Language English Publisher Virgin Books Media type Paperback Editor Martin Roach | Subject Chart Compilation Publication date 2008-11-06 Originally published 6 November 2008 Page count 672 OCLC 241032346 | |
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Series Books of British Hit Singles Franchise (Previously Guinness) Similar Martin Roach books, Popular music books | ||
The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles is a charts reference book published in October 2008. It replaces the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, after the Guinness company withdrew interest in chart reference books at the same time their contract was due to expire. The last edition was published in 2006 covering all chart hits between 1952-2005. Two years later Virgin took over the contract from The Official Charts Company to publish the re-branded version of the book as The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles without the album charts information.
Content
The first edition of the book lists every act to have a chart hit in the UK top 75 singles chart between 1952-2008 (first quarter of the year). Unlike its predecessor it only lists the chart weeks spent in the top 40 if the single has ever charted high enough during its chart run to do so, while Guinness listed all weeks spent in the top 75. Selected acts have a mini-biography with their entry in the book, while other sections of the book have reports on the charts, such as how they have changed due to the event of digital downloads having an effect.
The main section of the book contains the Top 75 UK hit singles, which are separated into the artists; solo singers, duets, groups and bands. The song titles, along with the highest UK Chart position, and number of weeks in Top 40 are included. The first edition featured this information along, with a list of all the songs in an A-Z list at the end of the book, for easy reference.
The second edition of the book, referred to as 'Volume 2', was published in 2010 and had a number of changes, including the addition of a new section listing all the UK No. 1 singles from 1952 until the book was completed in early 2010.
It also gave more information about each artist underneath their names, this information included aspects such as the lead singer, the year of birth, nationalities and a brief history or overview, not all these aspects for each artist though. This information is similar to that seen in the Guinness UK hit singles and album books.