The 1950s
The 33 rpm, 12", 40 minute long-playing record was introduced in 1948 - but it would be 1956 before Record Mirror published, for the first time ever, a chart of the country's best-selling LPs...
That first No. 1 was Frank Sinatra's 'Songs For Swingin' Lovers' - while the remainder of the Top 5 was made up of soundtracks to 'Carousel' and 'Oklahoma' and titles from Mel Torme and Louis Armstrong...
It wasn't until the following year that 'The Tommy Steele Story' became the first album by a UK artist to top the chart.
When the more widely-recognised Melody Maker LP charts began in November 1958, 'South Pacific' was in pole position - and it remained there for an unbelievable 115 weeks between 1958 and 1961. In fact, so popular was the film soundtrack, that throughout the whole of 1959 it was the only No. 1 LP in the UK!
Surprisingly, neither Cliff Richard nor Elvis Presley achieved a No. 1 album during the 1950s, perhaps because their predominantly teenage fans found the cost of LPs - 37 shillings and ninepence-hapenny (around £1.90 in today's money) - prohibitive.
Patrick Humphries
