might as well include the 60's as the 70's and 80's have dedicated threads

1 "She Loves You" The Beatles
2 "I Want to Hold Your Hand" The Beatles
3 "Tears" Ken Dodd 1965
4 "Can't Buy Me Love" The Beatles
5 "I Feel Fine" The Beatles
6 "The Carnival Is Over" The Seekers
7 "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper" The Beatles
8 "Release Me" Engelbert Humperdinck
9 "It's Now or Never" Elvis Presley
10 "Green, Green Grass of Home" Tom Jones
11 "The Last Waltz" Engelbert Humperdinck
12 "Stranger on the Shore" Acker Bilk
13 "I Remember You" Frank Ifield
14 "The Young Ones" Cliff Richard and The Shadows
15 "Sugar, Sugar" The Archies
16 "The Next Time" / "Bachelor Boy" Cliff Richard and The Shadows
17 "Telstar" The Tornados
18 "From Me to You" The Beatles
19 "Two Little Boys" Rolf Harris
20 "Hey Jude" The Beatles
21 "Hello, Goodbye" The Beatles
22 "There Goes My Everything" Engelbert Humperdinck
23 "Help!" The Beatles
24 "Cathy's Clown" The Everly Brothers
25 "Glad All Over" The Dave Clark Five
26 "Needles and Pins" The Searchers
27 "Anyone Who Had a Heart" Cilla Black
28 "Apache" The Shadows
29 "Lovesick Blues" Frank Ifield
30 "My Way" Frank Sinatra
31 "Distant Drums" Jim Reeves
32 "You'll Never Walk Alone" Gerry and the Pacemakers
33 "Get Back" The Beatles and Billy Preston
34 "All You Need Is Love" The Beatles
35 "Strangers in the Night" Frank Sinatra
36 "The Last Time" The Rolling Stones
37 "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" Elvis Presley
38 "I'll Never Find Another You" The Seekers
39 "Are You Sure?" The Allisons
40 "Yellow Submarine" / "Eleanor Rigby" The Beatles

you can see by this why the beatles are held in such esteem... hugely popular.

interestingly you can see how many 'mums' records also sold... frank (ifield and sinatra), tom, englebert, ken, cliff... even the seekers were 'square'.

shows how little taste the public had back then! No Dusty, No Walker Bros...! Shite! Very 'novelty-ish.

I don't know why I never knew She Loves You was The Beatles best selling song in the UK.

No Simon and Garfunkel, no Bob Dylan, no Beach Boys, no Mamas and Papas, no Who, no Kinks, no Motown, no Stax. There was so much brilliant music in that decade, yet it would seem so little of it sold in great quantities in Britain back then.

Although much of the list in the original post isn't to my taste (specifically Engelbert, Ken Dodd, the Seekers) I wouldn't exactly call that list "shite". I'd much rather listen to those forty tracks than anything that's been in the top forty in the current decade.

i think this chart reflects the music buying public from the time quite accurately..

back then as i recall 'pop music' was very generation specific. there miht have been great new sounds, it might have been an age of creativity and innovation, but the pop music buying public was a pretty small market. id suggest that most of the great pop from the 60's was bought by 16-24 year olds... with the older generation sticking with rock n roll whilst the younger mod generation bought new material. hence mods n rockers fighting.

the large ammount of 'mums' music was there because 'mums' had more disposable income then many younger people. plus 'mums' acts often had tv shows to promote their music.

the beatles did so well because they had a much broader appeal then other pop acts, indeed id suggest the seekers did the same.

This is a best selling list, these Bands you mentioned are album seller hence why the best selling Beatles singles were before 65 after that the albums skyrocked.

The Beatles are still my all-time fave band, a distinction I sincerely doubt they will ever surrender. Of their songs listed here I particularly like She Loves You, Can't Buy Me Love, I Feel Fine, We Can Work It Out, Hey Jude, Get Back and Yellow Submarine. The rest of my top 10 from this list would include Needles & Pins, The Last Time and I'll Never Find Another You.