1995-1997 #1's Point Breakdown (1997 NOW)

[Private Dancer]

-Unfortunately, radio data is not available for the dates before Sept. 2 1995. The radio data is collected from Billboard's Airplay Monitor Magazine.

-I estimated Creep to do around 140-150, On Bended Knee 170-180 points, Waterfalls around 140-155, and Take A Bow around 130-140

-Micheal Jackson becomes the first #1 debut on the BB Hot 100, but he almost didn't make it, Gangsta's Paradise was extremely close behind

-Mariah Carey's Fantasy is the strongest #1 hit of 1995 and biggest sales week of 1995 

-One Sweet Day had the most impressions in a week (however I believe that Take A Bow/On Bended Knee may have possibly have had impressions into the 80m-82m range, but no data available)

-For the few weeks I did not have sales data available, I estimated it using trends, formulas, or working backwards

		1995 #1's Hits
Date	Song	Artist	Points	Sales	Position	Airplay	Position
2-Sep	You Are Not Alone	Micheal Jackson	174	120k	#2	41m	#7
9-Sep	Gangsta's Paradise	Coolio & L.V.	216	187k	#1	29m	#11
16-Sep	Gangsta's Paradise	Coolio & L.V.	246	211k	#1	35m	#9
23-Sep	Gangsta's Paradise	Coolio & L.V.	233	193k	#1	40m	#9
30-Sep	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	286	229k	#1	57m	#2
7-Oct	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	281	216k	#1	65m	#2
14-Oct	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	269	200k	#1	69m	#2
21-Oct	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	238	165k	#1	73m	#1
28-Oct	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	208	135k	#1	73m	#1
4-Nov	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	172	100k	#2	72m	#1
11-Nov	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	158	85k	#2	73m	#1
18-Nov	Fantasy	Mariah Carey	148	75k	#3	73m	#1
25-Nov	Exhale	Whitney Houston	154	125k	#1	29m	#15
2-Dec	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	261	204k	#1	57m	#2
9-Dec	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	281	218k	#1	63m	#1
16-Dec	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	271	200k	#1	71m	#1
23-Dec	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	256	180k	#1	76m	#1
30-Dec	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	246	169k	#1	77m	#1

[Private Dancer]

-Mariah Carey has the strongest #1 of the year due to Christmas season (increase in sales) and huge airplay points

-Toni Braxton has the biggest audience for the year with 85m listeners and You're Makin Me High barely went to #1. It had almost a similar situation like "Poker Face". 

-Bone Thugs and Harmony were selling 200k+ multiple weeks.

		1996 #1's
Date	Song	Artist	Points	Sales	Position	Airplay	Position
6-Jan	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	292	218k	#1	74m	#1
13-Jan	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	205	130k	#1	75m	#1
20-Jan	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	161	83k	#1	78m	#1
27-Jan	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	156	75k	#1	81m	#1
3-Feb	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	154	72k	#1	82m	#1
10-Feb	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	143	69k	#1	74m	#1
17-Feb	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	139	68k	#2	71m	#1
24-Feb	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	130	64k	#2	66m	#1
2-Mar	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	123	55k	#3	68m	#1
9-Mar	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	114	50k	#2	64m	#1
16-Mar	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	104	43k	#4	61m	#2
23-Mar	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	138	110k	#1	28m	#13
30-Mar	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	170	127k	#1	43m	#5
6-Apr	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	199	140k	#1	59m	#2
13-Apr	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	205	135k	#1	70m	#1
20-Apr	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	201	125k	#1	76m	#1
27-Apr	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	179	98k	#1	81m	#1
4-May	Always Be My Baby	Mariah Carey	156	82k	#1	74m	#2
11-May	Always Be My Baby	Mariah Carey	147	75k	#2	72m	#2
18-May	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	203	184k	#1	19m	#23
25-May	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	258	237k	#1	21m	#19
1-Jun	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	260	235k	#1	25m	#17
8-Jun	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	259	235k	#1	24m	#18
15-Jun	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	265	237k	#1	28m	#13
22-Jun	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	248	218k	#1	30m	#11
29-Jun	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	191	155k	#1	36m	#8
6-Jul	Tha Crossroads	Bone Thugs & Harmony	160	125k	#1	35m	#8
13-Jul	How Do U Want It/California Love	2pac & K-Ci & JoJo	152	150k	#1	2m	#75
20-Jul	How Do U Want It/California Love	2pac & K-Ci & JoJo	121	120k	#1	1m	-
27-Jul	You're Makin Me High	Toni Braxton	128	105k	#2	23m	#13
3-Aug	Macarena	Los del Rio	129	94k	#2	35m	#14
10-Aug	Macarena	Los del Rio	148	110k	#1	38m	#9
17-Aug	Macarena	Los del Rio	168	125k	#1	43m	#7
24-Aug	Macarena	Los del Rio	194	151k	#1	43m	#7
31-Aug	Macarena	Los del Rio	213	172k	#1	41m	#7
7-Sep	Macarena	Los del Rio	228	190k	#1	38m	#9
14-Sep	Macarena	Los del Rio	230	195k	#1	35m	#14
21-Sep	Macarena	Los del Rio	230	200k	#1	30m	#16
28-Sep	Macarena	Los del Rio	217	190k	#1	27m	#27
5-Oct	Macarena	Los del Rio	210	185k	#1	25m	#28
12-Oct	Macarena	Los del Rio	190	170k	#1	20m	#37
19-Oct	Macarena	Los del Rio	167	150k	#1	17m	#46
26-Oct	Macarena	Los del Rio	140	125k	#1	15m	#48
2-Nov	Macarena	Los del Rio	129	110k	#1	19m	#44
9-Nov	No Diggity	Blackstreet	152	125k	#1	27m	#21
16-Nov	No Diggity	Blackstreet	164	135k	#1	29m	#20
23-Nov	No Diggity	Blackstreet	182	152k	#1	30m	#21
30-Nov	No Diggity	Blackstreet	155	125k	#1	30m	#20
7-Dec	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	163	105k	#2	63m	#5
14-Dec	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	174	107k	#2	67m	#3
21-Dec	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	194	117k	#1	77m	#2
28-Dec	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	235	150k	#2	85m	#2

