The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers !

There are 8 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 May 28th 1960.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending May 28th 1960								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	38	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers					1	1	1	1	1	1	7740
5	2	Cradle Of Love - Johnny Preston					2	2	2	2	2	2	7482
2	3	Someone Else's Baby / Big Time - Adam Faith					3	3	3	3	3	6	7134
4	4	Handy Man - Jimmy Jones					4	3	7	4	6	3	6796
7	5	Sweet Nothin's - Brenda Lee					5	5	5	6	5	9	6550
6	6	Shazam - Duane Eddy					6	6	4	5	7	8	6498
3	7	Do You Mind - Anthony Newley					7	8	8	7	4	7	6202
10	8	Three Steps To Heaven - Eddie Cochran					8	7	6	8	9	11	5994
9	9	Footsteps - Steve Lawrence					9	10	9	9	8	4	5796
8	10	Fall In Love With You / Willie And The Hand Jive - Cliff Richard					10	11	11	10	10	5	5428
21	11	Mama / Robot Man - Connie Francis					11	9	10	13	14	20	4884
16	12	Stairway To Heaven - Neil Sedaka					12=	12	13	11	16	12	4680
13	13	The Heart Of A Teenage Girl - Craig Douglas					12=	14	14	14	11	10	4656
12	14	Stuck On You - Elvis Presley					14	15	16	16	12	17	4120
19	15	He'll Have To Go - Jim Reeves					16	16	12	12		18	3452
NEW	16	I Wanna Go Home - Lonnie Donegan					17=	17	15	20	18	28	3238
11	17	Standing On The Corner - The King Brothers					15	13			13	13	2880
NEW	18	The Urge - Freddy Cannon					19	19	18	16		27	2430
27	19	That's You - Nat King Cole					17=	19	20	15		25	2408
14	20	Beatnik Fly - Johnny and The Hurricanes						24		19	17	14	2226
NEW	21	Lucky Five - Russ Conway						18	19				1760
20	22	Sixteen Reasons - Connie Stevens					20	26			15	15	1680
17	23	Theme From 'A Summer Place' - Percy Faith						26		18		16	1344
24	24	Let The Little Girl Dance - Billy Bland						21				19	1160
18	25	Tease Me / Ooh La La ! - Keith Kelly							17				840
29	26	Milord - Edith Piaf						22					720
15	27	My Old Man's A Dustman - Lonnie Donegan									20	26	700
26	28	Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) - Ed Byrnes and Connie Stevens									19		600
NEW	29	True Love Ways - Buddy Holly						25					480
23	30	Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be - Max Bygraves										21	300
		Robot Man - Connie Francis						23
		Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald										22	270
		That's Love - Billy Fury						28					240
		What In The World's Come Over You - Jack Scott										23	240
		Clementine - Bobby Darin										24	210
		You'll Never Know What You're Missin' - Emile Ford and The Checkmates						29					160
		Got A Girl - The Four Preps						30					80
		Sweet Dreams - Dave Sampson						30					80
		This Love I Have For You - Lance Fortune										29	60
		You Got What It Takes - Marv Johnson										30	30

[MrTibbs]

''For the purposes of this database, we are following the most unanimously agreed lineage'' . ''Chart historians have long since agreed the NME published the pre-eminent singles chart from launch in November 1952 through to February 1960, when the Record Retailer took over as the chart of choice. ''

Unanimous. What a lot of tosh ! What chart historians ? Will that be the guys who published The Guinness books by any chance.

I could go on a rant but I am going to refrain

[MrTibbs]

As far as the BBC were concerned, I presume the person who decided to switch over was POTP producer Phil Swern.

5 years later the BBC invited tenders for a digitalised record library and Phil Swern won the contract because of his vast record collection, which included every chart hit since 1952. The BBC's own record library is far larger, but they couldn't be bothered to digitalise so now they play records from Phil Swern's private collection!

I never ever knew that . Funnily enough I remember Dave Taylor going on a rant about Phil Swern a few times when he became producer of POTP.

[brian05]

From the OCC web site,

The guardians of these charts are the Official Charts Company – while OfficialCharts.com is the website which celebrates more than 60 years of UK chart history, from 1952 right up to the present day.

We are charged with this mission by the UK's entertainment industry - we are owned by two industry associations, the Entertainment Retailers Association (Era) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represent the nation's retailers and music labels respectively. In turn, we can only do our job with the support of our contracted market research partner, Kantar (formerly Millward Brown), who in February 2015 marked 21 years compiling the UK's charts on our behalf.

