Although the weekly show was cancelled in 2006, the Christmas special continued annually. Special editions were broadcast on Christmas Day (and usually, until 1984, a second edition a few days after Christmas), featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year and the Christmas number one. Status Quo made more appearances than any other artist, with a total of 87 (the first was with ' Pictures of Matchstick Men' in 1968 and last with ' The Party Ain't Over Yet' in 2005). Snow Patrol were the last act to play live on the weekly show when they performed their single ' Chasing Cars'. The Top 30 was used from 1969, and the Top 40 from 1984.ĭusty Springfield's ' I Only Want to Be with You' was the first song featured on TOTP, while the Rolling Stones were the first band to perform, with ' I Wanna Be Your Man'.

This was originally the Top 20, though this varied throughout the show's history. Each show consisted of performances of some of the week's best-selling popular music records, usually excluding any tracks moving down the chart, including a rundown of that week's singles chart. For most of its history, it was broadcast on Thursday evenings on BBC One. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. Top of the Pops ( TOTP) is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006.