Billboard Hot 100 55th Anniversary: Top 100 Songs/Artists

[HolidayGuy]

This week, Billboard is posting an updated top 100 songs list. A dozen new entries are on the list, which means Nos. 89-100 from the last list drop below the top 100. new thus far are "We Are Young" and "One More Night."

We may get an updated acts list, after all.

www.billboard.com/articles/list/2155531/the-hot-100-all-time-top-songs

Hot 100 55th Anniversary: The All-Time Top 100 Songs
By Fred Bronson, Los Angeles | July 22, 2013

When Billboard introduced weekly music charts in 1940, there were sales charts and there were airplay charts. These separate charts measuring the popularity of singles continued going their separate ways until Aug. 4, 1958, when Billboard introduced the first chart that blended sales and airplay data. Named the "Hot 100," it has continued to this day, known around the world for being the definitive U.S. singles weekly report. As someone once said, "It ain't No. 1 until it's No. 1 in Billboard."

In celebration of the 55th anniversary of the Hot 100, here is an updated list of the top 100 songs in the tally's history, ranked in order of chart performance -- which we are counting down, 10 per day, until the full list is uncovered. This all-time chart was first compiled for the Hot 100's 50th anniversary; in the five years that have passed, a dozen songs that charted between 2008-2013 have jumped onto the top 100. Come along as we reveal all the songs that made the list.

100. "You Make Me Wanna…" - Usher
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2 (1997)

His third single to appear on the Hot 100 and the first to reach the upper half of the chart. It peaked at No. 2 and was on the chart for 47 weeks, the longest run of any Usher single so far.

99. "We Are Young" - fun. feat. Janelle Monae
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for six weeks (2012)

Billboard's No. 3 Hot 100 song of 2012, behind first chart entries from Gotye and Cary Rae Jepsen. It was the first time in the tenure of the Hot 100 that the top three songs of the year were by new artists.

98. "Best of My Love" - Emotions
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for five weeks (1977)

When the Stax label shuttered in 1975, sisters Sheila, Wanda and Pam Hutchinson signed with Maurice White's Kalimba Productions and made a new deal with Columbia Records. White co-wrote and produced "Best of My Love" for them, giving the trio its biggest hit.

97. "One More Night" - Maroon 5
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for nine weeks (2012)

The third of Maroon 5's three No. 1s and the one with the lengthiest run at the top: nine weeks. That was long enough to prevent PSY's "Gangnam Style" from occupying the No. 1 position in the U.S.

96. "Another Day in Paradise" - Phil Collins
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1989)

Adding vocals to this song was one of Collins' heroes, David Crosby. The two met at Atlantic's 40th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in 1988 and Collins asked if Crosby would add his voice to a couple of Collins' songs.

95. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" - B.J. Thomas
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1970)

The night before he recorded the Burt Bacharch-Hal David song for the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Thomas had laryngitis. Treated by his doctor, Thomas did five raspy takes for Bacharach and said if he had to do one more, he wouldn't have had any voice. A few weeks later, all healed, Thomas recorded the crystal-clear version that would be released as a single.

94. "I'll Be Missing You" - Puff Daddy & Faith Evans feat. 112
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for 11 weeks (1997)

After his friend Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G.) was killed, Sean "Puffy" Combs thought recording a tribute song would be cathartic, and it was. He sampled one of his favorite songs, "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. "It always made me cry," he says.

93. "Hurts So Good" - John Cougar
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2 (1982)

The fifth Hot 100 entry for Cougar, before he reclaimed his last name of Mellencamp. His first single to crack the top 10, it peaked at No. 2 and was followed by his only No. 1 hit, "Jack and Diane."

92. "Killing Me Softly With His Song" - Roberta Flack
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for five weeks (1973)

Flack was listening to the inflight audio while traveling on TWA from Los Angeles to New York when she heard Lori Lieberman sing the original version, inspired by a Don McLean performance at the Troubadour. Flack felt this wasn't what the definitive version could be and believed she could add something of her own.

