List of Radio & Records number-one adult alternative singles of the 1990s

Last updated

Adult Alternative Songs, also known as Triple A, is a record chart that ranks the most-played songs on American adult album alternative radio stations. Formulated based on each song's weekly total plays, the chart was introduced in the September 22, 1995, issue of Radio & Records magazine, while Billboard 's chart archives begin on January 20, 1996. [1] [2] [3] Adult Alternative Songs, along with other Radio & Records airplay charts, was initially compiled using radio airplay data from Mediabase. [4] In August 2006, Radio & Records was acquired by The Nielsen Company – then known as VNU Media – parent company of rival publication Billboard. [5] Following the purchase, Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems replaced Mediabase in monitoring airplay for charts, beginning with the issue dated August 11, 2006. [6] [7] Billboard themselves introduced the chart in their July 5, 2008, issue, appropriating the same Nielsen data, [3] and became its sole publisher after Radio & Records ceased publication in June 2009. [8]

Contents

The Billboard website currently lists Adult Alternative Songs charts dating back to January 1996. [9] These charts are based on data from a Triple A chart that had previously been published in the Billboard-owned Airplay Monitor magazine from that date until the acquisition of Radio & Records, and which had used Nielsen data that was largely similar to the Mediabase data used in the Radio & Records chart.

Number-one singles

Key

Radio & Records year-end number-one single
– Return of a single to number one
Contents
SingleArtistReached number oneWeeks at
number one
"The World I Know" [10] Collective Soul January 20, 19961
"Waiting for Tonight" [11] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers January 27, 19961
"The World I Know" ↑ [12] Collective Soul February 3, 19963
"Follow You Down" [13] Gin Blossoms February 24, 19965
"Everything Falls Apart" [14] Dog's Eye View March 30, 19964
"Old Man & Me (When I Get to Heaven)" [15] Hootie & the Blowfish April 27, 19969
"Too Much" [16] Dave Matthews Band June 29, 19961
"Who Will Save Your Soul" [17] Jewel July 6, 19961
"Change the World" [18] Eric Clapton July 13, 19961
"Lack of Water" [19] The Why Store July 20, 19961
"Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand" [20] Primitive Radio Gods July 27, 19965
"Walls" [21] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers August 31, 19962
"Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" [22] John Mellencamp September 14, 19966
"If It Makes You Happy" [23] Sheryl Crow October 26, 19961
"Barely Breathing" [24] Duncan Sheik November 2, 19961
"Bittersweet Me" [25] R.E.M. November 9, 19964
"One Headlight" [26] The Wallflowers December 7, 19968
"A Long December" [27] Counting Crows February 1, 19972
"One Headlight" ↑ [28] [29] The Wallflowers February 15, 19976
"Staring at the Sun" [30] U2 March 29, 19977
"The Freshmen" [31] The Verve Pipe May 17, 19975
"Four Leaf Clover" [32] Abra Moore June 21, 19971
"A Change Would Do You Good" [33] Sheryl Crow June 28, 19976
"Building a Mystery" [34] Sarah McLachlan August 9, 199710
"Most Precarious" [35] Blues Traveler October 18, 19976
"3 AM" [36] Matchbox 20 November 29, 199713
"The Mummers' Dance" [37] Loreena McKennitt February 28, 19981
"3 AM" ↑ [38] Matchbox 20 March 7, 19981
"My Father's Eyes" [39] Eric Clapton March 14, 19987
"Don't Drink the Water" [40] Dave Matthews Band May 2, 19981
"One Belief Away" [41] Bonnie Raitt May 9, 19981
"The Way" [42] Fastball May 16, 19983
"Kind & Generous" [43] Natalie Merchant June 6, 19987
"Stay (Wasting Time)" [44] Dave Matthews Band July 25, 19987
"Save Tonight" [45] Eagle-Eye Cherry September 12, 19982
"Please" [46] Chris Isaak September 26, 19982
"My Favorite Mistake" [47] Sheryl Crow October 10, 19984
"Lullaby" [48] Shawn Mullins November 7, 19983
"My Favorite Mistake" ↑ [49] Sheryl Crow November 28, 19981
"Daysleeper" [50] R.E.M. December 5, 19982
"Slide" [51] Goo Goo Dolls December 19, 19986
"You Get What You Give" [52] New Radicals January 30, 19996
"Slide" ↑ [53] Goo Goo Dolls March 13, 19991
"Every Morning" [54] Sugar Ray March 20, 19991
"Run" [55] Collective Soul March 27, 19993
"I'm Not Running Anymore" [56] John Mellencamp April 17, 19991
"Run" ↑ [57] Collective Soul April 24, 19992
"Anything but Down" [58] Sheryl Crow May 8, 19995
"Room at the Top" [59] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers June 12, 19994
"Smooth" [60] [61] Santana feat. Rob Thomas July 10, 199913
"Angels Would Fall" [62] Melissa Etheridge October 9, 19993
"Hanginaround" [63] Counting Crows October 30, 19998
"The Great Beyond" [64] R.E.M. December 25, 19998

