50 Fun Facts About Billboard Hot 100

Which band held all of the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100 in one week of April 1964?

The Beatles held twelve positions on the chart that week, and three of their singles in a row kept the top spot for 14 straight weeks.

Which singer's 1994 Christmas single took 25 years to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Mariah Carey first topped the chart with All I Want for Christmas Is You in December 2019, and the song has returned to number one in later holiday seasons.

Which artist became the first to fill the entire Billboard Hot 100 top ten in one week, in 2022?

Taylor Swift did it with ten tracks from her album Midnights, led by Anti-Hero at number one.

Which Lil Nas X hit of 2019 spent a then-record 19 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Old Town Road also debuted at number 19 on the Hot Country Songs chart before Billboard removed it, saying it did not fit the genre.

Which Netflix show sent Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill into the Billboard Hot 100 top five in 2022?

Stranger Things featured the song in its fourth season, and it climbed to number three, far above its 1985 peak of number 30.

Which 1992 comedy sent Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody back up the Billboard Hot 100 to a new peak of number two?

Wayne's World revived the song 16 years after it had first peaked at number nine in America.

Which Motown prodigy was 13 when Fingertips made him the youngest solo act to top the Billboard Hot 100?

Stevie Wonder, then billed as Little Stevie Wonder, scored the hit with a recording made live on stage at a Chicago theater.

Which crooner shared a 1967 Billboard Hot 100 number one, Somethin' Stupid, with his daughter Nancy?

Frank Sinatra and Nancy scored the first father-daughter number one in America, and the single stayed on top for four weeks.

Which Halloween novelty song by Bobby Pickett reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1962?

Monster Mash has Pickett narrating in an imitation of horror actor Boris Karloff, and the BBC banned it in 1962 as too morbid.

Which 1977 disco film's soundtrack gave the Bee Gees three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100?

Saturday Night Fever produced a fourth chart-topper too, when Yvonne Elliman's If I Can't Have You reached number one.

Which teen idol's Poor Little Fool became the very first Billboard Hot 100 number one in August 1958?

Ricky Nelson was already famous from his family's television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and the song's writer, Sharon Sheeley, was just 15 when she wrote it.

Which Michael Jackson album was the first to produce seven top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100?

Thriller sent all seven of its singles into the top ten, and two, including Beat It, went all the way to number one.

Which singer's Teenage Dream made her the first woman to score five Hot 100 number ones from one album?

Katy Perry matched a mark set by Michael Jackson's Bad, with California Gurls, Firework and E.T. among her five chart-toppers.

Which Canadian star spent 29 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 during 2018?

Drake did it with three singles from his album Scorpion: God's Plan, Nice for What and In My Feelings.

Which song by the Weeknd did Billboard name the greatest Hot 100 hit of all time in 2021?

Blinding Lights spent 90 weeks on the chart and took the all-time title from The Twist, which had held it since 2008.

Which singer's dance hit The Twist topped the Billboard Hot 100 in two separate runs, in 1960 and 1962?

Chubby Checker's cover returned to the top when the dance caught on with adults, though Hank Ballard had written and first released the song.

Which 1996 dance craze, remixed by the Bayside Boys, spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Macarena, in a Bayside Boys remix with added English verses, had stalled at number 45 in late 1995 before returning to carry Los del Río to the top the following summer.

Which Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee hit tied a 16-week record at number one on the Hot 100 in 2017?

Despacito was the first Spanish-language chart-topper in the United States since 1996, lifted by a remix with Justin Bieber.

Kyu Sakamoto's 1963 Japanese-language Billboard Hot 100 number one is known in America by the name of which dish?

Sukiyaki was pure marketing: the beef hot pot appears nowhere in the song, the first sung in Japanese to top the chart.

Which group became the first all-South Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100, with Dynamite in 2020?

BTS entered the chart at number one with the single, the first chart-topper by an Asian act since 1963.

Which band's One More Night kept Psy's Gangnam Style at number two on the Hot 100 for seven straight weeks?

Maroon 5 owed the block to radio: Gangnam Style ruled digital sales but climbed no higher than number 12 on the airplay chart.

Which veteran entertainer was 62 when Hello, Dolly! made him the oldest man to top the Billboard Hot 100?

Louis Armstrong cut the show tune as a demo to promote a Broadway musical, and it ended a British band's 14-week hold on number one.

Which singer's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree finally topped the Hot 100 in 2023, 65 years after release?

Brenda Lee was 78, older than any artist who had topped the chart before her, and had released a music video for the song only weeks earlier.

Which singer was 52 when her Auto-Tuned dance hit Believe topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999?

Cher broke the age record for a solo woman at number one, set by Tina Turner at 44, with a vocal effect so widely copied that it took her name.

Which 1995 Michael Jackson ballad was the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

You Are Not Alone beat a mark set earlier that year by Jackson's own Scream, the first single to enter the chart as high as number five.

Which viral Baauer track debuted at number one on the Hot 100 in 2013, the week video streams first counted?

