The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[Graham76man]

Brian is it possible to put in the last week positions of the UAC on your "breakers" section (for those that fell out) as it makes it easier to spot the up and coming ones. You don't have to back date them, the next charts will do. Thanks

[Splodj]

Looks like RR included in the BBC chart from this week, so Ultimate and BBC now using the same composite charts.

[kjell]

There are 11 records below the UAC this week. It doesn’t surprise me that they are on the NME and RR charts, but it really surprises me that none of them are on both charts. This fact proves the importance of your UAC chart Brian.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending March 31st 1962

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending March 31st 1962								NME	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	110	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Wonderful Land - The Shadows					1	1	1	1	1	8100
2	2	Tell Me What He Said - Helen Shapiro					2	2	2	2	2	7830
3	3	Can't Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley					3	3	3	3	3	7560
4	4	March Of The Siamese Children - Kenny Ball					4	4	4	4	8	7170
9	5	Dream Baby - Roy Orbison					5	6	5	7	4	6870
5	6	Let's Twist Again - Chubby Checker					7	7	6	10	5	6500
6	7	Wimoweh - Karl Denver					6	9	7	5	6	6450
14	8	Hey Baby - Bruce Channel					8	5	9	9	12	6170
12	9	Twisting The Night Away - Sam Cooke					10	7	12	6	15	5740
8	10	A Hole In The Ground - Bernard Cribbins					9	10	11	8	9	5690
10	11	Stranger On The Shore - Mr. Acker Bilk					11	11	8	16	7	5600
7	12	The Young Ones - Cliff Richard					12	12	10	13	11	5330
13	13	Softly As I Leave You - Matt Monro					13	13	14	14	10	4790
11	14	The Wanderer - Dion					14	16	13	12	13	4670
20	15	Hey Little Girl - Del Shannon					15	14	20	11	18	3960
22	16	Theme From 'Dr. Kildare' - Johnny Spence					17=	23	15	18	19	3410
27	17	Never Goodbye - Karl Denver					17=	15	16		21	3230
16	18	Theme From 'Z Cars' - Johnny Keating					16	19		15	14	2270
23	19	Theme From 'Z Cars' - Norrie Paramor					20		17	20		2090
17	20	Crying In The Rain - The Everly Brothers					19		18		16	1880
15	21	Forget Me Not - Eden Kane							18		20	1760
21	22	Letter Full Of Tears - Billy Fury						21		17		1500
24	23	When My Little Girl Is Smiling - The Drifters						17				1120
NEW	24	Love Me Warm And Tender - Paul Anka						21			23	1040
NEW	25	When My Little Girl Is Smiling - Craig Douglas						28		19	25	1020
NEW	26	Slow Twistin' - Chubby Checker						20				880
NEW	27	When My Little Girl Is Smiling - Jimmy Justice						23				640
19	28	A Little Bitty Tear - Burl Ives						27			22	590
NEW	29	Heaven's Plan - Mark Wynter						25				480
18	30	Walk On By - Leroy Van Dyke									17	420
		Rock-A-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley						18
		Teach Me To Twist - Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell						26				400
		A Little Bitty Tear - Miki and Griff									24	210
		I Ain't Got Nobody - Buddy Greco						29				160
		Jeannie - Danny Williams									26	150
		Pianissimo - Ken Dodd									27	120
		Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen - Neil Sedaka									28	90
		Fanlight Fanny - Clinton Ford						30				80
		Speak To Me Pretty - Brenda Lee						30				80
		What Kind Of Fool Am I / Gonna Build A Mountain - Sammy Davis Jnr									29	60
		Drums Are My Beat - Sandy Nelson									30	30

[braindeadpj]

RM blamed the demise on their own chart on the rising cost of postage brain as it was costing more and more for them to pay postage costs for their chart return stores. So rather than look towards another method they just discontinued their own chart and adopted the worst chart as the alternative.