91. "Are You Lonesome To-Night?" - Elvis Presley
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for six weeks (1960)

The song was written in 1926 and recorded by many artists over the decades, including Al Jolson and Jaye P. Morgan. Presley's version was a follow-up to another ballad, "It's Now or Never."

[Deleted]

Awesome!

[Deleted]

Once this list is complete: best of each decade lists can be compiled as well (even if some are fairly short)

[when the pawn...]

So my guesses for the other 9 songs from 2008-2013 that will be on this list...

Somebody That I Used To Know
Rolling In The Deep
Party Rock Anthem
Call Me Maybe
Tik Tok
Moves Like Jagger
Just The Way You Are
Just Dance
I Gotta Feeling

[HolidayGuy]

"I Gotta Feeling" will be top 10- and should be the highest-ranked track from 2000-on, unless one of the others, despite fewer weeks at No. 1, upset it.

[josh]

Does this list include recurrent play/sales?

[HolidayGuy]

^The explanation (pretty much the same as the 2008 list):


The 55th anniversary edition of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, since the chart’s inception in August 1958 through the July 27, 2013, ranking. 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. Due to changes in chart methodology over the Hot 100's 55 years (i.e., the inclusion of Nielsen Entertainment airplay monitoring and point-of-sales tracking and the recent inclusion of streaming data, among earlier modifications), certain eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates over various periods.

And, the entries dropping out of the top 100:
Big Girls Don't Cry, Fergie
The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand
Another Night, Real McCoy
It's Now Or Never, Elvis Presley
Do That To Me One More Time, Captain & Tennille
A Fifth Of Beethoven, Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band
Like A Virgin, Madonna
Maria Maria, Santana Featuring The Product G&B
I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor
I Can't Stop Loving You, Ray Charles
U Got It Bad, Usher
Joy To The World, Three Dog Night

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2013 17:14:22 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

"I Gotta Feeling" will be top 10- and should be the highest-ranked track from 2000-on, unless one of the others, despite fewer weeks at No. 1, upset it.

We will get a quick answer on our recent discussion

[RadioBeatz]

Gotye and Carly are ahead. :o

"Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling" should be on this list, these two songs spent half year at #1!

[Deleted]

I'm more interested in seeing how much higher "I Will Always Love You" jumps.

[Deleted]

It could get a few spots, it wasn't ranked very high on the last list

The songs it passes, could also be offset by any of the new songs that get ranked above it

[Daniel Collins]

"Party Rock","I Gotta Feeling","Somebody That I Used To Know" ,"We Found Love" ,"Call Me Maybe" ,"Thrift Shop","Moves Like Jagger","Rolling in The Deep","Just The Way You Are" ,"Sexy And I Know It" are the lead contenders

[HolidayGuy]

No newbies in this next bunch.

90-81:

90. "Waiting for a Girl Like You" - Foreigner
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2 (1981)

The single was No. 2 for 10 weeks, unable to surpass Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" for nine weeks and Daryl Hall & John Oates' "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" for one. Among No. 2-peaking hits, its 10-week stay is matched only by Missy Elliott's 2002 hit "Work It."

89. "Family Affair" Mary J. Blige
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for six weeks (2001)

The song was just a skeleton of an idea and was intended for rapper Rakim when Blige heard it and decided she wanted to write something to it. Blige didn't usually look at the Billboard charts, but when the song was No. 1 for a sixth week she checked the chart for the first time and said, "Whoa, this is really real!"

88. "I Swear" - All-4-One
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for 11 weeks (1994)

When Atlantic's John Michael Montgomery took this song to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, the label's chairman and CEO Doug Morris told the Nashville office he wanted to cut a pop version with a California quartet, All-4-One.

87. "Nothing Compares 2 U" - Sinead O'Connor
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1990)

Manager Fachtna O'Ceallaigh suggested O'Connor cover this song, written by Prince and first recorded by the Family, a group formed by ex-members of the Time.

