The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[MrTibbs]

Even more examples of inconsistency from NME. Whilst it splits the Pat Boone record and Perry Como just left the chart NME is happy to combine Max Bygraves, Everly Brothers and Lonnie Donegan.
Strange or what

[Robbie]

Even more examples of inconsistency from NME. Whilst it splits the Pat Boone record and Perry Como just left the chart NME is happy to combine Max Bygraves, Everly Brothers and Lonnie Donegan.
Strange or what

It's just a shame that these chart decisions were never explained in the newspaper at the time. It would have made for clarity.

[braindeadpj]

If I remember correctly wasn't the NME data obtained by phone? If so then it could be dependent on what the shop assistant said and what the caller wrote down - assuming there wasn't a data spreadsheet which they would fill in. Then of course it may depend on who compiled the spreadsheet. Either way, the personal preference/opinion of the record taker (either at NME or the store) could affect what was recorded. After that perhaps the compilers couldn't be bothered or didn't know which songs were on the same disk and so just left as is....

Anyway, we can speculate as much as we like, but unless either a) someone who was involved remembers and can clarify or b) the old records are located - probably unlikely as I expect the NME offices moved a few times so the first thing to go is likely to be 'old' records, it is unlikely we will ever know for sure....
Do the NME still have offices now? I mean they're purely online news now? Presumably the British library have no records apart from maybe old NMEs?

[MrTibbs]

Yeah NME data was derived by phone. I too have considered if it was the shops that split the sides with some customers asking for one side and other customers asking for the reverse side. To a degree I think that would play a part because remember the sheet music chart played by Radio Luxembourg was song based so listeners would hear both songs here.

So that would explain Pat Boone and Perry Como for example and would seem consistent with above explanation, but then why not Max Bygraves too if this was the case because both his sides were popular as songs too.

So it is possible it was just down to the NME compilers who without any actual policy or guidance just decided arbitrarily on their own initiative. After all charts at this time were for fun not serious examination and scrutiny.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending June 14th 1958

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

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending June 14th 1958								NME	MM	DISC	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey					65	25	40	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Who's Sorry Now - Connie Francis					1	1	1	1	1	5700
3	2	Tom Hark - Elias and The Zig Zag Jive Flutes					2	2	3	2	2	5485
2	3	A Wonderful Time Up There / It's Too Soon To Know - Pat Boone					3	7	2	3	3	5085
9	4	Stairway Of Love - Michael Holliday					4	3	5	4	6	5050
10	5	Witch Doctor - Don Lang					5	5	8	8	4	4805
7	6	On The Street Where You Live - Vic Damone					6=	4	4	9	9	4630
8	7	Tulips From Amsterdam / You Need Hands - Max Bygraves					8	6	6	6	10	4510
11	8	All I Have To Do Is Dream / Claudette - The Everly Brothers					9	9	10	7	5	4475
5	9	Grand Coolie Dam / Nobody Loves Like An Irishman - Lonnie Donegan					6=	10	9	10	7	4195
6	10	Wear My Ring Around Your Neck - Elvis Presley					10	13	7	5	8	4190
4	11	Lollipop - The Mudlarks					11	8	11	12	11	3955
12	12	Kewpie Doll - Frankie Vaughan					12	10	12	11	13	3720
18	13	The Army Game - The TV Cast					13	12	17	13	12	3445
16	14	Twilight Time - The Platters					14	16	14	17	14	2980
14	15	Kewpie Doll - Perry Como					15	14	13	20	15	2955
15	16	Witch Doctor - David Seville					16	18	15	15	17	2725
20	17	I May Never Pass This Way Again - Perry Como					17	15	16	16	20	2675
13	18	Whole Lotta Woman - Marvin Rainwater					18	20	18	14	19	2440
28	19	Book Of Love - The Mudlarks					19	19		19	16	2160
25	20	I Dig You Baby - Marvin Rainwater						22			18	1365
17	21	Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ella Fitzgerald						23	19	18		1340
22	22	I May Never Pass This Way Again - Robert Earl					20	17	20			1185
NEW	23	Big Man - The Four Preps						21				650
NEW	24	Return To Me - Dean Martin						24				455
26	25	On The Street Where You Live - David Whitfield						25				390
NEW	26	A Very Precious Love - Doris Day						27				260
RE	27	Teacher Teacher - Johnny Mathis						28				195
24	28	Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ted Heath						29				130
19	29	Stairway Of Love - Terry Dene						30				65
		It's Too Soon To Know - Pat Boone						26
21		Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
23		Lollipop - The Chordettes
27		To Be Loved - Malcolm Vaughan
29		Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry
30		I May Never Pass This Way Again - Ronnie Hilton
		* The BBC chart placed Lonnie Donegan at 6= but it's chart statistics do not support that high placing. Point wise it should be 10.										0

[Robbie]

Four double A sides inside the top 10. Outside of the top 2, there's some variance inside the top 10 among the four newspapers. It appears to be the mid part of the various charts that are in agreement with each other.