[Private Dancer]

I'll attempt 1997. The data is kinda missing but I'll do my best

[azul120]

I remember at the time Columbia had been goosing MC's numbers with early 99 cent promos for One Sweet Day.

[neel]

So if the points for “Gangster’s Paradise” was that weak, how the hell did the song rank at #1 on 1995 Year End List?

[colson]

Oct 3, 2023 19:05:13 GMT -5 azul120 said:

I remember at the time Columbia had been goosing MC's numbers with early 99 cent promos for One Sweet Day.

And what's your point? It was a smart business move when the parent album which had the exact same single on it was selling boat loads of copies.

[jenglisbe]

This is cool!

You can really see where the deletion of the "Fantasy" single affected it; it really fell off in sales after the first month or so. You see it a bit with "OSD" too. I wonder how many more weeks on the Hot 100 those songs would have had without the deletion of their physical singles.

azul120 People still had to pay for the single, which they aren't going to do if they don't like the song. Additionally the album went Diamond so clearly they liked the music. Lastly it was common for all hits to be discounted. If you were outside at all, you know #1s by Janet Jackson, Destiny's Child, Enrique Iglesias, and more were all discounted as well. No need for your snide comments, especially if you aren't going to give full context.

neel How are those points for "GP" weak? It took huge points from "Fantasy" to knock it out of #1. It also had more points than "You Are Not Alone" and "Exhale" in their weeks at #1. To answer your question, though, "GP" had terrific longevity. It had 8 weeks at #2 behind "Fantasy" that were still strong weeks, and then as Private Dancer noted it was nearly #1 the week MJ debuted there. So, it ultimately spent 3 weeks at #1 and 9 weeks at #2 in that 1995 chart year. Most of those weeks it was near or over 200 chart points.

[neel]

Oct 4, 2023 9:58:33 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

This is cool!

You can really see where the deletion of the "Fantasy" single affected it; it really fell off in sales after the first month or so. You see it a bit with "OSD" too. I wonder how many more weeks on the Hot 100 those songs would have had without the deletion of their physical singles.

azul120 People still had to pay for the single, which they aren't going to do if they don't like the song. Additionally the album went Diamond so clearly they liked the music. Lastly it was common for all hits to be discounted. If you were outside at all, you know #1s by Janet Jackson, Destiny's Child, Enrique Iglesias, and more were all discounted as well. No need for your snide comments, especially if you aren't going to give full context.

neel How are those points for "GP" weak? It took huge points from "Fantasy" to knock it out of #1. It also had more points than "You Are Not Alone" and "Exhale" in their weeks at #1. To answer your question, though, "GP" had terrific longevity. It had 8 weeks at #2 behind "Fantasy" that were still strong weeks, and then as Private Dancer noted it was nearly #1 the week MJ debuted there. So, it ultimately spent 3 weeks at #1 and 9 weeks at #2 in that 1995 chart year. Most of those weeks it was near or over 200 chart points.