86. "All Night Long (All Night)" - Lionel Richie
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1983)

To make sure he was pronouncing the old Jamaican chant, "Tom bo li de say di moi ya, yeah jumbo jumbo" correctly, Richie called his wife's Jamaican gynecologist, who replied, "I'm right in the middle of an appointment, can we talk later?"

85. "My Sharona" - The Knack
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for six weeks (1979)

Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Doug Fieger fell in love with a girl named Sharona and wrote a song about teenage sexual frustration that he married to a lick composed by guitarist Berton Averre.

84. "Say You, Say Me" - Lionel Richie
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1985)

Director Taylor Hackford asked Lionel Richie to write the title song for his 1985 film "White Nights." Lionel couldn't come up with a song called "White Nights" but wrote "Say You, Say Me" for the soundtrack and won an Oscar for Best Original Song.

83. "Play That Funky Music" - Wild Cherry
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for three weeks (1976)

Bob Parissi and his band wanted to play rock music but it was the disco era and all their bookings were in dance clubs. A backstage discussion about how to handle this dilemma led drummer Ron Beitle to tell Parissi, "Play that funky music, white boy," and Parissi grabbed a bar order pad and wrote down those words.

82. "You're So Vain" - Carly Simon
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for three weeks (1973)

Mick Jagger sings backing vocals, but that doesn't mean the song is about him. Simon has ruled out former hubby James Taylor but has never publicly revealed who the subject is. She did tell her brother Peter, "I had three or four different people in mind…but the examples of what they did was a fantasy."

81. "Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for seven weeks (1983)

Recorded in one take, "Billie Jean" was the first of Jackson's two No. 1 singles from "Thriller" (The other was "Beat It"). Its seven-week reign is Jackson's longest run at the top of the Hot 100 (tied with 1991's "Black or White").

[Verisimilitude]

I thought it was confirmed that "You're So Vain" was about David Geffen?

[Deleted]

it is, they probably didn't edit that blurb from the last time they wrote it

[HolidayGuy]

^This was the 2008 text for "You're So Vain":

One of the biggest enigmas in popular music, this track also carries one of the most famous refrains: "You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you." Simon has never publicly admitted who the song is about. Regardless, it was a huge hit, spending three weeks at No. 1 in January 1973.

So, it (and other entries) were altered, I guess they just didn't catch the "reveal."

[Deleted]

Typo?

Change the word "has" to "had" and that would be correct

[RadioBeatz]

I expect "Party Rock Anthem" to be at least top 50, that song was insanely huge. I think it made the top 30 in 2012.

[Deleted]

On AT40 Top 50 of the 70s this was #3 for the decade:

Joy To The World, Three Dog Night

Now it is gone from the list

Methodology changes over time can have a big impact

[WotUNeed]

Jul 23, 2013 9:30:48 GMT -5 Verisimilitude said:

I thought it was confirmed that "You're So Vain" was about David Geffen?

As I recall, Carly Simon shot down that report.

[Deleted]

I guess I need to keep up more - LOL



You’re So Vain’ Not About David Geffen After All
By Josh Duboff







After Friday’s disappointing reveal that Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” was apparently directed at none other than David Geffen, Simon says we’ve got it all wrong.






“What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen! What a funny mistake! Someone got a clue mistaken for another mistake!” Simon e-mailed the Hollywood Reporter.


In fact, HR says Simon didn’t even know Geffen, who would become the head of her record label, when she wrote the song in 1971.


In a new recording of the song (which is "embedded with clues") for her upcoming album Never Been Gone, Simon whispers something about two and a half minutes into the song — if played backwards, one can hear she is saying “David.” Seems to us that someone's been watching a bit too much Lost.
www.vulture.com/2010/02/youre_so_vain_not_about_david.html

[when the pawn...]

I don't know what was on the last edition but "I'm Yours"?

