The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[Splodj]

I wonder if the NME placing of The Goons is a glitch, or if the other charts have reverted to tallying separate sides.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending August 25th 1956

Here are all '' the uppers, the downers, the just hanging 'arounders '

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending August 25th 1956							NME	MM	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey			Stores	65	20	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart					TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Whatever Will Be Will Be - Doris Day					1	2	1	4330
2	2	Why Do Fools Fall In Love - The Teenagers					2	1	2	4225
3	3	A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl - Teresa Brewer					3	3	3	4060
4	4	Walk Hand In Hand - Tony Martin					4	4	4	3915
5	5	Mountain Greenery - Mel Torme					5	5	5	3770
8	6	Rocking Through The Rye - Bill Haley and His Comets					6	6	6	3625
9	7	Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley					7	7	7	3480
6	8	I'll Be Home - Pat Boone					8	8	8	3335
7	9	The Wayward Wind - Tex Ritter					9	14	9	3090
15	10	Serenade - Slim Whitman					10	9	11	3005
13	11	Walk Hand In Hand - Ronnie Carroll					13	12	10	2810
10	12	The Saints Rock'n'Roll - Bill Haley and His Comets					12	15	13	2635
21	13	I Almost Lost My Mind - Pat Boone					14	13	13	2545
12	14	The Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant					15	9	16	2380
17	15	I Want You I Need You I Love You - Elvis Presley					17	16	15	2170
11	16	All Star Hit Parade - Various Artists					21	19	12	2030
14	17	Who Are We - Ronnie Hilton					11	9		1740
24	18	Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent					16		20	1635
19	19	Bluebottle Blues / I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas - The Goons					20		17	1555
30	20	Long Tall Sally - Pat Boone					18	20		1065
NEW	21	My Son John - David Whitfield					30		18	845
27	22	I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino					19			780
NEW	23	You Are My First Love - Ruby Murray							19	720
NEW	24	Long Tall Sally - Little Richard							20	660
23	25	The Faithful Hussar - Ted Heath					22			585
26	26	Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley					26	20		545
18	27	Why Do Fools Fall In Love - Alma Cogan					23			520
25	27	Left Bank - Winifred Atwell					23			520
16	29	Experiments With Mice - Johnny Dankworth					25			390
NEW	30	Born To Be With You - The Chordettes						17		280
		Treasure Of Love - Clyde McPhatter					27			260
		Moonglow And Theme From Picnic - Morris Stoloff						18		260
22		Hot Diggity - Perry Como						20		220
		Lay Down Your Arms - Anne Shelton					28			195
		Sadie's Shawl - Frank Cordell					29			130
20		Walk Hand In Hand - Jimmy Parkinson
28		Hot Diggity / The Gal With The Yaller Shoes - Michael Holliday
29		My September Love - David Whitfield

[MrTibbs]

There is an amazing consensus at the top end of the above chart. All three papers by and large agree totally on the top eight positions. The only difference being MM disagreeing on the #1 single but without a shadow of a doubt NME and RM had that correct.

[Splodj]

The 3-way tie (at MMs number 9) must be rare, if not unique.

[MrTibbs]

The 3-way tie (at MMs number 9) must be rare, if not unique.

Probably MM's really low shop sample had a lot to do with this. BUT, strangely, NME consistently had ties in the upper end of the chart too (as well as lower positions) and often in the top ten yet using a much bigger sample. By comparison RM just below NME in sample size had far far fewer ties in the top ten but like MM often had ties in the lower chart positions.

Even stranger as you already know these frequent ties high in the top ten in NME carried on well into the sixties but less frequent with all the others. It had to have something to do with NME's compilation method.

[Graham76man]

MM was not as low as your numbers. If you look at the papers on the American site they were getting at least 30 and probably more, but it did vary.

[kingofskiffle]

The 3-way tie (at MMs number 9) must be rare, if not unique.

Interesting question! So I went digging....

Lots of times we had 2 records tie for a position. So Ignored those.

