The UK Albums Chart is a record chart based on weekly album sales; during the 1950s, a total of 17 different albums reached number one. The longest run at number one was the original soundtrack of the movie South Pacific, which held on to the top spot for 60 consecutive weeks in the 1950s, and went on to attain another 55 weeks in 1960 and 1961, totalling a record of 115 weeks at number-one in the UK. It was number-one for the entire year in 1959.
The UK Albums Chart canon was modified when chart fans Alan Smith and Keith Badman discovered that charts of albums in the UK dated back to 28 July 1956, not 8 November 1958 as previously thought.[1] The first album chart was a Top 5 published in Record Mirror. The album at number one on this chart was Songs for Swingin' Lovers! by Frank Sinatra. From 8 November 1958, a Top 10 album chart was compiled by Melody Maker. Although the Record Mirror chart continued to run after this date, Melody Maker is taken as the canonical source as it had a larger sample. In 1959, from June to August a newspaper strike prevented the album chart from being published and the previous chart was duplicated in these weeks. Nevertheless, the South Pacific soundtrack was number one for the entire duration of 1959.
| nth album to top the UK Albums Chart | |||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | re | Return of an album to number one | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#FFFF99 align=center | Best-selling album of the year[2] [3] [4] [5] | ||
| bgcolor=lightgreen align=center | The album spent a week at number one where it shared the top spot with another album |
| scope=col | scope=col | Artist | scope=col | Album | scope=col | Record label | scope=col | Reached number one | scope=col | Weeks at number one | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" colspan=6 | |||||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Songs for Swingin' Lovers! | Capitol | 2 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Carousel | Capitol | 2 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Songs for Swingin' Lovers! | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Carousel | Capitol | 4 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Oklahoma! | Capitol | 2 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 2 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Rock 'n' Roll Stage Show | Brunswick | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Rock 'N' Roll | HMV | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | align=center bgcolor=lightgreen | 15 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" colspan=6 | |||||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | High Society | Capitol | align=center bgcolor=lightgreen | 1 | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | This Is Sinatra! | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | This Is Sinatra! | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | This Is Sinatra! | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 3 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | This Is Sinatra! | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | align=center bgcolor=lightgreen | 6 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Love Is the Thing | Capitol | align=center bgcolor=lightgreen | 1 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Oklahoma! | Capitol | 1 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 4 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 10 | Decca | 3 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 3 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Decca | 1 | |||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 11 | Loving You | RCA | 2 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 12 | Capitol | 7 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Loving You | RCA | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 11 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" colspan=6 | |||||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 13 | Original soundtrack | Pal Joey | Capitol | 7 | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 1 | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | Original soundtrack | Pal Joey | Capitol | 4 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 14 | Original soundtrack | Decca | 2 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 15 | Original cast | My Fair Lady | Philips | 19 | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 16 | King Creole | RCA | 7 | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 17 | Original soundtrack | South Pacific | RCA Victor | 70 | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" colspan=6 | |||||||||||
| align=center colspan=6 | No new number one – the original soundtrack to South Pacific remained at the top of the chart throughout 1959 and into 1960 |
Five artists topped the album chart during the 1950s. Original soundtracks and cast recordings are omitted.
| scope=col | Artist | scope=col | Number ones | scope=col | Weeks at number one | scope=col class=unsortable | Albums |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 3 | 14 | Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956, three weeks at number one) This Is Sinatra! (1957, four weeks) A Swingin' Affair! (1957, seven weeks) | ||||
| scope=row | 3 | 11 | Rock 'N' Roll (1956, one week at number one) Loving You (1957, three weeks) King Creole (1958, seven weeks) | ||||
| scope=row | 1 | 4 | The Tommy Steele Story (1957, four weeks at number one) | ||||
| scope=row | 1 | 1 | Love Is the Thing (1957, one week at number one) | ||||
| scope=row | 1 | 1 | Rock 'n' Roll Stage Show (1957, one week at number one) |
See main article: List of UK Albums Chart Christmas number ones. In the UK, Christmas number-one albums are those that are at the top of the UK Albums Chart on Christmas Day. Typically, this will refer to the album that was announced as number one on the Sunday before 25 December—when Christmas Day falls on a Sunday itself, the official number one is considered by the OCC to be the one announced on that day's chart.[6] During the 1950s, the following albums were Christmas number ones.[7]
| scope=col | Year | scope=col | Artist | scope=col | Album | scope=col | Record label | scope=col | Weeks at number one |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1956 | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 48 | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1957 | Original soundtrack | Capitol | 48 | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1958 | Original soundtrack | South Pacific | RCA Victor | 115 | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1959 | Original soundtrack | South Pacific | RCA Victor | 115 |
From 8 November 1958, Melody Maker is regarded as the canonical source. Record Mirror continued to compile an album chart with the following differences:[2]
| scope=col | Dates | scope=col | Melody Maker | scope=col | Record Mirror |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 November - | Original soundtrack - South Pacific (8 weeks) | - King Creole (1 week) Original cast - My Fair Lady (4 weeks) Original soundtrack - South Pacific (3 weeks) |