[HolidayGuy]

^Yes! I was just about to post that- it only had a few months before the 2008 chart was compiled. So, I expect to see it- especially since "How Do I Live,' which didn't peak at No. 1, is ranked as high as it is, with less weeks.

See, 2m- Billboard was wide awake when updating the "...Vain" entry. :)

[HolidayGuy]

Th third of the new entries comes in at No. 74.

80. "Abracadabra" - The Steve Miller Band
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for two weeks (1982)

As half of the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band, Steve Miller appeared on NBC's "Hullabaloo" in 1966, along with the Supremes. Years later, he was inspired by Diana Ross' "Upside Down" to write "Abracadabra."

79. "Gangsta's Paradise" - Coolio feat. L.V.
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for three weeks (1995)

Coolio and L.V. based their song for the film "Dangerous Minds" on Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" from his masterpiece, "Songs in the Key of Life." But when they sent it to Wonder, he rejected it. "I had a few vulgarities…and he wasn't with that," says Coolio. "So I changed it. Once he heard it, he thought it was incredible."

78. "Hot Stuff" - Donna Summer
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for three weeks (1979)

She was the reigning queen of disco, but Summer wanted to record a rock song. With Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on guitar, "Hot Stuff" was just the ticket. It was the first single from her double-LP "Bad Girls."

77. "You're Still the One" - Shania Twain
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2 (1998)

The sixth of her 18 Hot 100 entries and the first to rise higher than No. 25. Her highest-ranked single at No. 2 as well as her longest-running song, with 42 weeks on the chart.

76. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" - Marvin Gaye
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for seven weeks (1968)

Gladys Knight and the Pips took the song to No. 2 in December 1967. Gaye's version hit No. 1 one year later, but was recorded before the Knight single. He wasn't the first Motown artist to record "Grapevine." Smokey Robinson and the Miracles cut it first, followed by the Isley Brothers.

75. "Dilemma" - Nelly feat. Kelly Rowland
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for 10 weeks (2002)

"Dilemma" replaced Nelly's "Hot in Herre" at No. 1, making him the fifth artist in Hot 100 history at the time to succeed himself in pole position, following the Beatles, Boyz II Men, Puff Daddy and Ja Rule.

74. "Just the Way You Are" - Bruno Mars
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (2010)

Billboard's review of the single correctly predicted: "Mars has created a feel-good jam that should establish him as a solo contender in his own right." This song marked Mars' formal debut as a solo artist after charting as a featured guest on B.o.B's No. 1 hit, "Nothin' on You."

73. "Sugar, Sugar" - The Archies
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1969)

Don Kirshner, music supervisor of Filmation's Saturday morning animated "The Archies," asked Jeff Barry to produce songs for the show by a group of studio musicians fronted by vocalist Ron Dante with an assist from Toni Wine. Canadian singer Andy Kim was asked to co-write with Barry and the result was the third Archies single, "Sugar, Sugar," Billboard's No. 1 Hot 100 song of 1969.

72. "Upside Down" - Diana Ross
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1980)

When Ross heard the tracks produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, she felt like a guest vocalist on a Chic recording rather than the star of her own album. She insisted on a remix and the producers made slight changes and said if she still wasn't happy, she should remix the tracks herself. With Motown's Russ Terrana, she moved her vocals forward. "We had two different concepts of what her voice should sound like," Rodgers later explained.

71. "That's What Friends Are For" - Dionne and Friends
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1986)

Rod Stewart recorded the Burt Bacharach-Carole Bayer Sager song first, for the 1982 film "Night Shift." In 1985, Sager asked Bacharach to play the song for Dionne Warwick, who suggested she record it with Stevie Wonder. They then decided to add Gladys Knight and Clive Davis suggested Elton John as the fourth vocalist. The song raised over $3 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

[Rocky]

74. "Just the Way You Are" - Bruno Mars
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (2010)

Wow! I always knew this was huge, but that big? I guess it has to do something with being top 20 on both 2010 and 2011 year-end hot 100 charts.

