List of Top Pops number-one singles

Top Pops is a former British weekly pop music newspaper. It was founded as a monthly publication by Woodrow Wyatt in May 1967, becoming fortnightly in November 1967. On 25 May 1968, editor Colin Bostock-Smith began compiling a singles sales chart using a telephone sample of approximately twelve W H Smith & Son stores – the first single to reach number one on the Top Pops chart was "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap. The charts and paper were published weekly with effect from 22 June 1968.[1] On 20 September 1969 the paper was rebranded Top Pops & Music Now, and subsequently became Music Now from 21 March 1970 – at this point the chart was sampling between 30 and 40 stores. From 27 February 1971 the chart was no longer published and in May 1971 the newspaper ceased publication.[1] During the publication of the chart, 55 different singles reached number one. The only one to be knocked off number one and then regain the top spot was "Mony Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells. The final chart-topper was "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison.

Robin Gibb reached number one on the Top Pops chart in 1969 with his song "Saved by the Bell", but the song did not top the BMRB chart and is therefore not regarded as an official UK number one.

From the advent of charts in the UK until 1969 several magazines and newspapers published their own charts, and there was no one "official" singles chart.[2][3] In February 1969, however, Record Retailer and the BBC jointly commissioned the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to compile an official chart.[2][4] The Record Retailer chart is now considered by the Official Charts Company, the current compilers of the UK Singles Chart, to be the canonical source for number-one singles for the earlier part of the 1960s.[4] Charts compiled by Top Pops had fifteen number-one singles that did not reach the top spot in the Record Retailer chart; in comparison, a total of nine Top Pops number-ones did not top the rival New Musical Express chart.[5] Seven Top Pops number ones did not top either of the other publications' charts. Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day", Robin Gibb's "Saved by the Bell", Bee Gees' "Don't Forget to Remember", and The Tremeloes' "(Call Me) Number One" all peaked at number two in both charts, Herman's Hermits' "My Sentimental Friend" and Don Fardon's "Indian Reservation" placed with one number two and one number three in each chart, and Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" reached fourth and third spot in the two charts.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Number-one singles
Australian entertainer Rolf Harris (pictured in 2010) spent six weeks at number one in Top Pops with the song "Two Little Boys", the longest run atop the chart.
Hard rock band Deep Purple reached number one on the Top Pops chart with "Black Night", but have never achieved an officially-recognised UK number one hit.
George Harrison was at number one with "My Sweet Lord" when the chart ceased publication in 1971.
Key
No. nth single to top the chart
re Return of a single to number one
The song did not reach number one on the chart that is now
considered official by the Official Charts Company.[14][15][16][17]
Contents
1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971
List of Top Pops number-one singles
No. Artist[nb 1]Single[nb 1]Reached
number one[nb 1]		Weeks at
number one[nb 1]
1968
1 Gary Puckett & The Union Gap "Young Girl" 25 May 19684[nb 2]
2 The Rolling Stones "Jumpin' Jack Flash" 22 June 19683
3 The Equals "Baby Come Back" 13 July 19682
4 Tommy James and the Shondells "Mony Mony" 27 July 19682
5 Crazy World of Arthur Brown "Fire" 10 August 19681
re Tommy James and the Shondells "Mony Mony" 17 August 19682
6 Bee Gees "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" 31 August 19681
7 The Beatles "Hey Jude" 7 September 19684
8 Mary Hopkin "Those Were the Days" 5 October 19685
9 Joe Cocker "With a Little Help from My Friends" 9 November 19682
10 Hugo Montenegro "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" 23 November 19682
11 The Scaffold "Lily the Pink" 7 December 19685
1969
12 Marmalade "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" 11 January 19692
13 Fleetwood Mac "Albatross" 25 January 19694
14 Amen Corner "(If Paradise) Is Half as Nice" 22 February 19692
15 Peter Sarstedt "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" 8 March 19692
16 Marvin Gaye "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" 22 March 19694
17 Desmond Dekker & The Aces "Israelites" 19 April 19691
18 The Beatles with Billy Preston"Get Back" 26 April 19693
19 Herman's Hermits "My Sentimental Friend" 24 May 19692
20 Tommy Roe "Dizzy" 7 June 19692
21 The Beatles "The Ballad of John and Yoko" 21 June 19692
22 Edwin Hawkins Singers "Oh Happy Day" 5 July 19691
23 Elvis Presley "In the Ghetto" 12 July 19691
24 Thunderclap Newman "Something in the Air" 19 July 19691
25 The Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Women" 26 July 19692
26 Robin Gibb "Saved by the Bell" 9 August 19692
27 Stevie Wonder "My Cherie Amour" 23 August 19691
28 Zager and Evans "In The Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" 30 August 19694
29 Bee Gees "Don't Forget to Remember" 27 September 19691
30 Bobbie Gentry "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" 4 October 19692
31 Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg "Je t'aime... moi non plus" 18 October 19692
32 The Archies "Sugar, Sugar" 1 November 19692
33 Fleetwood Mac "Oh Well" 15 November 19692
34 The Tremeloes "(Call Me) Number One" 29 November 19692
35 Kenny Rogers and The First Edition "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" 13 December 19691
36 Rolf Harris "Two Little Boys" 20 December 19696
1970
37 Marmalade "Reflections of My Life" 31 January 19701
38 Edison Lighthouse "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" 7 February 19703
39 The Jackson 5 "I Want You Back" 28 February 19703
40 Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge over Troubled Water" 21 March 19705
41 Norman Greenbaum "Spirit in the Sky" 25 April 19704
42 England World Cup Squad "70" "Back Home" 23 May 19701
43 Christie "Yellow River" 30 May 19701
44 Mungo Jerry "In the Summertime" 13 June 19704
45 Free "All Right Now" 11 July 19704
46 Elvis Presley "The Wonder of You" 1 August 19703
47 Smokey Robinson and The Miracles "The Tears of a Clown" 29 August 19704
48 Freda Payne "Band of Gold" 26 September 19705
49 Deep Purple "Black Night" 31 October 19701
50 Matthews' Southern Comfort "Woodstock" 7 November 19703
51 Don Fardon "Indian Reservation" 28 November 19701
52 Dave Edmunds's Rockpile "I Hear You Knocking" 5 December 19702
53 McGuinness Flint "When I'm Dead and Gone" 19 December 19703
1971
54 Clive Dunn "Grandad" 9 January 19713
55 George Harrison "My Sweet Lord" 30 January 19714