In fact, three records at a single position has happened 44 times on the UK Singles chart - most during the time whenNME compiled the chart, then 5 times in 1969, once in 1986 and three times in 1993 (In the 76-100 section of the chart - two happening in a single week!)

Date	Pos
19/12/1952	6
19/12/1952	10
26/12/1952	6
26/12/1952	10
23/01/1953	12
26/11/1954	14
17/12/1954	20
24/12/1954	20
31/12/1954	20
01/04/1955	15
27/01/1956	20
21/09/1956	6
16/11/1956	15
08/02/1957	21
13/12/1957	22
07/02/1958	26
14/02/1958	7
14/03/1958	30
19/12/1958	25
09/01/1959	14
23/01/1959	18
06/02/1959	3
13/02/1959	22
20/02/1959	23
26/06/1959	28
17/07/1959	28
07/08/1959	15
04/09/1959	19
18/09/1959	28
25/09/1959	18
16/10/1959	28
04/12/1959	30
01/01/1960	19
01/01/1960	28
05/02/1960	17
05/03/1969	46
02/04/1969	35
09/04/1969	38
07/05/1969	39
07/05/1969	43
08/03/1986	54
16/01/1993	82
16/01/1993	96
25/09/1993	72

And now we come to other charts....

NME continued to have 3 tied at a position through to 1970 (10 Jan 1970 the last occurrence). They also had 4 three times!

30/06/1961	28
25/05/1962	28
21/06/1963	28

Record Mirror had quite a few as well, but I need to re-verify me Record Mirror charts with the ones MrTibbs is posting above, as I know mine are for the Tony Jasper book (and thus full of errors) but they had 3 ties on 8 occasions, and once a 4 way tie - if my data is correct)

The BBC Averaged chart had loads of 3 record ties, quite a few times when 4 where tied (16 jul 1966 at 6 had 4 records but that's the only one in the Top 10) and once they had 6 records - 15 Feb 1958 at number 25, but I assume that this was just unable to sort out positions as it was below the Top 20 they broadcast.

Melody Maker also had 3 many times. 4 times in the Top 10 (two in 1957 and 19 Jun 1976 at 6) They also had 5 way ties twice. 1976 was the last time my data shows ties for Melody Maker (Note I do not have the 1980's data added yet).

Date	Pos	Number
19/01/1957	20	4
26/01/1957	17	4
06/04/1957	18	4
27/04/1957	20	4
01/06/1957	20	4
02/11/1957	18	4
04/01/1958	20	4
15/02/1958	20	4
14/03/1970	45	4
31/10/1970	49	4
19/05/1956	18	5
22/02/1958	15	5

Disc had 3 once on their first chart, Pop Weekly Singles had 3 4 times, one in the Top 10 on 7 Sep 1963.

And, saving the best for last, the main UK chart, in 1969, had a five way tie once - 12 Feb 1969 in the first of the BMRB charts at 45.

Over on the album chart ties where very rare, but did happen - mostly in 1969 when the BMRB where starting. Ignoring those (which included 4 records at 4 on 24 May 169) we had a 4 way tie at 56 on 23 Dec 1978 as the most, and also the last time we had a tie on the album chart of more than 2 records.

In America ties where far more common up until the advent of the Hot 100 and a change of the way they compiled the chart. The chart with the most was the Top 100 from 1955-1958, which ranked sides of records. I know this thread is about the UK so I will only mention this briefly, but the biggest number of ties recorded was for this chart as below

Date	Pos	Number
28/01/1956	93	9
16/06/1958	86	9
01/07/1957	85	10
07/04/1958	91	10
09/06/1958	87	10

However, all that pails with the most number of ties at a single position. 12. 12 records tied at a single position on the Juke Box chart Billboard printed on 2 Sep 1950, all at position 19.

So 3 is not that rare at all.

[MrTibbs]

Wow ! That's what I call comprehensive Lonnie.

