The Ultimate Averaged Chart - The BBC Chart Re-Imagined

[brian05]

So a joint no. 1 in NME this week.
How often did that happen?

[Splodj]

There are 8 times I can think of ...

Answer Me (2 versions)
Singing the blues / Garden of England
On the street where you live / All I have to do is dream
What do you want / What do you want to make those eyes at me for?
this one
Tower of Strength / Take good care of my baby
Please please me / The Wayward Wind
For your love / The Minute You're Gone

[Metalweb]

Also:

The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore / I Can't Let go

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending September 9th 1961

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending September 9th 1961								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	110	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton					1	1	1	1	1	1	9900
2	2	You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro					2	2	2	2	2	2	9570
3	3	Reach For The Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey					3	4	4	3	3	3	9100
4	4	Well I Ask You - Eden Kane					5	5	5	4	5	5	8690
NEW	5	Wild In The Country / I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley					4	3	3	5	4	17	8550
6	6	Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury					7	8	6	6	8	4	8050
5	7	Romeo - Petula Clark					6	7	8	7	7	6	7890
NEW	8	Kon-Tiki - The Shadows					8	6	7	8	13	24	7080
13	9	That's My Home - Mr. Acker Bilk					10=	9	11	11	14	7	6730
7	10	Quarter To Three - The U.S. Bonds					9	12	13	10	9	9	6670
12	11	Cupid - Sam Cooke					10=	11	12	13	10	12	6340
16	12	Ain't Gonna Was For A Week - The Brook Brothers					12=	22	10	9	6	19	6010
15	13	How Many Tears - Bobby Vee					12=	10	17	14	12	11	5940
21	14	Michael Row The Boat / Lumbered - Lonnie Donegan					14	15	9	19	11	21	5220
8	15	Time - Craig Douglas					18	13	15	15	19	20	5090
11	16	Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man - Ricky Nelson					16	13		12	16	10	4910
9	17	You Always Hurt The One You Love - Clarence 'Frogman' Henry					17	18	20	17	18	15	4370
NEW	18	Hats Off To Larry - Del Shannon							16	18			2330
17	19	Temptation - The Everly Brothers					20	26		16		22	2320
10	20	A Girl Like You - Cliff Richard					15	16			17	18	2290
NEW	21	Together - Connie Francis						21		20			2010
14	22	Pasadena - The Temperance Seven					19	27			15	14	1630
18	23	Marcheta - Karl Denver						23				8	1330
20	24	Don't You Know It - Adam Faith						29			20	13	1250
NEW	25	Michael - The Highwaymen						17					1120
NEW	26	Sea Of Heartbreak - Don Gibson							14				1020
NEW	27	Get Lost - Eden Kane						20					880
NEW	28	Drivin' Home - Duane Eddy							18				780
23	29	Pepito - Los Machucambos							19				720
22	30	Someday (You'll Be Sorry) - Kenny Ball						24				28	650
		Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey						19
		Jealousy - Billy Fury						25					480
		Baby I Don't Care / Valley Of Tears - Buddy Holly										16	450
		What Kind Of Fool Am I - Anthony Newley						27					320
		Wheels Cha Cha - Joe Loss										23	240
		A Scottish Soldier - Andy Stewart										25	180
		You'll Answer To Me - Cleo Laine						29					160
		True Love - Terry Lightfoot						29					160
		Runaway - Del Shannon										26	150
		Weekend - Eddie Cochran										27	120
		Quite A Party - The Fireballs										29	60
		The Frightened City - The Shadows										30	30

[MrTibbs]

Again, take a look at the difference in chart positions for the New Entries with RR way out of touch.

[Splodj]

Further to my post about survey periods, I see that RM actually specified each week that their charts were for the week ending the previous Saturday.

RR using a week ending Friday seems the most likely explanation for their lagging, as you can imagine their lower new entry positions reflecting one day of sales and the others two days.

