artist50

The points system for this chart is as follows. Each week that an act spends at #1, they are awarded 100 points, a week at #2 gets 90 points, a week at #3 gets 80 points, and so on down to 10 points for a week at #10.

The music industry was less competitive in the early days, and the charts moved much more slowly, so in the era before The Beatles scored their first #1 with 'From Me To You' in 1963, only 80 points are awarded for a week at #1, 72 for a week at #2, and so on down to 8 for a week at #10. Charts before rock 'n' roll were even slower, so before Bill Haley And His Comets had the first rock 'n' roll #1 with 'Rock Around The Clock' in 1955, the points are scaled down further, 60 points for a week at #1 down to 6 points for a week at #10.

Finally, a further 8 points are added for every week each act spends in the chart, whether at #1 or #75, regardless of the era. Where a tie occurs, it is broken by referring to how many #1s each act has had, followed by how many #2s they've had, and so on.

The charts used are the NME chart from November 1952 to March 1960 (including the week ending 5 March 1960, erroneously omitted from the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles), and the Record Retailer/Music Week chart from March 1960 to November 2002.

The first chart was published on 14November 1952 and the last chart used is the chart published on 3 November 2002 and dated 9 November 2002, which may look as though I've stopped one week short of 50 years, but this is due to the first chart being published on a Friday instead of a Sunday, as it took longer to add the figures up in those pre-computer days. In 2609 weeks, there have been 938 #1s and 6147 Top 10 hits.

Drawing the boundaries between one act and another isn’t always easy. I’ve departed from Guinness on a few issues, notably in the case of 60s backing groups such as The Shadows, whose hits backing Cliff Richard are not included in their points total (the same principle applies with The Tremeloes’ hits backing Brian Poole and after much head-scratching, The Beatles’ hit backing Tony Sheridan), and solo acts who have been given top billing on hits with groups they were in, such as Diana Ross, whose hits with The Supremes are not included in her total (the same applies to Rod Stewart’s hits with The Faces). Additionally, I consider Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band to be two different bands, with only one member in common. Another odd case is Paul McCartney/Wings, considered one act for the purposes of this chart.

In the case of collaborations, the total points go to all the acts concerned providing the acts concerned have had 3 hits or less together. 4 or more and they are considered an act in their own right. The most difficult issue in this respect was the partnership between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Their original 2 hits were incorporated into 2 additional hit megamixes, which meant that they had to be considered an act in their own right.

The chart is dedicated to the memory of Lonnie Donegan, who died while it was being compiled.

