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| Billboard Hot 100 & Best Sellers in Stores number-one singles by decade |
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| Before August 1958 |
| After August 1958 |
Billboard number-one singles charts preceding the Billboard Hot 100 were updated weekly by Billboard magazine and the leading indicator of popular music for the American music industry since 1940 and until the Billboard Hot 100 chart was established in 1958.
Contents
- Number ones
- Statistics by decade
- By artist
- Artists by total number of weeks at number-one
- Songs by total number of weeks at number-one
- See also
- References
Before the Billboard Hot 100 chart was established in August 1958, Billboard used to publish several weekly charts. Throughout most of the 1950s, the magazine published the following three charts to measure a song's popularity:
- Best Sellers in Stores – ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country.
- Most Played by Jockeys – ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys and radio stations.
- Most Played in Jukeboxes – ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. At that time, this chart used to be one of the most important channels for measuring the popularity of a song among the younger generation of listeners, as many US radio stations resisted adding rock and roll music to their playlists for many years.[ citation needed ]
The chart shown in this article comes from the Best Sellers in Stores chart only.
