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Top 40 Singles Chart Marks

During my brief tenure in the Weymouth Grammar School sixth form at the back end of 1978, myself and a few other music obsessives would indulge ourselves in the Common Room by giving marks out of 10 to the latest pop charts as published in "Record Mirror". As a 40th anniversary celebration of that, I persuaded three other members of the WGS 73-79/80 Facebook group to re-enact it as a feature there for posterity (and also for fun) - marking the following three charts from that period accordingly (that were posted firstly in chart order, then in marks order):

1

As you may have already realised, tracks highlighted in gold, silver & bronze gained most marks:

2

3

As the above exercise seemed to go down fairly well, it was then agreed by "the panel" to carry on marking other charts from our WGS days on a semi-random and semi-regular basis for the site. As such, I thought it would be a good idea to choose the first one from around the time the last of my year left WGS:

4

5

For the next chart, I thought it would be appropriate to mark one from around the time we started at WGS:

Oops - podium places not shown in this one! Sort-of rectified in the marks order bit:

Perry Como ties with The Smurfs for lowest marks awarded so far:

 6

Still no gongs shown in the original chart - what was I thinking?

Commodores break the record for most marks awarded.But how long will that last?

7

Finally - the medal placings are back!

The Fatback draw level with Commodores for highest mark, whilst Ethna Campbell so very nearly has a "nul point" clean sweep. Will any act actually manage that dubious honour in future charts? Carry on scrolling to find out...

8

Heatwave now in pole position for highest marks awarded:

9

10

Time for a break, with some statistics relating to charts 1 to 10:

At one point, it seemed the chart presence of ELO was practically mandatory!:

Tea break's over - back to the usual business:

11

12

After the above entry, these charts went AWOL for while due to computer problems. But when they returned they were a new improved version with maximum and minimum scores highlighted in green and red accordingly, plus individual and combined score averages at the bottom:

The Bee Gees managed podium places with all three entries they were present on:

13

Out of interest to see if "the panel" felt things had got better or worse musically since leaving school, I next chose a chart from the early 80's instead of between the usual 1973 and 1980. Note also that cover versions are now shown in pink:

Other than with one exception (for the worse), note there was little difference in the marks averages:

14

The Trammps tramp-le over the rest with a new marks record:

15

16

 Having previously been usurped by The Trammps, another entry from Heatwave now matches them:

The chart volume numbers can now be dropped, as henceforth they are featured in the titles. Also: an original panellist dropped out, and so was replaced by another group member from a few years below ours:

After the above chart, sadly another original panellist became no longer unavailable on a permanent basis. But once another group member from our year agreed to fill the breach, it was decided to carry on regardless. Given the group was now attracting significant membership from older and younger alumni as well as the year intake it was originally set up for, it was decided to expand the chart range from 1971 to 1983 inclusive - with the first from the latter year:

After the above entry, the below chart was posted on the site. So it was agreed "the panel" mark that as a "one-off":

Is it any surprise that even the "best" biggie of 1977 failed to get a 30-something total? Probably not...

This one coincided with the 50th anniversary of 3 panel members starting at WGS (including myself), though chart 5 had marked that event several years earlier. So I picked one from around when we sat our "11 Plus" exams instead:

Had Little Jimmy been a "Long-haired lover from Liverpool", we might have had our first-ever "nul points" total?

That's it for now, but hopefully this feature will continue in the future? If so, then more charts will be added.

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