Compiled by PPL the organisation that monitors all recorded music plays in the UK, not just on radio and TV, but in cinemas, clubs, pubs, restaurants, gyms and even karaoke bars , these songs have soundtracked our lives over the last ten years. There are plenty more surprises in store. See the top 10 below and find the rest of the chart elsewhere on this page. Nashville rockers Kings of Leon truly broke into the mainstream with 'Sex on Fire', although the song only charted as high as No. The track title doesn't mean anything, according to frontman Caleb Followill — it was just a running joke they had while making it in the studio. Did you know? The track was almost shelved because Caleb wasn't happy with it. Then one day I just sang 'this sex is on fire' and I laughed. I thought it was terrible, but the rest of the band were like, 'it's good, it's got a hook. To date it's his only solo record to top the UK Singles Chart and is taken from his third and most successfu solo album, 'The Lady Killer' which reached No.
Sundays 4 - 7pm
Accessibility links
Last week: 1 Highest chart position: 1. Nathan Dawe. New entry this week! Jawsh , Jason Derulo. Last week: 2 Highest chart position: 1. Last week: 3 Highest chart position: 2.
Browse the charts
The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV Official UK Top 40 , is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15, retailers and digital services daily, capturing The OCC website contains the Top chart. The chart week runs from Friday to midnight Thursday, [5] with most UK physical and digital singles being released on Fridays. From 3 August until 5 July , the chart week ran from Sunday to midnight Saturday. The UK Singles Chart began to be compiled in The company regards a selected period of the New Musical Express chart only from to and the Record Retailer chart from to as predecessors for the period prior to 11 February , 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 are not listed as chart-toppers according to the legacy criteria of the Charts Company. Before the compilation of sales of records, the music market measured a song's popularity by sales of sheet music. The idea of compiling a chart based on sales originated in the United States , where the music-trade paper Billboard compiled the first chart incorporating sales figures on 20 July The NME chart was based on a telephone poll.
To examine UK Chart History, we need to go back to the early 's, when the only UK music charts published were for sheet music. A music promoter and agent by the name of Maurice Kinn had put his money where his mouth was and fulfilled his dream of owning a music paper. Together with Percy Dickins, and editor Ray Sonin, he decided it would be a good idea and provide a circulation boost to start publishing similar charts to reflect UK record sales. For the next 8 months the small editorial team planned furiously and on 14th November , the first UK record chart was published in the New Musical Express. The name would not be shortened to NME for some time yet. Crooner Al Martino therefore became the first artist to have a No 1 single in the UK charts and in fact the only record to make No. Because there were not the quantity and variety of recordings we see today, that very first chart was a top 15 and had only 12 places on it due to ties for 3 of the positions. Another contributory factor was, records at that time were released on 78 r. The records were easily broken and the raw material was very scarce in post war Britain.