I can actually understand how easy it was for ties to occur on a points based chart especially if the sample tally was low but for the BMRB to have a five way tie in a chart where copies sold was used rather than points should have been nigh impossible. 2 tying is possible, just, but 5. This again to my my mind exemplifies that at the outset the BMRB chart was using only a minimal sample of valid returns for compilation purposes as we have discussed many times. This is perhaps the strongest evidence yet.

[MrTibbs]

Graham advised, ''MM was not as low as your numbers. If you look at the papers on the American site they were getting at least 30 and probably more, but it did vary.''

We have debated this so often but yet again let me quantify. Nobody, not me, not you Graham, not even Alan Smith can hand on heart state Alan's figures (the ones I use) were definitive. But Alan's figures as things stand are the best 'guide' we actually have and were at least based on his research with industry insiders so carry some weight.

That said the exact figure is relatively unimportant as it is the proportion used to differentiate between the paper samples that is the main factor to consider, so the figures I use are a good representation of that for the purpose of this exercise.

Remember too that all these charts used are only based on what the stores reported on and like we have debated on before these figures themselves will have an element of error contained within due to manipulation, errors, omissions, miscalculations and so on. At least by combining and averaging and factoring in approximate store return numbers do we get as good a balanced chart as is now possible.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart is only 'A' chart based on specific data to give a likely averaged outcome. It in no way can be described as 'THE' chart, no more than any other chart, NME, RM, MM, DISC, RR. It's just another chart of choice improving on the methodology employed by the BBC taking the same view that a combination of many charts together has to be better than any individual chart.

I do present it as 'definitive' reflecting the era in as much as it is accurate by correcting all the obvious errors that the individual music paper charts made at the time, including the BBC one. The methodology is transparent for all to see which further allows you guys to also see any errors I make for correction along the way. So based on that yes ! The Ultimate Averaged Chart more robust than any other chart but not better, it's just another chart.

I hope this clarifies the purpose and reasoning behind the project in order that we can all continue to enjoy it. It reflects the times imperfections and all.

Brian

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

Just to reemphasize Brian's statement above:

.
That said the exact figure is relatively unimportant as it is the proportion used to differentiate between the paper samples that is the main factor to consider, so the figures I use are a good representation of that for the purpose of this exercise.

Of course we would like to know the exact number of record shops sampled each week by each chart, but good ballpark / approximate / highly reasonable numbers will yield close to the same averaged ranking results. The big thing is the relative proportion of number of sampled shops, chart against chart. In the case of the above Aug 25 1956 chart, it's NME 65 vs MM 20 vs RM 60. NME and RM are way above MM, so MM's impact will be minimal.

But just for the heck of it, I took Brian's chart above Aug 25 1956, and changed MM from 20 to 30 shops. And the results were the same except for 2 swaps: the records at 25 and 26 swapped, and the records at 29 and 30 swapped.

But it would be very kool if someone were to go thru the MM charts late 50s to 1960 on the American site, and total up how many shops are listed each week !! At some point in 1960, MM quit supplying those exact numbers / dealer names, when they upped it to over 100 shops.

[MrTibbs]

But it would be very kool if someone were to go thru the MM charts late 50s to 1960 on the American site, and total up how many shops are listed each week !! At some point in 1960, MM quit supplying those exact numbers / dealer names, when they upped it to over 100 shops.

Can I ask here which American site we are talking about ? . Obviously if this site can give a more accurate guide as to numbers of returns MM used in the fifties so much the better for my computations so if anyone can advise me on this it would be most helpful.

As things stand, going forward I increase MM input incrementally, 20 stores at present, 25 from January 1957, 30 from January 1958, and finally 35 from January 1959. This then ties in with the sample of 38 used from January 1960. This is consistent with Alan Smith's figures used throughout the project.
As referred to by Robin above MM made the conscious decision from July 30th 1960 to have the best chart service of any chart and increased their chart sample to over a hundred. This effectively provided a larger sample than any other individual paper from that date and remained so throughout the decade.

Also referring again to Robin's comments above re the two 'position swaps' . These only occurred in the bottom end of the chart which as such is mainly reliant on the NME chart as RM and MM only compiled a Top 20. Therefore the Top 20 itself, which all three charts input to, remains the same even with Robin's additional experimental increase in MM store returns proving that it is indeed robust and the proportions do what they say on the tin.

