Customer Reviews

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits

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Hot off the presses!!! If you are a record collector or music buff and have never owned any of Joel Whitburn's terrific books you should latch onto this one right away. The price is right and you will be introduced to a great resource. This latest version of "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Singles 1955-2003" contains every single tune to make the Billboard Top 40 pop charts for the past 48 years!!! Some people will use the book as nothing more than a checklist for their collections. But most collectors especially enjoy the biographical information provided on each and every artist. There is simply a wealth of information packed into every Joel Whitburn book.
Now I have owned several of Joel Whitburn's popular Record Research editions for many years. For those who have never seen Joel Whitburns books before "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits 1955-2003" will serve as a kind of introduction to the entire format. If you enjoy this book you just might be tempted to order one or more of the others. The Record Research books are generally hard cover and contain even more comprehensive chart data for your information and enjoyment. These books are not cheap but are considered to be indispensible for both disc jockeys and serious collectors alike. In the long run I have found any book from Joel Whitburn to be well worth the investment. Give this one a try and see if you don't agree.

this book lists EVERY SINGLE ARTIST to ever have a single rank in the Pop Top-40 from 1955-2000. all artists Top-40 singles are listed, their Top-10 hits are in BOLD print. also, below each song are peaks on other charts such as Airplay #3; Sales #8...or if a single reached #1 on another chart, it's also noted: example, "It's a Miracle" by Barry Manilow hit #12 pop and under the title it shows that it hit #1 on the Adult-Contemporary chart for 1 week. Like his country chart books, the pop one also contains record holders and single achievements in the back pages. Because pop music is FULL of one-hit wonders {just look at the '60s and all those R&B groups who were coming and going}, the book is larger than the country one, where artists are given a bit more loyalty/longevity. it's a wonderful look at pop music from 1955-2000 and Whitburn also includes singles that hit the Top-40 on the Sales and Airplay charts for artists but didn't make the Hot 100's Top-40. Example: a single by Amy Grant might not have made the Top-40 of the Hot 100 but it MAY have made the Top-40 of the Sales chart. if so, THAT single is listed as a Top-40 hit with an "S" beside the chart peak to let a reader know the Top-40 peak was from the Sales chart. if you want to go further than the start of the "rock era", Whitburn also has a chart book on Pop Standards {singles prior to 1955} that's also a must-have. i don't have that one...but given his track record, it should be done in loving authority.

This is an absolute MUST HAVE for anyone who's downloading music. With all the mislabeled files out there, this book is the definitive source.

First impressions aren't always correct, but sometimes they are! As soon as I received The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits in the mail and opened it for the first time, I could already tell that it was going to be a 5-star book, easily.

It's a book that supposedly lists every single Top 40 Hit from 1955 to 2000 in this, the 7th edition. It does more than give you a list, though! Take for instance, Guns N' Roses. It tells you a background about the group (the group members, where they formed, who married who, new members who joined, etc.), and then it lists each one of their songs in chronological order that reached the Top 40. The songs that reached the Top 10 are all in bold, and it goes even further than just a simple list of the songs yet again! For each and every song in the book, it tells the month, day, and year that the song reached its highest position, its peak position on the chart, how many weeks it stayed in the Top 40, and even the label (i.e. Atlantic or MCA). Finally, for thousands of the hits, it tells you how high it reached in sales and airplay (Sales #4 / Airplay #9, for instance), and if it was popular enough, there will be a shaded-in dot beside a song to recognize it as a gold single, or a triangle for a platinum single.

It just never gets old finding out things like, on June 6, 1992, Tom Cochrane's "Life Is A Highway" (one of my all-time favorites!) was cruising along at #6 on the Billboard charts, and on March 12, 1977, The Eagles's "Hotel California" was flying high at the #1 spot.

There are other little nitpicks that are listed as well, but those were the major ones. The majority of the book goes by alphabetical order of the artists, but in the back there's also an alphabetical list of the SONGS that reached the Top 40, with the artist, its peak position, and year it was a hit beside each song. FINALLY (this is the last finally, I promise you), there's one more excellent section of The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits that's entitled "The Record Holders." This is the section that serves as the nail in the coffin for the question, "Should I purchase this book?" You get a list of the Top 100 Singles, Top 100 Artists, Top Singles By Decade, which artists have had the most Top 10 singles, #1 hits by year, and much more!

Whew! There's no doubt whatsoever that The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits is one of the best books I've ever laid my hands on, period. Now, especially since my favorite kind of music is mid-70s - early 90s Rock, I can always look in this book and see how my favorite songs did on the charts, when they were there, which song was at #1 during certain periods of my life, and the list could go on for miles. This book can even be used for identifying songs you hear on the radio and it might could even introduce you to new artists (I found out that Surface has a couple of great songs!). In a fun and interesting way, you'll also find yourself scowling at certain songs because of the position they reached. How did Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" not even crack the Top 10?!?!! Why was Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" such a huge hit? I don't like it!

But nothing in life is perfect, and this book is no exception. You'll notice a few sparse hits missing, such as Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around," and The James Gang's "Walk Away," but that's all I could find wrong with this spectacular reference book. If you're a big enough fan of any song or any artist to want to know how well they did on the charts either at a specific time or over their career, THIS is the book you can't live without!

I cannot imagine NOT having this book. (This is the 3rd or 4th edition I've owned.) It's the definitive source. Always great to own in the past and now particularly useful in the age of MP3s. And oh! the memories of forgotten songs and artists it will bring back. I love one- and two-hit groups from the 1970s and this has 'em all (well, I guess not the ones whose hits never reached the Top 40...). It's the only non-computer book I keep next to my computer.

Can anyone tell why Stevie Nicks isn't given a duet credit for Whenever I Call You Friend, when the song is most definitely a duet. She sings half the song alone, but is deligated to harmony vocal. She sings more on that song than Linda Rondstadt does on Don't Know Much, or Don Henley does on Leather Lace.

Things like that really bother. Not to mention the fact some of the writing credits are wrong.

But with so much right information, this book is a very good reference guide and it's fun too. You and your friends will have a great time trying to guess what number a song hit on Billboard.

Alright, so maybe the book isn't *that* good. However, if some friend at yours at a dinner party starts bsing about some artist that was only a one-hit wonder, this book will give you the wherewithal to show that the artist had three hits. This book is huge, and contains a treasure trove of wonderful information. It is a must own for anyone who wants to know jack about music trivia.

"It's me again....you know, the man with the chart info?!"

Joel Whitburn has been helping me for years with his books on the history of Rock and Roll. I used to spend days at a time searching for information on a song, only to be frustrated at what I COULD find....but this was before I found Whitburn's books on the Billboard Top 40.

When you are on the air-or live on location, as a radio personality (DJ), you have to entertain your listener and thanks to this easy to read historical perspective (1955-1999), I am able to do that at the flip of a page.

Thanks, Joel!

Despite some slight miscues this is one of the ultimate guides to singles.

Joel Whitburn is the master of Billboard's Charts and continues to expand on his knowledge.

This book is worth every penny because it gives you every top 40 hit that every artist has had since 1955. it is interesting in the book the musical trends over the decades and how most artists are popular for so long. This album is great if you wanted to know how well their artist did on the Billboard charts this is the book to get and I also suggest Tops Of The Pops which features every hot 100 song.