100 Biggest Single Eras Ever

[iHype.]

The “100 Biggest Single Eras of All-Time” is a countdown compiled by me using all Hot 100 charts. It’s based on the albums whom's singles made had the biggest marks on Hot 100. 


How Was This Done?
The Hot 100 charts were used (from the first chart dated August 9, 1958 - December 31, 2016). This was compiled by using georgetherunner314's point system, which pretty similar to Billboard’s — a song is given X amount of points at #1, a little less at #2, and so on for every week it charted. Then after points are given, the points are weighted based on the time period as the chart movement throughout the years has drastically changed. The point system I used for songs comes out with almost identical rankings to Billboard’s All-Time Hot 100 chart when doing each song that made that list. Finally after getting the points of each single, an album’s singles were all combined for one total, and thus the biggest single eras list was made by compiling the albums/eras with the highest point total for all their singles.

Guidelines I Made:
— Re-release singles weren’t counted; it seemed ultimately unfair to compare albums where the artist went back into the studio, made more tracks to get more hits, and released the album again to albums that were released once and their single success stood off that one time. However at the end, I’ll post a list where it shows the Top 100 if re-releases were included.
— Soundtracks weren’t counted; unless all the singles were released by one artist. (Purple Rain being the prime example). I view it similar to re-releases, as one artists’ success with singles shouldn’t be pitted against multiple artists combined.
—Singles that were released under a soundtrack, then included on their studio album counted for their studio album. (The Weeknd’s Earned It being the prime example)
— Promo singles and album tracks that charted didn’t count towards point totals.
— Remix singles counted for studio albums (Bad Blood Remix being the prime example) even if not included on the album, or on a re-release only as long as the original song appeared on the album.


1. Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
2. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
3. George Michael - Faith
4. Michael Jackson - Thriller
5. Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl
6. Michael Jackson - Bad
7. The Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D.
8. Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey
9. Whitney Houston - Whitney
10. Usher - Confessions
11. Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True
12. Fergie - The Dutchess
13. Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down
14. Janet Jackson - Control
15. Madonna - True Blue
16. Adele - 21
17. Wilson Phillips - Wilson Phillips
18. Janet Jackson - janet.
19. Taylor Swift - 1989
20. Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston
21. Boyz II Men - II
22. Wham! - Make It Big
23. Mariah Carey - Daydream
24. TLC - CrazySexyCool
25. Beyonce - Dangerously in Love
26. Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
27. Justin Bieber - Purpose
28. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A.
29. Lady Gaga - The Fame
30. Ace of Base - The Sign
31. Monica - The Boy Is Mine
32. Donna Summer - Bad Girls
33. Santana - Supernatural
34. Bon Jovi - New Jersey
35. Prince - Purple Rain
36. T.I. - Paper Trail
37. Color Me Badd - C.M.B.
38. Nelly - Nellyville
39. Lionel Richie - Dancing on the Ceiling
40. New Kids on the Block - Hangin’ Tough
41. Diddy - No Way Out
42. Ciara - Goodies
43. Genesis - Invisible Touch
44. The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness
45. Phil Collins - ...But Seriously
46. Huey Lewis & the News - Fore!
47. Debbie Gibson - Out of the Blue
48. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSound
49. LMFAO - Sorry for Party Rocking
50. Bobby Brown - Don’t Be Cruel
51. Billy Ocean - Suddenly
52. Madonna - Like a Virgin
53. Def Leppard - Hysteria
54. Bruno Mars - Doo-Wops & Hooligans
55. Mariah Carey - Music Box
56. Usher - My Way
57. Toni Braxton - Secrets
58. Timbaland - Shock Value
59. The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go?
60. Cyndi Lauper - She’s So Unusual
61. Usher - 8701
62. Bryan Adams - Waking Up the Neighbors
63. Madonna - Like a Prayer
64. Maroon 5 - Overexposed
65. INXS - Kick
66. Paula Abdul - Spellbound
67. 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin’
68. Akon - Konvicted
69. 50 Cent - The Massacre
70. Bryan Adams - Reckless
71. Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
72. Flo Rida - Wild Ones
73. John Lennon - Double Fantasy
74. Gloria Estefan - Let It Loose
75. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist
76. Amy Grant - Heart in Motion
77. Andy Gibb - Flowing Rivers
78. Rihanna - Loud
79. Chubby Checker - Twistin’ With Chubby Checker
80. Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi
81. Katy Perry - PRISM
82. Taylor Dayne - Tell It to My Heart
83. Celine Dion - Falling into You
84. Drake - Views
85. Gladys Knight & the Pips - Imagination
86. The Police - Synchronicity
87. Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox
88. Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing
89. Captain & Tennille - Song of Joy
90. Christina Aguilera - Christina Aguilera
91. Daryl Hall & John Oates - Private Eyes
92. Destiny's Child - Survivor
93. Ke$ha - Animal
94. Meghan Trainor - Title
95. Expose - Exposure
96. Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown
97. Beyonce - I Am…Sasha Fierce
98. Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
99. fun. - Some Nights
100. Rihanna - Talk That Talk

101. Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad
102. Ariana Grande - My Everything
103. Katy Perry - One of the Boys
104. Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight
105. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
106. Bobby Darin - That's All
107. Pussycat Dolls - PCD
108. Destiny's Child - The Writings on the Wall
109. Taylor Swift - Fearless
110. Tiffany - Tiffany


The breakdown in points for Top 10:

Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814:
Miss You Much - 921,194
Rhythm Nation - 581,604
Escapade - 866,450
Alright - 575,216
Come Back to Me - 502,306
Black Cat - 556,756
Love Will Never Do - 733,486
= 4,737,012

Teenage Dream:
California Girls: 896,024
Teenage Dream: 719,008
Firework: 933,418
E.T.: 967.309
Last Friday Night: 603,054
The One That Got Away: 460,696
= 4,579,509

Faith:
I Want Your Sex - 612,880
Faith - 978,796
Father Figure - 696,582
One More Try - 823,440
Monkey - 658,812
Kissing a Fool - 373,498
= 4,144,008

Thriller:
The Girl is Mine - 678,309
Billie Jean - 1,054,067
Beat It - 878,683
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ - 413,688
Human Nature - 305,962
P.Y.T. - 182,723
Thriller - 369,749
= 3,883,181

Forever Your Girl:
Knocked Out - 57,234
The Way That You Love Me - 605,654
Straight Up - 854,576
Forever Your Girl - 698,430
Cold Hearted - 776,750
Opposites Attract - 837,420
= 3,830,064

Bad:
I Just Can’t Stop Loving You: 599,084
Bad: 569,148
The Way You Make Me Feel: 634,108
Man in the Mirror: 744,543
Dirty Diana: 544,988
Another Part of Me: 175,500
Smooth Criminal: 340,636
= 3,608,007

The E.N.D.:
Boom Boom Pow - 1,125,764
I Gotta Feeling - 1,443,250
Imma Be - 564,777
Meet Me Halfway - 322,761
Rock that Body - 140,508
= 3,597,060

Mariah Carey:
Vision of Love - 931,844
Love Takes Time - 940,764
Someday - 800,982
I Don’t Wanna Cry - 759,778
= 3,433,368

Whitney:
I Wanna Dance With Somebody - 871,542
Didn’t We Almost Have It All - 742,368
So Emotional - 774,800
Where Do Broken Hearts Go - 687,662
Love Will Save the Day - 247,320
= 3,323,692

Confessions:
Yeah!: 1,356,098
Burn: 985,491
Confessions Part II: 643,608
Caught Up: 326,373
= 3,311,570

Update 1: Celine's "Falling Into You" and Billy Joel's "An Innocent Man" have been included.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I think it'd be interesting to include soundtracks too, since there are times when soundtracks have had pop culture dominance (Bodyguard, City of Angels, etc) while not going over the standard for hit singles, ie. there has never been a soundtrack where every track was a huge hit, and they tend to have shorter shelf lives than a standard era for the most part.

[renfield75]

Not all of the Bodyguard's US singles were by Whitney...SOULSYSTEM'S "It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day" was released and reached #34 on the Hot 100.

[Ky]

Very cool to read and well done! I love a big era.

