So how popular WAS Man of the World then?

[jeremy spencer]

Originally Posted by chriskisn

Basically meaning that if it was a bad month for music and nobody really shifted a lot of singles it would completely distort the data

Terrible way to determine who had sold the most singles during the year. You can see how it could be quite easily be corrupted. Even more so when you realise that the British Market Research Bureau that compiled the sales data only did so from a small handful of the music stores each week.

There was so much rigging and payola going on with our management regarding chart success, it was difficult to know what was the truth!
This 'FM sold more than the Rolling Stones and Beatles' during that year in England was pumped-up malarky, and based only on Melody Maker 'stats', and not those of the other music magazines of the period, such as Disc and Music Echo, and NME etc. I think it would have been more fair and truthful to have based this temporary, high-faluting declaration on long-term, worldwide success. Thankfully, time has told.