Rank	Artist	Debut	No.1s	Top 10s	Chart weeks	Points
1	Elvis Presley	1956	18	56	1185	28806
2	Cliff Richard	1958	14	64	1152	26828
3	The Beatles	1962	17	28	455	18232
4	Madonna	1984	10	50	569	15912
5	Michael Jackson	1972	7	38	499	12512
6	Rod Stewart	1971	6	26	468	10884
7	Elton John	1971	4	27	591	10758
8	Abba	1974	9	19	252	10326
9	Queen	1974	5	25	419	10072
10	David Bowie	1969	5	23	451	9658
11	The Rolling Stones	1963	8	21	366	9598
12	Paul McCartney / Wings	1971	4	24	410	9380
13	Kylie Minogue	1988	6	23	315	9240
14	Frankie Laine	1952	4	19	282	9060
15	The Everly Brothers	1957	4	13	345	8574
16	The Bee Gees	1967	5	19	354	8482
17	Stevie Wonder	1966	2	19	415	8290
18	Tom Jones	1965	2	18	391	8198
19	Slade	1971	6	16	279	7822
20	Frank Sinatra	1954	3	12	440	7796
Rank	Artist	Debut	No.1s	Top 10s	Chart weeks	Points
21	The Shadows	1960	5	16	359	7758
22	Lonnie Donegan	1956	3	17	321	7400
23	The Hollies	1963	2	17	318	7274
24	Pat Boone	1955	1	12	308	7224
25	Whitney Houston	1985	4	16	313	7164
26	George Michael	1984	7	21	264	7152
27	Roy Orbison	1960	3	12	345	7026
28	T.Rex	1968	4	11	236	6878
29	Diana Ross	1970	2	18	436	6858
30	Perry Como	1953	2	14	323	6726
31	Status Quo	1968	1	22	417	6676
32	UB40	1980	3	17	331	6258
33	Boyzone	1994	6	16	213	6124
34	Bryan Adams	1985	2	12	243	6024
35	Engelbert Humperdinck	1967	2	8	239	6022
36	Shakin' Stevens	1980	4	15	277	5996
37	Guy Mitchell	1952	4	12	165	5990
38	Shirley Bassey	1957	2	12	326	5972
39	Oasis	1994	6	16	336	5718
40	The Pet Shop Boys	1985	4	20	236	5698
Rank	Artist	Debut	No.1s	Top 10s	Chart weeks	Points
41	Celine Dion	1992	2	14	246	5668
42	Wet Wet Wet	1987	3	12	209	5632
43	The Beach Boys	1963	2	13	281	5618
44	Gary Glitter	1972	3	12	170	5560
45	Take That	1991	8	13	158	5544
46	Phil Collins	1981	3	12	228	5474
47	Madness	1979	1	16	268	5384
48	The Kinks	1964	3	13	215	5330
49	The Spice Girls	1996	9	10	179	5312
50	U2	1981	4	25	259	5262
51	Connie Francis	1958	2	10	244	5240
52	Cher	1965	3	12	229	5182
53	Showaddywaddy	1974	1	10	209	5122
54	The Supremes	1964	1	13	306	5108
55	Blondie	1978	6	11	169	5012
56	Mariah Carey	1990	2	18	255	4950
57	Robbie Williams	1996	5	15	223	4934
58	Erasure	1985	1	15	203	4934
59	Adam Faith	1959	2	11	252	4916
60	Donna Summer	1976	1	9	299	4892
Rank	Artist	Debut	No.1s	Top 10s	Chart weeks	Points
61	Hot Chocolate	1970	1	12	283	4874
62	Boney M	1976	2	10	171	4868
63	Janet Jackson	1986	-	16	287	4866
64	David Whitfield	1953	2	11	190	4844
65	Frankie Goes To Hollywood	1983	3	5	147	4826
66	Jim Reeves	1960	1	6	322	4826
67	John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band	1969	3	8	197	4806
68	Petula Clark	1954	2	11	247	4798
69	Wham!	1982	4	9	137	4796
70	Manfred Mann	1964	3	13	176	4738
71	Duran Duran	1981	2	13	222	4616
72	The Sweet	1971	1	10	159	4592
73	Steps	1997	2	14	204	4552
74	Nat "King" Cole	1952	-	14	249	4540
75	Andy Williams	1957	1	9	238	4536
76	Prince	1980	1	15	305	4510
77	Johnnie Ray	1952	3	10	166	4488
78	Frank Ifield	1960	4	6	163	4422
79	Billy Fury	1959	-	11	281	4422
80	Bill Haley & His Comets	1954	1	8	199	4420
Rank	Artist	Debut	No.1s	Top 10s	Chart weeks	Points
81	The Four Tops	1965	1	11	318	4414
82	Gene Pitney	1961	1	11	212	4386
83	Jason Donovan	1988	4	10	137	4346
84	Dean Martin	1953	1	10	163	4318
85	Fleetwood Mac	1968	1	9	223	4294
86	The Police	1978	5	10	153	4284
87	Westlife	1999	10	12	155	4260
88	Frankie Vaughan	1954	2	11	232	4252
89	David Essex	1973	2	10	199	4212
90	The Electric Light Orchestra	1972	1	15	255	4210
91	Doris Day	1952	2	9	146	4188
92	The New Seekers	1970	2	6	143	4174
93	Shaggy	1993	4	9	137	4116
94	S Club 7	1999	4	9	138	4104
95	The Jam	1977	4	9	206	3958
96	Cilla Black	1963	2	11	194	3942
97	Culture Club	1982	2	9	119	3932
98	The Who	1965	-	13	247	3926
99	The Jackson Five / The Jacksons	1970	1	11	235	3870
100	East 17	1992	1	12	170	3830

Here are the acts who didn’t make the Top 100, but would have if their points totals from different acts they were part of had been combined (with apologies to artists such as Sarah Dallin and Keren Woodward of Bananarama, who appeared on both Band Aid records, charity conglomerations don’t count because of the obvious logistical impracticalities of ascertaining who was on them all, unless, as in the case of the Hillsborough record, all the artists are named in the artist credit itself);

Donny Osmond (6902 points for his solo hits, plus hits with The Osmonds, and with his sister Marie)

Olivia Newton-John (5812 points in total, but I made the controversial decision that her partnership with John Travolta counted as an act in its own right, because they appeared together on more than 3 hits)

Eric Stewart (5768 points for his hits as a member of The Mindbenders, Hotlegs and 10cc)

Roy Wood (5522 points for his solo hits and his hits with The Move and Wizzard, not forgetting his brief membership of ELO)

Annie Lennox (5518 points for her solo hits plus her hits with The Tourists and Eurythmics)

The Tremeloes (5296 points for their hits in their own right plus their hits backing Brian Poole)

Lionel Richie (4962 points for his solo hits plus his hits as a member of The Commodores)

Adam Ant (4782 points for his solo hits plus his hits as leader of Adam And The Ants)

Dusty Springfield (4490 points for her solo hits plus her hits with The Springfields)

Dave Stewart (4346 points for his solo hits plus his hits with The Tourists and Eurythmics)

Siobhan Fahey (4116 points for her hits with Bananarama and Shakespear’s Sister)

Gerry Marsden (4038 points for his hits as leader of Gerry And The Pacemakers plus his charity hit with The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney and Stock Aitken Waterman)

Tina Turner (3994 points for her solo hits plus her hits with her former husband Ike)

Will Smith (3882 points for his solo hits plus his hits with Jazzy Jeff as The Fresh Prince)

Some of the more legendary and/or ubiquitous artists who surprisingly failed to make the magic 3830 points include Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Kenney Jones, Ronnie Lane, Ron Wood and Ian McLagan (the latter four would almost certainly have made the list had The Faces been credited on Rod Stewart's early "solo" hits).