[Splodj]

This may sound silly but is it possible the BBC compiler misread his 3 as a 2, because Vic Damone scored 26 points and Lonnie 36?

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

This may sound silly but is it possible the BBC compiler misread his 3 as a 2, because Vic Damone scored 26 points and Lonnie 36?

I thought the same thing...

[MrTibbs]

This may sound silly but is it possible the BBC compiler misread his 3 as a 2, because Vic Damone scored 26 points and Lonnie 36?

Yeah I agree it's the only logical explanation but yet another careless mistake that could have been corrected by a simple follow up check, obviously not done, like the many, many other occasions.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending June 21st 1958

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

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending June 21st 1958								NME	MM	DISC	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey					65	25	40	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Who's Sorry Now - Connie Francis					1	1	1	1	1	5700
8	2	All I Have To Do Is Dream / Claudette - The Everly Brothers					2	4	3	2	2	5355
2	3	Tom Hark - Elias and The Zig Zag Jive Flutes					3	3	5	3	3	5270
6	4	On The Street Where You Live - Vic Damone					4	2	4	8	4	5100
7	5	Tulips From Amsterdam / You Need Hands - Max Bygraves					5	5	2	5	7	4895
4	6	Stairway Of Love - Michael Holliday					6	5	7	4	8	4750
3	7	A Wonderful Time Up There/ It's Too Soon To Know - Pat Boone					7	9	6	6	5	4615
5	8	Witch Doctor - Don Lang					8	7	8	7	6	4595
13	9	The Army Game - The TV Cast					9	8	10	11	9	4140
9	10	Grand Coolie Dam / Nobody Loves Like An Irishman - Lonnie Donegan					10	14	9	10	11	3695
12	11	Kewpie Doll - Frankie Vaughan					11	11	11	13	14	3540
14	12	Twilight Time - The Platters					12	12	15	15	10	3535
19	13	Book Of Love - The Mudlarks					13	13	19	12	13	3310
10	14	Wear My Ring Around Your Neck - Elvis Presley					14	21	16	9	12	3045
25	15	On The Street Where You Live - David Whitfield					15=	17	12	18	18	2685
23	16	Big Man - The Four Preps					15=	16		14	15	2615
11	17	Lollipop - The Mudlarks					17=	10	17		18	2495
16	18	Witch Doctor - David Seville					20	18	18		16	2070
17	19	I May Never Pass This Way Again - Perry Como					17=	15	14	16		2065
NEW	20	Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley						22		19	17	1905
20	21	I Dig You Baby - Marvin Rainwater						19		20	20	1880
15	22	Kewpie Doll - Perry Como					19	23	13	17		1530
22	23	I May Never Pass This Way Again - Robert Earl						20	20			990
24	24	Return To Me - Dean Martin						24				455
26	25	A Very Precious Love - Doris Day						25				390
21	26	Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ella Fitzgerald						27				260
27	26	Teacher Teacher - Johnny Mathis						27				260
NEW	28	Little Serenade - Eddie Calvert						29				130
NEW	28	Rave On - Buddy Holly						29				130
		It's Too Soon To Know - Pat Boone						26
18		Whole Lotta Woman - Marvin Rainwater
28		Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ted Heath
29		Stairway Of Love - Terry Dene

[MrTibbs]

In comes Buddy Holly with Rave On, which is easily one of his best. A cracking rocker for the times.
The Everly's All I Have To Do Is Dream finally makes a welcome rush for the top. Easily one of their very best.

Climbing slowly, but The Platters Twilight Time is another standout record on this week's chart. The harmonies are pitch perfect as you would expect from them. Timeless.

It will take big strides soon but Dean Martin's Return To Me is a beautiful ballad bringing a touch of pure class to the chart.

Then there's Purple People Eater bringing a touch of pure crass to the chart. Least said the better.

[kingofskiffle]

See now I quite like the stupidity of Purple People Eater….. Next thing you’ll be saying you don’t like Monster Mash! Rave On is excellent though and the Everly’s yes, absolutely agree thats wonderful.

