Hitlist UK - Contents

Contents

As many other MTV programmes in the nineties, Hitlist UK is a music video programme, basing on the current top 40 of the UK chart. Due to the limited format, just the new entries and climbers would be shown, combined with some records of the top ten and the number one, provided there was a music video available. For positions 40 to 21, 20 to 11 and 10 to 2 a rundown would be included, consisting of short extracts from all songs (if no video was available, the cd cover would be seen instead; in the rare case MTV had neither a video nor a cd cover, a "video not available" sign would be shown, combined with a kind of "no signal" TV noise).

Sometimes, a video would not be shown although it had actually climbed the chart. Reasons for this would not be given, so why a song was neglected could only be assumed. In the case of Mr Blobby’s "Mr Blobby" and Manchester United Football Squad’s "Come On You Reds", both of which were number ones, one reason for showing just an excerpt of the video might have been that both records were intended for the UK market only.

For some time, the show also included songs that missed the top 40 mainstream list but which were successful in other UK charts, such as the dance, rock, indie, "breakers" (i. e. singles just outside the top 40), or album chart.