For the first time ever the sales charts of World War Two favourites – as sold in the UK on 78rpm records – through to the start of the New Musical Express Chart in 1952. Long before the days of rock & roll, the NME chart was the earliest recognised incarnation of what has evolved into today’s industry-standard Official Singles Chart.
Compiled from the actual Record Company sales sheets by music historian Colin Brown, the book has over 300 pages covering this important 12 year period.
The book lists the week by week top 30 best selling releases; it lists the songs with the most recorded chart versions; itemises all the Number Ones; features artist profiles; highlights the hits artist by artist with original catalogue numbers and is published with the support of the Official Charts Company.
Ironically, sales of UK 78s were known to have been highly significant in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as Britain staged an economic recovery after WWII, so it has always seemed incongruous that there was previously no statistical information available to tell us exactly what the big hit records had been.
If these charts had existed back then, Dame Vera Lynn would be considered as one of the most successful British female solo artists of all time, with six Number One records to her credit over the period.
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