1 of 1
- aflem
- Member
Offline 
- Registered: August 11, 2019
- Posts: 1,543
Where To Find Every Year-End Billboard Yearly Top 100 From 1959 On
The Billboard Hot 100, still considered the Bible of the music industry, began in mid-1958. The magazine assembled an annual chart of the biggest hits of the year starting in 1959 and there's a place where you can check every one of them for free, thanks to Wikipedia.
There are some surprises on the lists. For example, in 1966, the Beatles didn't make the year-end chart until #49 for "We Can Work It Out." I find that mind boggling.
They weren't on top in 1965, either - and you may not believe what song beat them at #1!
You can see the index and make your pick at this link.
- Jim Elder
- Member
Offline
- Registered: January 1, 2019
- Posts: 27
Re: Where To Find Every Year-End Billboard Yearly Top 100 From 1959 On
I agree with you, aflem, that the Billboard Hot One-Hundred is the bible of the music industry but, in my humble opinion, its Top One-Hundred for the year is a bunch of poop.
Your mention of 1965 is one good example. One can speculate how a two-hit wonder’s song that peaked at number two could beat out, as you alluded to, the Beatles’ “Yesterday”, which spent four weeks at Number One and at some times was the most played song on the radio. ( However, it only spent nine weeks on the Top Forty starting in October.) More outrageous is that “Yesterday” did not even make the Top On-Hundred for the year 1965 as far as I can tell.
I consider the Number One song of 1965 to be “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. It also spent four weeks at Number One and was in the Top Forty for twelve weeks.
It appears the Billboard’s mathematical calculations give astonishing weight to the number of weeks in the Top Forty.
However, the main procedure which makes its Top One-Hundred for the year a bunch of poop is Billboard’s insane practice of dividing the points earned over each of the two years when a song’s run involves two years.
For example, “Singing the Blues” by Guy Mitchell was probably the Number One song for 1957 instead of “All Shook Up” by Elvis Presley. “Singing the Blues” spent ten weeks at Number One where “All Shook Up” spent nine weeks.
But, “Singing the Blues” spent eight weeks in the Top Forty in 1956, resulting its landing at Number Forty for 1956 and fourteen weeks in the Top Forty in 1957, resulting its landing at Number Seven for 1957.
Totally insane!
- Little Rich
- Member
Offline
- From: Juneau, Alaska
- Registered: December 31, 2018
- Posts: 349
Re: Where To Find Every Year-End Billboard Yearly Top 100 From 1959 On
According to "Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits" (Copyright 1991, author: Fred Bronson), The Beatles' "Yesterday" made #12 of the Top 100 Songs of 1965.
That citation said, I totally agree that there appears to be inconsistencies in the numbers. Similarly, with the RRHOF and artists are inducted into that. I know that, historically, that inconsistency has been hashed out many times before here on this app.
The problem is that Billboard is the one who developed the ratings and are the gold standard when citing charts in America, e.g. Wikipedia references Billboard charts in their documentation when discussing popularity in their discussions.
Last edited by Little Rich (September 2, 2024 2:36 am)
- Jim Elder
- Member
Offline
- Registered: January 1, 2019
- Posts: 27
Re: Where To Find Every Year-End Billboard Yearly Top 100 From 1959 On
Little Rich, thank you for your response. In 2017, I downloaded Billboard’s Year-End charts from 1945 to 2016; I do not remember exactly where I found these.
If you do a Google search on “Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1965 Wikipedia”, the exact same chart is displayed as the one I downloaded in 2017. The notation on top of the Wikipedia page may explain why “Yesterday” is totally missing from this chart.
The notation states that the year-end chart was derived from weekly charts from the Billboard issues from January 2 through October 30, 1965. This means only five weeks of “Yesterday’s” presence in the Top Forty was counted. (Was there not anyone at Billboard who realized how stupid this was?)
“Yesterday” and “Satisfaction” each spent four weeks at Number One, the only songs to do so in 1965. One other song spent three weeks and all the rest only spent one or two weeks at Number One. I would then argue that “Yesterday” should be the number two song of the year.
Now, this is where things really drive me crazy: at the bottom of the page the year 1966 can be selected and the chart that is displayed is totally different from the 1966 chart I downloaded in 2017. My aged and decrepit brain cannot begin to contemplate why this is.
- Little Rich
- Member
Offline
- From: Juneau, Alaska
- Registered: December 31, 2018
- Posts: 349
Re: Where To Find Every Year-End Billboard Yearly Top 100 From 1959 On
Please accept my humbles apologies.I want to thank you, Jim Elder, for the specificity of your citation. That was MY mistake.
I have the book and read those specific pages, The Top 100 Songs of 1965, etc THEN I reviewed the citation that aflem provided. I should have reviewed aflem's reference more closely because when I did, and compared the Wikipedia reference with the book - WHAM - NOT even remotely consistent.
And after re-reviewing Bronson's "Introduction" to his book, I found he used a different methodology in tallying the statistics than typically used in Billboard. In summary, his intro to the book (too complicated to repeat here) says that he did not consider sales. Instead, highest position and # of weeks in the Hot 100 were the principle drivers. His "Acknowledgments", as printed in the book, included Billboard, recognizing their involvement in the book.
1 of 1