UK Number One Singles in the 60s

The ***UK Singles Chart*** (currently entitled Official Singles Chart) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. To be eligible for the chart, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence.

The OCC website contains the Top 100 chart. Some media outlets only list the Top 40 (such as the BBC) or the Top 75 (such as Music Week magazine) of this list. Around 6,500 British retail outlets contribute sales data, as well as most UK online digital-download stores. Unlike charts in the United States, no airplay statistics are used for the official UK Singles Chart. The chart week runs from 00:01 Friday to midnight Thursday, with most UK physical and digital singles being released on Fridays. From August 3, 1969 until July 5, 2015, the chart week ran from 00:01 Sunday to midnight Saturday.

The Top 40 chart is first issued on Friday afternoons by BBC Radio 1 as The Official Chart from 16:00 to 17:45, before the full Official Singles Chart Top 100 is posted on the Official Charts Company's website. A rival chart show, The Vodafone Big Top 40, is based on downloads and commercial radio airplay and is broadcast on Sunday afternoons from 16:00 to 19:00 on 145 local commercial radio stations across the United Kingdom.

The UK Singles Chart began to be compiled in 1952. According to the Official Charts Company's statistics. The precise number of chart-toppers is debatable due to the profusion of competing charts from the 1950s to the 1980s, but the usual list used is that endorsed by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and subsequently adopted by the Official Charts Company. The company regards a selected period of the New Musical Express chart (only from 1952 to 1960) and the Record Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969 as predecessors for the period prior to February 11, 1969, where multiples of competing charts (none official) coexisted side by side. For example, the BBC compiled its own chart based on an average of the music papers of the time; many songs announced as having reached number one on BBC Radio and Top of the Pops prior to 1969 are not listed as chart-toppers according to the legacy criteria of the Charts Company.

The first number one on the UK Singles Chart was "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino for the week ending date November 14, 1952.

## UK Number One Singles in the 60s

### Georgie Fame

***Georgie Fame*** (born June 26, 1943) is an English rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.

Fame is the only British pop star to have achieved three number one hits with his only Top 10 chart entries: "Yeh, Yeh" in 1964, "Get Away" in 1966 and "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967.

#### January 30, 1968: "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde"

***"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde"*** is a song recorded by the British rhythm and blues singer Georgie Fame after seeing the (then) controversial release of the now considered classic gangster film Bonnie and Clyde starring Warren Beatty (as Clyde Barrow) and Faye Dunaway (as Bonnie Parker). The song, in the style of the 1920s and 1930s, features the sounds of gun battles, car chases, and police sirens, including the climactic gun battle that takes place when both Bonnie and Clyde meet their fate. The instrumentation of the song includes a piano, banjo, drums, trumpets, trombones, and a bass.

* One week
* US #7

### The Foundations

***The Foundations*** were a British soul band, active 1967-70, that was one of the few British acts to successfully imitate what became known as the Motown Sound. The group, made up of West Indians, White British, and a Sri Lankan, are best known for their two biggest hits, ***"Baby Now That I've Found You"*** and "Build Me Up Buttercup". The group was the first multi-racial group to have a number one hit in the UK in the 1960s.

#### November 14, 1967: Baby Now That I've Found You"

* Two weeks
* US #11
* Released Summer 1967
* From *From the Foundations* (1967)

### Long John Baldry

    John William ***"Long John" Baldry*** (January 12, 1941 – July 21, 2005) was an English blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where ***"Let the Heartaches Begin"*** reached No. 1 in 1967. Baldry lived in Canada from the late 1970s until his death; there he continued to make records and do voiceover work. Two of his best known roles in voice acting were as Dr. Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and as KOMPLEX in Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars.

#### November 28, 1967: "Let The Heartaches Begin"

* Two weeks
* US #88
* Released 1967
* From *Let The Heartaches Begin* (1968)

### Love Affair

***Love Affair*** was a London-based pop and soul group formed in 1966. The group had several UK Singles Chart Top 10 hits, including the number one success, "Everlasting Love".

#### February 6, 1968: "Everlasting Love"

***"Everlasting Love"*** is a song originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since remade several times, most successfully by the Love Affair.

* Two weeks
* Released December, 1967

### Manfred Mann

***Manfred Mann*** were an English rock band of the 1960s, named after keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The group had two different lead vocalists during their success, Paul Jones from 1962 to 1966, and Mike d'Abo from 1966 to 1969.

Manfred Mann were regularly in the charts in the 1960s and were the first south-of-England-based group to top the US Billboard Hot 100 during the British invasion.

#### February 20, 1968: "The Mighty Quinn"

"Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" is a folk-rock song written by Bob Dylan and first recorded during The Basement Tapes sessions in 1967. The song was recorded in December 1967 and first released in January 1968 as the "Mighty Quinn" by the British band Manfred Mann and became a great success. It has been recorded by a number of performers, often under the "Mighty Quinn" title.

The subject of the song is the arrival of the mighty Quinn (an Eskimo), who changes despair into joy and chaos into rest, and attracts attention from the animals. Dylan is widely believed to have derived the title character from actor Anthony Quinn's role as an Eskimo in the 1960 movie The Savage Innocents. Dylan has also been quoted as saying that the song was nothing more than a "simple nursery rhyme."

* Two weeks
* Released January 12, 1968
* From *Mighty Garvey!* (1968)