With the flowing period, the rate continues to accelerate again Billboard chart performance is notched, in recent years a number of prestigious and long-standing Billboard Hot 100 records have been reversed.
Mariah Carey and Boyz II men’s “One Sweet Day,” which was held for more than two decades as the longest-running Hot 100 no. 1 after 16 weeks at the top in 1995-96, was bound in 2017 by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s Justin Bieber-featured “Despacito” – and was then passed over last year by Billy Ray’s 19-week reign Cyrus of Lil Nas X’s with “Old Town Road.” After standing alone for 55 years, The Beatles were joined in early 2019 along with Ariana Grande as the only artists to simultaneously occupy the top three spots of the Hot 100. And of course, Drake has been a crew member of one man who has record books, past the Gûle Cast’s mark for total Hot 100 hits (207; he is now up to 224) in April, and then took Madonna’s record for most top 10 hits (38; he is now up to 40) in July.
Even with all this turnover in the whole time 100 Hot archives, there are still many records that have gone unusual for many years – several decades, in many cases. Here are 12 Hot 100 records that have yet to be tied or beaten in the past 10 years.
Most Hot 100 No. 1s: The Beatles (20, record set in 1965)
From February 1964, when they first put the card on top with “I want to hold your hand”, until June 1970, when they did so for the 20th and last time with “The long and winding road”, besieged the Fab Four the siege Hot 100 like no artist before since. It only took them a little over a year to break the previous record of seven Hot 100 No. 1s to pass – held by Elvis Presley, though many of his biggest hits came before the Hot 100’s debut in 1958 – and they held it for the 55 years ago.
Most Hot 100 No. 1s by a solo artist: Mariah Carey (19, released in 1999)
The closest challenger to The Beatles’ supremacy is probably the most successful solo artist in Hot 100 history. Mariah Carey passed Michael Jackson at the end of the last millennium with her 14th No. 1, the Jay-Z-with “Heartbreaker”, to become the solo artist with the most No.1’s on the map – a plate that she’s another five chart-toppers after, finally, with the holiday-perennial “All I Want For Christmas Is You” finally climbing to no. 1 at the end of 2019. (Rihanna stands today as the next closest solo artist, with 14 Hot 100 -Toppers to her credit.)
Most total weeks at no. 1 on the Hot 100: Mariah Carey (82, record set in 1999)
One very 100 100 mark that Mariah Carey has for both solo artists and groups is in total endurance at the top of the map: a total of 82 weeks in her 19 No. 1s, up to a year-and-a-half combined on pole position. Mariah also set this record at the end of the 20th century, leaving The Beatles themselves and their 59 weeks at the top of the map. (The Fab Four has since been passed down by Rihanna and her 60 total weeks to the attraction for this stat.)
Most separate runs to no. 1 on the Hot 100 with the same single: Chubby Checker (two, record set in 1962)
Of the 1,107 No. 1s in Hot 100 history, only one reached the top in two separate chart routes: Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” – which went to No. 60 in the late 1960s. 1 climbed, and then, after falling completely off the map, returned in early 1962 for another two weeks. For his two separate trips to the top, it came to no. 1 on the All-Time Billboard Hot 100 on the card’s 60th anniversary in 2018.
Most consecutive Hot 100 hits go to no. 1: Whitney Houston (seven, record set in 1988)
Whitney Houston just couldn’t miss in the mid to late ’80s, starting with a chart run that saw her send seven consecutive singles – three from 1985’s Whitney Houston album (“Saving All My Love For You”, “How Will I Know”, “The Greatest Love of All”) and then four more from 1987’s Whitney (“I want to dance with someone [Who Loves Me], “” We Didn’t Have It Almost All “,” So Emotional “,” Where Broken Hearts Go “) to No. 1, before the No. 5 peak” Love Will Save the Day “finally hit the line in ’88 She went through two groups that had previously recorded six rights – The Beatles from 1964 to 1966 and the Bee Gees from 1977 to 1979 – and perhaps would still hold this record for quite some time, seeing the much larger volume of songs released and mapped by artists in 2020.
