The UK charts are the most exciting in the world
Have you ever heard of Al Martino? Not many people know his name nowadays but back in 1952 he made history by becoming the firstrecording artistto have a number one record with his song ‘Here In My Heart’.

For more than fifty years sales ofsingleshave been measured on a weekly basis andrankedin a chart. The week’sbest-sellingsingle takes the number one position for that week.

So who has had the most number ones? For 25 years The Beatles and Elvis Presley matched each other with 18 number one records apiece. However, in 2005 Elvis earned aposthumousnumber one when his 1957hit‘Jailhouse Rock wasre-released¹. Since then two more Elvis singles have gone to the top of the charts bringing his total to 21 number ones!

Over the years many artists have enjoyed incredible² success in the charts. Bryan Adams held the number one position for 16 weeks in 1991 with theballad‘Everything I Do I Do It For You’ whilst³ Elton John’s tribute⁴ to Princess Diana, ‘Candle In The Wind 97’, sold 4.86 million copies in the UK.

However, there are concerns over the future of the music industry as sales have fallen in recent years. This was illustrated⁵ in 2004 when Eric Prydz had a number one record despite having sold less than 24,000 copies.

One reason for the fall in CD sales could be the increase inmusic downloads. Many computer users⁶ illegally download MP3 files throughpeer-to-peer, file-sharing networks.

The music industry has responded to this new threat by offering the possibility to buy downloads from approved web sites. These digital downloads wereintegratedinto the UK chart for the first time in April 2005. Ironically, the first number one of the digital age was areissueof Tony Christie’s ‘Amarillo’, a song first released in 1971.