So was 1995 just a incredibly weak year for the Hot 100 that a song that begins charting in August averaging 200 points per week can easy top the year end chart? Cause I thought “GP” pulled in a huge amount of points. “

[jenglisbe]

Oct 4, 2023 10:24:11 GMT -5 neel said:

Oct 4, 2023 9:58:33 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

This is cool!

You can really see where the deletion of the "Fantasy" single affected it; it really fell off in sales after the first month or so. You see it a bit with "OSD" too. I wonder how many more weeks on the Hot 100 those songs would have had without the deletion of their physical singles.

azul120 People still had to pay for the single, which they aren't going to do if they don't like the song. Additionally the album went Diamond so clearly they liked the music. Lastly it was common for all hits to be discounted. If you were outside at all, you know #1s by Janet Jackson, Destiny's Child, Enrique Iglesias, and more were all discounted as well. No need for your snide comments, especially if you aren't going to give full context.

neel How are those points for "GP" weak? It took huge points from "Fantasy" to knock it out of #1. It also had more points than "You Are Not Alone" and "Exhale" in their weeks at #1. To answer your question, though, "GP" had terrific longevity. It had 8 weeks at #2 behind "Fantasy" that were still strong weeks, and then as Private Dancer noted it was nearly #1 the week MJ debuted there. So, it ultimately spent 3 weeks at #1 and 9 weeks at #2 in that 1995 chart year. Most of those weeks it was near or over 200 chart points.

So was 1995 just a incredibly weak year for the Hot 100 that a song that begins charting in August averaging 200 points per week can easy top the year end chart? Cause I thought “GP” pulled in a huge amount of points. “

It did pull in huge points. So did "Fantasy," which was able to finish top 10 for 1995 based on only 8 weeks of charting. Both had really high sales, which gave them a lot of weeks over 200 chart points. "GP" finished #1 in sales for the 1995 chart year, and "Fantasy" was #3. "Gangsta's Paradise" was certified 2x platinum before the end of the 1995 chart year, and ultimately went 3x platinum. Those are stats that go on all-time lists, and that level of sales is going to yield great year-end results.

Also keep in mind that this was when Airplay and Sales were often incongruous since Hot 100 Airplay was mostly based on Top 40 play. The top 8 songs in sales that chart year were Gangsta's Paradise, Creep, Fantasy, Waterfalls, Don't Take It Personal, Boombastic, One More Chance, and Freak Like Me. You can see that's an R&B-heavy list. The only one of those songs to finish top 10 in Airplay for that chart year was Waterfalls (though Fantasy would have with more weeks counted). That's why a song that did well in both Sales and Airplay (i.e. Top 40) would have big chart point totals. To that end I guess you could say 1995 was weak just for the fact that not a lot of songs had both huge H100 sales and huge H100 airplay.

[Private Dancer]

Gangsta's Paradise did indeed have huge point totals. The average #1 was not getting over 200 points per week. Even though the Hot 100 had a basic formula at the time (sales/10 + airplay/10,000) usually songs that did very well in sales were usually always going to be towards the top of the YE list. Airplay numbers were  weak, and could not compete with the huge sales. You could have a huge radio hit, and get 60-75m weekly (60-75 points) but you could also have a song that was huge in sales racking up 100k+ (100+ points weekly). Therefore, songs with huge sales were able to chart towards the top of the year end because they naturally got more points and quickly racked up more points.

Yes, Columbia did discount Mariah's singles but other labels did it too. If I recall, the same was done with lots of singles at the time. But Daydream I think was already at 6 million by early-mid 1996 as well. Daydream was selling FAST.

[neel]

Oct 4, 2023 14:36:06 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Gangsta's Paradise did indeed have huge point totals. The average #1 was not getting over 200 points per week. Even though the Hot 100 had a basic formula at the time (sales/10 + airplay/10,000) usually songs that did very well in sales were usually always going to be towards the top of the YE list. Airplay numbers were  weak, and could not compete with the huge sales. You could have a huge radio hit, and get 60-75m weekly (60-75 points) but you could also have a song that was huge in sales racking up 100k+ (100+ points weekly). Therefore, songs with huge sales were able to chart towards the top of the year end because they naturally got more points and quickly racked up more points.

Yes, Columbia did discount Mariah's singles but other labels did it too. If I recall, the same was done with lots of singles at the time. But Daydream I think was already at 6 million by early-mid 1996 as well. Daydream was selling FAST.

