List Of UK Singles Chart Number Ones
The UK Singles Chart is a weekly record chart based on single sales from Sunday to Saturday in the United Kingdom; as of 5 April 2012 (2012 -04-05), 1191 singles have reached number one. The chart was founded in 1952 by Percy Dickins of New Musical Express (NME), who telephoned 20 record stores to ask what their top 10 highest-selling singles were. Dickins aggregated the results into a top 12 hit parade, which was topped by "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino. NME's chart was published each week in its eponymous magazine.
The calendar year that has featured the most UK number ones is 2000, which featured 43 singles reaching the top spot; the year with the fewest number ones is 1954, with 11 songs topping the chart, just ahead of 1992, with 12. The act that has achieved the most number ones is American entertainer Elvis Presley, who has topped the chart 21 times – Presley's second number one, "Jailhouse Rock" was the first single ever to debut at the top of the chart. The most successful band are Liverpudlian group The Beatles, who have achieved 17 number ones on the chart.
The Beatles' first chart-topper, "From Me to You", reached number one in May 1963. Around this time, a single needed to sell approximately 750,000 copies in order to top the chart – within a decade, this figure had dropped by 80%, with the required number of sales needed to top the chart being roughly 150,000. During 1992, when few releases were reaching number one, sales of CD singles were low: songs needed to sell only 60-70,000 each week to remain at the top. In 2000, when turnover of number ones was high, tracks could often sell between 100,000 and 200,000 copies in a single week. By May 2007, a single needed to sell just 20,000 copies in order to reach number one. UK chart commentator James Masterton remarked in 2003: "When record sales are high, public interest in a song expires very quickly and this creates a need for ever more new product to take its place."
The sources, in accordance with the official canon of The Official UK Charts Company, are the New Musical Express chart from 1952 to 1960; the Record Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official UK Singles Chart from 1969 on.
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