Top Pop Singles 1955-2018
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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Printed Date: 05 May 2025 at 10:12pm Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Top Pop Singles 1955-2018
Posted By: Paul Haney
Subject: Top Pop Singles 1955-2018
Date Posted: 03 May 2019 at 10:48am
Coming in late June. Order now and save $15!
Visit recordresearch.com for the details.
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Replies:
Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 03 May 2019 at 2:28pm
paul...the sample pages don't open using the pdf link.....
------------- edtop40
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Posted By: Paul C
Date Posted: 03 May 2019 at 4:26pm
I’m seeing the sample pages just fine.
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Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 03 May 2019 at 4:57pm
working now for me..
------------- edtop40
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 03 May 2019 at 10:14pm
Paul,
Will be ordering later this month....
On another note had a quick question....
When you do another hot 100 annual revision how will you treat the Perfect single by Ed Sheeran (with and without Beyonce duet) and Old Town Road (with and without Billy Ray Cyrus). Since both were #1 wouldn't there need to be a differentiation?
I noticed when I got the 2016 annual that the Britney Spears/Rihanna duet, which caused the single to hit #1 was not even mentioned. Is that going to be the case, that the version with the most weeks will be the one that is listed?
I noticed on your sample page pdf that you listed Ed Sheeran's Perfect and mentioned the Beyonce Duet, that is why the question came to mind.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 04 May 2019 at 1:41am
PopArchivist wrote:
Paul,
Will be ordering later this month....
On another note had a quick question....
When you do another hot 100 annual revision how will you
treat the Perfect single by Ed Sheeran (with and without
Beyonce duet) and Old Town Road (with and without Billy
Ray Cyrus). Since both were #1 wouldn't there need to be
a differentiation?
I noticed when I got the 2016 annual that the Britney
Spears/Rihanna duet, which caused the single to hit #1
was not even mentioned. Is that going to be the case,
that the version with the most weeks will be the one that
is listed?
I noticed on your sample page pdf that you listed Ed
Sheeran's Perfect and mentioned the Beyonce Duet, that is
why the question came to mind.
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Billboard generally combines the different versions
together. Whichever one has the most points that week
gets the billing on the chart. As you can imagine,
that's created some headaches for us on just how to
present that information in our books. For Top Pop
Singles, a trivia note usually suffices. We'll have to
take another look about how to handle these for the Pop
Annual.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 04 May 2019 at 1:43am
edtop40 wrote:
paul...the sample pages don't open using
the pdf link..... |
Ed, you just happened to try at the exact same time our
admin person was in there reloading the sample pages.
Everything should be working fine from here on.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 04 May 2019 at 11:15am
Love that the Xmas titles are all combined now as opposed to having insanely
messy re-entry lists. I gather that Artist points will be calculated by highest
overall Xmas peak position as opposed to all the separate yearly peaks.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 04 May 2019 at 12:05pm
jebsib wrote:
Love that the Xmas titles are all combined
now as opposed to having insanely messy re-entry lists. I
gather that Artist points will be calculated by highest
overall Xmas peak position as opposed to all the separate
yearly peaks. |
You gather correctly!
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Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 05 May 2019 at 5:44am
jebsib wrote:
Love that the Xmas titles are all combined
now as opposed to having insanely
messy re-entry lists. |
I'd imagine that Christmas songs throw a major wrench in
the works, especially with the trend of stations going all
Christmas for the month of December. Few, if any of these
songs were officially re-released nor have they been back
by popular demand, but the concentrated airplay on a
handful of stations makes it look that way.
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 14 May 2019 at 5:10pm
On a side note Paul, no more PDF (e-books) or has Record Research thrown in the towel?
Also any decision coming shortly on making a 2010-2019 decade book or pdf disc of the hot 100 charts like previous decades?
Thanks in advance.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 14 May 2019 at 5:46pm
PopArchivist wrote:
On a side note Paul, no more PDF
(e-books) or has Record Research thrown in the towel?
Also any decision coming shortly on making a 2010-2019
decade book or pdf disc of the hot 100 charts like
previous decades?
