Posted by Mike Riccio on September 11, 2008 at 04:24:09:
In Reply to: Chubby #1 Of ALL TIME According to Billboard! posted by Mike Riccio on September 11, 2008 at 03:56:10:
And kudos to Billboard for trying to equalize the compilation methodology through the years to come up with a fairer basis of comparison through the years.
For a long time, this has been a pet peeve of mine when comparing current chart hits to older chart hits.
Although it's a near-impossible thing to do (as evidenced by the chart discussions in the threads from earlier in the week here on the board), let's give Billboard their due for making a great attempt to be fair in their assessment.
The link to the entire All Time Hot 100 is below. And here is a key passage on exactly what they did to balance things off. Go to the "FAQ" on the Billboard page link below for the full explanation.
>>>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.
To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from all 50 years, earlier time frames were each weighted to compensate for the differences in the faster turnover rates from those earlier decades, compared to the slower churn the Hot 100 has seen since the advent of Nielsen Music data.
Before that conversion, UB40's cover of "Red, Red Wine," which was on the chart for 40 weeks, and Chubby Checker's "The Twist," with 39 weeks, represented the longest chart stays ever by a No. 1 title. Since December 1991, 17 No. 1 titles have surpassed UB40's prior record, the longest being 60 weeks by Los Del Rio's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)."
Why was the all-time chart methodology revised?
The same methodology that provided a fairly balanced list with hits from all eras...skewed heavily toward the '90s when that same formula was employed for the Hot 100's 40th Anniversary. To wit, every single title in the top 10 of the 1998 chart had been released since 1991, while earlier decades had less representation on that 1998 recap than was seen on the 1994 all-time chart.
That shift toward newer songs happened during that four-year interval because the 1991 advent of sales tracking from Nielsen SoundScan and radio monitoring by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems allows big hits to spend more weeks in the top 10, and more weeks on the overall chart, than happened in the earlier years when the chart was based on surveys of retailers and radio programmers.
For the Hot 100's 50th Anniversary, Billboard's charts department ensured a more balanced representation of hits from all 50 years, by analyzing the length of chart runs in earlier decades, as well as the average weeks that titles spent in the top 10 and at No. 1. Weights for earlier spans were then formulated, to compensate for the shorter chart runs that titles experienced before the 1991 conversion to precise and objective sales and radio data from Nielsen Music.
Why are some of the hits that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 absent from the 50th Anniversary chart, or lower on this list than they were in the 1994 and 1998 anniversary charts?
Prior to December 1998, songs did not appear on the Billboard Hot 100 until a retail single became available (which, incidentally, is why hits like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and No Doubt's "Don't Speak" never appeared on the Hot 100). In earlier years, retail singles came to market fairly early in a song's life-usually shortly after, or even before, a song came to radio.
But, during the '90s, when labels would strategize No. 1 chart bows by significant hits, the retail release of some priority singles were withheld until radio audience reached maximum levels. Although some of these songs spent significant numbers of weeks at No. 1 or in the top 10, the delay of the sales component ultimately shortened the spans these songs would spend on the chart.
With the new methodology rewarding points for a song's entire chart run, rather than confining points to weeks spent in the top 10, the shorter chart lives recorded by the songs that debuted at No. 1 impact their all-time standings.
The 50th Anniversary Songs chart is based on length of stay on the chart, as opposed to the specific dimensions of sales or radio data. That limitation stands with any recap that includes titles predating 1991, because specific sales and radio audience data from those earlier years cannot be applied.>>>