I'm curious to know if Whitney's My Love Is Your Love was a close call to the top 100. I'd imagine it's close on the three big hits (and I think When You Believe was the single when the album came out). Also curious if Toni Braxton's debut album was close.

On the topic of soundtracks, Waiting To Exhale would have to be up there maybe even close to top 10 if Let It Flow counts.

[85la]

Surprised that Bad is so high, that Control ranked higher than Janet, and it really seems Breakaway should have been much higher.

Originally I thought Saturday Night Fever should count, but I didn't realize singles by artists other than the Bee Gee's were released from that album. I wonder how high it would rank though if only the Bee Gee's singles counted, and furthermore, would You Should Be Dancing be included, since it came out as a separate single a year earlier, and might have even been on another album?

[truemusicreviews]

Cool thread!

[truemusicreviews]

Also, am I the only one that is surprised that Daydream isn't higher?

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

Jan 27, 2017 22:38:39 GMT -5 truemusicreviews said:

Also, am I the only one that is surprised that Daydream isn't higher?

Actually, I'm not surprised. It did have 3 #1s with Fantasy, One Sweet Day and Always Be My Baby. Mariah Carey's self-titled debut album had 4 #1s that were each slightly weaker than those from Daydream. That said, Mariah did incredibly well in this list, with 4 entries. Madonna and Rihanna had 3 each, but generally lower in the list. Janet also had 3, but all stronger than those two I mentioned.

Views is quite low on the list, but I guess Hotline Bling and One Dance ended up being the only really strong singles from it.

BTW, iHype. shouldn't the Cyndi Lauper listed be She's So Unusual? That was her debut album.

[jebsib]

climax - amazing work - and wonderful job. I can't believe no one has thought of this idea before!

[ListenToItTwice]

I am THRILLED that this exists! Your guidelines are smart, and frankly the resulting ranking just makes sense.

I guess we now know that 'Title' was definitively a bigger era than 'One of the Boys,' after all the comparisons between the two.

[Sherane Lamar]

Awesome thread. I love it.

Interesting that Views is so low though. Is Hotline Bling counted in Views?

[Ky]

Jan 27, 2017 22:38:39 GMT -5 truemusicreviews said:

Also, am I the only one that is surprised that Daydream isn't higher?

I'm surprised too. I woulda thought Fantasy and One Sweet Day would be closer to the level of Yeah!, and Always Be My Baby close to something around Mariah's #1s from the first album. I was thinking Forever would be in line with Love Will Save The Day, but just realized it wasn't a charting single (Billboard really screwed a chunk of their chart history by not figuring how to allow songs to chart earlier).

[atg]

Jan 28, 2017 19:47:26 GMT -5 Ky said:

Jan 27, 2017 22:38:39 GMT -5 truemusicreviews said:

Also, am I the only one that is surprised that Daydream isn't higher?

I'm surprised too. I woulda thought Fantasy and One Sweet Day would be closer to the level of Yeah!, and Always Be My Baby close to something around Mariah's #1s from the first album. I was thinking Forever would be in line with Love Will Save The Day, but just realized it wasn't a charting single (Billboard really screwed a chunk of their chart history by not figuring how to allow songs to chart earlier).

And now that they finally know, album cuts won't stop debuting

[atg]

How is views under BBTM. I mean XO for life but we can all agree views was bigger than that

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

Jan 28, 2017 21:38:43 GMT -5 atg said:

How is views under BBTM. I mean XO for life but we can all agree views was bigger than that

I think Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey) was counted towards BBTM since it appears on it, in spite of not being released as a single from it. Also, checking the 2010s Decade End prediction:

The Hills + Can't Feel My Face > One Dance + Hotline Bling

Count Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey) which just fell outside the Top 100 prediction and that would explain the huge gap between BBTM and Views in these rankings.

[Linnethia Monique]

DAMITA JO BETTER F#CK IT UP! Such an icon.

[iHype.]

Jan 28, 2017 15:21:40 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

Awesome thread. I love it.

Interesting that Views is so low though. Is Hotline Bling counted in Views?

Yes. It did similar to PRISM -- two smashes (Roar/Dark Horse & Hotline Bling/One Dance); three moderate hits (Unconditionally/Birthday/This Is How & Pop Style/Controlla/Too Good) which is ranked 2 positions above it.