[MrTibbs]

See now I quite like the stupidity of Purple People Eater….. Next thing you’ll be saying you don’t like Monster Mash! Rave On is excellent though and the Everly’s yes, absolutely agree thats wonderful.

Oh you got that so wrong Lonnie I absolutely love Monster Mash, it's the perfect comedy single without being naff and one of my very favourites from 1973 when it re-released and went Top 3 here. Bobby 'Boris' Pickett's Boris Karloff is spot on, so very droll.

All together now 'They did the mash, they did the monster mash, the monster mash, it was a
graveyard smash ........'
Oh Wonderful Stuff

[Splodj]

The Platters are rarely heard these days. One reason might be that their recordings seem to be produced for listening in low fidelity. For example: "Only you canned make ...".

[Metalweb]

Then there's Purple People Eater bringing a touch of pure crass to the chart. Least said the better.

Hands up everyone who used to assume - as I did - that the creature in this song was purple!

Close scrutiny of the lyrics reveals that the creature devours purple people....

[kingofskiffle]

I like purple and am indeed a purple person today as I am dressed in my purple jumper. If I am not heard from again then I’ve been got….

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

Not enough info. He could be a purple (people eater), or a (purple people) eater...

Edit: oops, I see verse 3 tells the tale, he eats purple people...

[kingofskiffle]

And it sure is fine

[braindeadpj]

Shouldn't you be taking the average of Pat Boone's double AA side for the NME score in the 21st June Chart (17/3 = 5.67) since that would put it on 4831.67 points and therefore 6th instead of 7th (so the NME actual value may be distorting it's position, as the other side is still charting)?

[MrTibbs]

Thanks David

These split sides are the most difficult situations to deal with. I look at each chart individually and consider how to make the best decision based on the circumstances of each. I do like you mention use taking an average from the other charts when this is deemed the most appropriate to help with this. I also look carefully at the difference in the chart position between the split sides. As a general rule if one side is placed in the Top Ten and the other considerably lower outside the Top Twenty I believe this considerably lowers the impact so I tend to consider it still but look at all the other variations carefully. This is the process I have used throughout all the years posted thus far. Considerations obviously differ if both sides are closer together. When this happens averaging almost always takes place.

In the case of above for this week one side is placed at 9 and the other at 26. I considered that at such a low position for the second side the impact would be minimal. Even if I considered these lower sales added to the higher would gain it two places to #7 it still would fall short of Michael Holliday on points.

On this basis I decided therefore not to average it for this week. Am I right, maybe, am I wrong maybe, but I finally based the chart positions on the basis of the above considerations and placed the overall Boone single at 7.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending June 28th 1958

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

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending June 28th 1958								NME	MM	DISC	RM	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey					65	25	40	60	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
2	1	All I Have To Do Is Dream / Claudette - The Everly Brothers					1	2	1	1	1	5635
4	2	On The Street Where You Live - Vic Damone					2	1	3	2	2	5550
1	3	Who's Sorry Now - Connie Francis					3	3	2	5	3	5265
6	4	Stairway Of Love - Michael Holliday					4	4	4	3	6	5050
5	5	Tulips From Amsterdam / You Need Hands - Max Bygraves					5	8	5	4	4	4845
8	6	Witch Doctor - Don Lang					6	6	6	6	8	4630
3	7	Tom Hark - Elias and The Zig Zag Jive Flutes					7	6	8	7	7	4600
9	8	The Army Game - The TV Cast					8	5	14	9	5	4555
7	9	A Wonderful Time Up There / It's Too Soon To Know - Pat Boone					9	11	7	8	11	4020
16	10	Big Man - The Four Preps					10	10	10	11	9	4010
13	11	Book Of Love - The Mudlarks					11	9	13	10	10	3980
12	12	Twilight Time - The Platters					12	12	9	14	13	3545
20	13	Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley					13	14	12	12	12	3480
11	14	Kewpie Doll - Frankie Vaughan					14	13	17	16	16	3020
28	15	Rave On - Buddy Holly					17	15	20	17	18	2655
14	16	Wear My Ring Around Your Neck - Elvis Presley					15	23	16	13	15	2575
10	17	Grand Coolie Dam / Nobody Loves Like An Irishman - Lonnie Donegan					16	22	15	15	17	2465
21	18	I Dig You Baby - Marvin Rainwater					19	21	19		14	1970
19	19	I May Never Pass This Way Again - Perry Como						24	18	20	20	1880
15	20	On The Street Where You Live - David Whitfield					18	18	11			1345
NEW	21	Sugar Moon - Pat Boone					20=	19		18		1300
17	22	Lollipop - The Mudlarks						20		19		1195
18	23	Witch Doctor - David Seville						25			19	1110
23	24	I May Never Pass This Way Again - Robert Earl					20=	16				975
24	25	Return To Me - Dean Martin						17				910
25	26	A Very Precious Love - Doris Day						27				260
28	27	Little Serenade - Eddie Calvert						28				195
NEW	28	Purple People Eater - Jackie Dennis						29				130
NEW	28	I'm Sorry I Made You Cry - Connie Francis						29				130
		It's Too Soon To Know - Pat Boone						26
22		Kewpie Doll - Perry Como
26		Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ella Fitzgerald
26		Teacher Teacher - Johnny Mathis

