British Chartbusters of the 60s & 70s

Elvis Presley had the year's biggest number one with "It's Now or Never" during November and December. He had a couple of top three hits earlier in the year with "Stuck on You" in the spring and "A Mess of Blues" in the summer.

The second biggest American act of the year was the Everly Brothers. Don and Phil had a huge year with top ten entries from "Let it be me" at the beginning of the year followed by the big early summer blockbuster "Cathy's Clown" (the second biggest hit of the year). They quickly followed this with successive top five records "When Will I be Loved" and "Lucille".

The number three performers of the year were British - Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Cliff had two brief number ones with "Please Don't Tease" and "I Love You" interspersed with top three hits including "Voice in the Wilderness", "Fall in Love with You" and "Nine Times out of Ten". Meanwhile Cliff's backing band, The Shadows, had a massive instrumental solo hit with their first single "Apache" (the third biggest hit of the year) and a top ten follow up with "Man of Mystery".

The number four slot for 1960 fell to another Brit, Anthony Newley, who had successive number one hits early in the year with "Why" and "Do You Mind". These were followed by top five discs "If She Should Come to You" and "Strawberry Fair".

At number five was Londoner Adam Faith. At the beginning of the year he had a number one with "Poor Me" and followed this up with a string of top five hits through the year including: "Someone Else's Baby"; "When Johnny comes Marching Home"; "How About That" and "Lonely Pup in a Christmas Shop".

Other major acts of the year included Glasgow skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan. He had been charting very successfully since 1956 but 1960 saw his biggest hit with the quirky "My Old Man's a Dustman" (the fourth biggest hit of the year). His other hits of the year included "I Wanna Go Home", "Lorelei" (both in the top ten) and "Lively".

One hit wonder Ricky Valance managed the fifth biggest hit record of the year with the teen angst ballad "Tell Laura I Love Her". Another big selling novelty record - in the year of so many novelty hits - was Johnny Preston's "Running Bear". Unlike Valance, however, Preston managed a follow up "Cradle of Love" which was a top three hit and a further top twenty disc with ""Feel so Fine". American guitarist Duane Eddy had an excellent year with four top twenty hits and two in the top five - "Because They're Young" and "Shazam".

Connie Francis was constantly in the charts in the late fifties and early sixties. She had three top five hits in 1960 with "Mama", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own". Yet another American vocalist, Jimmy Jones, had a couple of huge releases: Good Timin' (a number one) and Handy Man (a top three record).

Throughout the year there was a stream of minor posthumous releases from Buddy Holly, who had been killed in an air crash in February 1959 ('the day the music died' sang Don McLean in his 1972 hit "American Pie"). Roy Orbison had a number one hit with "Only the Lonely" and a top ten record with "Blue Angel".

Finally, the first hint of the British group scene that would dominate the later Sixties could be seen with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates who topped the charts with "Shakin' All Over" and had minor chart entries with "You Got What it Takes" and "Restless".