The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[Metalweb]

^

One of the more uncontroversial death discs of the era!

Probably considered rather politically incorrect nowadays though...

[brian05]

2 A Voice In The Wilderness - Cliff Richard
22 Expresso Bongo (EP) - Cliff Richard

Perhaps the reason Cliff did not reach number one was that "A Voice In The Wilderness" was also a track on the EP. Some fans would not purchase both.

[brian05]

NEW 28 Strictly Elvis (EP) - Elvis Presley

Yet another EP to make the NME singles chart. (by Mister EP himself!)

[MrTibbs]

Perhaps the reason Cliff did not reach number one was that "A Voice In The Wilderness" was also a track on the EP. Some fans would not purchase both.

Yeah I agree Brian if buyers had it on the EP they wouldn't go out and buy the single, also the EP was selling well as it was #1 on the EP chart.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers !

There are 7 differences this week in chart positions between the BBC Chart Top 20 and The Ultimate Averaged Chart.

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending February 20th 1960.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending February 20th 1960								NME	RM	MM	DISC	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	38	50	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Why - Anthony Newley					1	1	1	1	1	6840
2	2	A Voice In The Wilderness - Cliff Richard					2	2	2	2	2	6612
5	3	Poor Me - Adam Faith					3	3	3	3	4	6334
3	4	Way Down Yonder In New Orleans - Freddy Cannon					4	4	4	6	5	6030
7	5	On A Slow Boat To China - Emile Ford and The Checkmates					5	5	6	4	6	5856
6	6	Pretty Blue Eyes - Craig Douglas					6	6	5	5	7	5748
4	7	Starry Eyed - Michael Holliday					7	7	7	7	3	5672
10	8	Beyond The Sea (La Mer) - Bobby Darin					8	9	9	9	9	5016
8	9	What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For - Emile Ford and The Checkmates					9	11	11	8	8	4824
17	10	Running Bear - Johnny Preston					10	8	8	10	16	4768
9	11	Heartaches By The Number - Guy Mitchell					11	10	10	14	10	4636
14	12	Harbour Lights - The Platters					12	16	12	13	12	3974
12	13	Summer Set - Mr. Acker Bilk					14	12	13	17	15	3932
11	14	What Do You Want - Adam Faith					13	14	19	12	11	3802
13	15	Misty - Johnny Mathis					15	13	17	18	14	3624
NEW	16	Be Mine - Lance Fortune					16	22	14	11		2500
NEW	17	Bonnie Came Back - Duane Eddy					17=	20	16	15		2388
21	18	You Got What It Takes - Marv Johnson					17=	15	15			2240
18	19	Rawhide - Frankie Laine						18		19	20	2046
20	20	Be My Guest - Fats Domino						25	18		18	1910
19	21	Little White Bull - Tommy Steele					19	19			13	1860
15	22	Johnny Staccato Theme - Elmer Bernstein						17		20		1538
23	23	El Paso - Marty Robbins						22			17	1420
NEW	24	Happy Anniversary - Joan Regan					20	29	20	16		1390
16	25	Oh Carol - Neil Sedaka						24			19	1160
24	26	Let It Be Me - The Everly Brothers						20				880
NEW	27	Lucky Devil - Frank Ifield						26				400
26	28	Hallelujah I Love Her So - Eddie Cochran						27				320
27	29	You Got What It Takes - Johnny Kidd and The Pirates						28				240
22	30	Expresso Bongo (EP) - Cliff Richard						30				80

[MrTibbs]

There were no 'breakers' in the chart above for that week. Below the Top Ten the points are all over the place as usual.

[Graham76man]

You can actually download or buy the CD's of the entire songs that made the charts for 1960 to 1962.
The albums are called "The British Hit Parade" for 1060, 1961 and 1962. They generally come in two parts for each year. January to June, then July to December.
Last time I checked they never got around to 1963. Perhaps due to the copyright issues with the Beatles tracks that later years would have.
Prices are around £10 to £12 for each part (MP3) but you do get around 180 tracks on each part!
They would compliment Brian's charts perfectly!