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

Brian, it's the WorldRadioHistory.com site, previously known as AmericanRadioHistory.com. Here's the link to MM issues:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Melody_Maker.htm

[kingofskiffle]

For the period for 1956 MM would print the stores supplying data beneath there chart - I counted 29 on the 25 Aug 1956 chart. It is possible that this is a generic list and so could be incomplete or inaccurate. It could also be a true account for that weeks charts, but this list was dropped eventually. In 9 Jan 1960 this ran to 28 shops.

[MrTibbs]

Thanks for that info Robin. Yeah I did a random check on the years 56 to 58 and store numbers vary. I did see a 29 for August 56 as mentioned above, but in every other I looked at randomly the following numbers were given, 24, 21, 24, 20, 21, 22, 15, 15 over these years so no consistency it would seem. Up to 1958 the paper stated above the chart exactly how many were used. So it would seem the formula I am using is entirely credible as an average for this period.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending September 1st 1956

Here are all '' the uppers, the downers, the just hanging 'arounders '

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending September 1st 1956							NME	MM	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey			Stores	65	20	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart					TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Whatever Will Be Will Be - Doris Day					1	1	1	4350
2	2	Why Do Fools Fall In Love - The Teenagers					2	2	2	4205
3	3	A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl - Teresa Brewer					4	3	3	3995
4	4	Walk Hand In Hand - Tony Martin					3	4	5	3920
6	5	Rocking Through The Rye - Bill Haley and His Comets					5	6	4	3810
5	6	Mountain Greenery - Mel Torme					5	5	6	3710
7	7	Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley					7	7	9	3360
10	8	Serenade - Slim Whitman					8	8	9	3275
9	9	The Wayward Wind - Tex Ritter					11	9	8	3120
8	10	I'll Be Home - Pat Boone					9	12	11	3010
13	11	I Almost Lost My Mind - Pat Boone					15	11	7	2880
12	12	The Saints Rock'n'Roll - Bill Haley and His Comets					10	14	16	2605
22	13	I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino					12	17	14	2535
30	14	Born To Be With You - The Chordettes					13	20	12	2530
17	15	Who Are We - Ronnie Hilton					16	10	18	2175
NEW	16	Lay Down Your Arms - Anne Shelton					14		15	2065
15	17	I Want You I Need You I Love You - Elvis Presley					18	17	20	1785
11	18	Walk Hand In Hand - Ronnie Carroll					17		17	1750
21	19	My Son John - David Whitfield (A)					22		13	1665
23	20	You Are My First Love - Ruby Murray					19	17		1060
18	21	Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent					19			780
NEW	22	By The Fountains Of Rome - Edmund Hockridge					24	15		775
24	23	Long Tall Sally - Little Richard							19	720
20	24	Long Tall Sally - Pat Boone					21			650
14	25	The Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant					23			520
NEW	26	My Unfinished Symphony - David Whitfield (B)					29	15		450
19	27	Bluebottle Blues / I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas - The Goons					25			390
RE	28	Moonglow And Theme From Picnic - Morris Stoloff						13		360
NEW	29	Donkey Cart - Frank Chacksfield					26			325
27	30	Left Bank - Winifred Atwell					27			260
25		The Faithful Hussar - Ted Heath					28			195
		Sadie's Shawl - Frank Cordell					30			65
29		Experiments With Mice - Johnny Dankworth.					30			65
16		All Star Hit Parade - Various Artists
26		Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley
27		Why Do Fools Fall In Love - Alma Cogan

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending September 8th 1956

Here are all '' the uppers, the downers, the just hanging 'arounders '

