Chart collection - RAI Top Parade (Italy)

As a continuation of this post - a second part of the Italy's RAI chart collection. In July 1985 Hit Parade has been renamed Top Parade and stayed that way until October 1990, when the size of the chart scaled down from Top 20 to Top 10 for both singles and albums (probably because of the general slowing down of the sales, especially on singles market). Below is the link to almost all Top Parade charts (except for those that weren't published in the magazine).

The renaming went with the revision of the charts' presentation - concurrent lists from UK's Music Week and USA's Billboard were added for both singles and albums. The look was quite messy until November 1987, when it became more defined, but the inclusion of the foreign info meant that the chart info spread out on two pages - one for albums and one for singles. Oh, and all scans are in black & white, instead of original full colour, which makes the initial years rather tiresome to look through. Still, a great bit of chart history!

I have a thread on UKMix dedicated to foreign entries on the RAI singles chart during Top 20 years. Soon I'll start updating it with Top Parade info, please have a look☺

RAI Top Parade (1985-1990)

Chart collection - RAI Hit Parade (Italy)

Time for another chart collection. This time it's Italy - which didn't have an official chart until 1995! So three charts battled for domination (the story is covered in my chart guide). Books on album and single charts from "Musica e Dischi" and "TV Sorrisi e Canzoni" are published by Italian researcher Guido Racca and are available through Lulu.com. However the third important chart, RAI Hit/Top Parade, is still mostly obscure (Guido did a book on singles chart, but that included info only for Top 10, whereas during 1979-1990 the chart has been Top 20). Happily, the scans of RAI magazine, "Radiocorriere TV", are available on the net, so I managed to copy the charts from them.

So here goes the first post on them. It covers a time when the chart was called RAI Hit Parade and presented a Top 20s for singles and albums (from February 1979 to July 1985). These charts were also basis for a famous and influential Italian TV show "Discoring" - and Mr Racca told me that what was broadcasted and the published lists sometimes differed. You'll be able to see that for yourself in the scans, how songs appear with the "previous week" date when the previous chart doesn't feature them (not many such instances, though). But the magazine's issues are all I have, so... Note also that the names of the files cover a whole week, not one definite date - but that's how it was on the covers. Finally, there are a couple of gaps for 1983 and 1984, but that's because the charts simply weren't published. That's all for now, enjoy!

RAI Hit Parade (1979-1985)

Chart collection - De Nederlandse Top 40

So, another chart collection. The Netherlands is one of those countries that always had not one, but two charts, even to this day. They were Nationale Hitparade/Mega Top 100 and De Nederlandse Top 40 (aka Stichting Top 40). The first is readily available here, while Top 40 site only has singles charts, and is quite awkward to use. But - there were once two sites by Micha Jans, that carried archives of these singles and albums charts. Now they are neglected, with albums chart site practically nonexistent. One can always use the Wayback Machine (eternal praise to those who invented it!), but I did the work for others - and here are the contents of these two sites.

One archive is for singles, the other - for albums. These are lists of hits for each year with entry date, peak position and weeks on chart (just basic stuff, but just what is really needed). The real interest here is with album chart (LP Top 20/30/50/75/Album Top 100), as it's not readily available anywhere, to my knowledge (for full story see the chart guide).

De Nederlandse Top 40 (1970-2007)

Album charts 1970-1999

Chart collection - Trackslistan (Sweden)

Here's the first of my chart collections from various countries of the world. Swedish national radio station P3 debuted its weekly show called "Tracks" in September 1984. It had the listeners'-voted Top 20 chart called "Trackslistan" - which quickly became the most talked-about in the country and very influential. Though it wasn't an all-powerful hit-making machine - songs could chart in it, even get to No. 1 without even appearing on the national sales-chart ("Topplistan"). Still, it helped make lots of bands and artists well-known.

There was a website which had all its archives up to mid 2000s but that had gone down (as is rather often with the chart sites), seemingly without a new permanent home. I managed to retrieve most of its contents via the Internet Wayback Machine (all hail those who invented it!) - and now they can be downloaded wholly here (in their original form on HTML pages):

Trackslistan

Well, that's it, really😊