UK Singles Chart Number Ones

The UK Singles Chart is the official record chart in the United Kingdom. Record charts in the UK began life in 1952 when Percy Dickins from New Musical Express (NME) imitated an idea started in American Billboard magazine and began compiling a hit parade. Prior to this, a song's popularity was measured by the sales of sheet music. Initially, Dickins telephoned a sample of around 20 shops asking for a list of the 10 best-selling songs. These results were then aggregated to give a Top 12 chart published in NME on 14 November 1952. The number-one single was "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino.

Links To Peel
In America, Peel worked for many commercial radio stations, that would often play records that were number one hits in the UK and America, including when he came back to Radio London in 1967, where he initially played songs that hit the number one charts in the UK. Later on as a supporter of underground and alternative music, Peel rarely played UK Singles Chart number ones on his radio shows, except for a few such as David Bowie & Mick Jagger's Dancing In The Street, which was released for charity and reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1985 and also old records that reached number one in the 1950's.

Peel introduced the UK Singles Chart on Top Of The Pops when he was a presenter on some shows and was offered to host a one-off Radio One Chart Show in January 2003, which some other DJ's did such as Chris Moyles and Jo Whiley before the BBC relaunched the show, however the organisation decided that they didn't want too many people doing the show before it was re-launched.

Number One Singles
The UK Number One singles played by Peel are listed according to when they reached number one first, rather than by alphabetical order.

Performing Artist | Song | First Known Play

1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
 * Al Martino: Here In My Heart (21 March 2001)
 * Frankie Laine: Answer Me (23 September 1999) (Peelenium 1953)