Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary

Fifty years ago, in the August 4, 1958, issue, Billboard launched a revolutionary chart called the Hot 100. After nearly two decades of tracking songs distinctively by sales or plays (on jukeboxes and at radio), the Hot 100 was the first list to measure popularity by incorporating both radio play and sales. Scoring the chart's inaugural No. 1 was Ricky Nelson with "Poor Little Fool." Billboard.com is celebrating this milestone in a big way. Billboard have posted all kinds of Hot 100-based charts leading up to the newly-unveiled special All-Time Hot 100 chart and the commemorative Hot 100 Anniversary issue of Billboard Magazine.

The Song and Artist charts are based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, since the chart's inception in August 1958 through the issue dated July 26, 2008. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Prior to the Hot 100's implementation in 1991 of enhanced radio and sales information from Nielsen BDS and Nielsen SoundScan, songs had shorter reigns at No. 1 and shorter chart lives. The artist chart utilizes the same methodology, with weighted points applied to all titles charted by each artist during that 50-year span.

The Charts
* The All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs.
* All-Time Top Artists.
* All-Time Top Latin Songs.
* All-Time Top Country Songs.
* All-Time Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
* All-Time Top Rock Songs.
* Hot 100 Songs of the Year: 1958-2007.
* Every No. 1 Song: 1958-2008.
* Song With the Most Weeks at No. 1.
* One-Hit Wonders.
* Most Weeks at No. 1 By Artist.
* Most Hot 100 Hits By Artist.
* Most No. 2 Hits Without Reaching No. 1 By Artist.
* Most Weeks at No. 2 Without Reaching No. 1 By Title.
* Different Songs, Same Titles To Hit No. 1.
* Same Songs To Hit No. 1 By Two Different Artists.
* Most No. 1s By Artist (All-Time).

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See Also

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