Thanks in advance. |
Kind of wait and see on more e-books. They really don't
sell all that well.
No decision yet on the Hot 100 charts for the current
decade. As you probably know, the Hot 100 is now spread
out over three pages, making it harder to put together a
book. Frankly, also not sure what kind of demand there
is for the recent charts.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 15 May 2019 at 4:55am
The irony is that there has NEVER been a higher demand for recent charts.
When we were listening to American Top 40, all you had was seeking out
expensive Billboard magazine at hard to find urban newsstands. Now literally
millions of chart enthusiasts have hundreds of website message boards and
converse in heavily heated daily conversations about chart placements,
statistics, etc. Billboard had to shut down its message board after they
crashed on chart-reveal days. So the demand is there. It's trying to reach the
current generation in a way that isn't just Wikipedia charts. And that they may
not 'care' until their nostalgia kicks in in a few years.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 02 June 2019 at 1:35pm
Paul, a very small correction, so hope you haven't gone to press just yet…
Just checked the 2015 edition and in the #1s section, Dolly's 1981 "9 to 5"
needs to have a double arrow icon as it dropped - then returned - to #1.
Thanks!
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 03 June 2019 at 4:45am
jebsib wrote:
Paul, a very small correction, so hope you
haven't gone to press just yet…
Just checked the 2015 edition and in the #1s section,
Dolly's 1981 "9 to 5"
needs to have a double arrow icon as it dropped - then
returned - to #1.
Thanks! |
Too late. Will have to fix it next time.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 24 June 2019 at 3:42am
The books should be arriving at our offices either today
(6/24) or tomorrow. We will spend most of this week
shipping out the pre-orders. Thanks to everyone here who
already purchased a copy. Happy to report that this
edition is outpacing the past two editions, sales wise!
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Posted By: Chartman
Date Posted: 14 July 2019 at 8:39am
The Top Pop Singles book is "only" 1218 pages but is slightly thicker than the 1602 page Top Pop Albums book - thicker paper for the singles. The album book weighs more but carrying either around is quite the workout!
Of course in the "what have you done for me lately" world, which book is next?
Top R&B Singles 1942-2019 (now including the R&B Airplay charts)
Pop Annual 1955-2019 (although 2019 rankings probably not available until June of next year)
Music Vendor Charts 1954-1963
Cash Box Charts, the fifties, eighties or nineties
-or-
better yet, some new Joel project you are currently working on but are sworn to secrecy!
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 15 July 2019 at 5:33am
The next order of business is to print the 1958, 1959 and
1960/61 Cash Box Regional books. This will take up the
rest of my year, at least.
We may also do a Cash Box 1980s chart book. That's one I
don't have to personally do much work on.
No other big projects planned as of yet.
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 15 July 2019 at 7:39pm
Paul,
Just wondering if any new e-books are going to be put up or is the new annual and new top pop hits not going to be available anytime soon for e-books?
Also you originally had a book that had the 1900-1999 century listings but only the first 40 positions:
https://www.recordresearch.com/pop/century_of_pop_music_1900 _1999.php
Is there any chance you would do a book that would cover the rankings from 1900-1940, or from 1900-2019 eventually that would be a more inclusive pop annual? Your 1900-1940 book that was redone (from the 1986 original) neither has a ranking like the annual year by year.
As always, thanks for all your work.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 16 July 2019 at 4:13am
The e-books do not sell, so no plans for any more at this
time.
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 17 July 2019 at 10:05pm
Paul,
Is Whitburn ever going to rank by year the 1900-1940 songs similar to the 1940-1954 book and 1955-2016 annual. I was asking since the Pop Century book had the first 40 songs ranked. Even if its just a small book would be rather fascinating to assemble since it was not done for the 1900-1940 book you released just recently.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 18 July 2019 at 5:45am
PopArchivist wrote:
Paul,
Is Whitburn ever going to rank by year the 1900-1940 songs
similar to the 1940-1954 book and 1955-2016 annual. I was
asking since the Pop Century book had the first 40 songs
ranked. Even if its just a small book would be rather
fascinating to assemble since it was not done for the
1900-1940 book you released just recently. |
Honestly, I don't think he's even thought about it. I
sure can mention it to him though!