That makes much more sense. Also checking along with what you said, most of the strong hits that dominated Winter 1994-95 like “Creep”, “On Bended Knees and “Another Night” were all recurrent by the third quarter of 1995. So that along with “GP” strong sales most likely cleared the path to the top the year end chart.

I didn’t realize the average #1 points were all below 200 in the 90s.

[Private Dancer]

Also, forgot to mention GP was behind Fantasy for a few weeks in sales and then Fantasy sales declined sharply and GP rose back up to #1. Which was uncommon for a single to do at that time.

[jenglisbe]

Oct 4, 2023 20:15:06 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Also, forgot to mention GP was behind Fantasy for a few weeks in sales and then Fantasy sales declined sharply and GP rose back up to #1. Which was uncommon for a single to do at that time.

Yeah in the 11/4/95 issue (where "Fantasy" was #1 for a sixth week) the Hot 100 Singles Spotlight column notes it fell to #2 in sales and says it's "mainly because the single has been discontinued and is no longer in stock at some retail outlets."

[Private Dancer]

Oct 4, 2023 21:00:42 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Oct 4, 2023 20:15:06 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Also, forgot to mention GP was behind Fantasy for a few weeks in sales and then Fantasy sales declined sharply and GP rose back up to #1. Which was uncommon for a single to do at that time.

Yeah in the 11/4/95 issue (where "Fantasy" was #1 for a sixth week) the Hot 100 Singles Spotlight column notes it fell to #2 in sales and says it's "mainly because the single has been discontinued and is no longer in stock at some retail outlets."

Do you know why they deleted the single? Was it to allow OSD to shine? And what was the point of releasing OSD 8 weeks after Fantasy was out?

[azul120]

Oct 4, 2023 9:58:33 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

This is cool!

You can really see where the deletion of the "Fantasy" single affected it; it really fell off in sales after the first month or so. You see it a bit with "OSD" too. I wonder how many more weeks on the Hot 100 those songs would have had without the deletion of their physical singles.

azul120 People still had to pay for the single, which they aren't going to do if they don't like the song. Additionally the album went Diamond so clearly they liked the music. Lastly it was common for all hits to be discounted. If you were outside at all, you know #1s by Janet Jackson, Destiny's Child, Enrique Iglesias, and more were all discounted as well. No need for your snide comments, especially if you aren't going to give full context.

neel How are those points for "GP" weak? It took huge points from "Fantasy" to knock it out of #1. It also had more points than "You Are Not Alone" and "Exhale" in their weeks at #1. To answer your question, though, "GP" had terrific longevity. It had 8 weeks at #2 behind "Fantasy" that were still strong weeks, and then as Private Dancer noted it was nearly #1 the week MJ debuted there. So, it ultimately spent 3 weeks at #1 and 9 weeks at #2 in that 1995 chart year. Most of those weeks it was near or over 200 chart points.

Snide comments? Yeesh. Tell it to Keith Caulfield, who before his Billboard days, wrote about it in the Daily Trojan.

I wasn't trying to be flip. Just saying it was what it was. As for context, it was discounted in its initial release window, right when it had peak momentum, and 49 cents, which was the going price, was nothing if not impulse buy territory. This was emblematic of singles having started debuting near or at the top of Billboard, a far cry from when Capitol released U Can't Touch This on vinyl exclusively in order to keep parent album sales strong.

[badrobot]

Oct 4, 2023 22:13:59 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Oct 4, 2023 21:00:42 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Yeah in the 11/4/95 issue (where "Fantasy" was #1 for a sixth week) the Hot 100 Singles Spotlight column notes it fell to #2 in sales and says it's "mainly because the single has been discontinued and is no longer in stock at some retail outlets."

Do you know why they deleted the single? Was it to allow OSD to shine? And what was the point of releasing OSD 8 weeks after Fantasy was out?

Physical singles were often treated as promotional tools rather than profitable goods -- they didn't make the labels any money, particularly when heavily discounted. They wanted people to buy the album. So releasing singles in a limited amount was a way to get that initial buzz of attention/chart success and then try to steer people to buying the album. And you're right, it probably was also influenced by not wanting Mariah to be competing with herself by having Fantasy potentially blocking One Sweet Day.

Also at that time it was pretty normal for artists to have a cadence of every 3-ish months for singles. Fantasy -> OSD was maybe a little faster than normal, but Mariah and Boyz II Men were absolute chart monsters at the time and I think that song was destined to blow up fast and they just ran with it.

[85la]

Thanks for compiling Private Dancer ! Just curious, where are you getting the sales data from?