[MrTibbs]

Further to my post about survey periods, I see that RM actually specified each week that their charts were for the week ending the previous Saturday.

RR using a week ending Friday seems the most likely explanation for their lagging, as you can imagine their lower new entry positions reflecting one day of sales and the others two days.

Yeah and as Saturday accounted for most record sales that could explain the RR deficit.

[setg1]

Another strange chart occurrence: Los Machucambos reaching the top 20 in Record Mirror, but failing to make any of the other charts (including Record Retailer's top 50)! I wonder what happened there...

"Pepito" was a big hit in several European countries – and an excellent and very catchy song to boot! I was surprised to find out it was actually written by two Americans with a supposedly limited knowledge of Spanish (I remember reading an online interview with one of the band members mentioning how they had to replace some of the more nonsensical lyrics from Elena Madera's original version).

[MrTibbs]

It was a strange phenomenon that sometimes a record would make one of the music paper top twenties but not appear in any other list, not even those with a top thirty or top fifty. Pepito just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending September 16th 1961

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending September 16th 1961								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	110	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton					1	1	1	1	1	1	9900
2	2	You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro					2	2	3	2	3	3	9430
5	3	Wild In The Country / I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley					3	4	2	3	2	4	9240
8	4	Kon-Tiki - The Shadows					4	3	4	5	4	7	8790
3	5	Reach For The Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey					5	5	5	4	5	2	8780
4	6	Well I Ask You - Eden Kane					6	7	8	6	6	5	8080
14	7	Michael Row The Boat / Lumbered - Lonnie Donegan					7	6	6	10	8	14	7470
7	8	Romeo - Petula Clark					8	10	7	8	7	12	7420
6	9	Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury					9	14	13	7	11	6	6830
11	10	Cupid - Sam Cooke					10	8	9	13	12	11	6690
25	11	Michael - The Highwaymen					13=	9	10	11	20	19	6130
12	12	Ain't Gonna Wash For A Week - The Brook Brothers					13=	18	12	9	13	13	6040
9	13	That's My Home - Mr. Acker Bilk					11	11	16	15	10	8	6000
10	14	Quarter To Three - The U.S. Bonds					12	13	20	12	14	9	5700
13	15	How Many Tears - Bobby Vee					16	16	17	16	9	10	5420
21	16	Together - Connie Francis					15	12	11	14	15		5390
18	17	Hats Off To Larry - Del Shannon					19	19	14	18	17	20	4440
NEW	18	Jealousy - Billy Fury					18	15	15	19	18	24	4420
27	19	Get Lost - Eden Kane					17	17		17	16		3410
16	20	Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man - Ricky Nelson					20	23			19	16	1690
23	21	Marcheta - Karl Denver						30		20		18	1680
26	22	Sea Of Heartbreak - Don Gibson						22	18			28	1590
28	23	Drivin' Home - Duane Eddy						24	19				1280
30	24	Someday (You'll Be Sorry) - Kenny Ball						20				29	940
15	25	Time - Craig Douglas						26				23	640
NEW	26	You'll Answer To Me - Cleo Laine						25					480
22	27	Pasadena - The Temperance Seven										15	480
17	28	You Always Hurt The One You Love - Clarence 'Frogman' Henry										17	420
20	29	A Girl Like You - Cliff Richard						28				26	390
24	30	Don't You Know It - Adam Faith										21	300
		Baby I Don't Care / Valley Of Tears - Buddy Holly										22	270
		Wheels Cha Cha - Joe Loss										25	180
		Breakaway - The Springfields						29					160
		A Scottish Soldier - Andy Stewart										27	120
		Say It With Flowers - Dorothy Squires and Russ Conway										30	30
		I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley						20
		Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey						26

[Splodj]

David Jacobs last 'Pick of the Pops' this week, handing over to Alan Freeman.

