The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 (Top 40), and published in Music Week magazine (Top 75) and on the OCC website (Top 100).

To qualify for the UK albums chart the album must be the correct length and price. It must be more than 3 tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album costs between £0.50 and £4.24. Additionally, various artist compilations - which until January 1989 were included in the main album listing - are now listed separately in a compilations chart. Full details of the rules can be found on the Official Charts Company website.

Though album sales tend to produce more revenue and, over time, act as a greater measure of an artist's success, this chart receives less media attention than the UK Singles Chart, because overall sales of an album are more important than its peak position. Indeed, in recent years, the album chart has been in good health despite fears that music innovations such as MP3 players would threaten the traditional album. 2005 even saw a record number of artist album sales with 126.2 million sold in the UK.

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40.

There are lots of different criteria used in different charts used to reflect popularity, commonly: sales of records, cassettes and compact discs; the amount of radio airplay; and (recently) the number of downloads.

Some charts are specific to a particular musical genre and most to a particular geographical location (although download charts are not easily pinned down in this way). The most common period of time covered by a chart is one week with the chart being printed or broadcast at the end of this time. Summary charts for years and decades are then calculated from their component weekly charts. Component charts have become an increasingly important way to measure the commercial success of individual songs.

A chart hit is an extremely popular recording, identified by its inclusion in a chart that uses sales or other criteria to rank popular releases. Chart-topper and related terms (like No. 1 hit, top of the charts, chart hit, and so forth) are widely used in common conversation and in marketing, and are loosely defined. In North America, the weekly charts from Billboard magazine are most often referenced (quite often internationally, as well), particularly the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and Billboard 200 album chart, although there are many other charts and sources. Because of its value in promoting recording artists and releases, both directly to the consumer, and by encouraging exposure on radio, TV other media, chart positioning has long been a subject of scrutiny and controversy. Chart compilation methodology and data sources vary, ranging from buzz charts based on opinions of various experts and tastemakers, to charts that reflect empirical data such as retail sales. Therefore, a chart-topper may be anything from an "insiders' pick" to a runaway seller.

Gilbert O'Sullivan (born 1 December 1946) is an Irish-English singer-songwriter, best known for his early 1970s hits "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair" and "Get Down". The music magazine Record Mirror voted him the No. 1 UK male singer of 1972.

Worldwide he has charted 16 top 40 discs; including six number one songs, the first of which was 1970's "Nothing Rhymed" (for further information see Gilbert O'Sullivan discography). His most successful recording period was between 1970 and 1980, though he has since recorded nine studio albums up to 2011's "Gilbertville". Speaking in 2009 he said; "I write pop songs. End of story. That's all I wanted to do. That's all I want to do. And that's all I continue to want to do. I have no interest in just touring, and living in the past."

O'Sullivan was born Raymond Edward O'Sullivan in Waterford, Ireland. In 1960, aged 13, his family moved to Swindon, Wiltshire, England. He attended St Joseph's and the Swindon College of Art, where he briefly played drums in a band called Rick's Blues, founded by Rick Davies (who later founded Supertramp) and where he developed his lifelong interests in music and art. According to a 1972 interview with O'Sullivan, Davies taught him how to play both drums and piano. Other semi-professional bands he played with while at college include The Doodles and The Prefects.

Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. Her first album was released in November 2009 and debuted as the number one best-selling album on charts around the globe.

Global interest in Boyle was triggered by the contrast between her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and her plain appearance on stage. The juxtaposition of the audience's first impression of her, with the standing ovation she received during and after her performance, led to an international media and Internet response. Within nine days of the audition, videos of Boyle—from the show, various interviews and her 1999 rendition of "Cry Me a River"—had been watched over 100 million times. Her audition video has been viewed on the internet several hundred million times. Despite the sustained media interest she later finished in second place in the final of the show behind dance troupe Diversity.

Bruno Brookes (born Trevor Neil Brookes in Stoke-on-Trent, 24 April 1959) is a British radio presenter who became prominent in the 1980s.

Brookes attended Bradwell and Seabridge High Schools. He became a disc jockey through youth club discos in his home town before he sent a successful audition tape to his local station, BBC Radio Stoke. He used to wash cars in order to raise money for buying equipment. He spent three years there before being recruited by BBC Radio 1, the national pop network, where he worked as a stand-in presenter for Steve Wright before taking over the teatime show from Peter Powell.

In addition to this show, Brookes presented a rundown of the UK Top 40 singles chart on Sunday evenings between 1986 and 1990 and between 1992 and 1995.

In 1989, Brookes moved to the weekend breakfast show, co-hosting with Liz Kershaw, and also regularly deputised for Simon Mayo on the weekday breakfast show. Three years later he moved to the weekday early breakfast slot, where he remained until he was sacked in 1995 by Trevor Dann, who said "...why is Bruno on? you know, he seems to have a charmed life, because if the view was 'we must get rid of the dinosaurs', you know we've got this behemoth striding the airwaves of dawn" in the BBC TV Documentary Blood On The Carpet: Walking With Disc Jockeys in 2001.