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Posted By: thecdguy
Date Posted: 15 August 2019 at 4:59am
Paul,
Would you know if Joel has ever considered doing a book
for the separate Sales and Airplay charts of the Hot
100? I always loved looking at those charts and
comparing them to the main Hot 100 chart, especially in
the late 80's/early 90's. I have an older edition of
"Top Pop Singles" where the songs had their sales and
airplay peaks listed and thought it would be great if
there was a chronological listing of the Sales and
Airplay #1's like there is in the back of the Pop
Singles books for the Hot 100 #1's.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 19 August 2019 at 8:23am
FYI -
There are a couple of important typos in the "Top 200 of All Time" listing in
this edition: All About That Bass' "Weeks in Top 40" is incorrect and rockstar's
"Weeks on Chart & in the Top 40" are wrong and affect its overall position.
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Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 21 August 2019 at 1:23pm
I would like to see the Sales and Airplay peaks return
to the book as well. If the song did not actually reach
the Hot 100, the peak number should include that - not
just note it off to the side.
I personally find no value to the non-Hot 100 hits.
They seem to be determined subjectively and take away
space from including other actual data for songs/records
that did reach or bubbled under the Hot 100.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 4:09am
jebsib wrote:
FYI -
There are a couple of important typos in the "Top 200 of
All Time" listing in
this edition: All About That Bass' "Weeks in Top 40" is
incorrect and rockstar's
"Weeks on Chart & in the Top 40" are wrong and affect its
overall position. |
Thanks for those corrections! All of that data is
entered by hand and I was just coming off major eye
surgery when I worked on that section. BTW, although the
weeks are incorrect, it does not affect either song's
overall ranking (the numbers are correct in the decade
section).
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 4:10am
thecdguy wrote:
Paul,
Would you know if Joel has ever considered doing a book
for the separate Sales and Airplay charts of the Hot
100? I always loved looking at those charts and
comparing them to the main Hot 100 chart, especially in
the late 80's/early 90's. I have an older edition of
"Top Pop Singles" where the songs had their sales and
airplay peaks listed and thought it would be great if
there was a chronological listing of the Sales and
Airplay #1's like there is in the back of the Pop
Singles books for the Hot 100 #1's. |
No, we've never really considered such a book. Not sure
how much demand there would be.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 4:13am
Scanner wrote:
I would like to see the Sales and
Airplay peaks return
to the book as well. If the song did not actually reach
the Hot 100, the peak number should include that - not
just note it off to the side.
I personally find no value to the non-Hot 100 hits.
They seem to be determined subjectively and take away
space from including other actual data for songs/records
that did reach or bubbled under the Hot 100. |
Thanks for the feedback. Due to major staff cutbacks, we
stopped researching the sales and airplay charts at some
point around 2005. Doubt that info will ever return.
Most of our readers seem to enjoy the non-Hot 100
listings. We may have to take them out eventually as the
books are getting too big for one volume to handle.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 7:27am
This book was phenomenal. Love the thicker paper - makes the book fatter,
but more majestic, more resilient to damage.
Love having digital (portable) copies of these tomes. Any plans for a PDF
version?
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 9:03am
jebsib wrote:
This book was phenomenal. Love the
thicker paper - makes the book fatter,
but more majestic, more resilient to damage.
Love having digital (portable) copies of these tomes.
Any plans for a PDF
version? |
Thanks for the kind words. Glad we went with the thicker
paper too!
No plans for a digital version at this time. Most of our
customers still prefer the printed books.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 10:45am
Paul - I notice that "Hot 100 Charts: The 2000s" is being reprinted in October.
I purchased the book when it first came out and was a little disappointed that
the printers got many of the charts so dark. (Trust me, I understand the
challenge of reprinting those colors charts with the tiny text & photos that BB
was publishing last decade)
My question is - Might there be a chance this new printing will be a tad lighter?
Or is it a direct copy of the last run? (I wouldn't mind double-dipping if the
book was a bit more legible this time around.)
