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British Hit Singles & Albums

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British Hit Singles & Albums was a music reference book published in the United Kingdom by HiT

Entertainment's !uinness World "ecords# $t listed all the singles and albums featured in the Top %& harts in

UK, as compiled by the editors of British Hit Singles & Albums# $n ())* the book became an amalgamation oftwo earlier !uinness publications, originally known as British Hit Singles and British Hit Albums and

publication of this amalgamation ceased in ())+# new -ersion of the book published by .irgin, was

entitled The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles# The first edition of The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles was

published in /o-ember ())+#

Contents

  [hide]

1 Content

2 Histo ry

o 2.1 19!199" original editors

o 2.2 199!2##$ merger and collectors edition

o 2.% 2##" 19th edition

o 2.& 2## aborted 2#th edition

% 'ssociated merchandise

& (e)erences and )urther reading

$ *+ternal lin,s

ontent 0edit1

British Hit Singles & Albums was generally considered to be the authoritati-e reference source for both the UK

2ingles hart 3since its inception in 45&(6 and the UK lbums hart# $t listed all the singles and albums e-er to

ha-e been in UK Top %& harts, listing them in alphabetical order and by both artist and song title# The entries

also included the date of chart entry, highest position, catalogue number and number of weeks in the chart#

2hort biographical notes accompanied many of the artists' chart details#

The book's sources are the New Musical Express 3/7E6 chart from /o-ember 45&( to 7arch 458), and

the ecor! etailer  3later Music "eek 6 chart thereafter# $t could be said that this di-ision is misleading, since

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the ecor! etailer chart was little known until it was adopted by the 99 in 4585 and that by adopting this

chart as its standard, the editors had a non consensual -iew# n e:ample often gi-en is the case of The 9eatles'

second single ;lease ;lease 7e which was recognised as a number one hit by e-ery other publicly a-ailable

chart of the time, but not by ecor! etailer  and therefore not by British Hit Singles# <ther records to which this

applies include 45th /er-ous 9reakdown by The "olling 2tones, 2tranger <n The 2hore by  cker 9ilk and

the Euro-ision 2ong ontest entry re =ou 2ure by The llisons#

o>founder ?o "ice has defended the book's choice of source material on the grounds that ecor! etailer  was

the only chart to consistently publish a Top &) from 458) onwards# This can be substantiated by the fact that

charts published in the NME  were of a shorter format and other chart listings such as those in  Melo!# Maker ,

became less and less informati-e although they were probably more accurate# 2ubse@uent research has shown

that during the disputed period of the 458)s, the samples siAes of the ecor! etailer  chart were considerably

inferior to those of the other chartsB around C) shops in 458C in comparison to more than 4)) used by Melo!#

Maker , and later around +) in comparison to NME 's 4&) and Melo!# Maker 's ())# s a result the placings in

that chart were more open to error and manipulation D a situation further worsened by the larger number of

records listed in the chart#

History 0edit1

1977–1996 original editors 0edit1

The co-er of the 45+5 %th edition of the$uinness Book of British Hit Singles

The first edition was published as The $uinness Book of British Hit Singles in ?uly 45%%# The founding editors

were ;aul !ambaccini, Tim "ice, ?onathan "ice, and 7ike "ead# "ead left the team in the mid>45+)s and the

other editors resigned in 4558#

Throughout this period 9ritish pop>music fans bought each edition to maintain a check on the career of their

fa-oured band or soloist in particular the final position in the all>time charts in terms of singles and albums# Thus

any apparent errors by the three original co>authors in the aggregation processes behind these charts went

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unchallenged and became fact by default until the 4+th edition when some apparent errors were unco-ered,

called into @uestion for the attention of the editor, a-id "oberts#

1997–2005 merger and collectors edition 0edit1

This title was merged with its sister publication The $uinness Book of British Hit Albums in ())* to form The

$uinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums# The eighteenth edition of the book 3())&6 was billed as a

2pecial ollector's Edition as it featured detailed information on the 4,))) /umber <nes in the UK 2ingles

hart from  l 7artino's Here in 7y Heart on 4* /o-ember 45&( to El-is ;resley's <ne /ight $ !ot 2tung3Gimited Edition ollector's re>issue6, (( ?anuary ())&#

The eighteenth edition drew a -ery hea-y postbag of bad>tempered mail to its editor a-id "oberts in the wake

of a retrospecti-e reappraisal of the career of  liff "ichard's former backing group,The 2hadows# The 2hadows

had pre-iously been ignored in terms of their ob-ious support towards liff "ichard's success in both singles

and albums charts during 45&+D458+ and beyond# Howe-er, following a well intentioned appeal for a belated

re>appraisal, by a committed 2hadows fan, for a retrospecti-e and long o-erdue error correction to benefit the

2hadows in all subse@uent lifetime charts resulted in the 2hadows being dramatically promoted in the all>time

career charts from a lowly C)th to a Crd position ust behind El-is ;resley 34st6 and liff "ichard 3(nd6 both in

terms of singles and albums# oincidentally, the career of The 2upremes and iana "oss also recei-ed a

similar retrospecti-e reappraisal and promotion along with the 2hadows but did not attract anything like the kind

of fierce anger generated by 9ritish pop>music lo-ers#

2006 19th edition 0edit1

The nineteenth edition was published in ?une ())8# series of compilation albums, with editorial notes based

on the book, were released in association with 2ony 97! three days later# The 45th edition included a list of

the top 4)) songwriters in 9ritish chart history# The book's last editor was a-id "oberts0!isambiguation nee!e! 1 and its

chart consultant was a-e 7cleer #

2007 aborted 20th edition 0edit1

9efore ?une ())%, many followers of the book @uestioned on chart forums why !uinness ha-e not announced a

then forthcoming edition# ue to the e-ent of adding any digital download to the chart compilation regardless if

there is a physical format released or not, has seen a long list of download>only hits# s a result !uinness then

changed plans to release the book later in the year so these could be included in the book as soon as possible#

Howe-er, the organisation later lost interest with chart reference books after their contract with

the < e:pired, which saw that organisation sell the contract to .irgin#

 ssociated merchandise 0edit1

$n recent years a number of spin>off  products ha-e been launched under the same branding# These include

compilation albums, annual tri-ia calendars and a . T. game D British Hit Singles & Albums No% Music

'ui( , editions of which were released in both ())& and ())8# The ())8 edition features o-er 4,()) @uestions

and stars comedian 2te-e Furst as the host#

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"eferences and further reading 0edit1

• "oberts, a-id# $uinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums# !uinness World "ecords Gtd# 4+th

edition 37ay ())&6# $29/ 4>5)*55*>))>+

• "oberts, a-id# $uinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums# !uinness World "ecords Gtd# 45th

edition 3?une ())86# $29/ 4>5)*55*>4)>&

• "oach, 7artin# The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles# .irgin 9ooks 3/o-# ())+6# $29/ )>%&C&>4&C%>%

• 7cleer, a-e# The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles ) Volume * # .irgin 9ooks 3/o-# ()4)6# $29/ 5%+>

)>%&C&>((*&>&