Say, do you know where I might be able to obtain an undisputed, unarguable list (for free) of what the Billboard Top/Hot 100 Songs were for a given year, dating from now until like 1950 or so?
I've done searches, natch, and it seems like any list I find is different than the one I found before it. So I don't know what's going on.
Originally posted by SEADAWGSay, do you know where I might be able to obtain an undisputed, unarguable list (for free) of what the Billboard Top/Hot 100 Songs were for a given year, dating from now until like 1950 or so?
I've done searches, natch, and it seems like any list I find is different than the one I found before it. So I don't know what's going on.
You'll probably have to head for the library and see if you can find some of Joel Whitburn's (recordresearch.com) books. I don't think there's a good online repository due to copyright issues. [How one guy (who isn't me) managed to get a copyright on that is left to you to ponder and fume over.] Most good libraries will at least have a copy from, say, the past decade or so, and more recent stuff is more likely to have been quoted online on USENET (for example).
Keep in mind there wasn't a unifying Top 100 for the first years of the "Rock Era" (which to Whitburn means 1955-1958, so I dunno if you'll be able to go back to 1950) when there were separate charts for DJ play, jukebox play AND sales.
Also, you might not be seeing Billboard lists in some of your searches...there were also competing lists from R&R and Cashbox and... Kim could list others maybe, that's her THING
Billboard Publications put out a book every year with Top 40 info from each year. It's the standard for the radio industry. I'm sure you could find it on Amazon.
Are you ready for Mahkan-mania to run wild all over you?
Also, iTunes has Billboard Hot 100, Top County and Top R&B lists going back each year to 1946, but they're totally incomplete because they list only the songs that iTunes makes available. So last year's Hot 100 of 2003 has only 77 songs on the list, for example, though they are numbered 1-100 so you would know where the songs actually sit on the list (if you trust them to get their facts and figures right). So that could be a stopgap if you don't want to go to the library. Or it could just make you mad.
I've got a copy of Whitburn's 6th edition (1996). My parents inscribed it, "This should keep you informed & addicted to the wonderful world of popular music." They bought it for me because I used to sit and read my Dad's copy of the edition before it for hours and hours.
Sadly, by two years later I had lost all faith in the Billboard charts (and the record-buying public that creates them) and it's more of a curiosity on my shelf now than anything. It's definitely a fun book to pick up and go through, though; I just have to stick to pre-1992 or so to keep my head from exploding from the sheer suck.
If you need a couple of the lists or have some quick questions, feel free to PM me.
edit: OOOOOPS. The "Hot 100" didn't exist until 1991. The Whitburn book I have gives a list of all the number ones from 1955 to 1996, but no Hot 100 or even a list of all the Top 40 songs from any given year. Hit the library. Or drop the $60 or whatever. It's so worth it.
Just picking it up again has put me in a frenzy of "I wonder..." and then madly looking things up. And you notice little things: like I had no idea that StaggerLee got his name from a song. But there it is, number 1 for Lloyd Price in '59, number 22 for Wilson Pickett in '67, and number 25 for Tommy Roe in 1971.
What's really sad is seeing stuff like 30 or 35 number ones a year up until 1991 and then like 10 a year after that when mass marketing of songs like "I Will Always Love You" and "One Sweet Day," and "I Swear" ruined it all. Like, "Jump" by Kris Kross was number 1 for 8 weeks?!@!#@$!#%!#@%!@#% For reference sake, the Beatles' longest running number one was "I Want To Hold Your Hand" at 7 weeks...
(edited by tarnish on 14.6.04 2154) /tarnish...
Firstly, the only cavassing of users you should be doing is with a heavy tarpaulin, a stack of bricks and a deep stretch of water" -- BOFH speaks the truth about surveys
Doesn't that seem just a bit counter-intuitive in our "We're just a bunch of channel-surfing ADD zombies!" world?
-Jag
Pat Tillman, rest in peace.
"It's almost as if they waited for him to die so he couldn't go ... `Shut the fuck up, that's not what I think!' " -Jon Stewart commenting on the sudden wealth of questions such as "Would President Reagan approve of the war in Iraq?" being posed by conservative pundits.
Yikes, the *library*. I had no idea this would require so much effort on my part. Like having to find out where the library is. I guess I'm mainly just interested in the 80's and early 90's, but I'll probably throw this on the list of things I'm meaning to do but won't ever get around to.
But wait wait, can anyone with access to an actual list maybe tell me if...
...either of those seem accurate? That would be swell. THANX DUDES & KIM.
My last post originally contained a link to the cylist.com site, but when I realized I was looking at Hot 100 lists for pre-1991 and Whitburn's book was right in front of me telling me that the Hot 100 didn't even exist until 1991/92, I lost all faith and removed the link. They're probably all pretty close. I'd verify them if I could easily, but my copy of Whitburn isn't much help in that context unless I were willing to look up every song on every list (and I'm not ).
Speaking of verifying, Downtown Bookie set me straight on my earlier post: The Beatles' longest running number 1 hit was, of course, "Hey Jude," which held the spot for 9 weeks in 1968. And yes, I should be strung up by my toenails and whipped into submission with a wet noodle for getting it wrong, especially when the reference book I needed to get it right was on my lap at the time.
/tarnish...
Firstly, the only cavassing of users you should be doing is with a heavy tarpaulin, a stack of bricks and a deep stretch of water" -- BOFH speaks the truth about surveys