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Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 1:52pm
Did you ever think of producing two volumes instead of
one for some of your larger Pop books? The Hot 100 and
Billboard 200 books are becoming rather cumbersome to
read and carry.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 2:21pm
jebsib wrote:
Paul - I notice that "Hot 100 Charts: The
2000s" is being reprinted in October.
I purchased the book when it first came out and was a
little disappointed that
the printers got many of the charts so dark. (Trust me, I
understand the
challenge of reprinting those colors charts with the tiny
text & photos that BB
was publishing last decade)
My question is - Might there be a chance this new
printing will be a tad lighter?
Or is it a direct copy of the last run? (I wouldn't mind
double-dipping if the
book was a bit more legible this time around.) |
Funny you should mention that, as I just got done
inserting all new, lighter copies of the charts! We
lightened up every single chart in the book.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 22 August 2019 at 2:24pm
Scanner wrote:
Did you ever think of producing two
volumes instead of
one for some of your larger Pop books? The Hot 100 and
Billboard 200 books are becoming rather cumbersome to
read and carry. |
Yes. We talk about it often. The problem is 2 volumes
means double the printing costs. Plus, not too many would
want to pay for 2 volumes of the same book. The current
album book is about as big as we can go, so not sure what
the future of that one will look like.
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 23 August 2019 at 5:05am
Paul Haney wrote:
Funny you should mention that, as I just got done
inserting all new, lighter copies of the charts! We
lightened up every single chart in the book. |
Hooray! Thank you - Here I come!
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Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 23 August 2019 at 2:58pm
Paul Haney - how about this idea for a new Record Research book?
The Year End Charts, all in 1 volume:
Singles & Albums.
Pop, Country, RnB.
Billboard, Cashbox, Record World.
1950 - 2000.
Sounds fab to me!! It'd only be about 306 + 276 + 192 = 774 charts. Hmmm... might need to break it up into 2 volumes though. OK, do Volume 1 for Billboard (306 charts), and Volume 2 for Cashbox + Record World (468 charts). It'll be terrific !!
Please run it by the Big Guy.
Take my money, please... Cheers !!
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 23 August 2019 at 5:40pm
Oooh! Official Year-End (or DECADE-END) Charts ARE an interesting thought!
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 24 August 2019 at 4:07am
To be honest, Joel has never shown much interest in the
year-end charts. However, I can certainly talk to him
about it!
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Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 24 August 2019 at 4:14am
It would be an easy book to produce. No research, just scan the existing chart pages, and boom, there it is! Easy profit for all of yall...
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 24 August 2019 at 2:13pm
The only drawback on Year End Charts are those odd occasions when huge #1
hits fall between the cracks and wind up never appearing on the year ends
(Happened a lot in the 60s and 70s)
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 25 August 2019 at 4:24am
jebsib wrote:
The only drawback on Year End Charts are
those odd occasions when huge #1
hits fall between the cracks and wind up never appearing
on the year ends
(Happened a lot in the 60s and 70s) |
Which is one of the big reasons Joel doesn't much care for
them!
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Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 25 August 2019 at 5:39am
Paul Haney wrote:
jebsib wrote:
The only drawback on Year End Charts are
those odd occasions when huge #1
hits fall between the cracks and wind up never appearing
on the year ends
(Happened a lot in the 60s and 70s) |
Which is one of the big reasons Joel doesn't much care for
them! |
Well, as we know the problem is with the year-end cutoffs/deadlines. Some records get split into 2 years, that's the nature of the beast. Fred Bronson has kinda solved this issue by 're-doing' the year-end pop singles charts in his book "Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits", forcing each record into its one peak year. I don't think Fred 'fixed' all the year-end charts, I wanna say just the pop singles (but I'm too lazy to go pull out the book and check).
Even so, I still like to review the Billboard year-end charts, mostly for sentimental/nostalgia reasons. This proposed book would be so kool! Year-end charts for pop, country, R&B. Singles & albums. BB, CB, RW. It would be so incredible, a super summary to tickle our memories.
