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From the end of May 1976 until the beginning of January 1994, chart success around western Europe was measured by the Europarade - "The Chart Of The Charts"! Compiled in the earlier years by TROS-Radio, and in the later ones by SR-1, it was broadcast on these and other radio stations around Europe, and published occasionally in various magazines. In 2008 (with very much appreciated help and contributions from others!) a team of three forum members - cavefan, CZB and francisplaiy - posted here very nearly the whole of those 917 weekly charts (and several year-end charts too) - primarily from the notes we had made while listening to those chart shows way back then. These can be found in the following six threads :
1976 to 1979
1980 to 1982
1983 to 1985
1986 to 1988
1989 to 1991
1992 to 1994
More details of the compilation method can be found on those threads. However, for the majority of the period the chart was a top forty, based on the top fifteen positions of each of eleven national charts - Austria (A), Belgium (B), Switzerland (CH), Germany (D), Denmark (DK), Spain (E), France (F), the United Kingdom (GB), Italy (I), Ireland (IRL) and the Netherlands (NL). The charts were weighted equally on a points system, with each number one receiving 15 points, each number 2 receiving 14 points - and so on, down to each number 15 receiving one point. The total points scored, determined the Europarade positions - with records scoring the same points total ranked alphabetically by title. This happened only rarely at the top end of the chart - but frequently at the bottom end, especially when hits had 15 / 14 / 13 points by scoring in the top three in one country, without charting anywhere else at all. The maximum points available should therefore be 165 - back then, no-one could ever have thought that anyone called Ed Sheeran could achieve such chart domination that he might eventually be able to exceed that total !
So, the broadcast years of the Europarade came to an end at the beginning of 1994 - and various other ways of compiling pan-European charts had been used since then. However, we all wondered how the Europarade would have progressed, if it had continued to be compiled in exactly the same way as previously - and remained convinced that such an approach would have continued to be as good a measure of chart success across the continent as it always was !
In 2009, we began a new series of threads - setting out for each week the "Europarade" that would have been compiled in the years since then, if the same rules had continued to be applied. While francisplaiy began from the point at which the radio-broadcasted Europarades had ended co, CZB concentrated on the noughties - both using the weekly national charts that can be found around the internet and in our own archives. It was a lengthy project - as this time we were doing all the work, not just transcribing the completed charts from our notes and other sources ! However, there came a point when every elapsed week was completed, and it only remained for a new "Europarade" to be compiled and posted each Friday, just as soon as all of the current week's eleven component charts became available and could be processed.
These are the threads covering the past twenty-eight years:
1994 to 1998
1999 to 2003
2004 to 2008
2009 to 2013
2014 to 2017
2018 to 2022
[ Note: due to changes in the forum software since they were created, the links shown at the beginnings of these other threads no longer work - but these revised and updated ones do! ]
This new thread will continue with the new weekly Europarades, starting from the beginning of 2023. Comments are very welcome, and so is any additional information or corrections relating to the earlier ones, especially regarding the few elements that still remain a mystery ! I will post each week's new chart as early as possible every Friday morning.
1976 to 1979
1980 to 1982
1983 to 1985
1986 to 1988
1989 to 1991
1992 to 1994
More details of the compilation method can be found on those threads. However, for the majority of the period the chart was a top forty, based on the top fifteen positions of each of eleven national charts - Austria (A), Belgium (B), Switzerland (CH), Germany (D), Denmark (DK), Spain (E), France (F), the United Kingdom (GB), Italy (I), Ireland (IRL) and the Netherlands (NL). The charts were weighted equally on a points system, with each number one receiving 15 points, each number 2 receiving 14 points - and so on, down to each number 15 receiving one point. The total points scored, determined the Europarade positions - with records scoring the same points total ranked alphabetically by title. This happened only rarely at the top end of the chart - but frequently at the bottom end, especially when hits had 15 / 14 / 13 points by scoring in the top three in one country, without charting anywhere else at all. The maximum points available should therefore be 165 - back then, no-one could ever have thought that anyone called Ed Sheeran could achieve such chart domination that he might eventually be able to exceed that total !
So, the broadcast years of the Europarade came to an end at the beginning of 1994 - and various other ways of compiling pan-European charts had been used since then. However, we all wondered how the Europarade would have progressed, if it had continued to be compiled in exactly the same way as previously - and remained convinced that such an approach would have continued to be as good a measure of chart success across the continent as it always was !
In 2009, we began a new series of threads - setting out for each week the "Europarade" that would have been compiled in the years since then, if the same rules had continued to be applied. While francisplaiy began from the point at which the radio-broadcasted Europarades had ended co, CZB concentrated on the noughties - both using the weekly national charts that can be found around the internet and in our own archives. It was a lengthy project - as this time we were doing all the work, not just transcribing the completed charts from our notes and other sources ! However, there came a point when every elapsed week was completed, and it only remained for a new "Europarade" to be compiled and posted each Friday, just as soon as all of the current week's eleven component charts became available and could be processed.
These are the threads covering the past twenty-eight years:
1994 to 1998
1999 to 2003
2004 to 2008
2009 to 2013
2014 to 2017
2018 to 2022
[ Note: due to changes in the forum software since they were created, the links shown at the beginnings of these other threads no longer work - but these revised and updated ones do! ]
This new thread will continue with the new weekly Europarades, starting from the beginning of 2023. Comments are very welcome, and so is any additional information or corrections relating to the earlier ones, especially regarding the few elements that still remain a mystery ! I will post each week's new chart as early as possible every Friday morning.
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