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Topic: The British Hit Singles Missing Charts January 1940 -1945

  27th Sep 2023, 8:51 AM
Mike Wilson1

Musicologist
Member since Dec 2019
26 Points
mister_tmg wrote:
Very interesting, Mike, but I must correct you. The Missing Charts book does not capture British sheet music sales, but those of records, so I think you must have got confused there (the Warsaw Concerto made #3 on sheet music sales). I believe the data comes from shipment figures obtained by the late Colin Brown. The book was published after his death. It is titled “The British Hit Singles Jan 1940 - Oct 1952: The Missing Charts”. Despite the title, it isn’t actually part of the Guinness series of the same name. When the published record charts began in November 1952, it was a top 12 - it didn’t become a top 20 until 1954, I think. Harry James was an American bandleader - did he appear in British dance halls in 1943? I’m not sure Victor Silvester was particularly active as a live performer either, being more prominent on records and radio.

The book was published ten years ago, and I recently managed to track down a copy, as it is now rather elusive. Interesting as it is, I think it should be taken with a large pinch of salt. Didn’t you find several hundred errors in the book, Mike? It lists records that don’t even exist!

Yes many errors are indeed in the book....wrong artists, misnamed, wrong titles, catalogue numbers etc and indeed some that I have yet to see real evidence that they exist at all but I am confused as the book clearly states that it is based on sales of sheet music.....In fact it sometimes lists a song and it says "not attributed to a particular artist" which would be difficult I guess with a record


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