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.

"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.

It would certainly be an interesting project to compare charting and release dates for the NME chart.

On the flip side, there are 16 records that chart before official release. Some of these will probably be mid-month releases but others are definitely mistakes in the book.

I would assume that when the record companies did monthly new releases, the records were available from the start of each month. Given that the book is based on shipments to stores (ie. what the shops were buying, rather than customers), perhaps that makes sense - as soon as new product was available, the stores would order it in.

I believe the CLPGS had access to EMI Archives and other record company data for doing these books, so the information could have been from EMI's own sources. For Decca, I don't know if that's the case, and the CLPGS F series listing has some records which probably weren't even released. It also fails to list Twenty / Summertime In Venice by Gracie Fields (Decca F 10614) - I don't have the book, but looked at it in the British Library. Instead it lists Ballyhoo / Cloudburst by Ted Heath under this number. Take 2 of the latter title came out on F 10624, coupled with Malagueña. I can only guess that the Gracie record was a late addition to the catalogue, and maybe the Ted Heath disc was originally planned for F 10614.

A spreadsheet listing this would be good, which could then be analysed. I guess the Britburn spreadsheet would be a good starting point, and the release dates could then be added in... quite a task, I know! I'd help out if anyone else had a go. Covering the NME chart era would probably be a good start, as that's the era of more interest to us.

So we only need a quick list of these 16 to work out what happend, most likely the sales sheets catching up to reality rather than a planned world

Well, the NME continued to publish their own charts into the 1970s or even later. However, the Guinness books and OCC use Record Retailer from 1960 onwards. I’m sure I’m aware of date78 - or am I? I have those programs which can date 78s. Probably from this forum. At least with the 1950s dates, the release dates aren’t likely to be hard to find. They’re probably all in First Hits, The Ballad Years or 45cat/worlds. I’d be very interested to see such a listing.