As I thought financial reasons. Shame they went for the worst chart... possibly because they had a Top 50 - and a Top 20 album and Top 20 EP chart?

[MrTibbs]

Did RM ever provide an explanation as to why they stopped creating their own chart and decided to use one with half the number of stores and erratic behavior (RR) instead? I'm guessing its probably due to financial reasons...?

RM blamed the demise on their own chart on the rising cost of postage brain as it was costing more and more for them to pay postage costs for their chart return stores. So rather than look towards another method they just discontinued their own chart and adopted the worst chart as the alternative.

[braindeadpj]

World Radio History unfortunately doesn't have the 24-03-1962 issue, but the 31-03-1962 is present and in the letters page there are a couple of congratulations on expanding to a Top 50 so perhaps this was also one of the reasons...

[braindeadpj]

Did RM ever provide an explanation as to why they stopped creating their own chart and decided to use one with half the number of stores and erratic behavior (RR) instead? I'm guessing its probably due to financial reasons...?

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending March 24th 1962

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending March 24th 1962								NME	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	110	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
2	1	Wonderful Land - The Shadows					1	1	1	1	1	8100
4	2	Tell Me What He Said - Helen Shapiro					2	2	3	3	2	7670
1	3	Can't Help Falling In Love / Rock- A-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley					3	3	2	4	3	7620
3	4	March Of The Siamese Children - Kenny Ball					4	4	4	2	4	7390
6	5	Let's Twist Again - Chubby Checker					5=	5	5	6	5	6970
7	6	Wimoweh - Karl Denver					5=	6	6	5	6	6800
5	7	The Young Ones - Cliff Richard					8	12	7	7	7	6080
10	8	A Hole In The Ground - Bernard Cribbins					7	7	9	9	12	6010
15	9	Dream Baby - Roy Orbison					9	10	10	10	9	5700
8	10	Stranger On The Shore - Mr. Acker Bilk					10	11	8	15	8	5620
14	11	The Wanderer - Dion					12	14	14	8	10	5010
17	12	Twisting The Night Away - Sam Cooke					11	8	16	11	18	4880
13	13	Softly As I Leave You - Matt Monro					14	15	12	13	11	4870
26	14	Hey Baby - Bruce Channel					13	9	11	18	25	4790
12	15	Forget Me Not - Eden Kane					15	25	12	14	14	3930
18	16	Theme From 'Z Cars' - Johnny Keating					17	16	19	16	17	3690
9	17	Crying In The Rain - The Everly Brothers					16		15	12	13	3250
11	18	Walk On By - Leroy Van Dyke						22	17		15	2740
16	19	A Little Bitty Tear - Burl Ives						21	19		16	2570
NEW	20	Hey Little Girl - Del Shannon					19=	17		20	24	1880
20	21	Letter Full Of Tears - Billy Fury					18	17		17		1820
23	22	Theme From 'Dr. Kildare' - Johnny Spence					19=	19		19	23	1800
22	23	Theme From 'Z Cars' - Norrie Paramor						30	18			1510
NEW	24	When My Little Girl Is Smiling - The Drifters						20				880
19	25	I'll See You In My Dreams - Pat Boone						23			30	670
25	26	I Ain't Got Nobody - Buddy Greco						23				640
29	27	Never Goodbye - Karl Denver						26				400
21	28	A Little Bitty Tear - Miki and Griff									19	360
27	29	Jeannie - Danny Williams									20	330
28	30	Fanlight Fanny - Clinton Ford						27				320
		Rock-A-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley						13
		Lesson One - Russ Conway									21	300
		Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen - Neil Sedaka									22	270
		Heaven's Plan - Mark Wynter						28				240
		Brazilian Love Song - Nat King Cole						29				160
		Run To Him - Bobby Vee									26	150
		Pianissimo - Ken Dodd									27	120
		Tonight - Shirley Bassey									28	90
		Love Me Warm And Tender - Paul Anka									29	60

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

Brian, I think those sampled store numbers look reasonable for 1963, based on Alan's several articles here on UKMix.