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending September 8th 1956							NME	MM	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey			Stores	65	20	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart					TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Whatever Will Be Will Be - Doris Day					1	1	1	4350
2	2	Why Do Fools Fall In Love - The Teenagers					2	2	2	4205
3	3	A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl - Teresa Brewer					3	3	5	3940
5	4	Rocking Through The Rye - Bill Haley and His Comets					4	5	4	3895
16	5	Lay Down Your Arms - Anne Shelton					5	6	3	3870
4	6	Walk Hand In Hand - Tony Martin					6	4	6	3665
6	7	Mountain Greenery - Mel Torme					7	7	7	3480
7	8	Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley					9	8	10	3150
14	9	Born To Be With You - The Chordettes					8	9	13	3015
13	10	I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino					12	13	9	2915
11	11	I Almost Lost My Mind - Pat Boone					15	12	8	2800
8	12	Serenade - Slim Whitman					11	13	13	2740
10	13	I'll Be Home - Pat Boone					17	11	11	2510
12	14	The Saints Rock'n'Roll - Bill Haley and His Comets					10		12	2505
17	15	I Want You I Need You I Love You - Elvis Presley					14	16	19	2125
NEW	16	The Great Pretender - The Platters (A)						18	16	2070
9	17	The Wayward Wind - Tex Ritter					19	15	15	2060
NEW	18	Only You - The Platters (B)						17	18	1938
18	19	Walk Hand In Hand - Ronnie Carroll					20	20	16	1835
20	20	You Are My First Love - Ruby Murray					16	10		1395
24	21	Long Tall Sally - Pat Boone					18			845
15	22	Who Are We - Ronnie Hilton					22	19		825
28	23	Moonglow And Theme From Picnic - Morris Stoloff							19	720
22	24	By The Fountains Of Rome - Edmund Hockridge					20			715
21	25	Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent					23			520
19	26	My Son John - David Whitfield (A)					24			455
RE	27	My September Love - David Whitfield					25			390
29	28	Donkey Cart - Frank Chacksfield					26			325
NEW	29	A Woman In Love - Frankie Laine					27			260
NEW	30	Bring A Little Water Sylvie / Dead Or Alive - Lonnie Donegan					28			195
		Experiments With Mice - Johnny Dankworth					29			130
25		The Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant					30			65
		The Great Pretender / Only You - The Platters					13
23		Long Tall Sally - Little Richard
26		My Unfinished Symphony - David Whitfield (B)
27		Bluebottle Blues / I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas - The Goons
30		Left Bank - Winifred Atwell

[kingofskiffle]

I love how close the top few records are.

[Splodj]

The Great Separator (NME) acting against type by being the only one to combine The Platters.

[MrTibbs]

For those of you who may have forgotten an average was taken from MM and RM and awarded to NME to correctly place the individual sides on the UAC.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending September 15th 1956

Here are all '' the uppers, the downers, the just hanging 'arounders '

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending September 15th 1956							NME	MM	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey			Stores	65	20	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart					TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Whatever Will Be Will Be - Doris Day					1	1	1	4350
5	2	Lay Down Your Arms - Anne Shelton					2	2	2	4205
3	3	A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl - Teresa Brewer					4	3	5	3875
2	4	Why Do Fools Fall In Love - The Teenagers					6	3	3	3865
4	5	Rocking Through The Rye - Bill Haley and The Comets					5	5	4	3830
6	6	Walk Hand In Hand - Tony Martin					3	6	6	3820
7	7	Mountain Greenery - Mel Torme					8	7	7	3415
16	8	The Great Pretender - The Platters (A)						9	9	3190
14	9	The Saints Rock'n'Roll - Bill Haley and His Comets					13	10	10	2850
18	10	Only You - The Platters (B)						12	11	2848
NEW	11	Ying Tong Song / Bloodnok's Rock'n'Roll Call - The Goons					9		8	2810
12	12	Serenade - Slim Whitman					12	14	12	2715
9	13	Born To Be With You - The Chordettes					15	8	14	2520
29	14	A Woman In Love - Frankie Laine					11	20	15	2480
30	15	Dead Or Alive - Lonnie Donegan (A)							13	2250
15	16	I Want You I Need You I Love You - Elvis Presley					14	11	19	2225
11	17	I Almost Lost My Mind - Pat Boone					16	13	18	2115
30	18	Bring A Little Water Sylvie - Lonnie Donegan (B)							16	1875
10	19	I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino					19	20	17	1840
8	20	Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley					20	15	19	1755
24	21	By The Fountains Of Rome - Edmund Hockridge					17	16		1210
13	22	I'll Be Home - Pat Boone					17	18		1170
17	23	The Wayward Wind - Tex Ritter					26		19	1045
20	24	You Are My First Love - Ruby Murray					21	17		930
19	25	Walk Hand In Hand - Ronnie Carroll					22			585
21	26	Long Tall Sally - Pat Boone					23			520
NEW	27	Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow - Nat King Cole					24			455
26	28	My Son John - David Whitfield					28	18		455
NEW	29	Serenade - Mario Lanza					25			390
22	30	Who Are We - Ronnie Hilton					26			325
		Razzle Dazzle - Bill Haley and His Comets					29			130
		Tryin' - The Hilltoppers					30			65
		The Great Pretender / Only You - The Platters					7
		Dead Or Alive / Bring A Little Water Sylvie - Lonnie Donegan					10
23		Moonglow And Theme From Picnic - Morris Stoloff
25		Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent
27		My September Love - David Whitfield
28		Donkey Cart - Frank Chacksfield