[Private Dancer]

Oct 5, 2023 13:56:21 GMT -5 85la said:

Thanks for compiling Private Dancer ! Just curious, where are you getting the sales data from?

BB's articles. For the few weeks I didn't have data I used estimations based on trends.

Crazy thing is doing 1997, I has tested my estimation and I found the actual sales number and I was only off +5k for one of the weeks. But overall, sifting through old bb articles gives me the sales.

[Private Dancer]

-This year Elton John takes has the strongest #1 and the biggest weekly sales of the year.

-Toni Braxton's Un Break My Heart has the biggest airplay audience of the year for a 2nd year in a row.

-Towards the end of the year BB's audience's were fluctuating kinda crazy. I got the numbers from BB airplay magazine.

-Note how in this year not one song was #1 on sales and airplay simultaneously. Un-Break My Heart would've been the only one had it not been for IBICF which was a mega seller. It had multiple weeks at #2 behind the song.

-Candle In The Wind, on its debut week already climbed into the top 4 of the YE list, and a week later it was the #1 song of the YE end. So it only took Elton John 2 weeks to have the most chart points of 1997.

-Candle In The Wind had the fastest audience decrease I ever seen. 

-I'll Be Missing You had strong sales despite not being discounted, imagine how much more it could've sold had it been discounted.

-This year was kind of difficult to compute, due to the fact BB had few of the sales hidden, and the others were scattered in different '97 issues. But luckily I found them.

		1997 #1's
Date	Song	Artist	Points	Sales	Position	Airplay	Position
4-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	246	160k	#2	86m	#2
11-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	276	190k	#2	86m	#2
18-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	209	120k	#2	89m	#1
25-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	206	110k	#2	96m	#1
1-Feb	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	194	95k	#2	98m	#2
8-Feb	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	167	75k	#3	92m	#2
15-Feb	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	157	70k	#3	87m	#2
22-Feb	Wannabe	Spice Girls	197	150k	#1	47m	#7
1-Mar	Wannabe	Spice Girls	234	180k	#1	48m	#6
8-Mar	Wannabe	Spice Girls	184	130K	#1	54m	#6
15-Mar	Wannabe	Spice Girls	149	95K	#2	54m	#6
22-Mar	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	146	125k	#1	21m	#30
29-Mar	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	171	150k	#1	21m	#25
5-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	196	175k	#1	21m	#29
12-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	146	127k	#1	19m	#25
19-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	152	135k	#1	17m	#31
26-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	129	115k	#1	14m	#34
3-May	Hypnotize	Notorious B.I.G	130	111k	#2	19m	#25
10-May	Hypnotize	Notorious B.I.G	146	125k	#1	21m	#25
17-May	Hypnotize	Notorious B.I.G	135	115k	#1	20m	#23
24-May	MMMBop	Hanson	190	140k	#1	50m	#6
31-May	MMMBop	Hanson	179	125k	#1	54m	#3
7-Jun	MMMBop	Hanson	169	110k	#1	59m	#2
14-Jun	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	238	220k	#1	18m	#25
21-Jun	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	312	275k	#1	37m	#21
28-Jun	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	329	300k	#1	29m	#17
5-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	342	300k	#1	32m	#12
12-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	308	270k	#1	38m	#10
19-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	283	245k	#1	38m	#9
26-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	256	210k	#1	46m	#5
2-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	223	180k	#1	43m	#4
9-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	209	163k	#1	46m	#5
16-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	176	130k	#1	46m	#6
23-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	148	100k	#1	48m	#6
30-Aug	Mo Money Mo Problems	Notorious B.I.G ft Puff Daddy & Mase	122	100k	#1	22m	#15
6-Sep	Mo Money Mo Problems	Notorious B.I.G ft Puff Daddy & Mase	140	115k	#1	25m	#12
13-Sep	Honey	Mariah Carey	180	137k	#1	43m	#12
20-Sep	Honey	Mariah Carey	181	145k	#1	36m	#12
27-Sep	Honey	Mariah Carey	154	120k	#1	34m	#13
4-Oct	4 Seasons Of Loneliness	Boyz II Men	167	140k	#1	27m	#19
11-Oct	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	3,531	3.5m	#1	31m	#23
18-Oct	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	1,263	1.2m	#1	33m	#23
25-Oct	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	816	786k	#1	30m	#32
1-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	470	455k	#1	15m	#45
8-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	419	409k	#1	10m	#57
15-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	257	250k	#1	7m	-
22-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	194	186k	#1	8m	-
29-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	176	170k	#1	6m	-
6-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	158	155k	#1	3m	-
13-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	142	140k	#1	2m	-
20-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	139	137k	#1	2m	-
27-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	132	130k	#1	2m	-

[Private Dancer]

And to be clear there's no way that "Don't Speak" would've even come close to #1. IBICF was selling huge digits with nice airplay and Un-Break My Heart had huge airplay and huge sales. Don't Speak would be earning around 80-96 points if airplay songs were eligible to chart and usually 80-96 points could get you anywhere in the top ten, but nowhere close to #1.

