List of best-selling singles of the 1950s in the United Kingdom

Singles are a type of music release that typically have fewer tracks than an extended play or album; during the 1950s, sales of singles in the United Kingdom were compiled by the magazine New Musical Express (NME), and published weekly as a record chart. The singles chart was founded in 1952 by Percy Dickins of NME, who wanted to imitate the hit parade that featured in the American magazine Billboard; before this, the popularity of a song had been measured by its sales of sheet music.[1] Dickins sampled twenty shops, asking which their ten biggest-selling singles were. His aggregated list of sales was then published in NME on 14 November 1952 as a Top 12 chart.[1] NME's chart is considered by the Official Charts Company (OCC) to be the canonical UK Singles Chart during the 1950s;[2] it was expanded to a Top 20 on 1 October 1954.[3]

Bill Haley & His Comets had the biggest-selling single of the 1950s with "Rock Around the Clock", the first single in the UK to sell more than one million copies.
1950s in music in the UK
Events

Sales of records significantly increased in the mid-fifties, following the birth of rock and roll. As a result, the top ten biggest-selling singles of the 1950s were all released in the latter half of the decade.[4] The biggest-selling single of this period was "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, which became the first single ever to sell more than a million copies in the UK.[5]

Singles
Best-selling singles of the 1950s in the UK
No. Single Artist Record label[lower-alpha 1] Year[lower-alpha 1] Sales Chart
peak[lower-alpha 1]
1 "Rock Around the Clock" Bill Haley & His Comets Brunswick 1955 1,390,000 1
2 "Diana" Paul Anka Columbia 1957 1,240,000 1
3 "Mary's Boy Child" Harry Belafonte RCA 1957 1,170,000 1
4 "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" Emile Ford & The Checkmates Pye 1959 920,000 1
5 "Jailhouse Rock" Elvis Presley RCA 1958 880,000 1
6 "What Do You Want?" Adam Faith Parlophone 1959 820,000 1
7 "Living Doll" Cliff Richard & The Drifters Columbia 1959 770,000 1
8 "All Shook Up" Elvis Presley HMV 1957 740,000 1
9 "Love Letters in the Sand" Pat Boone London 1957 710,000 2
10 "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" Buddy Holly Coral 1959 680,000 1
  1. The record labels, years and chart peaks are those given by the OCC.[6]

References
General (chart positions)
  • Maconie, Stuart (11 January 2008). "The golden age of pop". The Times. London. ISSN 0140-0460. OCLC 6967919. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
Specific
  1. Williams, Mark (19 February 2002). "Obituary: Percy Dickins". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 476290235. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  2. Smith, Alan (December 2007). "50s & 60s UK Charts – The Truth!". davemcaleer.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  3. "Key Dates in the History of the Official UK Charts". London: Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 10 January 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  4. Ash, Russell; Crampton, Luke; Lazell, Barry (1993). The Top 10 of Music (illustrated ed.). London: Headline. ISBN 978-0-7472-0798-6. OCLC 29519791. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  5. Westbrook, Caroline (14 January 2005). "The history of the chart-topper". London: BBC News. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  6. "Artist Chart History". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.

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