Stats and facts...
NB - the data below does not include the Polymax/Turnover albums in the "Super Hits" series, as these are not genuinely made up of current hits.
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Number of albums
...ordered from highest to lowest. We are sometimes using logical estimates, where our discographies are probably incomplete - as indicated by "[est]" next to the series title. |
92
31
30
29
26
23
22
20
19
18
12
11
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
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Longest-running series by timescales
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1 – Top of the Pops: 16 years, 9 months (Jun 1968 to Mar 1985)
2 – Englands 12 Top Hits: 5 years (Mar 1969 to Mar 1974) 3 – Pye Chart Busters: 4 years, 11 months (Sep 1971 to Aug 1976) 4 – World Top 12: 4 years, 7 months (Jun 1970 to Jan 1975) 5 – 12 Tops: 4 years, 2 months (Feb 1972 to Apr 1976) |
TOTAL: 460 ALBUMS
NUMBER OF SERIES: 29
TIME SPAN: 23 years, 3 months (Mar 1964 to Jun 1987)
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Linked series records
Some album series are linked to others (eg the Marble Arch “Chartbusters” and “Pye Chart Busters”). Treating such cases as continuous series, the stats change somewhat... |
Longest run – most albums
1 – Top of the Pops: 92 albums 2 – Studio 33 / Englands 12 Top Hits / Smash Tracks: 64 albums 3 – Pick of the Pops / Parade of Pops: 55 albums 4 – Chartbusters / Pye Chart Busters: 42 albums 5 – Hits / Hot Hits / Chart Choice: 34 albums - If we count the “Solid Gold” albums as part of “Parade of Pops”, it ups the total to 58 albums, and if we were also to add on Chevron's other series, "This is Music" and "Hits Hits Hits", it goes up to 69, putting these albums second in the list. - If we count the Here & Now editions of “Chart Busters” as part of the run, it ups that total to 47 albums. Longest run – time span 1 – Top of the Pops: 16 years, 9 months (Jun 1968 to Mar 1985) 2 – Pick of the Pops / Parade of Pops: 12 years (Apr 1970 to Apr 1982) 3 – Studio 33 / Englands 12 Top Hits / Smash Tracks: 9 years, 11 months (Sep 1968 to Aug 1978) 4 – Chartbusters / Pye Chart Busters: 8 years, 4 months (Apr 1968 to Aug 1976) 5 – Hits / Hot Hits / Chart Choice: 8 years (May 1967 to May 1975) - If we were to include the Top Twelve series as part of the Hits/Hot Hits stable, because of the Bill Wellings connection, then that series would stretch to 10 years, 11 months. - If we count the Here & Now editions of “Chart Busters” as part of the run, then that series becomes the longest-running, spanning some 19 years, 2 months (Apr 1968 to Jun 1987). - If we were to add on the Chevron cassettes, "This is Music" and "Hits Hits Hits" to the "Parade of Pops" stats, then that series almost equals "Top of the Pops" at 16 years, 4 months. |
Official album charts
There have been several UK album charts published over the years, for which budget albums have been eligible. We round these up below, but before examining all the peripheral charts, we begin with the official UK listing, compiled by Record Retailer.
Low-priced albums were first permitted into the chart on August 7, 1971. No fewer than four anonymous covers albums arrived on chart on day one, one of them at the very top! There were 22 listings during the period they were eligible, and at least one was on chart in every one of them. Three reached the top, three others polling in the top 3. The following albums appeared:
Number 1 albums are highlighted with red - top 10 albums with blue.
Budget albums were ex-communicated in January 1972.
Low-priced albums were first permitted into the chart on August 7, 1971. No fewer than four anonymous covers albums arrived on chart on day one, one of them at the very top! There were 22 listings during the period they were eligible, and at least one was on chart in every one of them. Three reached the top, three others polling in the top 3. The following albums appeared:
Number 1 albums are highlighted with red - top 10 albums with blue.
- Hot Hits 5 (MFP) – number 48
- Hot Hits 6 (MFP) – number 1
- Top of the Pops vol. 17 (Hallmark) – number 16
- Top of the Pops vol. 18 (Hallmark) – number 1
- Top of the Pops vol. 19 (Hallmark) – number 3
- Pye Chart Busters (Pye) – number 36
- Hot Hits 7 (MFP) – number 3
- Top of the Pops vol. 20 (Hallmark) – number 1
- Nonstop Top 20 vol. 4 (Plexium) – number 35
- Smash Hits ’71 (MFP) – number 21
- Hot Hits 8 (MFP) – number 2
- Pye Chart Busters vol. 2 (Pye) – number 29
Budget albums were ex-communicated in January 1972.