Now if No Doubt, had a physical release of the cd it would've had a huge chance at #1.

[neel]

Oct 5, 2023 17:05:45 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

-This year Elton John takes has the strongest #1 and the biggest weekly sales of the year.

-Toni Braxton's Un Break My Heart has the biggest airplay audience of the year for a 2nd year in a row.

-Towards the end of the year BB's audience's were fluctuating kinda crazy. I got the numbers from BB airplay magazine.

-Note how in this year not one song was #1 on sales and airplay simultaneously. Un-Break My Heart would've been the only one had it not been for IBICF which was a mega seller. It had multiple weeks at #2 behind the song.

-Candle In The Wind, on its debut week already climbed into the top 4 of the YE list, and a week later it was the #1 song of the YE end. So it only took Elton John 2 weeks to have the most chart points of 1997.

-Candle In The Wind had the fastest audience decrease I ever seen. 

-I'll Be Missing You had strong sales despite not being discounted, imagine how much more it could've sold had it been discounted.

-This year was kind of difficult to compute, due to the fact BB had few of the sales hidden, and the others were scattered in different '97 issues. But luckily I found them.

		1997 #1's
Date	Song	Artist	Points	Sales	Position	Airplay	Position
4-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	246	160k	#2	86m	#2
11-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	276	190k	#2	86m	#2
18-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	209	120k	#2	89m	#1
25-Jan	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	206	110k	#2	96m	#1
1-Feb	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	194	95k	#2	98m	#2
8-Feb	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	167	75k	#3	92m	#2
15-Feb	Un-Break My Heart	Toni Braxton	157	70k	#3	87m	#2
22-Feb	Wannabe	Spice Girls	197	150k	#1	47m	#7
1-Mar	Wannabe	Spice Girls	234	180k	#1	48m	#6
8-Mar	Wannabe	Spice Girls	184	130K	#1	54m	#6
15-Mar	Wannabe	Spice Girls	149	95K	#2	54m	#6
22-Mar	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	146	125k	#1	21m	#30
29-Mar	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	171	150k	#1	21m	#25
5-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	196	175k	#1	21m	#29
12-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	146	127k	#1	19m	#25
19-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	152	135k	#1	17m	#31
26-Apr	Can't Nobody Hold Me Down	Puff Daddy ft Mase	129	115k	#1	14m	#34
3-May	Hypnotize	Notorious B.I.G	130	111k	#2	19m	#25
10-May	Hypnotize	Notorious B.I.G	146	125k	#1	21m	#25
17-May	Hypnotize	Notorious B.I.G	135	115k	#1	20m	#23
24-May	MMMBop	Hanson	190	140k	#1	50m	#6
31-May	MMMBop	Hanson	179	125k	#1	54m	#3
7-Jun	MMMBop	Hanson	169	110k	#1	59m	#2
14-Jun	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	238	220k	#1	18m	#25
21-Jun	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	312	275k	#1	37m	#21
28-Jun	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	329	300k	#1	29m	#17
5-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	342	300k	#1	32m	#12
12-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	308	270k	#1	38m	#10
19-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	283	245k	#1	38m	#9
26-Jul	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	256	210k	#1	46m	#5
2-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	223	180k	#1	43m	#4
9-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	209	163k	#1	46m	#5
16-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	176	130k	#1	46m	#6
23-Aug	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy and Faith Evans ft 112	148	100k	#1	48m	#6
30-Aug	Mo Money Mo Problems	Notorious B.I.G ft Puff Daddy & Mase	122	100k	#1	22m	#15
6-Sep	Mo Money Mo Problems	Notorious B.I.G ft Puff Daddy & Mase	140	115k	#1	25m	#12
13-Sep	Honey	Mariah Carey	180	137k	#1	43m	#12
20-Sep	Honey	Mariah Carey	181	145k	#1	36m	#12
27-Sep	Honey	Mariah Carey	154	120k	#1	34m	#13
4-Oct	4 Seasons Of Loneliness	Boyz II Men	167	140k	#1	27m	#19
11-Oct	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	3,531	3.5m	#1	31m	#23
18-Oct	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	1,263	1.2m	#1	33m	#23
25-Oct	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	816	786k	#1	30m	#32
1-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	470	455k	#1	15m	#45
8-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	419	409k	#1	10m	#57
15-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	257	250k	#1	7m	-
22-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	194	186k	#1	8m	-
29-Nov	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	176	170k	#1	6m	-
6-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	158	155k	#1	3m	-
13-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	142	140k	#1	2m	-
20-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	139	137k	#1	2m	-
27-Dec	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	132	130k	#1	2m	-

And still remains till this day as the best selling single in its first week and the song to spawn the biggest first week sales in Billboard Hot 100 history.


