Music Minute!

The Billboard Hot 100 logo

Did you know that today is the 54th anniversary of the launch of the Billboard Hot 100?

The Hot 100 was launched on August 4th 1958 with the first chart-topping single on the ranking being Rick Nelson’s ‘Poor Little Fool’. During the last 54 years, there have been 1016 #1 songs on the lineup (Lady Gaga’s ‘Born this Way’ was the lucky #1000).

With 20 leading hits to their credit, The Beatles scored the most #1 singles of any act in the history of the Hot 100 whereas Mariah Carey notched the most among solo performers (18). Madonna, on the other hand, has thus far clocked 38 top 10 songs as the act with the most such hits and The Beatles have 34 top 10 entries.

Which artist has the most charted singles on the Hot 100? The ‘Glee’ cast have already placed 203 titles on the lineup. Elvis Presley scored 108 hits throughout his career and Aretha Franklin leads the women with 73 Hot 100 songs.

The first #1 song by an African-American was Tommy Edwards’ ‘It’s All in the Game’, which landed at #1 on the Hot 100 during the week of September 29th 1958. Listen to Edwards’ ‘All in the Game’ below:

Now you know!