[braindeadpj]

Your values are probably reasonable, though The Mirror report suggests only 147 retailers for MM in November 1964 - unless of course this only refers to the mail-in reports and not the "shops that are so busy, that their returns have to be talked through on the telephone" (totaling around 40). In which case total is only ~187....
Since this is a year before...

[MrTibbs]

Before I start compiling 1963 (which you will see in a few weeks) I need some opinions guys.

According to Alan Smith, shop store returns increased again by the start of 1963.

Alan advised NME were now on 100, RR still on 30, Disc still on 50. He did report that in February 1963 MM had an increased sample return of 245 returns. However I think this figure may have been built up over the year as record sales exploded to around the 250 by January 1964 therefore I think 150 is a reasonable middle ground figure to use which also keeps it better in proportion with the other charts.

As you know I use these store figures to further weigh the average chart so I need to know in general terms they appear realistic and robust.

Given that these will rise again at the start of 1964 according to Alan's research and used for that period ( NME 200, MM 250, Disc 100, RR 85 ) do you think my figures for 1963 are robust and credible to use ?

[chartwatcherdl]

I have both the front cover of the MM for that week and Mirror article in question. Unfortunately I am not authorised to include attachments,

But I have transcribed the Mirror article from Monday December 1st, shown below.

BIG CHART BATTLE

Front line report from the Mirror's DJ

OPERATION Chart, a mission to find out how Pop 30 is compiled, began in the misty darkness before yesterday's dawn with a sortie at 06.45 hours . . . while the Beatles slumbered in their flats and country mansions. It ended some five hours later with Ringo Starr looking over my shoulder and saying: " I'm made up " (whatever that might mean, except that the news was welcome).

They were at No. 1 again with " I Feel Fine "—from nowhere.

But how does that Melody Maker Pop Thirty chart that the Mirror has been using since 1961 work anyway?

To find all the answers, I took up position in a forward observation post in Melody Maker's office at 07.00 hours.

Editor Jack Hutton, already entrenched at his desk, had a flask of black coffee with him. Assistant Editor Ray Coleman had gone on patrol to GPO headquarters, close by St. Paul's, to collect the first returns of best-selling singles supplied by 147 retailers throughout the country.

THESE dealers they are not the same ones every week — had filled in their forms that take in the top forty.

07.40 HOURS ... Dawn was cracking when we watched the revealing of the first returns. "I Feel Fine " was there at the top from most. From the North, the Midlands, the South, the West.
On some of the returns there began to appear comments. "Could have sold more Beatles if I had them in stock," said one shop. The form the dealers get has spaces for the forty best-selling discs. Most shops fill in twenty or thirty.

Then there are the shops that are so, busy that their returns have to be talked through on the telephone some forty disc retailers.
The top record on these returns - phoned or written - is given 40 points. The second is given 39 points. And so on through the list.

09.30 HOURS ... On the lists received so far there were 5,000 or so disc returns to be computed.
Out came four adding machines for Editor Hutton's assistants. Reels of fat ticker tape coiled around the floor.

Points tallying went on relentlessly with the click-click of the adding machines.

10.50 HOURS ... Mirror reoirter Don Short wakened Ringo with a telephone call.

"Looks like you're No. 1 again" he said. "Come along and watch the final figures."

"Didn't get to bed till 5 a.m.," Ringo said when he touched down at the Mirror observation post.

Someone reminded him that he was having his tonsils out on Wednesday and he said "I Feel Fine."

Outside in the cold the Stones' "Little Red Rooster" was scratching away ... very nearby at No. 2.

[Splodj]

I meant 5-Dec MM, not Nov.

