UK Compilation Chart


The UK Compilation Chart is a record chart based on sales of multi artist compilation albums in the United Kingdom. It is compiled weekly by the Official Charts Company, and each week's Top 40 is published online on the official websites of the OCC, BBC Radio 1 and MTV, and in the magazines Music Week and UKChartsPlus.
Though only accredited to compiling multi-artist compilation albums, the chart compiles all full-length various artist releases, regardless of whether they are compilations or studio albums where all the recordings are new.

History

TV-advertised hits compilations had been established in the United Kingdom since K-Tel's 20 Dynamic Hits in 1972, but following the December 1983 release of the first album in the Now That's What I Call Music series, compilation albums featuring various artists reached a new level of popularity in the UK during the mid to late 1980s. As a result of their dominance over the UK Albums Chart, releases from various artists were excluded from the main album chart from 14 January 1989. Instead, they were compiled in the UK Compilation Chart. This meant albums such as Now That's What I Call Music! 13 and The Hits Album 9, which had charted into the main Albums chart, had to be transferred into the compilations chart as they were still selling strong.