singles are a type of music release that typically have fewer tracks than an extended play or album; during the 1950s, sales of singles in the united kingdom were compiled by the magazine "new musical express" ("nme"), and published weekly as a record chart. the singles chart was founded in 1952 by percy dickins of "nme", who wanted to imitate the hit parade that featured in the american magazine "billboard"; before this, the popularity of a song had been measured by its sales of sheet music. dickins sampled twenty shops, asking which their ten biggest-selling singles were. his aggregated list of sales was then published in "nme" on 14 november 1952 as a top 12 chart. "nme"'s chart is considered by the official charts company (occ) to be the canonical uk singles chart during the 1950s; it was expanded to a top 20 on 1 october 1954.