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NightAire MusicFan
Joined: 20 February 2010 Location: United States
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Posted: 15 November 2023 at 11:21pm | IP Logged
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I understand that Billboard put out a Hot 100 for each year, but has anyone ever taken EVERY song that hit the charts in a particular year and put them in order?
This chart might be 500 songs long, but I'd like to be able to look at songs that didn't make the year-end charts but maybe didn't miss them by much.
Another alternative would be every Hot 100 song of the decade, in popular order. (Now we're talking a list thousands of entries long.)
I'm looking specifically for the 1980s as that's what my station plays, but I'm sure other decades would be fascinating, too. I have the weekly charts but the effort involved in calculating chart positions for all those songs is completely overwhelming to me.
Does anybody know if anyone who's already done "the hard work" for me, or do I need to fight through this project by hand?
__________________ Gene Savage
http://www.BlackLightRadio.com
http://www.facebook.com/TulsaSavage
Owasso, Oklahoma USA
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Paul Haney MusicFan
Joined: 01 April 2005
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Posted: 16 November 2023 at 2:31am | IP Logged
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Gene, if you need entire yearly rankings, our Pop Annual does that job. Of course, it's based on Joel's "unique" system of
ranking songs based mainly on peak position, not "chart points." We've published decade rankings up to a point, but not
every song of each decade. However, there are a series of books by Dann Isbell and Bill Carroll that do rank the 60s, 70s
and 80s using their point system that may interest you. You can easily search for those books online.
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aaronk Admin Group
Joined: 16 January 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 6513
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Posted: 16 November 2023 at 6:51am | IP Logged
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Yes, the Pop Annual has been one of my go-to Record Research books for years.
__________________ Aaron Kannowski
Uptown Sound
91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop
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PopArchivist MusicFan
Joined: 30 June 2018 Location: United States
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Posted: 16 November 2023 at 9:04am | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
Yes, the Pop Annual has been one of my go-to Record Research books for years. |
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This is the way.
__________________ "I'm a pop archivist, not a chart philosopher, I seek to listen, observe and document the chart position of music."
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NightAire MusicFan
Joined: 20 February 2010 Location: United States
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Posted: 16 November 2023 at 11:59pm | IP Logged
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Paul, Aaron, PopArchivist, it appears my path forward is clear. :-)
Thank you so much for the advice! These publications look like they would be very helpful.
__________________ Gene Savage
http://www.BlackLightRadio.com
http://www.facebook.com/TulsaSavage
Owasso, Oklahoma USA
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Paul Haney MusicFan
Joined: 01 April 2005
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Posted: 17 November 2023 at 6:37am | IP Logged
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This seems like a good time to mention that our next Record Research project will be an updated Pop Annual. We are talking about perhaps starting it
in 1950 instead of 1955. It would go all the way thru 2023.
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kingofskiffle MusicFan
Joined: 19 November 2018
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Posted: 17 November 2023 at 10:10am | IP Logged
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That sounds like an excellent idea. Would starting in 1940 add too much to
it? I can easily see that more pages does really add a lot to the size, but that
may just be another 35 pages, assuming all those from Pop Hits 40-54
were included.
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Paul Haney MusicFan
Joined: 01 April 2005
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Posted: 17 November 2023 at 11:10am | IP Logged
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kingofskiffle wrote:
That sounds like an excellent idea. Would starting in 1940 add too much to it? I can easily see that
more pages does really add a lot to the size, but that may just be another 35 pages, assuming all those from Pop Hits 40-54
were included. |
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We're still talking it over. The 1940s really were a different animal than even the early 1950s with all the big band stuff.
And yes, page count is always an issue. Don't forget we're adding 7 years from 2017-2023 and I'm sure you know how many
charted songs there are per year in recent years.
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JMD1961 MusicFan
Joined: 29 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 185
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Posted: 18 November 2023 at 2:47am | IP Logged
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Paul Haney wrote:
This seems like a good time to
mention that our next Record Research project will be an
updated Pop Annual. We are talking about perhaps
starting it
in 1950 instead of 1955. It would go all the way thru
2023. |
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Count me in. I'd love to have the rest of the 50s added
to the book to round out the decade.
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torcan MusicFan
Joined: 23 June 2006 Location: Canada
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Posted: 18 November 2023 at 6:53pm | IP Logged
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Just out of curiosity, didn't record companies keep records
of how many singles (and albums) were pressed/shipped/sold?
That would be the true representation.
I always prefer to rank via "chart points" rather that just
peak position if true sales numbers weren't available, but
I guess if the companies did keep that info they'd probably
never release it publicly, would they?
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mjb50 MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021 Location: United States
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Posted: 18 November 2023 at 8:10pm | IP Logged
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torcan wrote:
Just out of curiosity, didn't record companies keep records of how many singles (and albums) were pressed/shipped/sold? |
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Ha. In 2006, an intern from Atlantic emailed me and asked if I could supply him with complete discographies of 12" singles released on Atlantic, Elektra, Warner Brothers, Tommy Boy, Cold Chillin' and Sugarhill.
So no, I get the impression most labels were just living in the moment. Their job was to make and sell records, not help chart/discography nerds and librarians of the future.
Right around the time the records were made & sold, sure, someone had that info. But I think most of those filing cabinets were emptied long ago... especially if any of it might be incriminating.
Edited by mjb50 on 18 November 2023 at 8:11pm
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torcan MusicFan
Joined: 23 June 2006 Location: Canada
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Posted: 19 November 2023 at 12:55pm | IP Logged
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mjb50 wrote:
torcan wrote:
Just out of curiosity,
didn't record companies keep records of how many singles
(and albums) were pressed/shipped/sold? |
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Ha. In 2006, an intern from Atlantic emailed me and asked
if I could supply him with complete discographies of 12"
singles released on Atlantic, Elektra, Warner Brothers,
Tommy Boy, Cold Chillin' and Sugarhill.
So no, I get the impression most labels were just living
in the moment. Their job was to make and sell records,
not help chart/discography nerds and librarians of the
future.
Right around the time the records were made & sold, sure,
someone had that info. But I think most of those filing
cabinets were emptied long ago... especially if any of it
might be incriminating. |
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OK. Along the same lines, how exactly were gold and
platinum awards calculated? I know the record company
had to pay a fee and request the RIAA to audit the
numbers to determine if it actually sold 500,000 or
1,000,000 copies, right? Exactly what did they have to
submit?
Anyone know exactly how it worked?
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Hykker MusicFan
Joined: 30 October 2007 Location: United States
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Posted: 20 November 2023 at 6:58am | IP Logged
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mjb50 wrote:
Right around the time the records were made & sold, sure, someone had that info. But I think most of those filing
cabinets were emptied long ago... especially if any of it might be incriminating. |
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And let's not forget that the number of copies pressed/shipped does not always equal the number of copies sold. Lots of stuff went
into cutout bins, to salvage stores or into the dumpster.
I recall seeing ads in Billboard back in the early 70s for LPs I'd never even heard of that "shipped platinum".
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