[Metalweb]

^

Yes, those were great CD collections - I bought several of them when they came out a few years ago.

They were released by an outfit called Acrobat when the tracks concerned had dropped out of 50 year copyright.

For some reason the project ended with 1962!

[MrTibbs]

Yeah I believe I have seen the later fifties years too in that collection.

[kingofskiffle]

They did all charting A-sides and, I think, B-Sides and RecordMirror etc records form 1952 to end 1962. They are taken directly from original 45 or 78 records, allegedly bought at the time and cleaned up - thus getting around (c) laws as the records are "out of (c). When 1963 came round the UK Government had amended (c) laws to stop this sort of thing. It was felt that the Beatles going out of (c) was too much to bear! See https://consequenceofsound.net/2013/...es-love-me-do/ as well as https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...release-tracks both form 2013 when tis was being discussed. Hence why we got some good releases in the years leading up to this!

[Robbie]

The British Hit Parade series had to end at 1962 as the law on copyright changed which affected recordings from 1963 onwards. Until 2013 copyright on sound recordings existed for 50 years following the date of release. In 2013 this was extended to 70 years.

https://swanturton.com/extension-of-...ormers-rights/

Just in time for The Beatles though of course that was purely coincidental...

[MrTibbs]

I never knew that the copyright laws had changed to 70 years. That was no coincidence it happened on the threshold of Beatles main recordings lol.

[Metalweb]

Well, that certainly explains it!

Disappointing, they were impressively comprehensive and collectible CD box sets..

Would have been up to 1970 by now...

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers !

There are 5 differences this week in chart positions between the BBC Chart Top 20 and The Ultimate Averaged Chart Top 20.

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending February 27th 1960.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending February 27th 1960								NME	RM	MM	DISC	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	38	50	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC			TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Why - Anthony Newley					1	1	1	1	1	6840
3	2	Poor Me - Adam Faith					2	2	2	3	3	6524
2	3	A Voice In The Wilderness - Cliff Richard					3	4	3	2	2	6392
4	4	Way Down Yonder In New Orleans - Freddie Cannon					4	3	4	5	6	6098
6	5	Pretty Blue Eyes - Craig Douglas					5	4	6	4	5	5986
5	6	On A Slow Boat To China - Emile Ford and The Checkmates					6	6	7	6	4	5740
10	7	Running Bear - Johnny Preston					7	7	5	7	8	5542
8	8	Beyond The Sea (La Mer) - Bobby Darin					8	8	8	8	9	5194
7	9	Starry Eyed - Michael Holliday					9	9	11	10	7	4958
16	10	Be Mine - Lance Fortune					10	13	10	9	14	4386
12	11	Harbour Lights - The Platters					11	11	16	11	10	4310
13	12	Summer Set - Mr. Acker Bilk					13	10	14	15	15	4108
15	13	Misty - Johnny Mathis					12	15	13	12	12	4032
17	14	Bonnie Came Back - Duane Eddy					14	17	9	13	19	3724
9	15	What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For - Emile Ford and The Checkmates					15	14	18	14	13	3686
18	16	You Got What It Takes - Marv Johnson					16	12	12		17	3360
11	17	Heartaches By The Number - Guy Mitchell					17	16	20	17	16	3142
14	18	What Do You Want - Adam Faith					18	20		20	11	2298
NEW	19	Delaware - Perry Como						24	19	19		1736
NEW	20	Who Could Be Bluer - Jerry Lordan						24	17			1400
23	21	El Paso - Marty Robbins						26			18	1050
21	22	Little White Bull - Tommy Steele								18	20	1044
26	23	Let It Be Me - The Everly Brothers						18				1040
NEW	24	Royal Event - Russ Conway					19		14			1020
20	25	Be My Guest - Fats Domino						19				960
19	26	Rawhide - Frankie Laine						21				800
27	27	Lucky Devil - Frank Ifield						22				720
NEW	28	Time And The River - Nat King Cole						23				640
NEW	29	Running Bear - Garry Mills					20			16		570
25	30	Oh Carol - Neil Sedaka						27				320
		It's Time To Cry - Paul Anka						28				240
		Expresso Bongo (EP) - Cliff Richard						29				160
		You Got What It Takes - Johnny Kidd and The Pirates						30				80

