her appreciating the enthusiasm and effort I take over the subject. I’ve known people who appreciate somebody listening to a person talk on a subject they feel passionately about, without sharing that passion themselves.

When I had finished explaining she asked me why I didn’t complete a book of my own – “after all,” she said “if it’s all in the database then it should be easy right? And if you enjoy it and others enjoy it then they might like to see what you have done.”

And so I did.

The first book was issued in 2017 and was for the NME Singles charts for 1952-1959. It took me ages to set it all up and I learnt a great deal. Making it the way I did was not ideal at all and I resolved to do something better. Over the next year I made more books and got irritated each time with the effort it took. Once again my wife helped out with an excellent suggestion “Well, why not re-make the database then, if that’s all you need to do?”

So in December 2018 I began to re-build the database from scratch, building in from the beginning ways to create and format the books and ensuring that’s I got as much of it right as possible. Yes, errors do still abound. I keep finding incorrect catalogue numbers or spelling errors in artists names or titles. But, on the whole, the database is a vast improvement over the original one – begun back in 2006!

I mention all this because I have re-created that first book and anybody purchasing the Decade Series Volume 1 (1952-1959) from now on will receive the updated volume. Do please check out the page because a lot of work has gone into making it a new volume. The page count has doubled as I have gone for adding in full credits, and I have added an image to the database for each and every cover, meaning that I now have the ability to list the number 1’s with a cover image.

Date is also now added for artists entry date, hit count, weeks, etc, which was previously absent.

I’ve enjoyed putting this together and re-visiting my first book. Do you have any ideas for other books I could create? Do let me know and I’ll add to the list.

I’ve also updated the dates of issue of the further decade books in the series. 1980’s has been put back to 2023 because the full Gallup Top 200’s with sales data are being posted on UKMix and I want to wait to add them all in. I also need to work out how to complete them properly in book form.

Firstly, I want to say I am overwhelmed by the delightful messages I have been getting about the first 10 issues of the series that have been released so far. I’m humbled that everybody is enjoying the series so much, and very grateful to you all for purchasing it.

I am amending the subscription rate now so that it does not automatically include the 1950’s decade series of issues. I am doing this simply so that anybody subscribing now gets all future issues (from 1960 onwards) but not the 1950’s series, which must now be bought separately.

If a subscription where started today then payments would be taken for some time after the end of the series, and, in an extreme case, months after if a subscriber began when, say, issue from 1994 had been released.

It is my intention that the price will remain the same for those subscribing now, and that now price increases will occur. I do not intend to increase the price of the series at all. Some have commented that I could have charged more for each volume and I believe that I could have, but I also wish very much to share this with as many as possible, hence the price being set as it is.

Others have also asked about future plans and whilst I do not wish to go into these now, I do have plans for other series. Other significant anniversaries are upon us in the next few years – 2026 for example is the 70th birthday of the Album chart, and 2024 35 years since the Compilation album chart was split form the main albums chart. In America, next year is the 65th birthday of the Hot 100 and other milestones are coming soon for the American charts.

For now though I want to thank you all once again for your continued support and kind messages. On with the series!