From next week POTP will be split into 3 segments and incorporated into the 'Trad Tavern' programme. Freeman presented his bits live in front of an audience who would clap, cheer and whistle after each record! It looks like the BBC realised this arrangement didn't work well as it only lasted until the end of the year.

[MrTibbs]

Without a shadow of a doubt 'Fluff' is my all time favourite DJ, I loved his presentation style. The style of the show at that time was classic, no frills, no rubbish, no gimmicks, no inane chatter, just get on and play the songs, therefore he will always be the consummate DJ synonymous with Pick Of The Pops.

[Graham76man]

The show was however carefully scripted even down to his his catch phrase saying!

[Graham76man]

It was a strange phenomenon that sometimes a record would make one of the music paper top twenties but not appear in any other list, not even those with a top thirty or top fifty. Pepito just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

45 Cat list it as being out in July and a review in Melody Maker is dated 15 July 1961. So it was hitting the charts a bit late.
Using the owns versus chart position, with 17 owns would put it between 45 and 41 in the charts. So a top 30 place isn't likely for the record. A top 30 to 21 place would need about 20 to 30 owns.
And if you do the most collected for September 61 (UK only) search on 45 Cat, the results show that at least 17 is needed to get to 50. Combined with the big sellers from previous months, once again it's unlikely that the record would have been top 30.
That doesn't mean it was being fiddled though. It would depend on Record Mirror's shops. They could have had a slight region inbalance, that might explain it being high. Areas for example that have lots of people taking Spanish holidays over the summer, for example! Though at this time going to Spain for a holiday was not common.
However just asking for "Los Machucambos" would have been a problem - how to say it!... And the fact it's a Spanish record opens up the bag of the foreign language problem on the UK charts. Not really a racist thing, more a I don't understand what they are singing about thing. It has to be a really good song before the UK public take to foreign language record!

[MrTibbs]

''The show was however carefully scripted even down to his his catch phrase saying! ''

Maybe we are needing them carefully scripted again nowadays then because today's shows can't hold a candle to sixties and seventies radio shows.

Then we had dedicated professional DJ's though not others trying their hand at it and making a pigs ear of it. Graham Norton springs to mind among others.

The Radio Luxembourg DJ's were really good, Bob Stewart, Paul Burnett, Tony Prince, Emperor Roscoe 'your royal ruler'.

To me the only professional DJ around now is Paul Gambaccini. His American chart show back in the seventies and early eighties was a must to listen to, and a pleasure. His style now harks back to how it should be done.

[Woz1234]

You've got "A Girl Like You" - Cliff Richard twice on last chart, should be in UAC Top 30 @ #29 with 360 points.

[Splodj]

It has to be a really good song before the UK public take to foreign language record!

Although my avatar got to number 28 in NME (31 in RR) with a record completely in French.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBpzllq4SCk

They should have waited and issued the English version instead that she recorded later!

[Splodj]

therefore he will always be the consummate DJ synonymous with Pick Of The Pops.

Freeman says he only got the gig because Jacobs refused to do that Trad Tavern lark, so it served a useful purpose!

[setg1]

Non-English songs in the UK charts have always been rare, but they used to be at least a little more common than they are now. In addition to the ones already mentioned, there were two in the top 30 (both NME and the combined chart) simultaneously in June 1960: "Milord" by Édith Piaf (in French) and "Mustapha" by Bob Azzam (French, Spanish and Arabic – almost certainly the only chart hit with that combination of languages). Though some of them were also recorded by other artists in English, which might have helped them chart.

One of the many things that make charts from the earlier decades much more interesting than the ones today (and it also helps that the songs in question are nice to listen to even without understanding the lyrics)...

[braindeadpj]

You've got "A Girl Like You" - Cliff Richard twice on last chart, should be in UAC Top 30 @ #29 with 360 points.

390 points. Still at 29 though.

[Woz1234]

390 points. Still at 29 though.

