Fifty years ago, in the Aug. 4, 1958, issue, Billboard launched a revolutionary chart called the Hot 100. After nearly two decades of tracking songs distinctively by sales or plays (on jukeboxes and at radio), the Hot 100 was the first list to measure popularity by incorporating both radio play and sales.The 50th Anniversary Hot 100 Song Chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, since the chart's inception in August 1958 through the issue dated July 26, 2008. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least.
Here's the top 10:
- The Twist :: Chubby Checker
- Smooth :: Santana
- Mack the Knife :: Bobby Darin
- How Do I Live :: Leann Rimes
- The Macarena :: Los Del Rio
- Physical :: Olivia Newton-Jon
- You Light Up My Life :: Debby Boone
- Hey Jude :: The Beatles
- We Belong Together :: Mariah Carey
- Un-break My Heart :: Toni Braxton
The Twist was ground breaking.. yes I remember it.. it was the first "dance" I learned and it did not involve touching your partner :)
My other other memorable favorites would have to include numbers 3, 6, 7 and 8. Some of those on the list surprised me.. mainly because I lost track of pop music some time ago.
Any one of these bring back any sweet memories? Any surprises?
No real surprises BUT I can remember a time and a place where I heard all those tunes!!!
ReplyDeleteI remember most of them, but I was working at Witco Chemical when Debbie Boone came out with You Light up My Life. When it would come on the radio.....everyone in the office would stop to listen.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I haven't been around... Life has been getting in my way.
Hopefully next week I can get back to my routine.
I was very young for the Twist, I remember the adults doing it at family parties and laughing it up at how silly they felt. Hey Jude really, really sticks in my mind - I was in late grade school, early high school, and that song was played constantly. I had the single, it was on both sides! You had to flip it over (or buy two and let the second one drop).
ReplyDeleteAt dances, when this song came on, your arms would get tired holding onto each other, and I'd rest my wrists on the boy's shoulders just to take the strain off...we must have looked like 1920's marathon dancers.
I am a little embarassed to say that I think the Macarena is very catchy, not the dance so much, but the music. But I'm getting old, I guess, I never heard #4 or #9, although I know who the artists are...