Especially so because Joel won't continue the pop album charts book series. We'd at least get a summary of each year's album charts.
If publishing a book is too difficult, I'd settle for a DVD-ROM of pdf files...
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Posted By: Chartman
Date Posted: 25 August 2019 at 7:05am
Poor Paul - everybody requesting all these different types of books but Paul is already overworked (and hopefully NOT underpaid) doing those tedious Cash Box Regional Hit books - don't imagine there is that much of a demand for these, but what do I know?! Wish Joel could hire on a helper for Paul because he pretty much the "Research" in the company.
Of course, my suggested book would be the Music Vendor/Record Work R&B Hits 1954-1982 to complete the Pop, C&W, R&B trifecta - but then again not sure how well those previous books sold.
Just curious - did you guys develop a proprietary software program that enables the data mining required for your books?
How's Fran doing? Haven't seen an update for awhile...hope all is well with her.
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Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 25 August 2019 at 2:04pm
Not to be morbid...but, Joel will be turning 80 this
year. Any thoughts on what will happen to Record
Research and Joel's trove of music, magazines and other
memorabilia after he retires?
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 3:55am
We are considering the possibility of some more album
chart books. Maybe 1970-75 for starters.
Our in-house database was custom-developed in 1983. We
did a major overhaul of it in 2001. Former employee Bill
Hathaway still does freelance work on it for us when
needed. When Jeanne Olynick retired a few years ago, I
got a crash-course in working with the editing software
and I've also picked up some programming skills, all
self-taught. We also have a freelance IT guy, but I've
also learned a lot of that on my own, so we only call him
in when absolutely necessary.
Fran is about the same. She is still paralyzed from the
waist-down. However, her spirits are good and I talk
with her often.
As far as I can tell, Joel will never fully retire. If
anything were to happen to him, there are plans in place
to continue the business. His daughter is 54 and I'm 53,
so hopefully Record Research will be around for many
years to come. BTW, 2020 will mark our 50th year in
business (and my 28th year with the company)!
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Posted By: kingofskiffle
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 7:46am
Really hope Record Research will continue for years to come.
I like the idea of an Albums book.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 9:03am
Posted By: davidclark
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 9:42am
Just for info, here's a list of #1 songs that failed to appear on a BB Yearend
chart:
Tokens, The The Lion Sleeps Tonight 1961
Marvelettes, The Please Mr. Postman 1961
4 Seasons, The Big Girls Don't Cry 1962
Tornadoes, The Telstar &n bsp; 1962
Crystals, The He's A Rebel 1962
Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers Monster Mash 1962
Singing Nun, The Dominique 1963
Beatles, The I Feel Fine 1964
Supremes, The Come See About Me 1964
Bobby Vinton Mr. Lonely 1964
Lorne Greene Ringo & nbsp; 1964
Beatles, The Yesterday 1965
Byrds, The Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) 1965
Rolling Stones, The Get Off Of My Cloud 1965
Supremes, The I Hear A Symphony 1965
Dave Clark Five, The Over And Over 1965
Beatles, The Hello Goodbye 1967
Steam Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye 1969
Peter, Paul & Mary Leaving On A Jet Plane 1969
Supremes, The Someday We'll Be Together 1969
Partridge Family, The I Think I Love You 1970
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles The Tears Of A Clown 1970
Helen Reddy I Am Woman 1972
Ringo Starr Photograph &nb sp; 1973
Stevie Wonder You Haven't Done Nothin' 1974
Barry White Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe 1974
John Lennon Whatever Gets You Thru The Night 1974
Steve Miller Band Rock'n Me 1976
"Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe" peaked in September 1974 so what
happened with that one? I too take these charts for what they are (not
accurate nor complete).
------------- dc1
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Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 11:39am
It is true the Year Ends were wonky, but remember - they were the official
American charts that were known around the world thanks to Casey Kasem et
al. Thus, despite their obvious deficits, they 'became' the culture.
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Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 12:30pm
I remember being floored when reading "You Light Up My
Life" was not the No. 1 song of 1977 or even listed
among that year's top 100 Pop hits. I believe chart
years cut off then at the end of October by which time
"Light" had already clocked three weeks at No. 1. The
song was ultimately No. 3 for 1978, although it had
fallen from No. 1 by the time the 1977 calendar (not
chart) year was over.