[MrTibbs]

Chart Commentary

Adam Faith closes in for a second #1 but Johnny Preston is closing the gap fast too. Perry Como and Nat King Cole score hits in the 60's now after highly successful 50's careers. As usual Nat's is a class ballad.
The top ten chart positions between the papers is fairly close but below that the gaps widen considerably.

[Graham76man]

The British Hit Parade series had to end at 1962 as the law on copyright changed which affected recordings from 1963 onwards. Until 2013 copyright on sound recordings existed for 50 years following the date of release. In 2013 this was extended to 70 years.

https://swanturton.com/extension-of-...ormers-rights/

Just in time for The Beatles though of course that was purely coincidental...

I find it odd that music is treated so different to books. I believe there it's 70 years after the author's death that copyright runs out on books. I suppose sheet music falls into the book thing on copyright. It does make it very difficult to have an album, even of number one hits, after 1963. Not just because of the expense, but the copyright holder can refuse permission for it completely!

[kjell]

The copyright prolongation idea started in the U.S. caused by Elvis nearing the 50 year limit for his first hits.

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

Brian, for 30 January 1960, the Expresso Bongo (EP) wasn't on the MM singles chart, but was on the MM EP chart, as Lonnie pointed out above. Therefore, shouldn't this EP be credited in your points total with an average chart position assigned to MM? Just to be consistent with what you were doing earlier with records on the RR EP chart that didn't chart on the RR singles chart. I think it would bump Expresso Bongo up a bit on your Ultimate Chart for this week. Rock on...

[Splodj]

I agree that any EP up until the end of May 1963 should have an average NME/RM/Disc position assigned to MM. It will make not make much difference though, particularly now when the MM weighting is low. I calculate that on 30th January it would add about 600 points, moving Cliff up just one place. Obviously up to Brian to decide.

[MrTibbs]

I actually think you make a valid point there guys. Where an EP is missing from just one chart an average should be taken and awarded like I did from '64 to balance it out for these years too.

I will go back and amend the chart for 30th January, I believe the only one thus affected so far. Splodj's calculation is correct it will lift it one place to #13. But one place is one place better

[Splodj]

On the subject of "just one chart" ...

When RR enters the scene it will be 3 with EPs and 2 without. Then when RM leaves it will be 2 with and 2 without. Then when MM changes it will be 3 with and 1 without.

Personally I think that once the principle is established that EPs should be included in the Ultimate then an average of the 'withs' should be applied to the 'withouts' however many there are.

[MrTibbs]

The 'just one chart' rule though for EP's has to apply for fairness.

It is fair to take an accurate average from all other charts available to apply to the one missing chart to give a credible position. But if say two charts do not place the EP, then the average becomes unreliable as it is based on a smaller sample.

The bottom line is, there is no accurate way to place an EP just as there is no accurate way to place a split sided single. Using an average is really the only means to do both in the fairest manner possible, but an average is only as good as the data supporting it.

This is the principle I applied from 64 onwards too.

[MrTibbs]

As mentioned above guys in respect of Cliff's EP, I have gone back to the posts on here and amended the chart for Jan 30th, placing Cliff at 13 and The Avons at 14, and also the last week positions in respect of both on the chart for 6th February as I knpow some of you keep a record of these.

[Splodj]

As far as I can see only 2 EPs and 1 LP, all by Elvis, made serious inroads into the singles chart before 'Twist and Shout' - so not a big issue.

[MrTibbs]

I'm glad lol, takes longer to compile each chart as it is when NME has split sides that need to be averaged, checked and placed.