I can't wait for 1998, I know if Billboard allowed the airplay only songs to chart a year prior to Dec 1998, the entire Year End List for 1998 would've been completely different (probably for '97 too). "Iris" would've easily ended up in the Top 5 of the '98 list with it peaking at No. 3 and spending at least 23 weeks inside the Top 10 had it's airplay run been counted. "Truly Madly Deeply" would max 30+ weeks inside the Top 10, "My Heart Will Go On" could've made the Top 10 cut. And "CITW / SATWYLT" would definitely not rank in at #8.

Wonder where "If You Could Only See", "3 AM", "Walkin' on the Sun", "As Love as You Love Me" and etc could've placed since they all stuck around for a long time on the airplay chart...

[parrotparent]

I saw the discussion about deleted single chart runs on the Hot 100. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "The Crossroads" is an excellent example. You had a non discounted song roar through 2 million physical singles in just 3 months.

Also, I think I'll Be Missing You opened with around 300k & increased to around 397k the next week. But BB might not have published those numbers until early 99 in a TLC No Scrubs comparison. I'll check.

[renaboss]

If Toni got 85m at #2, how much did No Doubt get that week at #1?

[jenglisbe]

Oct 5, 2023 18:37:25 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

And to be clear there's no way that "Don't Speak" would've even come close to #1. IBICF was selling huge digits with nice airplay and Un-Break My Heart had huge airplay and huge sales. Don't Speak would be earning around 80-96 points if airplay songs were eligible to chart and usually 80-96 points could get you anywhere in the top ten, but nowhere close to #1.

I'm glad you said this as I always feels like it needs to be mentioned; posters and even media tend to blame Billboard, but the reality is even if those songs had been able to chart they wouldn't have gone to #1. "Don't Speak" wouldn't have even been top 5. Not sure if you know there is a thread specifically for that info:
pulsemusic.proboards.com/thread/186852/charts-airplay-tracks-charted-90s

badrobot Private Dancer Yeah "One Sweet Day" was a radio hit immediately upon the release of the album (it debuted at #40 on H100 Airplay the week the album dropped), and it was already #2 in airplay (behind "Fantasy") when the commercial single was released. I think "Fantasy" was deleted commercially mostly to fuel album sales. Haters love to leave out that Sony did the same thing for "Because You Loved Me" and other hits.

neel You can see in 1997 how wildly the points varied for #1s. "CNHMD" was #1 with 129 points (and never got above 200 points). And really, from February through mid-June there was only 1 week where the #1 had over 200 chart points. "MMMP" later became #1 with only 122 chart points. I assume you can see now where "GP" was doing pretty well.

[neogale]

I'm kinda surprised at how low the points for some of these #1 hits are. In fact, after seeing this, it makes me wonder if the points have always been this low outside of the late 2010s when streaming truly exploded in popularity

[mikerivera]

Oct 9, 2023 17:08:23 GMT -5 neogale said:

I'm kinda surprised at how low the points for some of these #1 hits are. In fact, after seeing this, it makes me wonder if the points have always been this low outside of the late 2010s when streaming truly exploded in popularity

Well, first off, before the switch to SoundScan, the “points” a song earned are basically unknowable (Billboard didn’t even use them to determine year end rankings). But in terms of comparing the 90s to the 2010s, the low points were less a factor of the songs being less popular and more about singles being a promotional tool for the album. And the 90s were actually the golden era for album sales, with albums that only went 1x platinum being considered a flop. But of course, those numbers didn’t register on the Hot 100. The reason the Hot 100 started becoming stronger in points was that physical albums got replaced; first by digital downloads, then by streaming.

