Guinness Book of British Hit Singles
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The cover of the 1989 7th edition of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles |
Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles & Albums is a
music reference book, published in the
United Kingdom, by
Hit Entertainment, the company that owns such children's entertainment 'brands' as
Bob the Builder and
Thomas the Tank Engine.
Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles & Albums is generally considered to be the authoritative reference source for both the
UK Singles Chart (since its inception in
1952) and
UK Albums Chart. It lists all the singles and albums ever to have made the UK Top 75 Charts in alphabetical order by both artist and song title, with date of chart entry, highest position, catalogue number, and number of weeks on the chart. Its sources are the
New Musical Express chart from November 1952 to March 1960, and the
Record Retailer (later
Music Week) chart thereafter. Many observers have argued that this division is misleading, since the
Record Retailer chart was little-known until it was adopted by the
BBC in
1969, and that by adopting this chart as its standard from the earliest opportunity, the editors were effectively "re-writing" chart history. An example often given is the case of
The Beatles' second single "Please Please Me" which was recognised as a number one hit by every other publicly-available chart but not by
Record Retailer, and therefore not by
British Hit Singles. Other records to which this applies include "19th Nervous Breakdown" by
The Rolling Stones and the
Eurovision Song Contest entry "Are You Sure" by
The Allisons. Co-founder Jo Rice has defended the book's choice of source material on the grounds that
Record Retailer was the only chart to consistently publish a Top 50 from 1960 onwards (as opposed to other charts which published either a shorter listing, such as the
NME, or a listing that shrunk over time, such as
Melody Maker).
The first edition was published as the
The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles in July
1977 and this title was merged with its sister-publication
The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums in
2004 to form its current branding. There are a number of other chart reference books that have been released onto the market in the early 2000s, such as
The Complete Book Of British Charts - Singles And Albums (
Omnibus Press).
The founding editors of
The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles were
Paul Gambaccini,
Tim Rice,
Jonathan Rice, and
Mike Read. Read left the team in the early 1990s, and the other editors resigned in 1996. The current editor is
David Roberts and the book's chart consultant is
Dave McAleer.
The eighteenth edition of the book (2005) was billed as a 'Special Collector's Edition' as it featured detailed information on the 1,000 Number Ones in the
UK Singles Chart from
Al Martino - '
Here In My Heart' on 14 November 1952 to
Elvis Presley - 'One Night / I Got Stung' (Limited Edition Collector's re-issue) in 22nd January 2005.
The nineteenth edition was officially published on
2nd June 2006 but was available in many stores in late May. A series of compilation albums, with editorial notes based on the book, were released in association with Sony BMG three days later.
*
Official Site*
everyhit.com
