# List of best-selling singles of the 1960s in the United Kingdom

A single is a type of music release defined by the British Official Charts Company (OCC) as having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes. On 31 May 2010, a retrospective record chart was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 that listed the 60 biggest-selling singles in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. The programme, entitled The Top 60 Best Selling Records of the 60s, was hosted by British DJ Tony Blackburn. The chart was compiled by the OCC, and was based on sales of singles from 1 January 1960 to 31 December 1969.
The most represented act in the chart is the Beatles, who feature on the list with 18 releases, seven of which are in the top twenty. Similarly, the most represented record label is Parlophone, who released music from the Beatles between 1962 and 1968 in the UK. The most represented act after the Beatles is the Rolling Stones, who have five singles in the list. The highest-placed solo female artist on the list is Cilla Black at number 27, with her 1964 single "Anyone Who Had a Heart", which was also distributed by Parlophone. Of the 60 discs in the chart, more than half (44) are by British acts.
During the 1960s, sales of singles in the UK were monitored by several magazines, including New Musical Express (NME), Record Retailer, Melody Maker and Disc. Before 1969, no officially recognised singles chart was published in the UK. Until 10 March 1960, chart compilers used the weekly chart listed by NME, after which they moved to the singles list published by Record Retailer, despite NME having the wider circulation and higher readership. During the start of the decade, Record Retailer was sampling roughly 30 stores; NME and Melody Maker had a sample size of more than one hundred. One source explains that the reason for using the Record Retailer chart for the early 1960s was that it was "the only chart to have as many as 50 positions for almost the entire decade". On 15 February 1969, Record Retailer and the BBC jointly commissioned the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to record sales of singles in what officially became the UK Singles Chart. The BMRB compiled the chart by using hand-written and post-submitted data from approximately 250 record stores.
Between 1960 and 1969, fourteen singles sold more than one million copies in the UK, of which the biggest-selling was "She Loves You" by the Beatles. Released on 23 August 1963, the single spent six non-consecutive weeks at number one and sold more than 1.89 million copies, approximately 140,000 more than its nearest rival, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", also by the Beatles. The biggest-selling record not to top the UK Singles Chart was Acker Bilk's 1961 instrumental "Stranger on the Shore" – it sold more than 1.13 million copies and peaked at number two, being kept off the top by "The Young Ones" by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, another million-seller.