[Sherane Lamar]

Jan 29, 2017 1:15:06 GMT -5 iHype. said:

Jan 28, 2017 15:21:40 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

Awesome thread. I love it.

Interesting that Views is so low though. Is Hotline Bling counted in Views?

Yes. It did similar to PRISM -- two smashes (Roar/Dark Horse & Hotline Bling/One Dance); three moderate hits (Unconditionally/Birthday/This Is How & Pop Style/Controlla/Too Good) which is ranked 2 positions above it.

As I have noted in the past, using the inverse point system, Drake's 2016 is the biggest year for any artist ever, beating out The Beatle's 1964 total. But I suppose much of that came from songs that were not on Views (Fake Love, Summer Sixteen, Jumpman). And I suppose most of these eras take place over multiple years. While Views is already completely gone off the charts.

[atg]

The fact that Views is still in the top 10 after 38 weeks is when u know it's a worldwide smash

[iHype.]

Jan 27, 2017 19:03:23 GMT -5 Ky said:

Very cool to read and well done! I love a big era.

I'm curious to know if Whitney's My Love Is Your Love was a close call to the top 100. I'd imagine it's close on the three big hits (and I think When You Believe was the single when the album came out). Also curious if Toni Braxton's debut album was close.

On the topic of soundtracks, Waiting To Exhale would have to be up there maybe even close to top 10 if Let It Flow counts.

Points for #100:
My Everything:
Problem - 606,798
Bang Bang - 583,804
Break Free - 321,003
Love Me Harder - 273,497
One Last Time - 112,507
= 1,897,609

I'm Your Baby Tonight was the closest missed Whitney album with 1.891m points. Enough to be around #101-105.

My Love Is Your Love:
When You Believe - 86,484
Heartbreak Hotel - 631,168
It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay - 281,160
My Love is Your Love - 646,498
I Learned from the Best - 36,851
= 1,682,161

[DJ General]

How did Eminem not make it even once? I guess he was more of an album artist, and his biggest song is a soundtrack single. But still, thought he would.

[DJ General]

Jan 29, 2017 23:01:07 GMT -5 truemusicreviews said:

If Drake's marketing team didn't suck ass, Views would have easily made this list.

Huh? It's 83

[truemusicreviews]

Please ignore my last post lmao.

[NeRD]

Am I overlooking Come On Over?

[iHype.]

Jan 30, 2017 19:43:20 GMT -5 NeRD said:

Am I overlooking Come On Over?

Just missed.

Come on Over:
Love Gets Me Everytime - 67,690
Don’t Be Stupid - 38,712
You’re Still the One - 1,065,728
From this Moment On - 271,194
That Don’t Impress Me - 256,137
Man! I Feel Like a Woman! - 88,921
You’ve Got a Way - 22,299
Come on Over - 20,132
= 1,830,813

#100's points:
My Everything:
Problem - 606,798
Bang Bang - 583,804
Break Free - 321,003
Love Me Harder - 273,497
One Last Time - 112,507
= 1,897,609

[85la]

^ It's interesting with Bang Bang, because that was only on the deluxe version of My Everything, so it seems that if singles from re-releases cant count, deluxe versions shouldn't either because they are both versions of the album that are different from the original (I personally think both should be counted however).

Also, and I know climax that you put a lot of time and careful consideration into this, but it seems that the list is heavily biased towards albums from the 80s and into '91 right before the Soundscan era. It seems that during this period artists released slightly more singles per album and the singles peaked at higher positions, but that after that period, though albums had slightly fewer singles, it seemed to be counterbalanced at least in part by them having more longevity and being overall bigger hits. A lot of what I am basing this on is year-end positions, how each album and single did compared to other songs given their respective year (I know the point system for each year varies, but it can still be a way of looking at general popularity). Taking the example of Bad outranking The END, Bad did have 7 singles to The End's 5 and its songs had overall higher peaks, but if you look at the songs from The End, Boom Boom Pow was #1 for year-end 2009, and IGF would definitely have been #1 as well if all its points were assigned to one year, and the 3rd biggest single from that album, Imma Be, was #20 for year-end 2010. Though it did have 5 #1's, none of the singles from Bad ranked higher than #21 for their respective years. Since there were more #1's during the 80s, maybe too much weight was given to #1 songs?