[MrTibbs]

An Explanation.

The fifties as I said before was by far the most difficult decade to work with due to differing charts adopting different compilation rules and constantly changing them turning the averaging process into a nightmare. This week was one of those weeks that involved much deliberation and frustration to try and reach a fair outcome.

Averaging MM and RM and awarding to NME was done again and will continue for The Platters single splitting.

Next, The Goons. NME combined it, MM split it then appeared to combine it. RM didn't obviously indicate what it had done as it only ever listed the Ying Tong Song but its chart position aligned with NME so I strongly suspect it combined both sides. So next week an average is taken this time from NME and RM and awarded to MM as both sides chart separately then on the following weeks MM appears to combine sides also.

Then Lonnie Donegan. He charted last week at #30 on NME combined sides alone. This week NME stick with combined sides while RM goes with split sides. It did not chart yet on MM so for this week I simply awarded the same chart positions as RM to NME to ascertain an UAC position. From next week MM will also split the sides so again an average of MM and RM will be used for NME.

Phew !!!

Brian

[kjell]

I understand your predicament Brian. So far I’ve admired your motivation and now I’m admiring your Stamina too.

[MrTibbs]

I understand your predicament Brian. So far I’ve admired your motivation and now I’m admiring your Stamina too.

It's a good job it's a labour of love kjell or I'd have no hair left . NME's lack of consistency especially blows me away. Further along where I am at present sometimes they combine and other times they split sides, no explanation. For the so called premier chart of the fifties it was haphazardly compiled at times. But then so were the others. Sigh !

[Splodj]

Very strange that The Goons and Donegan do not feature in MM. If combined sides make the Top 10 you would expect at least one separated side to make the 20.

It is as if they had started tallying the points and found it was just too complicated to allocate them properly to each side and so decided simply to exclude both records!

[MrTibbs]

Further to my comment above I remember Dave Taylor once telling me that in the fifties according to him RM was a more accurate and robust chart than NME as it used postal returns as opposed to telephone calls. I remembered this when Splodj made the same comment earlier.

I have to agree. The fact that shops took the time to list and send a return had to be better than a brief telephone call where an anonymous somebody could just rhyme of any ten records without any comeback.

[Graham76man]

Did the papers pick up the system of shops saying what they were selling the most of rather than asking them for actual record sales (IE: 90, 65 45) from the American charts? Were the USA charts using the system of asking shops for a list of best sellers? After all nearly everything pop music related was import from that country. It would make sense to do it that way. It also meant that your not getting actual sales information from the record shops. Since you can't actually tell if the number one record had sold 100 records or 10,000. For a lot of record companies wouldn't like sales information being passed on to the competition. Nor would the record stores. A problem that remained for many years. Even these days it's like pulling teeth to find out how many records have been sold by an individual store.