1952 in British music

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This is a summary of 1952 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

This year was a turning point for music in not only the UK, but all over the world. The first official UK singles chart began in November 1952, compiled by the New Musical Express. This made the United Kingdom the first country in the world to have an official singles chart and created it in many other countries, with the Billboard Hot 100 era beginning in 1958 in the USA. The singles chart quickly became a phenomenon and record breaking became a new excitement for the public. Compiled solely on sales; it kept this trend until April 2005, when it was combined with legal downloads.

Contents 1 Summary 1.1 The Official UK Singles Chart 2 Charts 3 Classical music 4 Births 5 Deaths

[edit] Summary

[edit] The Official UK Singles Chart

On the week ending November 14 1952, NME published the first ever UK singles chart. Only a Top 12 at the time, it slowly grew over the years as nowadays sales data is gathered electronically and a Top 200 is compiled weekly for industrial purposes. During the rest of the decade and the early 1960s, there were many different charts forming and the general public and the BBC's "Pick Of The Pops" (now known as Top Of The Pops) were all confused as to which was the most accurate. The Official Charts Company uses NME until March 1960 and then uses Record Retailer until 1969, when an official sole chart was formed by an alliance between the two most popular charts.

[edit] Charts

Issue Date	Song Title	Artist
8 November	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
15 November	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
22 November	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
29 November	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
5 December	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
12 December	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
19 December	Here In My Heart	Al Martino
26 December	Here In My Heart	Al Martino

[edit] Classical music

Welsh composer David Wynne produced his first symphony in this year. William Walton wrote a Coronation Te Deum for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The film version of The Importance of Being Earnest was released, with a score by Benjamin Frankel.

[edit] Births

• January 15 - Melvyn Gale, cellist (Electric Light Orchestra)
• January 20 - Ian Hill, bassist (Judas Priest)
• March 19 - Derek Longmuir, drummer (Bay City Rollers)
• June 14 - Jim Lea, guitarist (Slade)
• August 21 - Joe Strummer, musician (The Clash) (d. 2002)
• September 9 - Dave Stewart, record producer (Eurythmics)
• December 27 - David Knopfler, musician (Dire Straits)

[edit] Deaths

• September 6 - Gertrude Lawrence, actress, singer, dancer (b. 1898)
• September 16 - Vesta Tilley, music hall entertainer (b. 1864)
• November 17 - Charles Penrose, music hall performer (b. 1873)