Bet you didn’t guess "The Twist." Last month, Billboard celebrated the 50th anniversary of their all-important Hot 100 chart, so they crunched a lot of numbers and found out that Chubby Checker’s immortal 1960 ode to vaguely uncomfortable-looking dance moves (below) came in ahead of all other singles from the past half-century. The rest of their "Hot 100 All-Time Songs" is online here for your perusal, and a whole bunch more cool historical info can be found here. Billboard’s methodology was a little strange — they based their point values on a combination of chart position and length of time spent on the chart, then weighted everything so that older songs scored higher than new ones. (Their reasoning for that was something about wanting "to compensate for the differences in the faster turnover rates from those earlier decades…") So that’s how "The Twist" landed in first place, even though it only spent three weeks total at No. 1 on the real Hot 100 at the time and has since been massively outsold by lots of other songs. Meanwhile Mariah Carey, who holds the record for most No. 1 singles by a solo artist on the Hot 100, doesn’t come in here ’til No. 9 ("We Belong Together"), a full four spots below the flippin’ "Macarena."
But hey, numbers don’t lie! Or something. So head over to Billboard’s list and chime in: Which songs are you surprised to see there? And what do you think is missing from their charts — are there songs that you think ought to have been more richly rewarded in terms of radio play and sales?
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Oh, dear sweet Lord, don’t get into “Where’s Pink Floyd/Led Zep/Jimmy Buffett?” cluelessnes, “Madonna sux/Mariah sux” tantrums, or the ilk. The Billboard Hot 100 chart was meant to give snapshots of what was popular on radio & sales that week. Obviously, over time tastes change. But “The Twist” had two long chart runs in 1960 & ‘62, hit #1 in non-successive years, which no other song has ever done in the States. (Yes, that goes for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which originally peaked at #9 and never made #1). As I have on the comments in the Billboard site, I will not suffer ignorance or fools gladly.
You have been warned.
“You Light Up My Life” is ahead of “Hey Jude”? Yipe. I’ll have to inspect the list further for more surprises…
I know folks don’t get why The Twist is number one, but think about this – most people know the lyrics to that song and how to do The Twist. I couldn’t remember half the lyrics to Mariah songs (I don’t have any of her albums, but I don’t hate her), but I can remember The Twist. And I’m 31!
All I can say is, “where the hell are the beach boys?”
Seriously, Usher is on there a million times, and no beach boys???
rockgolf, your comments on the Billboard site were spot-on, and very much appreciated, to the point where I thought you worked for the mag. Just giving credit where it’s due…
Most popular singles of all time? Oh brother. I didn’t realize that time had stopped.
It’s not that it’s on the list or that it’s number one. It’s that no one would ever expect it. It’s not memorable to the point of people listing it on their own. Many people probably don’t even know who sings it. Honestly, most of the top 10 I completely disagree upon. (Though I understand the Debbie Boone song on the list, interestingly. It was a major Grammy winner and such.)
Just….”The Twist”? Really?
I’ve added a lengthy theory of how this chart was determined on page 5 of the comments on the 10-1 list on Billboard. Again, it’s theory, but it’s probably close to the real thing.
Do you remember how long Macarena was on top? A bloody long time, ain’t it? That’s why it’s on Number 5.
I know folks don’t get why The Twist is number one, but think about this – most people know the lyrics http://members.lycos.nl/auhmgoem/hotel574.html hotel
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Many people probably don’t even know who sings it. Honestly, most of the top 10 I completely disagree upon. http://reinds.300ms.com/hpb1b.html hp
It’s not that it’s on the list or that it’s number one. It’s that no one would ever expect it. It’s not memorable to the point of people listing it on their own. Many people probably don’t even know who sings it. Honestly, most of the top 10 I completely disagree upon. (Though I understand the Debbie Boone song on the list, interestingly. It was a major Grammy winner and such.)
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