Related Research Articles

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in Billboard magazine. Billboard biz, the online extension of the Billboard charts, provides additional weekly charts, as well as year-end charts. The two most important charts are the Billboard Hot 100 for songs and Billboard 200 for albums, and other charts may be dedicated to a specific genre such as R&B, country, or rock, or they may cover all genres. The charts can be ranked according to sales, streams, or airplay, and for main song charts such as the Hot 100 song chart, all three data are used to compile the charts. For the Billboard 200 album chart, streams and track sales are included in addition to album sales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediabase</span> Radio station monitoring service

Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytical tools for radio and record industry professionals. Mediabase charts and airplay data are used on many popular radio countdown shows and televised music awards programs. Music charts are published in both domestic and international trade publications and newspapers worldwide. Mediabase is a division of iHeartMedia.

Radio & Records (R&R) was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister trade to Billboard, until its final issue in 2009.

Billboard Radio Monitor was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes. The magazine was a spinoff of Billboard magazine and was mostly available through subscription to people who work in the radio industry as well as music chart enthusiasts. It was developed in Columbia, Maryland, initially by Alan Smith and Jonas Cash, principals of the music company called AIR. AIR created music listening competitions for radio programmers in five different musical genres and were looking for a "qualifier" for the contests. The contests involved testing new songs' potential by having radio programmers listen to and respond to each song's hit potential using a national chart as the qualifier. After using Radio and Records chart for the first 10 years of the competition, AIR developed the BAM, and went into partnership with Billboard Magazine to produce and market the magazine. As members of the Board of Directors, the AIR principals continued to improve its features over the next eight years under the new name of Billboard Radio Monitor.

Broadcast Data Systems, is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned magazine Billboard, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100, when combined with sales and streaming data from Soundscan.

R&R was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes. The magazine was a sister publication to Billboard magazine and was mostly available through subscription to people who work in the radio industry and music chart enthusiasts, as well as various record stores and newsstands. On June 5, 2009, parent company AC Nielsen ceased operations on R&R just short of three years after acquiring the former independent trade periodical. When it ceased publication in 2009, R&R was the successor-in-interest of publications that traced their operations back to 1973.

Latin Pop Airplay is a record chart published on Billboard magazine and a subchart of the Latin Airplay chart. The chart focuses on Latin pop music, namely Spanish-language pop music. It was established by the magazine on October 8, 1994 as a subchart of the Hot Latin Songs chart until October 2012 when the Hot Latin Songs changed its methodology. The first number-one song on the chart was Mañana by Cristian Castro. This chart features only singles or tracks and like most Billboard charts, is based on airplay; the radio charts are compiled using information tracked by from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), which electronically monitors radio stations in more than 140 markets across the United States. The audience charts cross-reference BDS data with listener information compiled by the Arbitron ratings system to determine the approximate number of audience impressions made for plays in each daypart. With the issue dated August 15, 2020, Billboard revamped the chart to reflect overall airplay of Latin pop music on Latin radio stations. Instead of ranking songs being played on Latin-pop stations, rankings will be determined by the amount of airplay Latin-pop songs receive on stations that play Latin music regardless of genre. The current number-one song on the chart is "TQG" by Karol G and Shakira.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lullaby (Shawn Mullins song)</span> 1998 single by Shawn Mullins

"Lullaby" is a song by American rock singer Shawn Mullins from his fourth studio album, Soul's Core (1998). It was released in August 1998 and is Mullins' most successful song to date, reaching number one on the US Billboard Adult Top 40, number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, and number nine on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also found success abroad, reaching number nine on the UK Singles Chart, number five in Australia, and number two in Canada.

