Pick of the Pops, as the chart was originally known, transferred to Radio One from the BBC Light Programme in October 1967, along with host Alan Freeman.

Starting from March 1974,[3] the playlist tracks were incorporated into Paul Burnett's 'All There Is To Hear', and the Tom Browne show was reduced to just the Top 20 for one hour at 18:00.

The programme has run consistently every week, with the exceptions of 31 August 1997, 9 April 2021, and 9 September 2022 when it was cancelled as Radio 1 suspended programming due to the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Elizabeth II respectively.

Due to coverage of Gregathlon for Sport Relief 2016, the show on 12 February 2016 was presented by Scott Mills at the earlier time of 2 to 4pm.

Between February 2012 and August 2014 the show also streamed visually with music videos of the top 10 singles aired simultaneously on the Radio 1 website.

[9] The move was due to an international agreement by the music industry to release all new albums and singles on Fridays.

Since 13 July 2015, the chart update is presented with the songs at 4–10 being mentioned briefly along with a short clip while the top 3 are played in full.

The show is on air during the historic Sunday slot but for one hour only, which is 6:00 - 7:00 pm, and hosted by Lauren Layfield and Shanequa Paris.

It gives the fastest aggregated picture of the new week's biggest hits for the UK, reflecting popularity across the full spectrum of the Official Charts' sales and streams panel - including all of the UK's key download and streaming services, including Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Google and many more.

She replaced Cel Spellman as he focused on other acting and broadcasting work, even though the station says he will remain as a part of the Radio 1 family.