Glad to hear there are plans to continue Record
Research after Joel retires. I would love to see a
Country Comparison book including Billboard, Cashbox,
R&R and Record World that would run through R&R's end
in 2009...among other books that I know will never be
updated (e.g. an AC book update) or published (e.g.
all the other R&R charts and Cashbox and Record World
album charts)!
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 26 August 2019 at 2:01pm
Scanner wrote:
Glad to hear there are plans to continue
Record Research after Joel retires. I would love to see
a
Country Comparison book including Billboard, Cashbox,
R&R and Record World that would run through R&R's end
in 2009...among other books that I know will never be
updated (e.g. an AC book update) or published (e.g.
all the other R&R charts and Cashbox and Record World
album charts)! |
If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's
never say "never" when it comes to new book projects. I
never imagined that we'd actually expand into the other
publications. It took me years to convince Joel to do a
Radio & Records book, for instance.
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Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 28 August 2019 at 6:23am
Paul Haney wrote:
We are considering the possibility of some more album
chart books. Maybe 1970-75 for starters. |
I'm in, Paul! And also for the 1960-1964 albums charts, and the 1975-1979 album charts. And maybe more after that.
Question: do you and Joel do any market research, for what books your customers would like to see? You've got all our emails, I think a 'wish list' poll would be most illuminating for you. I've been buying your books for 45 years, and have never been asked as to what books I would like yall to do. (but I do send yall frequent hints, here and by email)
And I'd also throw in, don't be afraid to produce a book that Joel doesn't have any personal interest in doing. If it brings in big bucks, just do it! Cheers...
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Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 28 August 2019 at 9:31am
jebsib wrote:
The only drawback on Year End Charts are
those odd occasions when huge #1
hits fall between the cracks and wind up never appearing on
the year ends
(Happened a lot in the 60s and 70s) |
Contrast that to this century where chart runs are so long
that more than a few songs have made the year end charts 2
consecutive years.
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 28 August 2019 at 9:37pm
Paul Haney wrote:
As far as I can tell, Joel will never fully retire. |
The man has way too much music in his collection to ever fully "retire" from putting out the music reference books. A lot of us on here who collect would love it if he posted every once in awhile and shared a lot of his wisdom.
The only reason I suggested a more comprehensive ranking of 1900-mid 1940 chart songs (the pre-Billboard age) was because eventually I am going to attempt to assemble as much of that era as I can in lossless. I am not aware of anyone who has attempted to find this era on CD. Because Pat's database only goes back to 1955, their are limited references the further you go back, Joel's 1900-1940 book being one of the few that I can look at.
If you recall we spoke years ago and you actually took my suggestion(s) concerning redoing the 1986 release of the 1890-1940 period. The only thing missing from the book was some way to rank the hits annual style as many of us use Joel's numbering system of each year to properly organize our collections.
Again a big thank you for everything you do...
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Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 02 September 2019 at 10:22am
Paul, are there any plans in the pipeline for a revised Hot Country Albums book? Seeing as how the last one was for 1964-2007, we've got 11 years of data to catch up on. Thanks...
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Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 02 September 2019 at 12:58pm
PopArchivist wrote:
The only reason I suggested a more
comprehensive ranking of 1900-mid 1940 chart songs (the
pre-Billboard age) was because eventually I am going to
attempt to assemble as much of that era as I can in
lossless. I am not aware of anyone who has attempted to
find this era on CD. Because Pat's database only goes
back to 1955, their are limited references the further
you go back, Joel's 1900-1940 book being one of the few
that I can look at. |
How many "hit songs" as we know them from the rock era
were there pre-1940? I thought most music sales were
sheet music, and as far as record sales went there were
multiple artists had concurrent (and often regional)
versions of contemporary hit songs.
I would also imagine that any chart methodology from then
would be crude and not very comprehensive.