[Splodj]

On Sunday 29th November and Monday 30th November 1964 the Daily Mirror reporter Patrick Doncaster observed the MM chart compilation. No doubt this was mentioned in the 5-Nov MM, but I would be more interested in seeing the original Mirror article.

There was also an article about their chart compilation in MM 9-Feb-63, rebutting allegations in the Daily Express.

The compilers would not have needed special measures to avoid mass sales in one area unduly affecting the chart (as claimed in the linked article) because the points system would have done this automatically.

[MrTibbs]

I'm really gonna enjoy myself now, I've just finished 1962 and can now enthusiastically progress into my era from 1963 onwards throughout the sixties. 'Out with the old and in with the new', hey I was a kid, and before '63 was 'old folks stuff', I wanted the exciting new music about to be unleashed on this child of the sixties. Bring it on !

[Graham76man]

Interesting article on Brian Epstein and why he did not / would not / could not have hyped "Love Me Do" into the charts. Author repeats the falsehood that RR was 'official' in 1962, ugh:

http://www.mccartney.com/?p=9250

Interesting that he mentions a Melody Maker of 5 December 1964 having a special on the charts. Unfortunately there's no copy of it on the American website. So if anyone has one it's something we need to see.

[Graham76man]

One argument for RR is that it's lower profile meant it was less prone to hyping. I think it's lower profile simply meant it was less likely to be investigated for hyping, rather than actually be a victim of hyping. Particularly in the upcoming period when it was available to the public and had a Top 50 based on only 30 returns.

Who would have investigated any of these charts for hyping? They were all separate companies, they would have their own measures in place to prevent hyping. The national press might have done one off investigations into the alleged hype of certain records, but these would have been one offs, probably not aimed at any chart maker. The only way that these papers could have prevented hyping is to have reserve shops (kept as secret as possible) to have the list of used shops checked off against. However that method seems to have only been used by BMRB years later. We know Record Retailer didn't use it's 30 shops all at once, but rotated them to prevent the targeting of shops. Having said that 30 shops is not that a big an operation for some of the big record companies to hit. 80 to 100 shops is however, so I would have thought that 100 shops was the total and if you wanted to do a monthly rotation then you just select 25 shops each week out of that lot. If you were to do it random that would be even more secure.
And to be certain the "hyping" was new records that they were not certain would sell. So any record that's new to the chart and not in the other charts is a potential hyped record. For that chart. Of course that would depend too if all the charts used different shops to the rest. But since we don't have the list of chart shops (although the lists were available to the hypers themselves). I wouldn't be at all surprised that several shops were supplying the same lists to all the charts. Though Alan did say that wasn't the case. He didn't actually show any evidence for this.

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

Interesting article on Brian Epstein and why he did not / would not / could not have hyped "Love Me Do" into the charts. Author repeats the falsehood that RR was 'official' in 1962, ugh:

http://www.mccartney.com/?p=9250

[Splodj]

One argument for RR is that it's lower profile meant it was less prone to hyping. I think it's lower profile simply meant it was less likely to be investigated for hyping, rather than actually be a victim of hyping. Particularly in the upcoming period when it was available to the public and had a Top 50 based on only 30 returns.

[MrTibbs]

You can again clearly see why split sides are a problem and affect the NME chart position. Of the two Elvis sides the highest is 5 in NME as opposed to 1 1 2 1 on the other four charts.

This week is the swan song for RM, who once they got their act together in late 1955 actually compiled a chart whose credibility at least competed with NME and according to email communications I had with Dave Taylor surpassed it between 1956 and 1962. So we lost a valuable chart, made worse by RM then adopting the weak, least accurate, most derided chart of them all the RR chart thus giving it a status of prominence it would never otherwise have enjoyed.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending March 17th 1962

