The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[MrTibbs]

NME was a Top 30 at this time, as was DISC, MM was predominantly also a Top 30 although it flirted with a Top 50 off and on briefly so it made sense to keep this chart to a Top 30 too but including and giving chart positions to all records that made a Top 30. Much more accurate as it was well known that positions 31 to 50 were unreliable in RR as we're MM who also had the row over hyping in their 31 to 50 positions. So it is a Top 30 but with the records falling outside this numbered from 31 to show their relative positioning.

The store numbers do make a difference but not as much as you would think. If you look at the first chart above the differences by and large are subtle but effective. Whereas the BBC treated all charts equally it has long been argued here and wider that MM and NME were the charts using the larger sample so it is right to see that represented in the chart of charts. I am using Alan Smith's researched data for this and not just a figure from my head. As with my previous thread I want these charts to be as accurate as possible with all the information we have and are likely to have.

Keep enjoying and watch the new averaged chart unfold telling the real story of the time with inconsistencies ironed out and balance restored. With no way of knowing accurate sales figures for this period I believe this is the best chance we will ever have to reflect how an all encompassing chart of the time should have looked.

[Metalweb]

I suppose the BBC system could be called the corresponding points method. It is a bit of a red herring because there is no inherent difference between it and the inverse points method.

TOTP spread the idea of the chart to a lot of people who had not been particularly interested in pop music hitherto, so I think this is a good week to start.

Surely there is an inherent difference.....the treatment of records not in the chart/s.

The inverse points system is so much more logical I'm amazed the BBC never thought of it....

[Graham76man]

I sort of think this is a good idea. It would have been really good if the BBC chart was a well known chart. But apart from when it was TOTP at the time, it's never become an iconic chart and is rarely published. So what you are doing is probably reproducing a new chart for the 60's in many ways.
One thing I would say about any point based chart is the size is limited to whatever the smallest chart is. So as NME never went over 30. You can only have an accurate top 30. Even if some of the charts were 100 strong. Which for a time a 100 was produced in one of the papers. The reason you need to stick to a 30 is that some records will start to cue to get into the 30, the bigger you make the chart. Due to the top 31 to 100 slots being not common to all charts. And it's likely that some records would follow a pattern in the charts, if the charts were all the same size. For example a record might enter at 49 move to 37 and then 32 before entering the top 30. And this would be repeated with the odd variation on every chart.
For this reason if I were doing them I would produce a top 30 and have the rest as numbered breakers. Even if a record was going down.

Not certain how you figure the numbers of shops used to a points figure? That too could produce a cue in places even in the 30. Since the Melody Maker has the most shops it will tend to dominate the 30 and as it became a 50 a low new entry could make the 30.
Rather like the Official chart when it was just downloads. I-tunes having all the chart slots and the rest of the sellers having no effect in it's charts.

[Splodj]

I suppose the BBC system could be called the corresponding points method. It is a bit of a red herring because there is no inherent difference between it and the inverse points method.

TOTP spread the idea of the chart to a lot of people who had not been particularly interested in pop music hitherto, so I think this is a good week to start.

[Blondini]

It was the way you described both methods as "inverse points" when only the second corrected method is inverse. The BBC method was not.
No matter. Keep it up.

[Woz1234]

Country Boy by Heinz was at #27 in Record Retailer that week, Good chart.

[MrTibbs]

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending January 4th 1964							BBC	NME	RM	MM	Disc	RR
Last	This						Chart	Chart	Chart	Chart	Chart	Chart
Week	Week	Title and Artist						Total Chart Positions				30
1	1	I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles					1	1		1	1	1
2	2	Glad All Over - The Dave Clark Five					2	2		2	2	2
3	3	She Loves You - The Beatles					3	3		3	3	3
4	4	Dominique - The Singing Nun					6=	5		4	7	7
7	5	I Only Want To Be With You - Dusty Springfield					5	4		7	5	6
6	6	You Were Made For Me - Freddie and The Dreamers					4	8		5	4	4
8	7	Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa - Gene Pitney					6=	6		6	6	5
5	8	Secret Love - Kathy Kirby					8	7		8	8	9
11	9	Swinging On A Star - Big Dee Irwin					9	9		9	12	11
21	10	Hippy Hippy Shake - The Swinging Blue Jeans					10	9		12	10	13
9	11	Maria Elena - Los Indios Tabajaras					11	11		11	15	8
14	12	I Wanna Be Your Man - The Rolling Stones					13	12		10	16	15
10	13	Don't Talk To Him - Cliff Richard					12	12		14	11	10
12	14	Geronimo - The Shadows					15	14		13	20	12
13	15	Twist And Shout (EP) - The Beatles					16	17		16	13
16	16	You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and The Pacemakers					18	16		15	18	16
15	17	Kiss Me Quick - Elvis Presley					17	15		19	14	14
20	18	Chris Sandford - Not Too Little Not Too Much					19	22		18	19	18
24	19	Stay - The Hollies					21	18		21	28	17
17	20	The Beatles Hits (EP) - The Beatles					20	19		24	17
18	21	I'll Keep You Satisfied - Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas					22	23		20	21	21
23	22	We Are In Love - Adam Faith					23	21		22	24	20
29	23	Money - Bern Elliot and The Fenmen					24	26		17		19
19	24	All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle - Dora Bryan					25	27		23	27	24
22	25	It's Almost Tomorrow - Mark Wynter					26	24		25	25	30
26	26	Do You Really Love Me Too - Billy Fury					28	25		29	22
25	27	If I Ruled The World - Harry Secombe					27			26	26	22
27	28	I (Who Have Nothing) - Shirley Bassey					29			28		25
NEW	29	What To Do - Buddy Holly								27		28
NEW	30	At The Palace - Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett					30=	28				26
		Do You Hear What I Hear - Bing Crosby					30=				23
		Blue Bayou / Mean Woman Blues - Roy Orbison										23
		Country Boy - Heinz									29	27
		Hungry For Love - Johnny Kidd and The Pirates						30		30
		The Beatles No 1 (EP) - The Beatles						29
		From Russia With Love - Matt Monro										29
		I'm In Love - The Fourmost									30
		With The Beatles (LP) - The Beatles						20			9

