What REALLY was BB’s Pop Chart pre 1955?

If you go back and look at the headings of the Top 100 and early Hot 100, each originally included the mix of sales, DJ airplay, and jukebox play. It says so right in the heading, note box off to the side. The Top 100 then changed multiple times till it devolved into a tabulation of most popular single sides.

Then along comes the Hot 100 in 1958, and they go right back to basing this chart on all 3, sales, DJ airplay, and jukebox. Till it devolves into sales only, thru May 1959. Then it later becomes something else.

Here are my long-winded notes:

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For the first Top 100 chart, in the 11-12-55 issue of Billboard for the survey week ending 11-2-55, the note at the top says:

""" A list of the Top 100 Record Sides in the nation according to a Combined Tabulation of Dealer, Disk Jockey and Juke Box Operator replies to The Billboard’s weekly popular record Best Seller and Most Played surveys. Its purpose is to provide Disk Jockeys with additional programming material and to give trade exposure to Newer records just beginning to show action in the field. """

This note continued thru the 6-17-57 issue for the survey week ending 6-12-57. This was the last week of the Juke Box chart. In the next issue, dated 6-24-57 for the survey week ending 6-19-57, the note at the top of the chart reflected this change, and was revised to read:

""" A list of the Top 100 Record Sides in the nation according to a Combined Tabulation of Dealer unit sales and Disk Jockey replies to The Billboard’s weekly popular record Most Played survey. Its purpose is to provide Disk Jockeys with additional programming material and to give trade exposure to Newer records just beginning to show action in the field. """

The very next week, the 7-1-57 issue for the survey ending the week of 6-22-57, the chart title was changed to The Top 100 Sides, and the note at the top revised again to:

""" A list of the top 100 record sides in the nation according to a tabulation of dealer unit sales. Its purpose primarily is to provide disk jockeys with additional programming material and to give trade exposure to newer sides just beginning to show action in the field. It Is Not A Record Sales Chart. """

And then the very next week, 7-8-57 for the survey week ending 6-29-57, the note at the top was revised again:

""" This is a tabulation of dealer unit sales listed according to the specific side requested by customers. No attempt is made to add sides together to reflect actual record sales. It is therefore a tabulation of sides or songs, and not records. This fact, together with longer four-week survey periods, explains variation between the top 30 sides as reflected in this chart, and top 30 record sellers as reflected in “Best Sellers in Stores”. """

Then the Best Sellers in Stores chart was expanded from 30 to 50 positions, and in the 1-4-58 issue for survey week ending 12-28-57, the note at the top of the Top 100 Sides chart was changed to reflect this:

""" This is a tabulation of dealer individual record sales listed according to the specific side requested by customers. No attempt is made to add sides together to reflect actual record sales. This is, therefore, a tabulation of sides or songs, and not records. This is the reason for any possible variation that occurs between the top 50 sides as reflected in this chart, and the top 50 record sellers as reflected in the “Best Sellers in Stores” chart. """

Now comes the Hot 100 in issue 8-4-58 for the week ending 8-10-58. The note for this chart reads:

""" These 100 sides are listed in order of their national popularity, as determined by weekly local studies prepared for The Billboard in markets representing a cross-section of the United States. These studies take into consideration such factors as disk jockey plays, juke box activity and record sales. """

In the 10-20-58 issue (for the week ending 10-26-58), the Hot 100 note has been tweaked to:

""" These 100 sides are listed in order of their national popularity, as determined by weekly local studies prepared for The Billboard in markets representing a cross-section of the United States. These studies reflect sales registered for each disk up to press time. """

This note continued up thru the 5-11-59 issue (for the week ending 5-17-59). As the Hot 100 too kept on evolving...

That's as far as I went (so far). But as you can see, this Top 100 / Hot 100 thing was an ongoing evolution. In my opinion, the Top 100 1955-58 cannot be dismissed in favor of the Best Sellers chart, as the Hot 100 began by doing exactly what the Top 100 had started out doing, combining 3 charts of sales, airplay, and jukebox into 1 big combo.

Boogaloo...

One of the big problems is that Billboard never really came right out and explained exactly what their formula
was for the Hot 100 chart from 1958 and into the 1980s. You'd actually have to find someone who was working in the
chart department at the time to get the actual story. I'm pretty sure that the "ratios" were constantly changing
over time.

Even from 1968-73, those Top 50 songs were obviously getting airplay along with the sales, even if they weren't
"officially" factored into the rankings.

Edited by Paul Haney

Paul Haney wrote: One of the big problems is that Billboard never really came right out and explained exactly what their formula was for the Hot 100 chart from 1958 and into the 1980s. You'd actually have to find someone who was working in the chart department at the time to get the actual story. I'm pretty sure that the "ratios" were constantly changing over time.

The closest thing I ever found is something I read
online from Paul Grein about 10 years or so ago - and
I couldn't even tell you where I read it, but I did
print out that part of it. Here's what it said:

He stated that each week the chart department would
phone major record stores and ask if certain albums
were selling "very good, good or fair". Points would
be tabulated and the final chart hand positioned by
the chart director. Sometimes positions could be
influenced on whether a group has a hot new single,
just starting a tour or is appearing on national TV
that week (such as "Midnight Special", etc.)

This is in relation to the album chart, but I'd
imagine similar processes were in place for the
singles chart.

So it seems like there was a lot of manipulation and
play in the charts each week.

If the Top 100 was just a 'Hot 100' that needed a tighter formula change, I'm
surprised it didn't catch on. So the Hot 100 was essentially just a re-naming /
rebranding. And since the Top 100 (more or less) corresponds with the
beginning of the Rock Era, it's a shame it isn't consulted more. Unless, as Paul
suggested, it was REALLY inaccurate.