Harlem Shake rode 103 million weekly video streams to the top after a meme set to it swept YouTube, and it stayed at number one for five weeks.

Which vocal group's End of the Road set a Billboard Hot 100 record with 13 weeks at number one in 1992?

Boyz II Men lost the record within months, then matched the new mark of 14 weeks in 1994 with I'll Make Love to You.

Which veteran band's Smooth, sung by Rob Thomas, was the last Hot 100 number one of the 1990s?

Santana's hit was also the first number one of the 2000s, in the middle of a 12-week run at the top that began in October 1999.

Which country star wrote I Will Always Love You, a 14-week Hot 100 number one for Whitney Houston?

Dolly Parton wrote it in 1973 as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner, when she was leaving his side after a seven-year partnership.

Which singer's eight-minute 1972 chart-topper was the longest Hot 100 number one for almost 50 years?

Don McLean's American Pie was too long for one side of a 45, so the single ran across both the A-side and the B-side.

Which R&B singer spent a then-record 28 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2004 with hits including Burn?

Usher almost scored three chart-toppers in a row from his album Confessions, until Fantasia's debut single I Believe cut in.

Which 1985 charity single by USA for Africa climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in only four weeks?

We Are the World, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, became the fastest-selling American pop single in history.

Which radio host co-created American Top 40 in 1970 to count down the Billboard Hot 100 every week?

Casey Kasem launched the show as a three-hour countdown, and it grew to four hours in 1978 as singles on the chart got longer.

Which rapper's 1990 single, built on a Queen and David Bowie bassline, was the first hip-hop Hot 100 number one?

Vanilla Ice sampled Under Pressure for Ice Ice Baby, and the two acts received no songwriting credit or royalties until it was already a hit.

Which TV cop show's Jan Hammer theme was the last instrumental to top the Hot 100 until 2013?

Miami Vice had its synthesizer theme at number one in 1985, and the single went on to win two Grammy Awards the following year.

Which Olivia Newton-John single spent ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, the longest run of the 1980s?

Physical was banned by some radio stations for its suggestive words, yet it held number one from November 1981 into late January 1982.

Which Eminem song from the film 8 Mile spent 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Lose Yourself was his first chart-topper and the first hip-hop song to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Which British band's Heat Waves took a then-record 59 weeks to climb to number one on the Hot 100 in 2022?

Glass Animals then stayed on top for five weeks, and the song's 91 weeks on the chart set a longevity record at the time.

Billy Idol's Mony Mony knocked a Tiffany cover off the top of the Hot 100 in 1987; who first recorded both songs?

Tommy James and the Shondells had 1960s hits with both, so two covers of his songs sat back to back at number one.

Which Austrian act's Rock Me Amadeus became the first German-language song to top the Billboard Hot 100?

Falco reached the top on 29 March 1986 with his tribute to Mozart, two years after Nena's German-language 99 Luftballons had stalled at number two.

The magazine behind the Hot 100 was founded in 1894 as a trade paper for which group of workers?

Bill posters pasted up advertising, and the paper went on to cover circuses, fairs and burlesque before the phonograph and radio turned it toward music.

Which California band of the Woodstock era had five Hot 100 number-two hits without ever reaching number one?

Creedence Clearwater Revival stalled one place short with Proud Mary and Bad Moon Rising among others, the most near misses of any group that never topped the chart.

Which band's Don't Speak led US radio airplay for 16 weeks yet never appeared on the Billboard Hot 100?

No Doubt never issued it as a single in American shops, and the chart at the time counted only songs that fans could buy that way.

Which new wave band's Rapture was the first Hot 100 number one to feature rap vocals, in 1981?

Blondie spent two weeks on top with it, and the video became the first with rapping ever shown on MTV.

Which soul singer's (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay became the first posthumous Hot 100 number one in 1968?

Otis Redding recorded it just three days before he died in a plane crash in December 1967.

Which Domenico Modugno song, a Sanremo winner, became the second Billboard Hot 100 number one in August 1958?

Volare, officially Nel blu, dipinto di blu, placed only third at Eurovision yet ended 1958 as Billboard's number-one single of the year.

Which sped-up novelty act's 1958 Christmas single was the only holiday song to top the Hot 100 for 61 years?

The Chipmunks were all the voice of Ross Bagdasarian, who sang every part himself and varied the tape speed to pitch them up.

Before the Hot 100 arrived in 1958, one Billboard pop chart ranked songs by plays in which machines?

Jukeboxes had a 20-place chart of their own, Most Played in Jukeboxes, beside separate lists for store sales and disc jockey airplay.

Which trumpeter became the first act to top the Hot 100 as both a vocalist and an instrumentalist, in 1979?

Herb Alpert, a co-founder of A&M Records, sang This Guy's in Love with You to number one in 1968 and returned with the wordless Rise.

Which cartoon band, voiced by studio singers, had the Billboard Hot 100's top single of 1969 with Sugar, Sugar?

The Archies were session singers led by Ron Dante, and their bubblegum single was the year's number one in Britain as well as America.