Paul Gambaccini

Mainly for British "charts obsessives", this now-out-of-print reference to the UK Top 40 charts from the 60s through to the early 90s, is an amazing record of pop music's Golden Years, from the rise of The Beatles, through glam, disco, punk, New Wave, and the New Romantics, to the emergence of dance music and hip hop as the dominant force in pop.

Now used as the reference work by such radio shows as Pick Of The Pops and Network Gold, it lists a separate 40 for each week of the era covered, drawn from sources like Record Mirror and later the British Market Research Bureau, which became the official chart compiler from 1969.

Stats include previous week's position, record label, and weeks on the chart, plus a whole host of "fascinating facts" footnotes on each page, for example three songs about parents in this week's Top Ten or Al Martino's Spanish Eyes hits the Top Ten 18 years and 293 days after his previous Top Ten hit ... this was a record.

The main omission from the stats - though it is a flaw not of this particular book, but of ALL such chart compilations - is any mention of the songwriter for each hit, arguably of more interest (certainly since the 60s) than the record label. A release date would also be nice, but this is information not widely or generally available I'm afraid.

This book should not be out of print. An updated version (or even merely a reprint) would be welcomed by a generation of chart obsessives who would love to get their hands on a copy, there being no other chart-by-week masterwork. This is a sorry omission, considering that the alphabetical-by-artist Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles has been regularly updated, revised, and reprinted.… (meer)