The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees.

For the first several weeks of its existence, the magazine did not compile a national chart, but simply printed the current airplay lists of several major-market top-40 stations.

RPM's Top Singles chart was initially based on airplay and record company reports.

[8] The RPM Awards for 1964 were announced in the 28 December 1964 issue:[9] A column on page 6 of that issue noted that the actual vote winner for Top Canadian Content record company was disqualified due to a conflict of interest involving an employee of that company who was also working for RPM.

The Annual RPM Awards for 1965 were announced in the 17 January 1966 issue, with more country music categories than the previous year:[17] The winners were:[22]