[HolidayGuy]

erfrank, you have one more guess, you know. ;)

[phile]

I wonder where One Sweet Day or We Belong Together will end up on this chart.

[HolidayGuy]

The fourth of the new entries comes in at No. 68.

70. "Rush Rush" - Paula Abdul
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for five weeks (1991)

Abdul told her label, "I don't care what songs make it onto the album, I want 'Rush Rush' to be the first single." Virgin execs told her to finish her second album and then decide. "But I'm really glad 'Rush Rush' was the first single," she says. It became her longest-running No. 1.

69. "Ebony and Ivory" - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for seven weeks (1982)

McCartney and Wonder recorded the duet together, on the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. But it's only through the magic of editing that they appear to be in the video together, performing on the white and black keys of a piano.

68. "Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (2011)

"The Voice" judges Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera teamed up to give Maroon 5 its biggest hit to that date. It was Maroon 5's first No. 1 in four years and Aguilera's first No. 1 in 10 years.

67. "Whoomp! (There It Is)" - Tag Team
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2 (1993)

The title was already a catchphrase in the South when Steve (Roll'n) Gibson and Cecil (DC) Glenn recorded this bassline-heavy hip-hop track. Glenn was a cook and a DJ at Magic City in Atlanta and played the song in the club, creating the initial demand for the single.

66. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" - the 5th Dimension
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for six weeks (1969)

When group member Billy Davis, Jr, left his wallet in a New York taxi, it was found by one of the producers of the Broadway musical "Hair." A grateful Davis invited him to see the 5th Dimension live and the producer reciprocated by inviting the group to see "Hair." Before they left the theater, they agreed they had to record "Aquarius." Producer Bones Howe said it was "half a song" and suggested a medley with the show's "The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)."

65. "I Love Rock 'n Roll" - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for seven weeks (1982)

Jake Hooker and Alan Merrill wrote the song to refute the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)," which they felt was a put-down. They recorded it with their group the Arrows in the U.K. and Jett saw them perform it on TV. She asked Hooker if she could record it, but couldn't get her group the Runaways to cut the song. She finally recorded it as a solo artist, first as a B-side in Holland in 1979 and then again in 1981 with the Blackhearts.

64. "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" - Stevie B
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for four weeks (1990)

Warren Allen Brooks wrote the song years before he met Stevie B. "Stevie heard me sing it…in 1985 and he would tell everybody, 'Listen to Warren's song – that could be a hit.'" Five years later, Stevie was proven right.

63. "The Boy Is Mine" - Brandy & Monica
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for 13 weeks (1998)

Atlantic A&R staffer Paris Davis suggested to producers Rodney Jerkins and Dallas Austin that Brandy and Monica record a song called "The Boy Is Mine," "like when Michael (Jackson) and Paul McCartney did 'The Girl Is Mine.'" The duet gave both women their first Hot 100 No. 1.

62. "(Just Like) Starting Over" - John Lennon
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for five weeks (1980)

Lennon took a five-year recording hiatus while he raised his son Sean, then went back into the studio to record songs for the "Double Fantasy" album. This song was No. 6 on the Hot 100 when Lennon was assassinated on Dec. 8, 1980. The title had become a grim irony by the time it was a posthumous No. 1 the week of Dec. 27.

61. "Centerfold" - J. Geils Band
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for six weeks (1982)

Signed to Atlantic in 1969, the group moved to EMI-America in 1978. Their first 12 entries failed to crack the top 10 of the Hot 100 but the first single from their "Freeze-Frame" LP changed their chart fortunes when it became their first No. 1 hit.

[RadioBeatz]

Wow Maroon 5 with two songs in the all-time top 100. :o

[nivekwriter1]

Entries on the chart from the 00's

99. "We Are Young" - fun. feat. Janelle Monae
97. "One More Night" - Maroon 5
89. "Family Affair" Mary J. Blige
75. "Dilemma" - Nelly feat. Kelly Rowland
74. "Just the Way You Are" - Bruno Mars
68. "Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera