UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is currently compiled by "The Official UK Charts Company". on behalf of the British record industry. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with the chart being compiled on Sunday afternoon. Most UK singles are released in record shops on a Monday.

Number One Quirks

Since the inception of the UK Singles chart, many issues have arisen about certain singles and whether or not they should have made number 1 - this controversy has caused much dispute on a few number 1 singles and it has affected the singles chart over the years.

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There was a period of time when the entire record industry took a break for the Christmas period. This resulted in no compiling of new charts over Christmas week and obviously therefore no airing. When electronic sales record took over from written ideas, it became much easier to compile the charts, however staff still required time off, unlike today when Radio 1 is still happy to air the Christmas chart. Usually, it would result in no new change at the top, however, there was one exception; the Christmas period of 1980. A frenzy of buying John Lennon singles had begun as he had just been shot dead a few weeks earlier. This resulted in "(Just Like) Starting Over" topping the charts, however, this was dethroned after a mere seven days by "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma". However, after this stayed at the top for a week, many people had bought the re-issued Christmas classic, "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon, and the new chart compiled, actually had John Lennon at the top. However, this chart was never published and thus, it is omitted from lists of number ones. By the time things returned to normal after the festive season, "Imagine" had topped the chart, but technically, John Lennon has three-peated on top of the chart, something no other act has been able to achieve.

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In the week including the Queen's massive jubilee celebration at Windsor in June 1977, the Sex Pistols were due to release their second single, "God Save The Queen", expressing great contempt for royalty. There was wide speculation and rumour that the Sex Pistols were going to be number 1 for this historic week, however, the shock was Rod Stewart retained his position on top of the chart for a fourth week with "I Don't Want To Talk About It/The First Cut Is The Deepest". Rumours then began to circulate that people had fixed the chart to avoid controversy, which even resulted in NME placing "God Save The Queen" at number 1 in their chart.

Related Topics:
Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen - Rod Stewart

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In the 1950s, singles had frequently shared the number 1 position for a week, due to sales ties. This had never been an issue ever since, however in the 1980s, a new chart rule was instituted if this did ever become the case again; the single whose sales had increased most from the previous week would reside above the other. In September of 1990, "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band and Deee-lite's "Groove Is In The Heart" sold enough copies to both reach number 1, but because of the rule, Deee-lite were relegated to number 2 and "The Joker" topped the chart. In order to avoid controversy, the media published that "The Joker" had sold eight more copies than "Groove Is In The Heart".

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In 1987, Steve Silk Hurley's "Jack Your Body" topped the charts for 2 weeks, but in fact it should have never been there! The 12" actually exceeded the maximum playing time to qualify as a single and therefore Jackie Wilson's re-issue of "Reet Petite" should have enjoyed a 5th week at the top and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" was deprived of a week at the top, to increase its total to 3.

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