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 02 September 2019 at 2:23pm
Hykker wrote:
How many "hit songs" as we know them from the rock era
were there pre-1940? |
There is no "definitive" annual of hits songs for this era, but there were hit songs (just an example, Puttin' on the Ritz by Irving Berlin) that are worth collecting. I do think you can't define "hit songs" of the 10's, 20's, 30's but rather the most successful hits are the ones that Joel Whitburn's 1900-1940 book highlights.
Hykker wrote:
I thought most music sales were
sheet music, and as far as record sales went there were
multiple artists had concurrent (and often regional)
versions of contemporary hit songs.
I would also imagine that any chart methodology from then
would be crude and not very comprehensive.
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I have access to some resources from this period that attempt to rank the years the best they can.
I am pretty sure Joel based his research off what he could find. I am just archiving it into my collection from 1900-1940 where I can. If you need to see what my research has gathered, I can send you a private PM as I like to keep what references I have private.
I can't say for 100 percent confirmation that every 1900-1939 or 1940-1954 hit is on CD, but some are. If Pat is interested when I start I can make notes where I find the sources. Time Life did a good job with their releases but even my collection of Glenn Miller could use more CD resources to pull from. Lots of gaps to fill in and there are only 78's to convert, not 45's. That makes hit harder and more expensive and more time consuming to piece together the hits if they are not on CD.
Hope that answers your question.
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Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 02 September 2019 at 4:01pm
PopArchivist,
I suppose you are aware of the Your Hit Parade chart book by Bruce Elrod (Amazon's got it). It features YHP weekly charts from 1935 to 1954(?), then takes over with Billboard charts up to 1994. Based on the radio and TV show of the same name. And of course there are Variety mag charts out there somewhere for this early time period, but I don't think ever compiled in a book.
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Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 02 September 2019 at 9:48pm
RoknRobnLoxley wrote:
PopArchivist,
I suppose you are aware of the Your Hit Parade chart book by Bruce Elrod (Amazon's got it). It features YHP weekly charts from 1935 to 1954(?), then takes over with Billboard charts up to 1994. Based on the radio and TV show of the same name. And of course there are Variety mag charts out there somewhere for this early time period, but I don't think ever compiled in a book. |
I have that book, yes. There are references out there, but I have a pretty good list of songs I need to get. Probably in a few years I can really focus my attention to it as I am doing the 1970's right now and that is harder because of the mono-stereo versions.
FYI I did do 1954 and I am missing just 12 top 10 hits. Without Pat's database to look them up on I have to take the time and actually research where I can find them on CD. For 1954, I did not have to do any dubs or drops from a 45 or 78, they were pretty much out there. I can't attest to the rest of the 1950-1953 period, but I don't see the top 10 listed in Whitburn's book being unavailable on CD. Just will take more time to assemble.
I personally don't like the fact that everyone starts everything mid-decade in 1955 because of the rock n roll era. There is clearly though a shift on what is on CD and what is not based on that though. The pre-1954 stuff has not gotten the remastering or attention that the post-1954 stuff has and probably never will. Unless your name was Glenn Miller or Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington or Ray Charles odds are its going to be harder to find that odd hit from those years.
I love Time Life and thank them for putting out the Your Hit Parade stuff. It is better than not having any place that has them at all. Just sad that a great era in music has fallen by the waist side since that generation is pretty much no longer with us that heard the hits of the 10's-mid 30's and would buy that music. The CD is already having enough trouble selling to the current 40-60 year olds who eat up the remastered albums and greatest hits. Just a point.
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Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 03 September 2019 at 1:48pm
I would also love an update to the Country Albums book,
but only if it would include Sales data. Since the
inclusion of streaming data, the chart is overrun with
compilations instead of more current studio releases
that still show up, albeit with pitiful sales numbers,
on the Sales chart. Luke Combs will likely surpass
Shania Twain's 50 week run at No. 1 with her "Come On
Over." Yet, that is mostly due to streaming - I read
somewhere that his album has barely sold 500,000 copies.
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Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 04 September 2019 at 4:44am
Another Country Albums book is very doubtful at this
point. Again, lack of sales is the main reason. That
said, never say never!
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