[Robbie]

A deserved number 1 for The Everly Brothers with only the NME not placing their record at number 1 this week in 1958. However as the NME chart from the 1950s is treated by the OCC as the "official chart" of record, Vic Damone gets an official number 1.

[MrTibbs]

A deserved number 1 for The Everly Brothers with only the NME not placing their record at number 1 this week in 1958. However as the NME chart from the 1950s is treated by the OCC as the "official chart" of record, Vic Damone gets an official number 1.

This is one of the weeks I mentioned a while back where NME really falls out of step with all the other papers with a #1 single with more to come. None of the other three go with Vic Damone this week or any week to follow.
Also NME have already combined the two sides of The Everly Brothers so split sides are not the reason here.

[Splodj]

POTP audience dwarfed that of NME, so for most people at the time the Everlys were top. Worse is to come with their follow up - which the NME thwarted completely from being a number one in the 'official' pantheon.

[braindeadpj]

Thanks David

These split sides are the most difficult situations to deal with. I look at each chart individually and consider how to make the best decision based on the circumstances of each. I do like you mention use taking an average from the other charts when this is deemed the most appropriate to help with this. I also look carefully at the difference in the chart position between the split sides. As a general rule if one side is placed in the Top Ten and the other considerably lower outside the Top Twenty I believe this considerably lowers the impact so I tend to consider it still but look at all the other variations carefully. This is the process I have used throughout all the years posted thus far. Considerations obviously differ if both sides are closer together. When this happens averaging almost always takes place.

In the case of above for this week one side is placed at 9 and the other at 26. I considered that at such a low position for the second side the impact would be minimal. Even if I considered these lower sales added to the higher would gain it two places to #7 it still would fall short of Michael Holliday on points.

On this basis I decided therefore not to average it for this week. Am I right, maybe, am I wrong maybe, but I finally based the chart positions on the basis of the above considerations and placed the overall Boone single at 7.

THanks for clarifying your reasoning for not averaging. It is true a position of 26 will probably not influence the position of 9 by that much...

[braindeadpj]

Thanks for clarifying your reasoning for not averaging. It is true a position of 26 will probably not influence the position of 9 by that much...

It'll be interesting to see the recalculated charts from Record Mirror for the later 50s when there are 50+ stores listed as that will give us some indication of the average points for a 26 position compared with a 9 etc... Of course it'll probably vary from week to week but it'll give us some idea. You only did a Top 20 for 54-55, but were you getting enough tracks for a top 30? If so you could say double the values of a 30-35 dealer store chart to approximate to a 65 (as you have for NME). It won't be fully accurate but could give some indication.....

Edit:
Looking again I see you did do a top 30 for some of the latter charts. For the 8th October 1955 (39 returns) you had 12.5 points for 26, and 55 for 9. Increasing to 65 dealers actually probably wouldn't change the ratios only the values and so may not be necessary? On that chart adding the 12.5 to the 55 would give 67.5 for 8th place instead of 9th and 1 position (8th instead of 9th) would not change the position of Pat Boone.. A greater than 2 change is required. So your assumption here would appear to be justified (based on 1 comparison).

Edit 2:
Looking at the previous week's (1st October) it'd have made no difference to the position providing further support....

Edit 3:
I looked at about 10 charts and I think twice it made a difference of 2 or possibly more positions (as there was one chart where positions 7-9 had the same score) and most of the time 0 or 1 positions, so in all likelihood a position of 26 would not influenced the position of 9 by more than 1 position, thus not changing Pat Boone's position in the UAC.