This is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1996. [1]
This is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1996. [1]
The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay in the U.S.
"What's Love Got to Do with It" is a song written by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, and recorded by Tina Turner for her fifth studio album, Private Dancer (1984). Capitol Records released it as a single from Private Dancer in May 1984 and it eventually became Turner's biggest-selling single.
"Gangsta's Paradise" is a single by American rapper Coolio, released on August 1, 1995 by Tommy Boy, Warner Bros. and MCA. Interpolating Stevie Wonder's song "Pastime Paradise" (1976), "Gangsta's Paradise" features vocals from American singer L.V. who served as a co-composer and co-lyricist with Coolio and Doug Rasheed, with Wonder also being credited for the composition and lyrics. Certified Platinum in October, the song was included on Coolio's second album, Gangsta's Paradise, in November 1995. Its music video was directed by Antoine Fuqua and featured Michelle Pfeiffer. The song is taken from Pfeiffer's movie, Dangerous Minds and the music video is also themed around the movie.
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The lyrics were written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman after she was inspired by a Don McLean performance in late 1971. Denied writing credit by Fox and Gimbel, Lieberman released her version of the song in 1972, but it did not chart. The song has been covered by many other artists.
"California Love" is a song by American rapper 2Pac featuring fellow American rapper-producer Dr. Dre and American singer Roger Troutman of the funk group Zapp. The song was released as 2Pac's comeback single after his release from prison in 1995 and was his first single as the newest artist of Death Row Records. The original version is featured on the UK version of his fourth album, All Eyez on Me (1996), and is one of 2Pac's most widely known and most successful singles. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and also topped the charts of Italy, New Zealand, and Sweden. The song was posthumously nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1997.
"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from British singer-songwriter Seal's second eponymous album (1994). The song was first released as a single in July 1994 by ZTT, Sire and Warner Bros., and included in the film The NeverEnding Story III that year. It was re-released a year later in 1995 as part of the Batman Forever film soundtrack, helping it top the charts in the United States and Australia. The song also reached the top 10 in several other countries, including Canada, France, Iceland and Norway. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, it won awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
"Tha Crossroads" is a song written and performed by hip hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, released as a single in April 1996. The song is dedicated to the group's mentor, the late gangsta rap icon Eazy-E, and other family members. The song was the highest-debuting rap single when it debuted at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching number one the following week and staying there for eight consecutive weeks. It also reached number one in New Zealand, where it was the most successful single of 1996. In 1997, the song won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
"Macarena" is a song by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, originally recorded for their 1993 album A mí me gusta. A dance remix by the electropop group Fangoria was a success in Spain, and a soundalike cover version by Los del Mar became popular in Canada. Another remix by Miami-based producers the Bayside Boys, who added a section with English lyrics and expanded its popularity, initially peaked at No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in late 1995.
"All by Myself" is a song by American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen, released by Arista in December 1975 as the first single from Carmen's debut album, Eric Carmen (1975). The verse is based on the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 1900–1901 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The chorus was taken from the song "Let's Pretend", which Carmen wrote and recorded with the Raspberries in 1972. The slide guitar solo was performed by studio guitarist Hugh McCracken.
Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album is the soundtrack for the film of the same name, released on November 14, 1995, by Arista Records. Produced by Babyface, the soundtrack features appearances by several prominent R&B artists, including Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, TLC, Brandy, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Faith Evans, Patti LaBelle, SWV and Mary J. Blige.
"Return of the Mack" is a song written and recorded by British R&B singer Mark Morrison, released by WEA and Atlantic as the third single from his debut album by the same name (1996). The song topped the UK Singles Chart a month after its release, then became a European and Australian hit. In the United States, it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum. The music video for the song, directed by Jake Nava, was released in the United Kingdom in March 1996 and in the United States in February 1997. Billboard magazine featured "Return of the Mack" in their lists of "Billboard's Top Songs of the '90s" in 2019 and "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" in 2023.
"I Believe in You and Me" is a song written by Sandy Linzer and David Wolfert in 1982. The song was first recorded and released by the R&B group The Four Tops, who released it as a single from their album One More Mountain (1982). While it failed to reach the US Top 40, it became a moderate hit for the group on the US Billboard R&B chart, peaking at number 40 in early 1983.
The Canadian Singles Chart was a chart compiled by the American-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan, which began publication in November 1996. It was published every Wednesday and also published on Thursday by Jam!/Canoe. The chart also appeared in Billboard until March 2006, when Billboard stopped publishing the Canadian Singles Chart in favor of the Canadian Digital Songs Sales Chart. Billboard later introduced their own singles chart for Canada, the Canadian Hot 100, on June 7, 2007.
"Because You Loved Me" is a song performed by Canadian singer Celine Dion on her fourth English-language studio album, Falling into You (1996). It was released on 19 February 1996 as the first single in North America, and as the second single in the United Kingdom on 20 May 1996. "Because You Loved Me" was written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, and served as the theme song from the 1996 film Up Close & Personal, starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Billboard ranked it as the 14th "Top Love Song of All Time".
Canadian singer Celine Dion has released 137 singles in both English and French discography as a lead artist. According to Billboard magazine, Dion is the world's best-selling contemporary female artist of all time. As of 2021, she has reportedly sold around 200 to 250 million records worldwide. Referred to as the "Queen of Power Ballads", Dion has released a string of worldwide hits, with "My Heart Will Go On" being her career's biggest hit, with estimated physical sales of over 18 million worldwide, making it the 2nd best-selling physical single by a woman in history. It reached over 117 million radio impressions during its peak, becoming the most-played radio hit in history and became the best-selling single of 1998 worldwide. "Because You Loved Me" is her biggest hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, spending six weeks atop the chart and selling six million copies in its first six months of availability worldwide. "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" was the 4th biggest hit of the 1990s in France and has sold over four million copies worldwide.
The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Its data, published by Billboard magazine and compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, is based collectively on each single's weekly physical and digital sales, as well as airplay and streaming. At the end of a year, Billboard will publish an annual list of the 100 most successful songs throughout that year on the Hot 100 chart based on the information. For 2005, the list was published on December 20, calculated with data from December 4, 2004, to November 26, 2005. The R&B track "We Belong Together" by American singer Mariah Carey was named the number 1 song of 2005 and it spent the longest time at number 1 for the year, 14 weeks. This is also the third-longest time at number 1 for a single in the 66-year history of the Hot 100 post-1958 inception, after Mariah Carey's own collaboration with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day", which spent 16 weeks atop the Hot 100 from 1995 to 1996, and "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber, which equaled that mark in 2017, both being beaten in 2019 by "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus, which had 19 weeks at No. 1.
This is a list of Billboard's Top Hot 100 songs of 1997.
"Let It Flow" is a song by American R&B singer Toni Braxton. Written and produced by Babyface, the song was originally recorded for, and included on, the soundtrack to the 1995 motion picture Waiting to Exhale.