Its been said here before:
The British charts are weird. Which has been true of the singles chart.
The albums chart on the other hand? I’ve been looking at the early years, tracing the history of the #1 albums and there wasn’t much weirdness going on. There wasn’t much of anything going on – but that’s what makes it so fascinating 60 – 70 years on.
Back in the early days, it was musicals that ruled the charts.
The UK album chart launched in July 1956 with Frank Sinatra.
His Songs For Swinging Lovers taking the inaugural accolade.
Frank was soon upstaged by Carousel… followed by Oklahoma!… followed by The King And I.
Between October ’56 and March ’58, Yul, Deborah and company spent 48 weeks in pole position.
Sinatra, now back with This Is Sinatra gave them a good run for their money. In early 1957, the two albums swapped places seven times, but in the end: the soundtrack saw him off.
Unlike the singles chart, Rock and Roll made little headway.
Understandably so, given that albums were much more prohibitively priced for teenagers. Bill Haley did have a brief foray on top. But it was Elvis who had the biggest presence. Even so, his album success paled compared to his singles.
He would get a boost thanks to his own film soundtracks as Loving You, King Creole, G.I. Blues and Blue Hawaii all took turns at #1 between 1957 and 1962.
Frank had one more crack at it in late ’57 with A Swingin’ Affair before the soundtracks took an iron grip on the chart.
It wasn’t just iconic musicals that held sway.
The Duke Wore Jeans was a Tommy Steele vehicle, long since forgotten but it took a short turn at the top.
That made way for the far more memorable My Fair Lady which had a 19 week run at Number 1.
But that was nothing compared to what was on its way:
South Pacific ascended to #1 on 8th November 1958 and remained there until 12th March 1960.
That’s 70 weeks. Its a good job there wasn’t a chart countdown, they may have struggled for enthusiasm once they got past a year.
Unsurprisingly that’s the longest unbroken streak in chart history. It was far from done, either.
In total, South Pacific spent 114 weeks on top of the chart in nine separate runs – also a record.
Its last week coming in September 1961, just shy of three years since its first week. If that’s not impressive enough, it recorded a full year’s worth of weeks at #2.
The album that got in the way of that initial 70 week run? One that no one would ever guess now:
The Explosive Freddy Cannon.
An adjective that doesn’t befit his chart stats.
His number one album riding on the back of his only two top 20 singles. Wikipedia reckons that his unlikely week at the top was due to heavily discounting the price. It seems as likely an explanation as any.
With South Pacific holding down top spot for 45 weeks of 1960, it left a small gap for Freddy and two other non soundtracks to get in on the act. One of those predictable; Elvis. The other, even more forgotten in time:
101 Strings:
A German easy listening orchestra who very much adhere to the phrase, “of their time.” Between 1957 and 1981 they recorded over 150 albums of easy listening fare and are claimed to have sold 50m copies.
They achieved six UK charting albums, Down Drury Lane To Memory Lane being their sole chart topper.
Another seemingly unlikely fact: the last two of those charting albums came in the 1980s.
Down Drury Lane To Memory Lane features a range of contemporary and older songs.
Some of them, such as “Some Enchanted Evening” are standards from the chart topping musicals, so its ascendancy can be seen as entirely in keeping with the soundtracks it interrupted.
Into 1961 with South Pacific winding down, it was Elvis’ G.I. Blues that was the standard bearer, spending 23 weeks at #1. The act in second place for weeks at the top in 1961 really does define “of its time.”*
* Not in a good way.
It was also the first example of TV muscling in on the territory of the big screen. The title tells it all:
The Black And White Minstrel Show.
Yes, they were in blackface. It aired on prime time BBC One from 1958 to 1978. Troupes of American minstrel performers had toured Britain in the 19th century, inspiring locals to follow their lead. This legacy transferred to early TV broadcasting becoming a ratings winner.
A string of albums were released through the 60s to capitalise on its success. The first three topped the album chart in 1961/62.
Their debut album is reportedly the first to sell 100,000 copies in the UK – a statistic which shows the paucity of album sales at the time. Despite South Pacific’s 114 weeks at #1, the minstrels swept past it to that sales figure.
Two other homegrown acts also topped the album chart in 1961 which pointed to the future rather than the past.
