This continued to be the case until 1983, when Gallup took over the compilation of the charts from the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) and automated the data collection process, which meant that sales could be tabulated right up until the end of the year and still produced in time for the Radio 1 broadcast.
However, from 1977 to 1982 (with the exception of 1979), BMRB produced updated charts a few months later which included the missing final weeks' sales for each year.
The list of the top fifty best-selling albums of 1977 were published in the third edition of the BPI Year Book in 1978.
However, in 2007 the Official Charts Company published album chart histories for each year from 1956 to 1977, researched by historian Sharon Mawer, and included an updated list of the top ten best-selling albums for each year based on the new research.
[3] Notes: The 1977 BRIT Awards were to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee and were for the previous 25 years of her reign.