Pick of the Pops

Image: Disc Jockey Alan Freeman with studio manager Judy Brinnand in September 1961.

Pick of the Pops first went out on Tuesday evening, 4 October 1955. The first presenter was Franklin Engelmann, who played “a selection from the top shelf of current popular gramophone records”. It was a few weeks before Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock kick-started the transformation of the Hit Parade. Alan “Fluff” Freeman joined the programme in 1961 and it moved to Sunday nights. Freeman’s rapid delivery, peppered with catch-phrases, helped make the programme - especially the chart rundown - essential listening.

Freeman held his own on Pick of the Pops against the competition of pirate radio, moving from the Light programme to simultaneous broadcast on Radio 1 and 2. The theme tune - At the Sign of the Swingin’ Cymbal – was rearranged by Barbara Moore in 1970 and is still in use today.

Pick of the Pops ended in 1972. However the strength and simplicity of the format ensured its survival, though sometimes on commercial radio. From 1982 to 1992 it returned to the BBC in a new form, featuring classic charts from the past, and then - in 1997- after another period on commercial radio, started the run that continues on Radio 2 to this day. Freeman handed over to Dale Winton in 2000 on his retirement. The programme has since been presented by Tony Blackburn and latterly Paul Gambaccini, in the best tradition of Fluff. Stay Bright!