The Shadows had their own chart topper and quickly followed it as backing band to Cliff Richard.
Cliff was our answer to Elvis, starting off as a rock n’ roller before quickly moving into more anodyne fare and trying his hand in the movies.
Accompanied by the Shadows, his first #1 album was a standalone set but his next two were soundtracks to The Young Ones and Summer Holiday.
Once South Pacific relinquished its hold, the rest of the 1961 and 1962 were a revolving cast at the top of the Minstrels, Cliff, The Shadows, Elvis and what looked to be the final throes of the non star vehicle soundtrack: West Side Story.
That rose to the top on seven separate occasions for a total of 13 weeks.
Cliff & The Shadows spent Spring 1963 atop the charts with the not quite seasonally aligned Summer Holiday soundtrack, in which the boys take a red London double decker bus across Europe to Athens, in a now quaint vision of youth not quite gone wild.
On 11th May 1963 everything changed. Please Please Me rose to #1 and stayed there for 30 weeks.
To be knocked off by With The Beatles for a further 21 weeks.
The Beatles didn’t quite achieve South Pacific levels of domination thanks to The Rolling Stones self titled debut interrupting them for a 12 week spell in 1964. Besides that one-off demotion, The Beatles’ first four albums enjoyed 79 weeks at the summit from May 1963 to February 1965.
Only three albums topped the chart in 1964; The Rolling Stones, A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles For Sale.
There was a little more diversity in 1965 as Rolling Stones No. 2 and Beatles For Sale swapped top spot between them through to May. At which point Bob Dylan got a week each with The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Bringing It All Back Home.
It seemed that youth had won. Nothing would be the same again. Except – there would be one more soundtracking behemoth.
The Sound Of Music took over from Bob in June 1965, for an initial 10 week run.
At which point The Beatles hit back with Help! . The Sound Of Music lay in wait for Beatlemania to subside with Help! managing nine weeks at #1. TSOM resumed top spot for another 10 weeks…
…By which time the seemingly insane work and release schedule of The Beatles churned out Rubber Soul.
And when that completed its eight weeks at the top? History repeated itself once again. TSOM took over for another 10 weeks.
The Von Trapps and Julie Andrews were just getting started.
For a little variation, this time it was The Rolling Stones’ Aftermath that defeated the Nazis. They won the battle but not the war. TSOM came back again. Then it was The Beatles (Revolver) again.
The Beatles may have been breaking new ground, things were getting freakier and London was swinging. But the not too distant past wasn’t to be denied. TSOM overtook Revolver, this time for an 18 week spell.
By now it was February 1967 and a new challenger took up the reins:
The Monkees and More Of The Monkees were all the rage.
But TSOM kept swapping places with them at the top. The Monkees were seen off before Spring was out and The Beatles took up the cause again with Sgt Pepper. That held top spot for 23 weeks, but you couldn’t keep the Von Trapps down.
Sgt Pepper and TSOM spent November and December dueling it out and replacing each other at #1.
The spell would finally be broken in 1968. TSOM took another week at the end of January with Sgt Pepper yet again usurping it.
From this point on the top of the charts was no longer a closed shop. The album chart would be as keenly competitive as the singles chart.
13 different acts had #1 albums in 1968. By far the most in a single year.
The Sound Of Music managed one last gasp, though. Three years and five months after its first week at #1 it found its way back there in November for a final week. Over twelve separate spells it totaled 70 weeks atop the charts. It may not have matched South Pacific’s total, but it did it against far stiffer competition in a newly invigorated album chart.
Its ubiquity further emphasised:
- It also spent 70 weeks at #2
- And 232 weeks in the top 10.
The last of them in January 1971.
While on the surface, a youthquake was apparently changing popular entertainment forever in the late 60s, the reality was a lot more conservative.
Over in the US, there was a similarity in as much as an abundance of musical soundtracks claimed #1 spot. There was though, a greater diversity of acts and genres and a much quicker turnover at the top.
South Pacific and The Sound Of Music both topped the Billboard 200 but only for a handful of weeks each.
It was West Side Story that was the long running success.
Musicals and soundtracks have continued to be a reliable presence in the upper reaches of the album charts – but never with the dominance of those early days.
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