Notes
  1. The names, singles, week-ending dates and duration at number one are from Top Pops (later Music Now).[1]
  2. The chart was published fortnightly at this time, so "Young Girl", which topped two fortnightly charts, spent four weeks at number one.

References
Footnotes
  1. Smith, Alan. "Every No.1 in the 1960s is listed from all the nine different magazine charts!". davemcaleer.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  2. Smith, Alan. "50s & 60s UK Charts – The Truth!". davemcaleer.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  3. Leigh, Spencer (20 February 1998). "Music: Charting the number ones that somehow got away". The Independent. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  4. "Key Dates in the History of the Official UK Charts". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 10 January 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  5. Rees, Lazell & Osborne 1995, pp. 195–232.
  6. Rees, Lazell & Osborne 1995, pp. 208, 210–211, 213, 215, 228.
  7. "Artist Chart History: Robin Gibb". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  8. "Artist Chart History: Edwin Hawkins Singers featuring Dorothy Combs Morrison". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  9. "Artist Chart History: Bee Gees". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  10. "Artist Chart History: Tremeloes". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  11. "Artist Chart History: Herman's Hermits". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  12. "Artist Chart History: Don Fardon". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  13. "Artist Chart History: Stevie Wonder". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  14. "All the Number One Singles: 1968". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  15. "All the Number One Singles: 1969". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  16. "All the Number One Singles: 1970". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  17. "All the Number One Singles: 1971". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
Sources
  • Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Osborne, Roger (1995). Forty Years of "NME" Charts (2nd ed.). Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-7522-0829-9.

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