Regional Mexican Airplay is a record chart published by Billboard magazine. It was established by the magazine on October 8, 1994, with "La Niña Fresa" by Banda Zeta being the first number-one song on the chart. The chart mainly focuses on the styles of music from the different rural regions of Mexico such as mariachi, norteño, and banda, as well as the Mexican-American community in the United States such as Tejano. These genres are collectively referred to as "regional Mexican" under the Latin music umbrella. This chart features only singles or tracks and like most Billboard charts, is based on airplay; the radio charts are compiled using information tracked by from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), which electronically monitors radio stations in more than 140 markets across the United States. The audience charts cross-reference BDS data with listener information compiled by the Arbitron ratings system to determine the approximate number of audience impressions made for plays in each daypart. The current number-one song on the chart is "Indispensable" by Carín León.

The Tropical Airplay chart is a record chart published by Billboard magazine introduced in 1994. The first number-one song on the chart was "Quien Eres Tu" by Luis Enrique. Originally, rankings on the chart were determined by the amount of airplay a song received on radio stations that primarily played tropical music, namely music originating from the Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean such as salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, vallenato, and tropical fusions. Any song, regardless of its genre, was eligible for the chart if it received enough airplay from the panel of tropical music radio stations being monitored.

Adult album alternative is a radio format. Its roots trace to both the "classic album stations of the ’70s as well as the alternative rock format that developed in the ’80s."

Pop Airplay is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the United States. The rankings are based on radio airplay detections as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, a subsidiary of the U.S.' leading marketing research company. Consumer researchers, Nielsen Audio, refers to the format as contemporary hit radio (CHR). The current number-one song on the chart is "Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar Ray discography</span>

Sugar Ray is an American alternative rock music group from Newport Beach, California. They have released a total of six studio albums, two compilation albums, and nineteen singles.

Adult Alternative Airplay is a record chart currently published by Billboard that ranks the most popular songs on adult album alternative radio stations. The 40-position chart is formulated based on each song's weekly radio spins, as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. The earliest incarnation of the chart was first published on January 20, 1996, as a feature in Billboard sister publication Airplay Monitor. In 2006, Airplay Monitor ceased publication after Billboard parent company VNU Media's acquisition of rival radio trade magazine Radio & Records, which then subsequently incorporated Airplay Monitor's Nielsen-based Triple A chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honey, I'm Good</span> 2014 single by Andy Grammer

"Honey, I'm Good" is the second single from American musician Andy Grammer's second studio album, Magazines or Novels (2014). It was first released in the US in November 2014 and began receiving radio airplay in February 2015. The song peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Grammer's first top 10 hit and highest-charting single to date. It has been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA and was ranked one of the 10 best-selling songs of 2015 by Nielsen SoundScan. It also reached number four in Canada and was certified five-times platinum in the country. The single was written by Grammer and Nolan Sipe, and was produced by Steve Greenberg, Brian West and Sipe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wish I Knew You</span> 2016 single by the Revivalists

"Wish I Knew You" is a song by American rock band the Revivalists. The song was written by the band and was produced by Ben Ellman. The song peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart, becoming the band's first chart-topper on the chart. The song also found success on a number of other rock radio formats, as well as adult contemporary stations. This song had also set a record in May 2017 for the most plays (spins) ever recorded during a week's time for any track on Alternative/Modern Rock radio since the inception of Mediabase tracking systems in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Believer (Imagine Dragons song)</span> 2017 song by Imagine Dragons

"Believer" is a song by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. The song was released on February 1, 2017, through Interscope Records and Kidinakorner as the lead single from the band's third studio album, Evolve (2017). It was written by Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman, Justin Tranter and its producers Mattman & Robin.

References

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