## Singles

Best-selling singles of the 1960s in the UK :
| No. | Single | Artist | Record label | Year | Chart peak |
| 1 | "She Loves You" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1963 | 1 |
| 2 | "I Want to Hold Your Hand" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1963 | 1 |
| 3 | "Tears" | Ken Dodd | Columbia | 1965 | 1 |
| 4 | "Can't Buy Me Love" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1964 | 1 |
| 5 | "I Feel Fine" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1964 | 1 |
| 6 | "The Carnival Is Over" | The Seekers | Columbia | 1965 | 1 |
| 7 | "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1965 | 1 |
| 8 | "Release Me" | Engelbert Humperdinck | Decca | 1967 | 1 |
| 9 | "It's Now or Never" | Elvis Presley | RCA | 1960 | 1 |
| 10 | "Green, Green Grass of Home" | Tom Jones | Decca | 1966 | 1 |
| 11 | "The Last Waltz" | Engelbert Humperdinck | Decca | 1967 | 1 |
| 12 | "Stranger on the Shore" | Acker Bilk | Columbia | 1961 | 2 |
| 13 | "I Remember You" | Frank Ifield | Columbia | 1962 | 1 |
| 14 | "The Young Ones" | Cliff Richard and The Shadows | Columbia | 1962 | 1 |
| 15 | "Sugar, Sugar" | The Archies | RCA | 1969 | 1 |
| 16 | "The Next Time" / "Bachelor Boy" | Cliff Richard and The Shadows | Columbia | 1962 | 1 |
| 17 | "Telstar" | The Tornados | Decca | 1962 | 1 |
| 18 | "From Me to You" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1963 | 1 |
| 19 | "Two Little Boys" | Rolf Harris | Columbia | 1969 | 1 |
| 20 | "Hey Jude" | The Beatles | Apple | 1968 | 1 |
| 21 | "Hello, Goodbye" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1967 | 1 |
| 22 | "There Goes My Everything" | Engelbert Humperdinck | Decca | 1967 | 2 |
| 23 | "Help!" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1965 | 1 |
| 24 | "Cathy's Clown" | The Everly Brothers | Warner Bros. | 1960 | 1 |
| 25 | "Glad All Over" | The Dave Clark Five | Columbia | 1963 | 1 |
| 26 | "Needles and Pins" | The Searchers | Pye | 1964 | 1 |
| 27 | "Anyone Who Had a Heart" | Cilla Black | Parlophone | 1964 | 1 |
| 28 | "Apache" | The Shadows | Columbia | 1960 | 1 |
| 29 | "Lovesick Blues" | Frank Ifield | Columbia | 1962 | 1 |
| 30 | "My Way" | Frank Sinatra | Reprise | 1969 | 5 |
| 31 | "Distant Drums" | Jim Reeves | RCA | 1966 | 1 |
| 32 | "You'll Never Walk Alone" | Gerry and the Pacemakers | Columbia | 1963 | 1 |
| 33 | "Get Back" | The Beatles and Billy Preston | Apple | 1969 | 1 |
| 34 | "All You Need Is Love" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1967 | 1 |
| 35 | "Strangers in the Night" | Frank Sinatra | Reprise | 1966 | 1 |
| 36 | "The Last Time" | The Rolling Stones | Decca | 1965 | 1 |
| 37 | "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" | Elvis Presley | RCA | 1961 | 1 |
| 38 | "I'll Never Find Another You" | The Seekers | Columbia | 1965 | 1 |
| 39 | "Are You Sure?" | The Allisons | Fontana | 1961 | 2 |
| 40 | "Yellow Submarine" / "Eleanor Rigby" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1966 | 1 |
| 41 | "I'm a Believer" | The Monkees | RCA | 1967 | 1 |
| 42 | "Paperback Writer" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1966 | 1 |
| 43 | "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" | The Rolling Stones | Decca | 1965 | 1 |
| 44 | "Ticket to Ride" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1965 | 1 |
| 45 | "Those Were the Days" | Mary Hopkin | Apple | 1968 | 1 |
| 46 | Magical Mystery Tour | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1967 | 2 |
| 47 | "Wooden Heart" | Elvis Presley | RCA | 1961 | 1 |
| 48 | "19th Nervous Breakdown" | The Rolling Stones | Decca | 1966 | 2 |
| 49 | "It's Not Unusual" | Tom Jones | Decca | 1965 | 1 |
| 50 | "Honky Tonk Women" | The Rolling Stones | Decca | 1969 | 1 |
| 51 | "Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1967 | 2 |
| 52 | "A Hard Day's Night" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1964 | 1 |
| 53 | "I Love You Because" | Jim Reeves | RCA | 1964 | 5 |
| 54 | "Summer Holiday" | Cliff Richard and The Shadows | Columbia | 1963 | 1 |
| 55 | "Oh, Pretty Woman" | Roy Orbison | London | 1964 | 1 |
| 56 | "I Won't Forget You" | Jim Reeves | RCA | 1964 | 3 |
| 57 | "Lady Madonna" | The Beatles | Parlophone | 1968 | 1 |
| 58 | "Surrender" | Elvis Presley | RCA | 1961 | 1 |
| 59 | "Delilah" | Tom Jones | Decca | 1968 | 2 |
| 60 | "Jumpin' Jack Flash" | The Rolling Stones | Decca | 1968 | 1 |
* 1 2 3 The record labels, years and chart peaks are those given by the OCC.
* ↑ Magical Mystery Tour was released as an extended play in the UK, which, at the time, qualified it for the UK Singles Chart.