The UK Singles Chart is the official record chart in the United Kingdom. Prior to 1969 there was no official singles chart; however, The Official Charts Company and Guinness' British Hit Singles & Albums regard the canonical sources as New Musical Express (NME) before 10 March 1960 and Record Retailer from then until 15 February 1969 when Retailer and the BBC jointly commissioned the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to compile the charts. The choice to use Record Retailer as the canonical source for the 1960s has been contentious because NME (which continued compiling charts beyond March 1960) had the biggest circulation of periodicals in the decade and was more widely followed.
As well as the chart compilers mentioned previously, Melody Maker, Disc and Record Mirror all compiled their own charts during the decade. Due to the lack of any official chart the BBC aggregated results from all these charts to announce its own Pick of the Pops chart. One source explains that the reason for using the Record Retailer chart for the 1960s was that it was "the only chart to have as many as 50 positions for almost the entire decade". The sample size of Record Retailer in the early 1960s was around 30 stores whereas NME and Melody Maker were sampling over 100 stores. In 1969, the first BMRB chart was compiled using postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops.
In terms of number-one singles, The Beatles were the most successful group of the decade having seventeen singles reach the top spot. The longest duration of a single at number-one was eight weeks and this was achieved on three occasions: "It's Now or Never" by Elvis Presley in 1960; "Wonderful Land" by The Shadows in 1962 and "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies in 1969. The Beatles' song "She Loves You" became the best-selling single of all time in 1963, a record it held until 1977 when band member Paul McCartney's new band, Wings, surpassed it with "Mull of Kintyre". "She Loves You" was the best-selling song of the decade and one of fourteen songs believed to have sold over one million copies in the 1960s.
Number-one singles
The Beatles had seventeen number-one singles in the 1960s, more than any other artist. Their single "She Loves You" was the best-selling of the decade.Elvis Presley had eleven number-ones throughout the decade. "It's Now or Never" was the best-selling single of 1960 and spent an unsurpassed (but equalled) eight weeks at number one during the 1960s.Cliff Richard achieved seven of his number-one singles during the 1960s.Tom Jones (pictured left with Janis Joplin) had two of his three number-one singles in the 1960s, the third was in 2009.
The Shadows instrumental, "Apache", is the oldest 1960s release to be awarded a gold record but not the first to actually receive the award. The awarding of seventeen gold records to records released in the 1960s is documented and, notably, five were awarded to releases by The Beatles. Although The Righteous Brothers first released "Unchained Melody" in August 1965 it had more success after being re-released in the 1990s reaching number one and selling over one million copies.
^Due to different charts being used, the weekday varies prior to August 1969: Chart week starting Friday before 10 March 1960 (NME), Thursday before July 1967 (Record Retailer), Wednesday before August 1969, and chart week ending Saturday after that (BMRB). These are the dates by which the charts are usually referred to and so are the dates used in this table.
^ Warwick, Neil; Kutner, Jon; Brown, Tony (2004). The Complete Book Of The British Charts: Singles and Albums (3rd ed.). London: Omnibus Press. p. v. ISBN1-84449-058-0. Until 15th February 1969, there was no officially compiled chart.
