Posthumous chart challengers: six decades of music fan tributes

Entertainment icon Cilla Black has returned to the Official Charts this week – and in doing so she joins a rich history of British music fans paying tribute to their most beloved stars through our pop rundown.

With Cilla returning via the timeless classic Anyone Who Had A Heart and her Very Best Of… hits set, she follows in the footsteps of a range of iconic music artists whose fans have demonstrated their love by buying and streaming their singles and albums.

While the constant availability of classic hits through digital downloads and streaming has made such heartfelt fan tributes much more immediate in the 21^st Century, the posthumous hit is an established phenomenon in UK music history – dating right back to Fifties and Sixties.

Over the years, artists ranging from Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding to Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston have all felt the posthumous love of their fans.

And to mark the nation’s tribute to Cilla this week, the Official Charts pays its own tribute to the music icons you have all paid homage to – in the way that only the British music-loving public can.

Click through six decades of music fan tributes below: 

Photo: Parlophone/Warner