Dave McAleer

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Dave McAleer" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

David James McAleer (born 4 February 1945) is the main contributor for the Virgin Book of British Hit Singles, The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums and the Virgin Book of Top 40 Charts, and was the sole Music Consultant for the Guinness World Records between 1998 and 2011. McAleer is currently the OCC (“Oldies Chart Consultant”) to the Official Charts Company. He was the Chief Consultant/Contributor for the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums (now discontinued) for nine years, and has written or co-written over forty published music books.

One of the UK's first club DJs (1963), before spending 25 years in the record business. McAleer worked in A&R for labels including RCA Records, Pye Records, DJM Records, Stax Records, Chess Records, Disco Demand, Sugarhill, Calibre, Champagne, Hi, Solar, CTI Records, TMT and Buddah Records, and was managing director of Barry White's label, 20th Century Records. During this period he was responsible for many chart entries, and helped introduce disco, Northern soul, rap and hip hop in the UK.

He was the UK record executive behind the first rap hit, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang.^[1] He managed the RAH Band^[2] and gave the first production jobs to noted DJs Paul Oakenfold and Ian Levine. In 1976, was the organiser of the first UK music industry pop quiz.