Opinion: Songs with very long runs at #1 in Billboard Magazine

Cafe Society
1

Cliff Notes version: Why so many long-running #1s in the past quarter century, and so few before then?

TLDR:

Some background: When Casey Kasem used to do the American Top 40, we would refer to the ‘Rock Era’ as starting mid 1955, when Bill Haley and His Comets hit #1 with “Rock around the Clock.” So, everything that follows is “Rock Era” and later (as most of the songs for many years could hardly be called “Rock”.) Anyway. . .

There have been 28 songs since then that have held #1 for 10 weeks or more. In the first 21 years of the “Rock Era,” there were. . . Zero.

Then, Debby Boone held #1 for weeks with “You Light up My Life” in 1977.

Four years later, Olivia Newton-John held #1 for weeks with "Physical.’

11 years after that, Boyz II Men joined an all-time four-way tie when they held #1 for 13 weeks with 'End of the Road" [the previous tie being between “Frenesi” by Artie Shaw (1940), " I’ve Heard That Song Before" by Harry James (1943), and “Goodnight, Irene” by The Weavers (1950)]

And the long runners kept a-comin’ after that. In the 1990s, a total of 11 songs held #1 for 10 or more weeks.

In the 2000s, there were 12.

Then the pace cooled. So far in the five years of the 2010s, there have been only three–but that’s still more than the first 26 years of the Rock Era.

So. . . with all that background, why so many in the past quarter century, and so few in the 36 previous years?

Link. Boyz II Men shows up three times in the list.

2

It has to do with Billboard’s use of SoundScan to track sales since in 1991. SoundScan is considered more accurate (and less prone to fraud) than the old methods Billboard used to determine song popularity from 1955 to 1991.

3

SoundScan affected the Billboard R&B Chart as well. In the pre-SoundScan 1987-1992 period* there were between 32 and 38 Number One singles every year, but then in the post-SoundScan 1993-1999 period there were only between 9 and 17 Number Ones every year.

Curiously, on Billboard’s Dance Music chart, the opposite has happened and there are far more #1s than there used to be - in fact most Dance #1s only hold that position for one week nowadays. Maybe SoundScan is not used with Dance Music, I’m not sure about that.
*For R&B, SoundScan went into effect in December 1992

4

This I attribute purely to Satanic forces

5

Sound scan is one factor, charts are getting more “accurate”. Before the Hot 100, in the forties and earlier fifties, there would be three number 1 singles at the same time. Longer stays at number 1 mean less turnover and hence less amount of number 1 songs in a calendar year.

6

True, but 1974 holds the most number 1 singles of any year since the Hot 100 began in August 1958. Then it is a tie between 1988-1989, with 1986 coming third. 2002 has the least, followed by 2005, and then a tie between 1996-1997.

7

Oh wait a minute, “I’m A Believer” by the Monkees was a long running singles, preceding the Debby Boone song a decade! It was number 1 from Dec 1966- March 1967, odd for a sixties song.

8

How do you not count “Don’t Be Cruel”/“Hound Dog,” both sides of which made #1 for 11 weeks on the Billboard Best Sellers chart in 1956? There were also a handful of songs during that period that missed that 10-week bar by only one week: “Singing the Blues,” “Mack the Knife,” “Theme from A Summer Place,” “Hey Jude.”

Actually only seven weeks, from 12/31/66 to 2/17/67.

9

Not my rules. Tracking Billboard #1s back then is something like tracking the Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Different companies have their various champions, but there’s always one by consensus that’s considered the ‘lineal’ heavyweight champ. Similarly, Billboard used a number of charts in the 1950s, but the ‘lineal’ chart to the Hot 100 was Billboard’s “Top 100,” on which “Don’t Be Cruel” had a more modest stay of eight weeks. The link I provided came from Billboard itself, and they don’t recognize the 11-week run.

10

Although it is worth noting that the song that “Rock Around the Clock” displaced at #1 was the instrumental “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Perez Prado, which had held the top spot for 10 weeks.

11

To be fair, despite its name, CPaABW is a catchy Latin dance tune in the vein of “Sway”. At the time, it was featured in a movie starring Jane Russell.

12

Yeah, we’re agreeing here that SoundScan tabulation means fewer #1s.

The mechanics of why more accurate collection of chart data reduces the number of #1s instead of having the opposite effect has not been explained.

13

Two other factors to consider:
–Traditionally Billboard tried a 50/50 balance between single sales and radio airplay in calculating its single charts. But due to the virtual disappearance of physical singles in the 1990s, the charts for several years became almost entirely driven by radio airplay. Factoring in digital sales and streaming usage has made the chart a little less airplay dependent in the last few years.
–Soundscan started up just as the Clear Channelization of radio was starting–less local playlist diversity, longer shelf life of hits, less risk taking. So radio was playing fewer songs for a lot longer time just as radio’s impact on the charts was becoming dominant.

14

Another factor that might affect staying at the top: homogeneity of the audience. Back in the 60’s, what worked on the East coast might not be as popular on the West coast. As music became “Clear Channelized” and the same songs got marketed nation-wide (I’m bad…) and even world-wide, then those songs could hold on longer at the top.

15

The result could also be pure variance. If a mega-hit is a somewhat lucky combination of the right song at the right time, maybe it’s just clumpy noise.

16

Just popping in to acknowledge how stunned I am by how few of these songs I know (including the record holder).
mmm