This will probably turn into a list topic in due course.

Lets have a look at some of the Amazon Reviews Though ( Mike MIGHT want to change his review on Goodreads Given the updating to releases we have done over the past year or so )


This impressive 300-page publication is subtitled “The Week by Week Top 30 Best Selling 78s: The Missing Charts”. It’s based on statistics compiled by the late Colin Brown from weekly sales figures, although sadly he did not live to see the finished project. Each page of the charts proper carries 3 columns, one per week, showing artist, title, catalogue number, and position against the previous week. That’s interspersed with photos and outline histories of some of the personalities involved, some of which look to have been written in haste. Summaries show the biggest number one hits, a list of titles indexed to artists, songs with the most recorded versions, and an index of song titles. It’s a high-quality hardback production, with an attractive cover decked out with labels of some of the featured records. It should be an indispensable purchase for any devotee of this era of popular music


A brilliant book in every way but spoilt by a few anomolies which don't make sense. For example "Dearie" by the Five Smith Brothers shows the entries from June 1951 when this was in fact released and popular in June 1950 along with the other side "A Load of Hay"

I appreciate records do become popular again, but this would not explain how "Eternally" by Ray Burns managed to become a hit in August 1952 when it wasn't even recorded or released until June 1953 as the B side of "Mother Nature, Father Time" (his first recording with Columbia DB3306).

Of course these could be misprints but could likely effect the chart positions of other entries. I'm not also too sure that the correct side of the record is always listed,


"It's slightly different to the later charts as it uses publishers figures. In other words these charts are not really based on "record sales" but what the record shops ordered from the record companies." = This Advance Orders COULD explain the appearence of discs in advance of their release date - and indeed miss some early discs out of 1939 orders for 1940 , and possibly include 1940 discs that may never have got released


my note - a problem with the way the book underlying data came from publishers/wholesalers but didnt take or have what might have been tabulating cards (From sales and manufacturers - but that might have been that no one thought to see if such things existed, but we can see where the odd transcription error might have occurred