Other album charts
Budget albums started appearing in the latter part of the 1960s, and there seems to have been an informal agreement that they be excluded from the album charts since they had an unfair advantage when it came to sales. However, there was interest in them – and in 1969, a budget album chart was published by Record Retailer for the first time.
Record Retailer budget chart, 1969
Supposedly, ‘budget’ albums priced at more than 15 shillings were allowed, while those priced lower than this were not. (Thus, it might more properly have been called the mid-price chart.) However, we see in these charts the appearance of albums by MFP in their Hits series, and also Top of the Pops LPs. In 1969, the Hits albums were retailing at 14/6, and Top of the Pops at 13/11 – so it is not at all clear why they made the lists; they should have been ineligible. In any case, they charted, and details are as follows.
- Hit Hits (MFP) – number 2
- Top of the Pops vol. 3 (Hallmark) – number 7
- Hits 69 (MFP) – number 2
- Spring Chartbusters (Marble Arch) – number 15
Hereafter, the main chart absorbed mid-price albums, and so they stopped having their own listings.
Record Retailer budget chart, 1970
At the start of 1970, a bona-fide budget album chart was introduced, in parallel with the mid-price and full charts. Now, the anonymous covers LPs were all available for listing, and charted as follows. (The length of the listing changed from week to week, so some albums dropped out and others appeared, purely because of the size of the chart that week!):
Note: We are not sure the “Top Hits” album of January 24 is the MFP album of that name, which was released several months earlier. We have not been able to identify it exactly.
- Top of the Pops vol. 8 (Hallmark) – number 3
- Hits Again (MFP) – number 5
- Top Hits (MFP) – number 16
- Chartbusters '70 (Marble Arch) – number 7
- Best of Top of the Pops 1969 (Hallmark) – number 10
- Top of the Pops vol. 9 (Hallmark) – number 3
This chart appeared for the last time on April 25, 1970. (Top of the Pops vol. 9 was at number 11 in the final listing; it would probably have charted longer.)
Record Retailer budget chart, 1971
The budget chart came back in 1971, but was again a mid-price listing in all but name. Consequently, no anonymous covers LPs appeared – but when Mike Morton’s Nonstop Top 20 albums started up, these met the necessary price point and were listed:
- Nonstop Top 20 (Plexium) – number 11
- Nonstop Top 20 vol. 2 (Plexium) – number 12
NME album chart, 1971 - 1972
Running simultaneously with the official chart, was the unofficial NME album chart, and several Hot Hits/Top of the Pops albums appeared there too, although generally with lower placings than in the official chart. The NME chart shows the following - and it is interesting to note how the two album series alternate:
- Hot Hits 6 (MFP) – number 12
- Top of the Pops vol. 18 – number 10
- Top of the Pops vol. 19 – number 13
- Hot Hits 7 (MFP) – number 12
- Top of the Pops vol. 20 – number 12
- Hot Hits 8 (MFP) – number 18
- Top of the Pops vol. 21 – number 22
- Hot Hits 9 (MFP) – number 18
- Top of the Pops vol. 22 – number 15
- Hot Hits 10 (MFP) – number 17
- Top of the Pops vol. 23 – number 19
- Hot Hits 11 (MFP) – number 19
- Hot Hits 14 (MFP) – number 21
Record Retailer budget chart, 1972
During 1972, Mike Morton carried the covers album flag, his LPs still priced such that they were eligible for the 'budget' charts. In 1973, Pye also made a couple of appearances:
- Nonstop Top 20 vol. 5 (Plexium) – number 12
- Nonstop Hits vol. 3 (Aries) – number 24
- Nonstop Top 20 vol. 6 (Plexium) – number 4
- Nonstop Top 20 vol. 7 (Plexium) – number 16
- Nonstop Top 20 vol. 8 (Plexium) – number 9
- Nonstop Hits vol. 3 (RCA) – number 12
- Pye Chart Busters vol. 7 (Pye) – number 11
- Pye Chart Busters vol. 8 (Pye) – number 14
NME album chart, 1971 - 1972
One final fling for the budget album was a late appearance of Hot Hits in the unofficial NME listing, where it sat at the bottom end for one solitary week:
- Hot Hits 17 (MFP) – number 28
In mid-1973, the troubled “budget” chart – in fact a mid-price chart – suffered another strange twist: various artist compilations were dominating the main album listing thanks to aggressive television advertising campaigns by the likes of Ronco, Arcade and K-Tel. So, the industry acted again to divert them away from the standard chart, and into… the “budget” chart.
They of course pushed what remained of the anonymous covers format off the listings. The last ever budget chart was listed on June 28, 1975, and of course contained no real budget albums! (Deep Purple’s 24 Carat Purple was number 1.)