[85la]

Oct 9, 2023 17:08:23 GMT -5 neogale said:

I'm kinda surprised at how low the points for some of these #1 hits are. In fact, after seeing this, it makes me wonder if the points have always been this low outside of the late 2010s when streaming truly exploded in popularity

Nah, by the late 2000s and into the early 2010s, even before streaming took off, both digital sales and airplay got much higher (#1 in sales routinely reaching 300-400k+ and #1 in airplay routinely approaching 175-200 million impressions). Even though points might have been lower in the 90s, overall sales and airplay numbers were just much lower then, so you have to take that into account. Plus there was a very wide degree of variation, especially in sales, with the #1 in sales not reaching 100k some weeks while some it was in the multiple hundreds of thousands, or even over a million in the case of CITW.

[jenglisbe]

Oct 9, 2023 22:11:13 GMT -5 85la said:

Oct 9, 2023 17:08:23 GMT -5 neogale said:

I'm kinda surprised at how low the points for some of these #1 hits are. In fact, after seeing this, it makes me wonder if the points have always been this low outside of the late 2010s when streaming truly exploded in popularity

Nah, by the late 2000s and into the early 2010s, even before streaming took off, both digital sales and airplay got much higher (#1 in sales routinely reaching 300-400k+ and #1 in airplay routinely approaching 175-200 million impressions). Even though points might have been lower in the 90s, overall sales and airplay numbers were just much lower then, so you have to take that into account. Plus there was a very wide degree of variation, especially in sales, with the #1 in sales not reaching 100k some weeks while some it was in the multiple hundreds of thousands, or even over a million in the case of CITW.

What led to that huge increase in impressions? I know part of the reason impressions got much higher in the 2000s is the rule change of the Hot 100 Airplay including airplay from all formats. In these totals we're seeing from the 1990s, those airplay impressions are based mostly on Top 40 play exclusively (and some AC and rock stations I believe). In the very late 1990s Billboard then added in R&B, country, etc, but even then the top totals weren't up in the 150 million and more range. When "Smooth" was #1 in airplay in late 1999, it had 110-120 million impressions. "No Scrubs" was getting over 130 million impressions when it was #1, which was the record at the time.

(By the way in looking up some of this info, I noticed Billboard mentioned that when "Bills, Bills, Bills" hit #1 it was "sale-priced." Just another example of how common that was at the time. "Bootylicious" was also deeply discounted. I don't see people coming at Destiny's Child over their #1s though.)

[85la]

Oct 10, 2023 8:06:16 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Oct 9, 2023 22:11:13 GMT -5 85la said:

Nah, by the late 2000s and into the early 2010s, even before streaming took off, both digital sales and airplay got much higher (#1 in sales routinely reaching 300-400k+ and #1 in airplay routinely approaching 175-200 million impressions). Even though points might have been lower in the 90s, overall sales and airplay numbers were just much lower then, so you have to take that into account. Plus there was a very wide degree of variation, especially in sales, with the #1 in sales not reaching 100k some weeks while some it was in the multiple hundreds of thousands, or even over a million in the case of CITW.

What led to that huge increase in impressions? I know part of the reason impressions got much higher in the 2000s is the rule change of the Hot 100 Airplay including airplay from all formats. In these totals we're seeing from the 1990s, those airplay impressions are based mostly on Top 40 play exclusively (and some AC and rock stations I believe). In the very late 1990s Billboard then added in R&B, country, etc, but even then the top totals weren't up in the 150 million and more range. When "Smooth" was #1 in airplay in late 1999, it had 110-120 million impressions. "No Scrubs" was getting over 130 million impressions when it was #1, which was the record at the time.

(By the way in looking up some of this info, I noticed Billboard mentioned that when "Bills, Bills, Bills" hit #1 it was "sale-priced." Just another example of how common that was at the time. "Bootylicious" was also deeply discounted. I don't see people coming at Destiny's Child over their #1s though.)

You're right in that it was mainly the rule change in '98 of including all radio formats that led to the increase in impressions. Actually, from late '93 on, I believe Top 40, AC, Hot AC and Rhythmic were all included in Hot 100 Airplay, with Modern Rock included sometime shortly after, though not exactly sure when (maybe '94 or '95). But you're right in that after that impressions were still fairly low and continued to gradually increase into the early 2010s. This is surprising, because you would think radio audiences would've been fully saturated by the early 2000s, but I guess they really weren't, with continual increases in the population and I guess more and more people driving in cars and listening to their radios. I'm also guessing that tracking numbers and sampling data just got a lot better over time, giving an artificial boost to impressions where they really might have been there all along. Eventually, digital and streaming (along with the pandemic) would hugely eat into radio listenership.

And yes, there were definitely artists other than Mariah that played the #1s game, though she clearly played it the hardest, and because she has 19 of them, it makes sense she would get more heat than an artist like Destiny's Child, who only has four.

[Private Dancer]

1998 is coming soon