It's interesting to look at the earliest 'official' (NME) UK #1 hits and note when the records were released, and then when they charted. "Here in My Heart" and "You Belong to Me" appear to have charted in the month they were released, based on The Missing Charts book. "Comes a-Long a-Love" and "Outside of Heaven" appeared to take a bit longer to chart, although we have no data for the first two weeks in November.

"She Wears Red Feathers" actually charted a month before the release date of March 1953 given in the CLPGS Columbia DB series book, although First Hits (the sheet music chart hit) gives the month of February 1953. I wonder why. The other records I've looked at so far do seem to have charted the same month or the following month.

I wonder if it was typical for these hit records in the 78rpm era to start selling almost as soon as they were released. It would be interesting to have all the data on this to analyse. I suppose I got the impression that 78s were more of a 'slow burn' sales-wise, but maybe that isn't the case. Did The Missing Charts hit records usually chart the month they were released?

It would also be interesting to see which records might have taken a longer time to chart. "Bluebell Polka" by Jimmy Shand and "Don't Laugh At Me" by Norman Wisdom had been released a while before they officially charted in the UK, but I think those were resurgent sales of records which had already sold before the chart started.

However, "Rose Marie" by Slim Whitman seems to have taken a year to chart from its original July 1954 release date.