Yes your right I added up "A Scottish Soldier - Andy Stewart" on 120 points by accident.

[MrTibbs]

Double entry for Cliff corrected above. Yeah 29 with 390 points.

[braindeadpj]

Yes your right I added up "A Scottish Soldier - Andy Stewart" on 120 points by accident.

I thought that was probably what you had done.

[MrTibbs]

Here is the next Ultimate Averaged Chart for Week Ending September 23rd 1961

The Ultimate Averaged Chart - Week Ending September 23rd 1961								NME	RM	MM	DISC	RR	Total
Last	This		The Sound Survey				Stores	80	60	110	50	30	Points
Week	Week		The Top 30 Singles Chart				BBC				TOP	30	Scored
1	1	Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton					1	2	1	1	1	2	9790
3	2	Wild In The Country / I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley					2	1	3	3	3	4	9370
2	3	You Don't Know / Helen Shapiro					3	3	4	2	4	3	9240
4	4	Kon-Tiki - The Shadows					4	4	2	4	2	5	9100
5	5	Reach For The Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey					5	5	5	5	5	1	8700
11	6	Michael - The Highwaymen					6	6	6	6	6	17	7920
18	7	Jealousy - Billy Fury					7	7	8	7	8	12	7660
7	8	Michael Row The Boat / Lumbered - Lonnie Donegan					9	11	7	9	9	6	7310
19	9	Get Lost - Eden Kane					8	10	10	8	7	19	7030
10	10	Cupid - Sam Cooke					10	8	9	16	10	7	6580
6	11	Well I Ask You - Eden Kane					13	18	14	10	12	8	6010
16	12	Together - Connie Francis					11=	13	13	13	11	15	5980
12	13	Ain't Gonna Wash For A Week - The Brook Brothers					14	14	11	12	15	14	5960
17	14	Hats Off To Larry - Del Shannon					11=	9	15	15	13	13	5920
13	15	That's My Home - Mr. Acker Bilk					15	12	12	17	14	11	5650
9	16	Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury					16	20	19	11	16	9	5210
8	17	Romeo - Petula Clark					17	17	17	14	17	18	4920
15	18	How Many Tears - Bobby Vee					18=	15	18	20	18	10	4550
26	19	You'll Answer To Me - Cleo Laine					18=	16	16	18	19	20	4460
14	20	Quarter To Three - The U.S. Bonds					20	22		19	20	16	3040
22	21	Sea Of Heartbreak - Don Gibson						19	20			27	1740
RE	22	Say It With Flowers - Dorothy Squires and Russ Conway						25				24	690
21	23	Marcheta - Karl Denver						26				22	670
NEW	24	Breakaway - The Springfields						23					640
NEW	25	Frankie And Johnny - Brook Benton						27					320
NEW	25	I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door - Eddie Hodges						27					320
RE	27	Wheels Cha Cha - Joe Loss										21	300
28	28	You Always Hurt The One You Love - Clarence 'Frogman' Henry										23	240
20	29	Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man - Ricky Nelson										25	180
23	30	Drivin' Home - Duane Eddy						29					160
		I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley						21
		Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey						24
		Lumbered - Lonnie Donegan						30
		Pasadena - The Temperance Seven										26	150
		A Scottish Soldier - Andy Stewart										28	90
		Someday (You'll Be Sorry) - Kenny Ball						30					80
		Time - Craig Douglas										29	60
		Baby I Don't Care / Valley Of Tears - Buddy Holly										30	30

[MrTibbs]

There is something very wrong more than usual at RR this week. They place Shirley Bassey at #1 while the disc is at #5 in ALL other four charts. 300 stores against 30. There is more than lagging behind in days of sale at work here. It is just out and out incorrect and it is considered an 'official' #1

[Splodj]

The way that you present it is a great way of demonstrating that they were wrong - you can see at a glance.

That Scottish Soldier marched on 16 weeks ago. He's retreated a few times, but not advanced far.