the title was launched in 1978 and appeared monthly for its first few issues. He based the idea on a songwords magazine that his sister used to buy, but which was of poor quality. His idea was to launch a glossy-looking magazine which also contained songwords as its mainstay. The publisher was EMAP, a small-time company based in Peterborough, and the magazine was originally titled Disco Fever, before they settled on the name Smash Hits.

Smash Hits launched the career