Top of pop

　　The beatles were back at the top of the british alb um charts last Sunday thirty years after the legendary band broke up.

　　Their greatest hits allbum simply titled"1", a comp ilation of their 27 number one singles hits, went to st raight to the top in its first week of release.

　　The three surviving members, paul McCartney, george harrison and ringo starr, were"dead chuffed" by the new s, a spkesman for the band told the BBC, which releases the weekly charts.

　　The HMV chain of record stores had reported earlier in the week that the beatles album had been selling fiv e times as many copies as Irish boy band westlife's "co ast to coast", last week's number one.

　　It also saw off the challenge from british rock ban d oasis, once seen as the successors to the fab four, w hose new release "Familiar to Millions" only entered th e charts at number five.

　　The beatles producer, george martin, sometimes dubb ed the fifth beatle, said when the album was released l ast week:"it barely took eight years to cover this coll ection---'love me do' to 'the long and winding road'--- but it was a life-time in the world of rock and roll."