The 1970s
With the new decade barely having drawn breath, Simon & Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' was released... and rapidly became the best-selling album of the seventies.
David Bowie, who had begun recording in 1964, finally registered as 'Ziggy Stardust' in 1972 and went on to score six album chart entries the following year. His nearest rival? Max Bygraves, with five!
The following year, Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon' was denied the UK No. 1 slot by Alice Cooper's 'Billion Dollar Babies'...
Annual revenue from records was £76m - up a healthy 27% on the year before... At £3.25, Elton John's 'Captain Fantastic' set retailers - and fans - reeling (the average price of an LP was still just £2.79). But it didn't seem to affect sales: at one point during the 70s, Elton accounted for 2% of all records sold worldwide.
Explosive albums by the Sex Pistols, Clash and Elvis Costello made their mark, but the 1978 soundtrack to 'Saturday Night Fever' remained at the top for 18 weeks...
And though punk and disco reigned, it was Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' that went on to become the album with the longest-ever run in the UK charts - 478 weeks!...
Finally, just in time for the end of the decade, Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' debuted in December 1979.
Patrick Humphries
