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

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Composite image of four black-and-white photographs showing the faces of The Beatles.
The Beatles released 18 of the best-selling songs of the 1960s.

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.[1] On 31 May 2011, a retrospective record chart was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 that listed the 60 biggest-selling singles in the United Kingdom during the 1960s.[2] The programme, entitled The Top 60 Best Selling Records of the 60s, was hosted by British DJ Tony Blackburn.[3] The chart was compiled by the OCC, and was based on sales of singles from 1 January 1960 to 31 December 1969.[4]

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.[5][6] Similarly, the most represented record label is Parlophone, who released music from The Beatles between 1962 and 1968 in the UK.[7] The most represented act after The Beatles is The Rolling Stones, who have five singles in the list.[8] The highest-placed solo female artist is Cilla Black at number 27, with her 1964 single "Anyone Who Had a Heart", which was also distributed by Parlophone.[3] Of the 60 songs in the chart, more than half are by British acts.[5]

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.[9] Before 1969, no officially recognised singles chart was published in the UK.[10] 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.[9][10] 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.[9] 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".[11] 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.[12] The BMRB compiled the chart by using hand-written and post-submitted data from approximately 250 record stores.[12]

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.[13][14] Released on 23 August 1963, the single spent six 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.[6] 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.[15]

Singles

Black-and-white photograph of The Rolling Stones sitting on a staircase in 1965.
The Rolling Stones had five of the biggest-selling singles of the decade.
Black-and-white promotional photograph of Elvis Presley from the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock.
American singer Elvis Presley featured in the decade-end singles chart with four songs.
Head-and-shoulders colour photograph of Cliff Richard in 1975.
Between 1960 and 1969, Cliff Richard released three of the best-selling singles.
Colour photograph of Ken Dodd in a dressing room in 2007. He is holding two feather dusters against his head in a comical fashion.
British comedian Ken Dodd's 1965 song "Tears" was the third best-selling track of the decade.[14]
Best-selling singles of the 1960s in the UK
No. Single Artist Record label[lower-alpha 1] Year[lower-alpha 1] Chart
peak[lower-alpha 1]
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[lower-alpha 2] 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. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The record labels, years and chart peaks are those given by the OCC.[16]
  2. ↑ Magical Mystery Tour was released as an extended play in the UK, which, at the time, qualified it for the UK Singles Chart.[17]

References

General (chart positions)
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Specific
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