[iHype.]

Feb 4, 2017 16:42:48 GMT -5 85la said:

^ It's interesting with Bang Bang, because that was only on the deluxe version of My Everything, so it seems that if singles from re-releases cant count, deluxe versions shouldn't either because they are both versions of the album that are different from the original (I personally think both should be counted however).

Also, and I know climax that you put a lot of time and careful consideration into this, but it seems that the list is heavily biased towards albums from the 80s and into '91 right before the Soundscan era. It seems that during this period artists released slightly more singles per album and the singles peaked at higher positions, but that after that period, though albums had slightly fewer singles, it seemed to be counterbalanced at least in part by them having more longevity and being overall bigger hits. A lot of what I am basing this on is year-end positions, how each album and single did compared to other songs given their respective year (I know the point system for each year varies, but it can still be a way of looking at general popularity). Taking the example of Bad outranking The END, Bad did have 7 singles to The End's 5 and its songs had overall higher peaks, but if you look at the songs from The End, Boom Boom Pow was #1 for year-end 2009, and IGF would definitely have been #1 as well if all its points were assigned to one year, and the 3rd biggest single from that album, Imma Be, was #20 for year-end 2010. Though it did have 5 #1's, none of the singles from Bad ranked higher than #21 for their respective years. Since there were more #1's during the 80s, maybe too much weight was given to #1 songs?

Bang Bang was released pre-album, and included on an edition of the album that was released on the original date. A song like "Part of Me" was released two years into the era, on an edition of the album that was released two years after the album was released. It's not the same in my opinion.

And I'm aware of the upperhand eras from mid-80's - November 1991 have, but this is the same formula Billboard uses for their all-time lists, not a formula created by me. The point formula for songs was used for songs on the all-time Hot 100, and it yielded results in an almost exact order. So this was a "if Billboard combined the points for each album's singles and made an all-time singles era list, this is what the results would be" scenario. Just like if I assembled an updated list of the all-time Hot 100, where Uptown Funk would be #10/#11 that doesn't mean I think it is the #10/#11 song all-time on Hot 100, that's just how it'd be under Billboard's list. 

Also you have to keep in mind, I believe 80's Year-End Charts were assembled based on the inverse points system:
#1=100 points, #2=99 points, #3=98 points, etc
So if a song had a chart run of:
1-2-3; that'd be 297 points
And 1-1-1 would be 300 points

Song #2 would be ranked higher.

while a recent year like 2009 adds up all their chart points:
If a song had 450 points 1 week while #1, then 400 points 1 week while #2, and 400 points 1 week while #3
that would equal 1,250 points for a #1-#2-#3 position
And if a song had 300 points 1 week while #1, 325 points 1 week while #1, and 300 points 1 week while #1
that'd equal 925 points for a #1-#1-#1 position

Song #2 would be ranked lower despite the same chart positions.

As you can see, in some cases, changing between inverse and chart points based year-ends entirely changes rankings.

So looking at Year-Ends doesn't equate to how on par the point system Billboard used is.

[iHype.]

Update 1: Celine's "Falling Into You" and Billy Joel's "An Innocent Man" have been included. Somehow missed them. 

I will continue to keep this thread updated in the future incase I somehow missed any other eras, and for future eras that churn huge hits.

[85la]

^ Thanks climax for the clarification on the points system. Although my opinion on the matter didn't really change, I can understand your reasoning and how you were mainly following Billboard's system.

I"m interested in seeing the list if re-releases were included. Another question about that though: Would Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster Deluxe Edition (which combined both The Fame & The Fame Monster on one release) be counted as a re-release for The Fame? To me I would count it, mainly because a majority of the tracks were from the original and both Soundscan and Billboard combined the two, but I guess it's debatable. Even if you choose to not count it, maybe you could indicate where it would rank if it were.

[tekkenguy]

Where's Uptown Special at? It'd be interesting to know what a single era powered by just one song would look like.