It is important to outline which singles and albums charts we are defining as “official” for the purposes of this database. To start with, every one of our specialist genre and format charts (which cover the period from from 1994 to date) are 100% Official, extracted directly from the industry-standard Official Charts Online database which is managed by Kantar (formerly named Millward Brown).

Even for the Official Singles and Albums Charts for the years since the late Sixties, there has been little dispute over this “lineage” – since BMRB was first commissioned by the BBC and Record Retailer in 1969, everyone has been in pretty much unanimous agreement.

But before this period, matters are less straightforward. In the early years of the UK’s charts (the Fifties and Sixties), there were a number of parallel charts published by various different magazines: at certain points, music papers such as the New Musical Express, Melody Maker, Disc, Record Mirror and Record Retailer (later renamed Record & Tape Retailer and then Music Week) all published their own music rundowns.

For the purposes of this database, we are following the most unanimously agreed lineage. Chart historians have long since agreed the NME published the pre-eminent singles chart from launch in November 1952 through to February 1960, when the Record Retailer took over as the chart of choice. As far as albums are concerned, the Record Mirror chart was the original (and most widely recognised) rundown, from July 1956 until March 1960, when the Record Retailer took over.

From this point in early 1960, Record Retailer unified the albums and singles charts, remaining the source of choice through until early 1969 when BMRB took over the reins. In January 1983, Gallup became the UK’s Official chart compiler, before Millward Brown (now Kantar) in turn picked up the baton in February 1994. The only exception to this unbroken run of BMRB charts post-1969 was for the eight weeks comprising February and March 1971, when a postal strike meant that album chart publication by BMRB was sporadic at best. For this period our database reflects the charts published by Melody Maker – as is also agreed by many chart historians.

[Splodj]

As far as the BBC were concerned, I presume the person who decided to switch over was POTP producer Phil Swern.

5 years later the BBC invited tenders for a digitalised record library and Phil Swern won the contract because of his vast record collection, which included every chart hit since 1952. The BBC's own record library is far larger, but they couldn't be bothered to digitalise so now they play records from Phil Swern's private collection!

[RokinRobinOfLocksley]

As we know, the OCC appointed themselves as 'official', and even changed their name from the Chart Information Network "CIN" to reflect that, in 2001, as they were getting healthy competition from the Network "MRIB" chart. A very clever ploy, claim you are 'official' thus better / more legitimate than that other chart.

Just as legitimate as any Fish n Chips shop or chain rebranding themselves as "The Official Fish n Chips Shoppe of the UK since 1952".

Well, they say they're 'official' so they must be 'official', right? And if they say they are 'official', then we must believe they are 'official', right?

It would be more accurate for the OCC to claim they are the 'official chart since Feb 1969'. And for the purposes of history, they are using NME for the 50s and RR for the 60s, though not 'official'. That is the truth.

Rock on...

[MrTibbs]

I do agree up to a point Lonnie, especially on the point of one chart had to be chosen and the BBC inaccuracies. But the point I was making was what was different and what changed at the point of the OCC taking over that made the BBC roll over then and not before.

From 1969 till 2005 (like Splodj said) the BBC were happy to go with the BMRB chart but happy to use their own chart for the period before that, ignoring the RR chart before Feb 1969

Then, out of the blue without explanation the BBC suddenly decided their charts were obsolete and the RR chart was what they should have been using all along.

But, who actually appointed the OCC company anyway as the custodian of 'official' charts or did they appoint themselves as such ?

[Splodj]

The BBC charts were featured in two historical chart shows: 'Pick Of The Pops' on Radio 2 and 'The Vintage Chart Show' on the World Service.

I've been looking into when the changeover happened ...

POTP hosted by Dale Winton took a break from being a weekly show from 28-Aug-04 to 18-Sep-05. But there were 6 holiday specials in this break. The first on 26-Dec-04 used the BBC chart. The second on 31-Dec-04 contained charts in the BMRB period. The third on 28-Mar 2005 used the 'official' charts, and they were used thereafter.

So it looks to me like the changoever happened on 1st January 2005.

[kingofskiffle]

From then, quietly and without fanfare the BBC banished 'it's own child' without a mention then or since as if it had never existed. Shame On It !

I wonder if doing so and adopting RR was a condition laid down by the OCC, who like the school yard bully want everything our way or no way.

Well, that is one way to ensure a) consistency and b) avoid confusion. People don't like to be confused But it also makes sense to use the RR chart IF your also using it on websites, press releases and chart books - it should also be used on BBC when discussing the chart. Whatever chart picked would have had to be treated this way. Plus, if you use the BBC chart then people ask “how was it compiled?” (As we do over the RR one!) and I agree with MrTibbs the BBC chart was not consistent and so had problems.

Still, I do think it a shame they don’t use the BBC chart sometimes - if only to play the records not usual played.

[MrTibbs]

As Splodj mentioned above, from the 21st May 1960 the BBC now didn't include RM in its chart due to RM moving its publication to later in the week so the RM charts were compiled too late for the BBC's own chart compilation deadline.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers !

There are again 9 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 May 21st 1960.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending May 21st 1960								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	38	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers					1	1	1	1	1	1	7740
2	2	Someone Else's Baby / Big Time - Adam Faith					2	2	2	2	2	2	7482
3	3	Do You Mind - Anthony Newley					3	5	3	3	3	4	7034
4	4	Handy Man - Jimmy Jones					4	4	6	4	6	3	6776
10	5	Cradle Of Love - Johnny Preston					5	3	5	7	5	9	6672
5	6	Shazam - Duane Eddy					6	6	4	6	4	7	6640
6	7	Sweet Nothin's - Brenda Lee					7	6	8	8	8	5	6184
7	8	Fall In Love With You / Willie And The Hand Jive - Cliff Richard					8	8	7	5	9	6	6118
11	9	Footsteps - Steve Lawrence					9	9	10	9	7	8	5746
15	10	Three Steps To Heaven - Eddie Cochran					10	10	9	10	12	15	5228
8	11	Standing On The Corner - The King Brothers					11	11	11	13	10	13	5074
9	12	Stuck On You - Elvis Presley					12	12	14	12	11	11	4862
12	13	The Heart Of A Teenage Girl - Craig Douglas					13	13	12	11	13	12	4810
14	14	Beatnik Fly - Johnny and The Hurricanes					15=	20	16	17	15	14	3622
13	15	My Old Man's A Dustman - Lonnie Donegan					18	19	19		14	10	3160
17	16	Stairway To Heaven - Neil Sedaka					14	14		18	16	17	3024
16	17	Theme From 'A Summer Place' - Percy Faith					15=	17	18	14		16	2996
18	18	Tease Me / Ooh La La ! - Keith Kelly					17	18	13	15		27	2848
22	19	He'll Have To Go - Jim Reeves						22	17	16		18	2520
26	20	Sixteen Reasons - Connie Stevens						23	20		17	22	2270
NEW	21	Robot Man / Mama - Connie Francis						23	15	20			2018
20	22	Clementine - Bobby Darin						21			18	20	1780
19	23	Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be - Max Bygraves					20	15				21	1580
27	24	Let The Little Girl Dance - Billy Bland					19	15					1280
23	25	Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald						30			19	19	1040
24	26	Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) - Connie Stevens						29			20	28	800
NEW	27	That's You - Nat King Cole						25					480
29	28	Standing On The Corner - The Four Lads								19			456
NEW	29	Milord - Edith Piaf						27					320
25	30	What In The World's Come Over You - Jack Scott										23	240
		Mama - Connie Francis						26
		Big Time - Adam Faith						27
		Wild One - Bobby Rydell										24	210
		Hit And Miss - The John Barry Seven										25	180
		This Love I Have For You - Lance Fortune										26	150
		Green Jeans - The Flee-Rekkers										29	60
		Poor Me - Adam Faith										30	30
													0
		* From this week the BBC didn't include RM in its											0
		chart due to RM's now later publication date.											0

[MrTibbs]

The first RR-only number one, and the only RR-only number one for more than one week.

I think next week is when RM drop out of the BBC chart.

I believe now that the BBC never honestly took their own chart seriously. It seemed to be treated throughout the years in such a cavalier fashion, compilation wise, accuracy wise, credibility wise.
It was almost treated by them as being 'just a fun chart.

This theory is evidenced now by the fact they disown their own chart entirely. Every attempt is made to whitewash it from existence as the BBC goes out of its way to embrace retrospectively 'the official charts' .

For many years after the advent of the BMRB chart the BBC continued on retrospective chart shows to use its own chart but coincidentally when the OCC came into being and embraced the RR chart the BBC changed over to that too.

From then, quietly and without fanfare the BBC banished 'it's own child' without a mention then or since as if it had never existed. Shame On It !

I wonder if doing so and adopting RR was a condition laid down by the OCC, who like the school yard bully want everything our way or no way.

[MrTibbs]

I loved Luxembourg as a radio station from the mid sixties onwards.

At the end of '65 I got one of those little transistor radios of the time with one ear piece. I always desperately wanted to listen to their Top twenty show on a Sunday night but it was 11 to midnight. At age 11 I was in bed way before then but was one of the brigade with the radio under the sheets to listen to it after keeping myself awake.

Sadly there were times one of my parents caught me and the radio was removed much to my frustration and disappointment.

[MrTibbs]

C'mon everybody was his best by far. It was similar to 17 years later when Elvis died. Way Down hovered at the bottom of the chart and was on the way out, then Elvis died and it vaulted to 4 then 1. I wouldn't have minded but by his earlier standard it was an awful substandard single.

[Metalweb]

^

Dare one say Eddie only made Number One Because he'd died a few weeks earlier?

Decent track but surely not in the Somethin' Else or C'mon Everybody class?

[Splodj]

In comes Eddie Cochran's timeless classic Three Steps To Heaven

The first RR-only number one, and the only RR-only number one for more than one week.

I think next week is when RM drop out of the BBC chart.

[kjell]

Shortwave didn’t function there, but Fishermen’s wave was said to do. But that wasn’t exactly my kind of program as a teenager.

[MrTibbs]

In comes Eddie Cochran's timeless classic Three Steps To Heaven and I have to shamelessly admit I absolutely love Connie Steven's Sixteen Reasons. Sweet as honey.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers ! Just in from work hence why late on.

There are 9 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 May 14th 1960.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending May 14th 1960								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	38	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers					1	1	1	1	1	1	7740
3	2	Someone Else's Baby / Big Time - Adam Faith					2	2	2	3	2	3	7414
2	3	Do You Mind - Anthony Newley					3	3	3	2	3	2	7292
5	4	Handy Man - Jimmy Jones					4	4	5	5	6	4	6768
10	5	Shazam - Duane Eddy					6	5	4	6	8	7	6520
7	6	Sweet Nothin's - Brenda Lee					7	6	7	7	5	5	6432
4	7	Fall In Love With You / Willie And The Hand Jive - Cliff Richard					5	8	6	4	4	8	6406
8	8	Standing On The Corner - The King Brothers					8	7	12	8	7	12	5704
6	9	Stuck On You - Elvis Presley					9	11	8	10	9	6	5628
13	10	Cradle Of Love - Johnny Preston					10	9	9	11	11	11	5440
11	11	Footsteps - Steve Lawrence					11	10	13	9	10	9	5306
15	12	The Heart Of A Teenage Girl - Craig Douglas					12	14	10	12	14	20	4522
9	13	My Old Man's A Dustman - Lonnie Donegan					14	16	14	15	13	10	4358
14	14	Beatnik Fly - Johnny and The Hurricanes					15	16	15	17	12	14	4152
NEW	15	Three Steps To Heaven - Eddie Cochran					13	13	11	14	16		4036
12	16	Theme From 'A Summer Place' - Percy Faith					16	12	16	16		15	3470
23	17	Stairway To Heaven - Neil Sedaka					19	19	20	18	19	24	2924
19	18	Tease Me / Ooh La La ! - Keith Kelly					17	18	17	13			2564
16	19	Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be - Max Bygraves					18	15			17	17	2400
18	20	Clementine - Bobby Darin					20	26			15	13	1740
20	21	Wild One - Bobby Rydell						23			20	19	1550
17	22	He'll Have To Go - Jim Reeves						29	19			16	1330
21	23	Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald						24			18	28	1300
28	24	Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) - Ed Byrnes and Connie Stevens						22		19		27	1296
22	25	What In The World's Come Over You - Jack Scott						25		20		21	1198
NEW	26	Sixteen Reasons - Connie Stevens						20					880
NEW	27	Let The Little Girl Dance - Billy Bland						30	18				860
29	28	Hit And Miss - The John Barry Seven										18	390
30	29	Standing On The Corner - The Four Lads						27					320
26	30	Poor Me - Adam Faith										22	270
		Ooh La La ! - Keith Kelly						21
		I Love The Way You Love - Marv Johnson						28					240
		Delaware - Perry Como										23	240
		Running Bear - Johnny Preston										25	180
		You Got What It Takes - Marv Johnson										26	150
		Country Boy - Fats Domino										29	60
		This Love I Have For You - Lance Fortune										30	30

[Splodj]

Luxembourg programmes also went out on shortwave for those beyond medium wave reception.

Barry Alldis said that his mum in Australia used to listen to his Top 20 show on a shortwave radio.