[MrTibbs]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am taking this on board. I am narrowing the columns for the next spreadsheet. On the draft it looked as though it would fit but when posted it overshot sorry about that. I will repost 4th January again if you want as I have now adjusted the columns for that too.
Yes I will insert a row after the 30 to differentiate from the lower positions. I did not use the RR 31 to 50 positions for the reasons you gave Splodj. As the Beatles album was included in two of the original charts I felt it fair to include it as that was how it was at the time. Because the BBC treated all charts equally the Beatles came out at 14 in the BBC chart by the way they averaged it on points. Because I have factored in the music papers and MM had the biggest sample and didn't chart albums this dropped it to a more realistic position in the rankings.
Yeah I needed to add the EP position to the RR chart in the spreadsheet for the rankings Splodj, but I should have removed them when I posted here but I have now and corrected the chart above.
Blondini, Hi, The BBC for tallying their points used a strange system of awarding 1 point for a No 1, 2 points for No 2, 3 for a 3 and so on down the chart. I am using the more traditional method of 30 points for No 1, then 29 points for No 2, and so on down to 1 point for No 3, then factoring in the record store returns per Music Paper chart to provide a much more robust chart.
Don't be too hard on me guys lol this was my first attempt with the spreadsheet and stats.

[Blondini]

The BBC used a method of awarding inverse points, 1 point for a No 1, 2 points for a No 2 and so on down to 20 points for a No 20 then later 30 points for a No 30.

Each record for starters will be allocated points based on the 'Inverse Points' basis, 30 for a No 1 down to 1 point for a No 30.

I'm confused.

[Splodj]

Me again. I don't think you should put the average EP position in the RR column as it is not applicable to the RR chart, just a part of your overall calculation to prevent EPs scoring less than they should.

[Splodj]

What about LPs? I notice that 'With the Beatles' is 24, but 14 in the BBC composite.

[Splodj]

Looks good.

I agree with not including the RR 31-50 as they were pretty unreliable at this time.

Narrower chart position columns on the right would help with my view of it on a tablet. Also I would like to see the Top 30, then a separating row before the also rans - but this is just a personal preference.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers !

Welcome to my new thread.

Back in 1958 the BBC chose to compile it's own chart by averaging out the charts from the published music papers of the day.
I believe the principle of doing so was sound as an averaged chart compiled from these music papers ironed out any discrepancies and extremes from any individual chart thus giving a more meaningful chart.

However beyond this principle unfortunately the methodology used was weak and was inconsistent. The BBC used a strange method of awarding points to chart positions, 1 point for a No 1, 2 points for a No 2 and so on down the chart to 20 points for a No 20 then later 30 points for a No 30. However this led to many tied positions within their chart. Also the BBC awarded 21 points then later 31 points to all records for all records falling outside a chart which was unfair as obviously all records outside the chart could not hold this position equally therefore giving inaccurate data. Also this method assumed all charts were equal, but they were not as each paper used a different number of store returns to compile their chart so obviously all charts were not equal in the amount of data they used for chart compilation. By January 1964 MM was using around 250 store returns but RR by comparison was using around 85. NME was around 200 and Disc around 100.

Furthermore, once compiled the chart was not thoroughly checked for accuracy as it came to light that some calculations were erroneous leading to some inaccurate charts which were never corrected.
All of this was a pity, because this was the chart that was broadcast on Pick Of The Pops and Top Of The Pops until February 1969 and was therefore accepted by millions as the chart of choice that they grew up with.

So, I have gone back to basics to correct these weaknesses and produce a much more reliable 'averaged BBC chart' to compile a chart not only based on Inverse Points but also factoring in the the number of Store Returns that the Music Papers used for chart compilation to produce a much more reflective, accurate, balanced, and consistent chart. I will post these here as I compile them and as an added bonus will add the positions of each of the music papers used and also the BBC chart to give a full picture in one graph displaying history for all to see.

So, finally to the methodology.

All records in every Top 30 will qualify for a chart position.
Each record for starters will be allocated points based on the 'Inverse Points' basis, 30 for a No 1 down to 1 point for a No 30.
Then points based on proportion of Record Store Returns used by each Music Paper will be factored in. Alan Smith (ASM) did considerable research into this number of store returns so I have chosen to use his reliable research as the basis for my calculations.
EP's in the earlier years were placed in all the charts except those compiled by RR. To overcome this I took an average of the MM, NME and Disc positions if the EP charted on all three and awarded this to RR to ensure consistency.
For split sides in NME where both sides are placed close in the chart I have discounted the NME chart position and I again have taken an average of the other charts and awarded this to NME. Where the split side is a considerable distance apart in NME, eg, one side in the top ten and the other at the bottom end of the top twenty or further, I have used the higher chart position.
For the No 1 position where one record has most points but another tops most charts see post #1364 for a detailed explanation as to how #1 is determined.
On the rare occasion should a tie occur at any position this will be broken by the store used with the highest number of store returns.

I am going to start in January 1964 as that was when I bought my first records after watching Top Of The Pops, till 1969, then do 1960 to 1963, then the fifties.

So on with the show ! Enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think of the first chart about to be posted. Brian.