We’re talking about Mariah Carey here bug, the word “best” has no place in this discussion.
As for the '70s thing, I’ll bet the reason the order was different is they used a different scoring system. I’ll wager the version I heard on America’s Top 40 was based on Top 40 charts and the list mentioned by astorian was based on the top 100. Not a sure thing, but that’s what I’m thinking. The 3 artists must have been very close.
Another adherent of the rather narrow view that no one who doesn’t write his/her/their own material can be all that good?
Elvis and Sinatra are head and shoulders above 99.8% of the artists who do write their own material, past and present.
First, if I didn’t make it clear, my Billboard book only covers singles- it doesn’t include album sales. So, it’s quite possible that there are album-oriented artists who didn’t have as many hit singles as Mariah Carey, but who raked in more money in overall sales
Second… I remember the Casey Kasem Seventies retrospective, and I recall that the Bee Gees were #2. So, how did McCartney pass them? I’m not sure. It’s POSSIBLE that my book counts Wings, Paul & Linda McCartney and Paul McCartney solo as one and the same act, while the 1979 radio show counted them separately.