The Billboard Hot 100 50 Year Anniversary Charts[1] are historical charts[2] from the Billboard Hot 100's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008. "Alfred Music" publishing house, saluted the 50th, by publishing the "Hot 100 50th Anniversary Songbook."[3]
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard Magazine.[4] The primary songs chart - the Hot 100 (top 100 singles) factor in airplay, as well as music sales in all relevant formats. Billboard is considered the foremost authority worldwide in music charts, and the rankings have gained a following among the general public.
On January 4, 1936, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade. The first music popularity chart was calculated in July 1940. A variety of song charts followed, which were eventually consolidated into the Hot 100 by mid-1958. The Hot 100 currently combines single sales, radio airplay and digital downloads.
Currently, Billboard utilizes a system called Nielsen SoundScan[5] to track sales of singles, albums, videos and DVDs. This system registers sales when the product is purchased at the cash register of SoundScan-enabled stores.
Billboard also uses a system called Broadcast Data Systems, or BDS, to track radio airplay. Each song has an "acoustic fingerprint" which, when played on a "BDS capable radio station",[6] is detected. These detections are added up every week among all radio stations to determine airplay points. Arbitron statistics[7] are also factored in to give "weight" to airplay based on audience size and time-of-day.
Starting in 2005, Billboard allowed paid digital downloads from digital music stores such as Apple iTunes to chart with or without the help of radio airplay.
The songs in the "50th Anniversary" charts had to appear on the Hot 100 in order to be counted. This may create some confusion (for example: many great country artists and songs are not on the "50th Anniversary" chart because, while very popular on the country charts they didn't cross over to the Hot 100). Also, keep in mind the Hot 100 started in August 1958 so any prior songs are not listed, including some popular Elvis Presley songs.
The "50th Anniversary" chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100.[8] The artist chart utilizes the same methodology, with weighted points applied to all titles charted by each artist during that 50-year span. They are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at number one earning the greatest value and weeks at number one hundred earning the least.[9]
Hot 100's 50th Anniversary award relative points for every week that a title spent on the chart, regardless of rank. For the Hot 100's 50th Anniversary, Billboard's charts department ensured a more balanced representation of hits from all 50 years, by analyzing the length of chart runs in earlier decades, as well as the average weeks that titles spent in the top 10 and at number one. Weights for earlier spans were then formulated, to compensate for the shorter chart runs that titles experienced before the 1991 conversion to precise and objective sales and radio data from Nielsen Music.[10]
Prior to December 1998, songs did not appear on the Billboard Hot 100 until a retail single became available (which, incidentally, is why hits like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and No Doubt's "Don't Speak" never appeared on the Hot 100). In earlier years, retail singles came to market fairly early in a song's life-usually shortly after, or even before, a song came to radio.
However, during the 1990s, when labels would strategize number-one chart bows by significant hits, the retail release of some priority singles were withheld until radio audience reached maximum levels. Although some of these songs spent significant numbers of weeks at number one or in the top ten, the delay of the sales component ultimately shortened the spans these songs would spend on the chart. With the new methodology rewarding points for a song's entire chart run, rather than confining points to weeks spent in the top ten, the shorter chart lives recorded by the songs that debuted at number one impact their all-time standings.[9]
Reference: [11]
| Artist | #1 Song | Peak Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Elegants | "Little Star" | 25 August 1958 |
| The Singing Nun | "Dominique" | 07 December 1963 |
| Zager & Evans | "In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" | 12 July 1969 |
| M | "Pop Muzik" | 03 November 1979 |
| USA For Africa | "We Are The World" | 13 April 1985 |
| Jan Hammer | "Miami Vice Theme" | 09 November 1985 |
| Bobby McFerrin | "Don't Worry, Be Happy" | 24 September 1988 |
| Sheriff | "When I'm With You" | 04 February 1989 |
| The Heights | "How Do You Talk To An Angel" | 14 November 1992 |
| Crazy Town | "Butterfly" | 24 March 2001 |
| Soulja Slim | "Slow Motion" (Juvenile ft. Soulja Slim) | 7 August 2004 |
| Daniel Powter | "Bad Day" | 8 April 2006 |
| # of weeks | Artist | Longest Song at #1 |
|---|---|---|
| 79 | Mariah Carey | "One Sweet Day" (w/ Boyz II Men, 16 weeks, 1995) |
| 59 | The Beatles | "Hey Jude" (9 weeks, 1968) |
| 50 | Boyz II Men | "One Sweet Day" (w/ Mariah Carey, 16 weeks, 1995) |
| 43 | Usher | "Yeah!" (12 weeks, 2004) |
| 37 | Michael Jackson | "Billie Jean" (7 weeks, 1983) |
| "Black Or White" (7 weeks, 1991) | ||
| 34 | Elton John | "Candle In The Wind 1997" / "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" (14 weeks, 1997) |
| 33 | Janet Jackson | "That's The Way Love Goes" (8 weeks, 1993) |
| 32 | Beyonce | "Irreplaceable" (10 weeks, 2006) |
| 32 | Madonna | "Take A Bow" (7 weeks, 1995) |
| 31 | Whitney Houston | "I Will Always Love You" (14 weeks, 1992) |
| # of Hits | Artists | First Hot 100 hit |
|---|---|---|
| 108 | Elvis Presley | "Hard Headed Woman" (peaked at #4) |
| 89 | James Brown | "Try Me" (peaked at #48) |
| 73 | Ray Charles | "Rockhouse (Part 2)" (peaked at #79) |
| 73 | Aretha Franklin | "Won't Be Long" (peaked at #76) |
| 72 | The Beatles | "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (peaked at #1) |
| 67 | Elton John | "Border Song" (peaked at #92) |
| 63 | Stevie Wonder | "Fingertips - Pt. 2" (peaked at #1) |
| 57 | The Rolling Stones | "Not Fade Away" (peaked at #48) |
| 56 | Marvin Gaye | "Stubborn Kind Of Fellow" (peaked at #46) |
| 56 | Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons | "Sherry" (peaked at #1) |
| 56 | Dionne Warwick | "Don't Make Me Over" (peaked at #21) |
| # of weeks | Song | Artist | First week at #2 | Blocked from #1 by: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | "Waiting For A Girl Like You" | Foreigner | 28 November 1981 | "Physical" — Olivia Newton John (9 weeks) |
| "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" — Daryl Hall & John Oates (1 week) | ||||
| "Work It" | Missy Elliott | 16 November 2002 | "Lose Yourself" — Eminem | |
| 9 | "I Love You Always Forever" | Donna Lewis | 24 August 1996 | "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" — Los Del Rio |
| "You're Still The One" | Shania Twain | 02 May 1998 | "Too Close" — Next (1 week) | |
| "The Boy Is Mine" — Brandy & Monica (8 weeks) | ||||
| 8 | "If I Ever Fall In Love" | Shai | 21 November 1992 | "How Do You Talk To An Angel" — The Heights (1 week) |
| "I Will Always Love You" — Whitney Houston (7 weeks) | ||||
| "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here" | Deborah Cox | 05 December 1998 | "I'm Your Angel" — R. Kelly & Celine Dion (6 weeks) | |
| "Have You Ever?" — Brandy (2 weeks) | ||||
| "Back At One" | Brian McKnight | 20 November 1999 | "Smooth" — Santana ft. Rob Thomas | |
| "I Don't Wanna Know" | Mario Winans ft. P. Diddy & Enya | 24 April 2004 | "Yeah!" — Usher ft. Ludacris & Lil Jon (4 weeks) | |
| "Burn" — Usher (4 weeks) |