# So Called "Phantom Number One Songs" From Billboard **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704 "2006-05-22T03:06:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RCGDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@RCGDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RCGDC)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/1 "2006-05-22T03:06:56Z")
On the radio today I heard them talking about the so called “Phantom Number One” songs form Billboard magazine, as listed by Billboard magazine These were songs that would have went to number one if they had been released as singles. But they weren’t released as singles so they were not able to chart (This policy changed today a song can chart on airplay alone) The DJs said their were five of them. _Stairway to Heaven_ by Led Zeppelin _Pinball Wizard_ by Elton John _More Than A Woman_ by The Bee Gees _Into the Groove_ by Madonna But I didn’t hear the fifth song. I can’t find anything on the internet about it. I was wondering if anyone could hazard a guess or had access to Billboard magazine’s site to do a search? ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/2 "2006-05-22T05:54:45Z")
My guess would be something off of The Beatles _Sgt. Pepper’s_ album. None of those songs were ever released as singles. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/3 "2006-05-22T13:56:30Z")
What is this DJ using as proof? Since they weren’t released as singles, what makes him say that these would have been all Number Ones? And I’m assuming that this is for the US Singles chart, right? ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/4 "2006-05-22T13:57:55Z")
I don’t know, but Elton’s “Pinball Wizard” was released as a single in March 1976. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/5 "2006-05-22T14:36:47Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > What is this DJ using as proof? Since they weren’t released as singles, what makes him say that these would have been all Number Ones? And I’m assuming that this is for the US Singles chart, right? My thoughts exactly. It is impossible to tell if a particular song would have been a #1 single if it’s not released as a single. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/6 "2006-05-22T14:59:49Z")
What was the combination of sales and airplay that was used back then to chart singles? Are they saying that the airplay alone for those songs was so massive that if released as singles and sold zero quantity, they would have made #1 on airplay alone? Was that possible? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/7 "2006-05-22T15:55:13Z")
There are ways of tracking airplay (_Radio and Records_, a trade publication, has been doing it since at least the early '70s.) So in theory it could be calculated. Elton John’s _Pinball Wizard_ got massive airplay long before it was released as a single (I was playing it in mid-1975). _A Day in the Life_ and the Neil Diamond/Barbara Streisand duet of _You Don’t Bring Me Flowers_ are a couple of others I can remember that got huge airplay even though they hadn’t been released as singles. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/8 "2006-05-22T16:09:04Z")
This is 100% guesswork: _Riders on the Storm_ by The Doors. Was it released as a single? It got a lot of airplay is all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/9 "2006-05-22T16:09:50Z")
How very odd. I don’t remember ever hearing an Elton John cover of **Pinball Wizard**. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/10 "2006-05-22T16:23:45Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > This is 100% guesswork: _Riders on the Storm_ by The Doors. Was it released as a single? It got a lot of airplay is all I’m saying. This is going to pinpoint my age pretty clearly (not that I try to hide it, anyway), but as a kid, I clearly remember my older sister having a 45 of Riders On the Storm, so apparently, it was released as a single. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/11 "2006-05-22T17:21:24Z")
Ponder: From Tommy, the Movie. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/12 "2006-05-22T17:24:29Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > This is 100% guesswork: _Riders on the Storm_ by The Doors. Was it released as a single? It got a lot of airplay is all I’m saying. It was, and it charted in the Top 20. In his most recent work, Joel Whitburn lists several songs that were #1 on the airplay charts but which were not released as singles, all dating from the mid-1990’s and later. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/13 "2006-05-22T17:28:37Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > How very odd. I don’t remember ever hearing an Elton John cover of **Pinball Wizard**. It’s from the movie version of Tommy. If it was released in the U.S. it never made the top 40. “Riders on the Storm” went to #14. “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” went to #1. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/14 "2006-05-22T18:33:49Z")
Was the Beatle’s Michelle ever released as a single? I don’t think so. It would have been a shoo-in for #1. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/15 "2006-05-22T19:04:10Z")
“Maybe I’m Amazed,” the great single-that-never-was from Paul McCartney’s first solo album. My local AM rock & roll station couldn’t include it in their weekly Top 30 survey because it wasn’t a single, but they gave this song and “Every Night” plenty of airplay and listed them on the printed surveys after the actual chart. Years later, McCartney released a live version with Wings as a single, and got to #3 with it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/16 "2006-05-22T19:31:23Z")
“Valley Girl” by Frank Zappa. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/17 "2006-05-22T19:34:27Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > What is this DJ using as proof? Since they weren’t released as singles, what makes him say that these would have been all Number Ones? And I’m assuming that this is for the US Singles chart, right? Not that _this_ is proof, but I remember Casey Kasem talking about this very thing back in 1985, when _Into the Groove_ was big - he claimed then that had it been released as a single, the airplay chart alone would’ve made it #1. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/18 "2006-05-22T19:37:30Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > “Valley Girl” by Frank Zappa. Another DQ, I’m afraid. I’ve got the original 45 of ‘Valley Girl’ in my attic with all my old records. Still have the picture sleeve on this one with Moon hugging Frank. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/19 "2006-05-22T19:45:55Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > How very odd. I don’t remember ever hearing an Elton John cover of **Pinball Wizard**. I heard Elton John’s version long before I ever heard The Who’s original version. Strange. I heard the original and wondered what happened to the piano … ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704/20 "2006-05-22T19:47:58Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > Another DQ, I’m afraid. I’ve got the original 45 of ‘Valley Girl’ in my attic with all my old records. Still have the picture sleeve on this one with Moon hugging Frank. True, but the single was released _after_ the song had already become an airplay hit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-called-phantom-number-one-songs-from-billboard/357704.md?page=2)