Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10

Prior to 1952 there was no such thing as the charts. Once the idea was accepted by NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS, a weekly breakdown of best- selling songs began to appear. Initially the songs were largely sentimental, with Guy Mitchell and Doris Day high among the featured artistes. But by the late Fifties rock 'n roll had taken over.

There followed a largely predictable narrative of changing tastes within the charts, proceeding through The Beatles into the Flower Power era, the Glam Rock period, punk rock and the decline of chart material in the Nineties. There were some interesting pieces of information, to be sure - despite The Beatles' popularity, the most popular chart band of the late Sixties was Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich; when Ultravox's "Vienna" was on release, it was prevented from occupying the No. 1 spot by Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face." The quality of certain recordings did not always guarantee them top spot.

In general, however, the program seemed rather uncertain about what to do with its material. The chronological approach led to a considerable degree of repetition, together with some uneasy moments such as having an aging Tony Blackburn reading chart countdowns over the years.

In the end the program argued that the charts were now as popular as ever, even if the main mode of selling was through downloads rather than physical disks or CDs. This conclusion, it must be said, was pretty self-explanatory to anyone who has bought recordings over the past decade or so.

This is yet another of the Beeb's badly researched "documentaries", which I continue to moan about; Why can't the BBC, with it's vast archive of news and current affairs programming, get these things right?? Is it because they allow independent companies - usually in the north of England - to make them?? Is it because they allow people who are far too young to recall the era they are making a program about, to make them?? I really don't know. I do know however, that Joe Dolci was at number one during 1981, and not the following year as was stated in this show. And for such a very long programme about the charts, it left a lot out of its 90 minutes, and a lot to be desired. For example, not even a mention of the new forms of music which entered and enlivened the charts back in the 1960s, such as jazz and ska. Or the Glam Rock acts like Suzi Quatro, The Sweet, etc. who all but dominated the charts back in the early 1970s. But as usual with these lazy productions that they make, there was the tedious glorification of punk and brit-pop, which at the times they were around made scant and brief appearances in the charts, and left little if anything of a legacy to music in general, unlike the aforementioned black genres. Actually, near the end the show it even proved that Brit-pop record sales were pretty meagre and disappointing, to all concerned.

Also as a footnote, it has to be said that, Dr. Fox was not the first DJ to present a rival chart show on another station as in fact, the late great Roger Scott presented Capital Radio's chart shows during the week, and for a while back in the early 1980s, Capital even broadcast a chart at the same time as the BBC's Top 40 on Sunday afternoons.