FIFTY YEAR HISTORY OF THE UK SINGLES CHART 1955-2005
Welcome to the Pop Report UK Chart History Database!
Our eventual aim is to provide a complete history of UK Hit Records, but obviously that's going to
take us a little time. In the meantime we'll begin by giving you a top 10 chart for the best selling
UK singles of each year.
Our history begins with the birth of Rock and Roll in 1955, the year that Bill Haley had his first
taste of UK chart success with "Shake Rattle and Roll" (Okay, it actually entered the charts in
late '54, but we're still going to start in 1955).
FROM THE BIRTH OF ROCK & ROLL TO 2005
Although Rock and Roll records started to appear in the singles charts as early as 1954, you can
see from the best sellers charts of the fifties that the biggest sellers of this decade were generally
filed in the "Easy Listening" section of the record racks. This remained to be the case until 1959
when Rock and Roll records finally started to sell in huge quantities.
From the sixties to the present day however, the main influence on the UK Singles Charts has
undoubtedly been fuelled by the younger record buyers, who have continued to account for the vast majority
of weekly music purchases right up to the present day.