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending March 17th 1962								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	110	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Can't Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley					3	5	1	1	2	1	9830
6	2	Wonderful Land - The Shadows					1=	1	2	2	3	2	9600
2	3	March Of The Siamese Children - Kenny Ball					1=	2	4	3	1	6	9270
7	4	Tell Me What He Said - Helen Shapiro					4	3	3	6	4	3	8860
4	5	The Young Ones - Cliff Richard					5=	7	7	4	5	4	8440
3	6	Let's Twist Again - Chubby Checker					5=	4	6	5	7	7	8440
5	7	Wimoweh - Karl Denver					7	6	5	7	6	5	8230
10	8	Stranger On The Shore - Mr. Acker Bilk					8	11	9	8	10	8	7190
9	9	Crying In The Rain - The Everly Brothers					9	15	8	9	8	12	6800
15	10	A Hole In The Ground - Bernard Cribbins					10	9	10	12	14	14	6470
11	11	Walk On By - Leroy Van Dyke					11	16	11	11	9	9	6360
8	12	Forget Me Not - Eden Kane					13	19	13	10	11	10	5980
13	13	Softly As I Leave You - Matt Monro					12	14	12	13	13	11	5980
14	14	The Wanderer - Dion					14	13	14	16	12	17	5480
24	15	Dream Baby - Roy Orbison					15	12	16	15	16	16	5380
12	16	A Little Bitty Tear - Burl Ives					17	18	18	14	15	13	5030
19	17	Twisting The Night Away - Sam Cooke					16	10	17	18	19	24	4760
22	18	Theme From 'Z Cars' - Johnny Keating						24	15		18	20	2500
18	19	I'll See You In My Dreams - Pat Boone					18=	23	19		17		2060
27	20	Letter Full Of Tears - Billy Fury					18=	17	20				1780
20	21	A Little Bitty Tear - Miki and Griff								19		18	1710
NEW	22	Theme From 'Z Cars' - Norrie Paramor					18=			17			1540
NEW	23	Theme From 'Dr. Kildare' - Johnny Spence						29		20		27	1490
23	24	Lesson One - Russ Conway						29			20	22	980
NEW	25	I Ain't Got Nobody - Buddy Greco						20					880
NEW	26	Hey Baby - Bruce Channel						21					800
25	27	Jeannie - Danny Williams						26				19	760
NEW	28	Fanlight Fanny - Clinton Ford						22					720
29	29	Never Goodbye - Karl Denver						25					480
16	30	Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen - Neil Sedaka										15	480
		* This week the split sides would have affected NME's averaged chart positionso an average was taken from the other 4 charts giving an average of 1.25 to Elvis Presley and awarded to NME to give a more representative chart position for both sides together.
		* This was the last week that Record Mirror compiled its own chart. From 24th March it will use RR chart.
		Rock-A-Hula Baby - Elvis Presley						8
		Brazilian Love Song - Nat King Cole						27					320
		I'd Never Find Another You - Billy Fury										21	300
		Listen To Me - Buddy Holly						28					240
		Tonight - Shirley Bassey										23	240
		Run To Him - Bobby Vee										25	180
		Duke Of Earl - Gene Chandler						29					160
		Pianissimo - Ken Dodd										26	150
		The Comancheros - Lonnie Donegan										28	90
		Please Don't Ask About Barbara - Bobby Vee										29	60
		Lessons In Love - The Allisons										30	30

[Splodj]

And again your layout demonstrates 'at a glance' what the number one should be with the other charts showing 1111 in the first week, and only Disc slightly differing in the second week.

[MrTibbs]

Mystified why the BBC used the 'average of the others' principle for EPs but not split sides.

Yeah they just took the higher of the two sides and used that ignoring the fact that if the two sides were close enough in NME chart position then that must impact on an overall position.

[Splodj]

The EMI chart also separated sides, as of course did Billboard, so I suppose there is an argument for doing so.

With a composite chart, however, you really need to go one way or the other. And as NME are the odd one out it is a no-brainer which way to go here.

Mystified why the BBC used the 'average of the others' principle for EPs but not split sides.