And I think the BBC chart was also broadcast on shortwave on a World Service programme.

[kjell]

I was almost 15 and knew nothing of charted pop music. The only Norwegian radio channel didn’t play pop music and the mountains around the fjord made it hopeless to listen to Lux or any British radio. But two years and three months later I moved to the nearest town Molde to start my education. There the mountains were far away on the other side of the broadest fjord in the county, and NME was on the newsstand two months earlier. Lux was unbelievably clear, it was almost Heaven.

[Graham76man]

I was born when it was number one. As a result I try an avoid dating anyone called "Cathy" Not that I have been flooded with offers to date!

[Robbie]

I love the song at number 1. In fact I love just about everything the Everly Brothers did. Even though it is still 4 years before I was born that is a decent top 30. The top 5 are all excellent.

[MrTibbs]

Greetings Pop Pickers !

There are 8 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 May 7th 1960.

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending May 7th 1960								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	38	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
2	1	Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers					1	1	1	1	1	1	7740
1	2	Do You Mind - Anthony Newley					2	3	2	2	2	2	7402
4	3	Someone Else's Baby / Big Time - Adam Faith					3	2	3	4	4	3	7216
3	4	Fall In Love With You / Willie And The Hand Jive - Cliff Richard					4	4	4	3	3	5	7024
5	5	Handy Man - Jimmy Jones					5	5	5	5	5	6	6678
7	6	Stuck On You - Elvis Presley					6	6	8	6	6	8	6270
8	7	Sweet Nothin's - Brenda Lee					7	8	7	7	7	7	6112
9	8	Standing On The Corner - The King Brothers					9	6	10	10	9	4	5968
6	9	My Old Man's A Dustman - Lonnie Donegan					10	10	9	9	8	9	5646
13	10	Shazam - Duane Eddy					8	9	6	8	10	16	5634
12	11	Footsteps - Steve Lawrence					11	11	11	12	11	10	5152
11	12	Theme From 'A Summer Place' - Percy Faith					14=	13	16	15	13	11	4448
21	13	Cradle Of Love - Johnny Preston					13	12	13	16	14	18	4410
14	14	Beatnik Fly - Johnny and The Hurricanes					12	16	15	11	12	13	4410
24	15	The Heart Of A Teenage Girl - Craig Douglas					14=	14	12	13	18	27	3954
10	16	Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be - Max Bygraves					16	15	18	18	16	14	3814
17	17	He'll Have To Go - Jim Reeves					18=	20	17	17	20	17	3222
16	18	Clementine - Bobby Darin					18=	18		20	15	12	2828
20	19	Tease Me / Ooh La La ! - Keith Kelly					17	22	14	14			2386
15	20	Wild One - Bobby Rydell					20	19			17	15	2140
25	21	Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald						17	20			26	1930
18	22	What In The World's Come Over You - Jack Scott						24		19		23	1256
26	23	Stairway To Heaven - Neil Sedaka						21				20	1130
19	24	Running Bear - Johnny Preston						23				19	1000
23	25	Delaware - Perry Como						29			19	24	970
28	26	Poor Me - Adam Faith						25				21	780
NEW	27	Greenfields - The Brothers Four							19				720
NEW	28	Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) - Ed Byrnes and Connie Stevens							20				660
22	29	Hit And Miss - The John Barry Seven						27				22	590
30	30	Standing On The Corner - The Four Lads						26					400
		Looking High High High - Bryan Johnson						28				28	330
		You Got What It Takes - Marv Johnson										25	180
		Chattanooga Choo Choo - Ernie Fields						30					80
		Why - Anthony Newley										29	60
		Heartbeat - Buddy Holly										30	30

[Graham76man]

No, I'm pretty sure MM didn't sample those stores back then Brian and defo not Woolworths as they only started to give sales info to BMRB from 1975.

That's quite right. There's an article in one of the Record Mirror's, which reveals the attitude to major stores reluctance to give sales information. One company executive was adamant that they wouldn't give sales information out on the pretext that it was like giving details to competitors. Plus when supermarkets started selling records the sales of records just went down as "non food items".
Even back in the 70's one store might represent a whole city. A record rep on a forum told me that only Bradley's Records was the chart shop for Sheffield. That would have been in the middle 70's. It was too difficult to spot a BMRB chart shop. Since the diary was often seen on display in the shops.
As for the earlier chart compilers, you could purchase a list of the shops at the time. I suspect copies will be around somewhere of these. It's just a question of where to look for them?