Post by nocturnalquadruped on Oct 14, 2007 8:48:13 GMT 1
I found this rather interesting article at everyhit.com
The 'Secret' Number One
John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir - "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"
There was a time when no new chart was compiled over the Christmas period; it was a labour-intensive process requiring couriers racing around the country, collecting sales diaries which were then delivered to a data-entry team who would manually key the catalogue numbers into an early computer system. These staff needed a week off for Christmas. Furthermore, the media didn't seem to require a chart update due to lack of publications and special festive programming. Today, the data is downloaded from stores in a flash and chart-compilation is much less labour-intensive so even over Christmas a new chart can easily be compiled - and Radio One is happy to air it. But, between these two extremes, there were a few years in which a new chart was compiled but never aired or published. Usually, this resulted in no change at the top in any case. But the notable exception was Christmas 1980. On 8th December of that year John Lennon was assassinated. On the week ending 27 Dec, St Winifred's School Choir hit the top spot with "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma." But, directly over Christmas week, large numbers of shoppers bought Lennon's classic "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)." The chart compiled (though not published) for w/e 3rd Jan 1981 had John Lennon at number one. This fact is not widely known, thus it is omitted from lists of Number Ones. Instead, St Winifred's School Choir are shown as holding the position for two weeks. By the time normal service had been resumed (w/e 10th Jan 1981), John Lennon's "Imagine" had climbed to the top in any case.
I remember that period well.
The 'Secret' Number One
John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir - "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"
There was a time when no new chart was compiled over the Christmas period; it was a labour-intensive process requiring couriers racing around the country, collecting sales diaries which were then delivered to a data-entry team who would manually key the catalogue numbers into an early computer system. These staff needed a week off for Christmas. Furthermore, the media didn't seem to require a chart update due to lack of publications and special festive programming. Today, the data is downloaded from stores in a flash and chart-compilation is much less labour-intensive so even over Christmas a new chart can easily be compiled - and Radio One is happy to air it. But, between these two extremes, there were a few years in which a new chart was compiled but never aired or published. Usually, this resulted in no change at the top in any case. But the notable exception was Christmas 1980. On 8th December of that year John Lennon was assassinated. On the week ending 27 Dec, St Winifred's School Choir hit the top spot with "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma." But, directly over Christmas week, large numbers of shoppers bought Lennon's classic "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)." The chart compiled (though not published) for w/e 3rd Jan 1981 had John Lennon at number one. This fact is not widely known, thus it is omitted from lists of Number Ones. Instead, St Winifred's School Choir are shown as holding the position for two weeks. By the time normal service had been resumed (w/e 10th Jan 1981), John Lennon's "Imagine" had climbed to the top in any case.
I remember that period well.