The most consecutive Hot 100 entries to hit the top 10: Janet Jackson (18, record set in 1998)
Following “The Pleasure Principle”, their sixth and final charting single off breakout album Control, highlight at no. 14 on the Hot 100, Janet Jackson went on an absurd run of her next 18 Hot 100 entries (from Rhythm Nation leader “Miss You Much” in 1989 until The Velvet“I Get Lonely” in 1998) all hit the top 10. That passed Madonna’s record of 17 straight top 10 hits from 1984 to 1989, and was only featured by Janet’s performance on Shaggy’s “Luv Me, Luv Me,” which peaked at number 76 later that year. (As lead artist, Janet would not miss the top 10 until 2001’s No. 28 peak “Son of a Gun”) [I Betcha Think This Song Is About You]. “)
Most simultaneously occupied places in the Hot 100’s top five by the same artist: The Beatles (five, records set in 1964)
Most back-to-back Hot 100 no. 1s by the same artist: The Beatles (three, records set in 1964)
Most Hot 100 no. 1s in a calendar year: The Beatles (six, record set in 1964)
The Beatles’ 1964, when they first arrived in America and Beatlemania once began, remains the most historic calendar year for any artist on the Hot 100. The British Invaders became the first artists to perform twice on a row replaced at the top of the card (with “I want to hold your hand”, making her “She loves you”, handed over to “Can’t Buy Me Love”). And although Ariana Grande agreed to hold all the top three spots simultaneously in 2019, no artist has yet agreed to occupy the entire top five on April 4, 1964 (with “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Twist and Shout”) , “” Loves “,” Hand “and” Please Please Me “).
And then, of course, the band’s brand of six No. 1s in the same calendar year – “Hand”, “Loves”, “Buy”, “Love Me Do”, “A Hard Day’s Night” and “I Feel Fine” – remains largely undisputed, with no other artist scoring more than four Hot 100 toppers in the same year in the five-and-a-half decades since.
Longest continuous stay by an artist on top of the Hot 100: The Black Eyed Peas (26 weeks, record set in 2009)
As amazing as The Beatles’ 1964 was, their 14 consecutive weeks were at the top of the charts with their first three no. 1-singles, but a little over half the record set by The Black Eyed Peas 45 years later, when the group spent a full half-year right at no. 1 with her back-to-back smash “Boom Boom Pow” (12 weeks) and “I Gotta Feeling” (14 weeks). They set the 19-week mark by Usher in 2004, and no other artist has notched since 19 more weeks in a row – which, of course, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus did with “Old Town Road” in 2019.
Most consecutive years with a Hot 100 No. 1 hit: Mariah Carey (11, record set in 1997)
Yet another notch for Mariah in the Hot 100 record books came with her stretch from 1990 (starting with her debut single and first Hot 100 topper, “Vision of Love”) to 2000 (ending with her 15th, “Thank You” God I Found You, “with Joe and 98 Degrees), in which she had at least one No. 1 in each calendar year. Her run broke the mark previously held by The Beatles (who scored seven No. 1s in 1964, from 1964 to 1970), and has not even been approached since, with Rihanna coming closest with her five consecutive years of ranking on No. 1 from 2010 to 2014.
Most consecutive years with a Hot 100 Top 40 hit: Elton John (30, record set in 1991)
The Rocket Man’s commercial endurance was officially made historic in 1991, when he scored a top 40 hit with the Hot 100-topping George Michael duet release of his ’70s smash’ Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me. ‘ That marked ’91 as the 22nd straight year he reached the top 40 – dating back to his breakout with ballad “Your Song” in 1970 – past Elvis Presley’s Hot 100 top 40 record of 21 straight years, set from 1958-78. John’s streak would extend another eight years until 1999, when he was even 30, before 2000 finally saw him no longer as no. 49 (May The road to El Dorado soundtrack single “Someday Out of the Blue”).
Most Top Five Hot 100 Hits from the Same Album: Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 (seven, record set in 1990)
While Michael Jackson’s longest standing record for most Hot 100 no. 1s from the same album (five, from 1987s) Min) was definitively bound by Katy Perry’s in the last decade Teenage Dream, sister Janet’s similar historic mark of seven top five hits from her 1989 blockbuster LP Rhythm Nation 1814 – “Miss You Much”, “Rhythm Nation”, “Escapade”, “Alright”, “Come Back to Me”, “Black Cat”, “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” – has always stood. Teenage Dream, and his top six hits, is the closest in decades since coming.
Most weeks spent with a single on no. 2 on the Hot 100 without hitting on no. 1: Stranger (“Waiting For a Girl Like You”, 1981-1982) and Missy Elliott (“Work It,” 2002-2003), 10 weeks
For our definitive long-standing record, here’s one that is a bit more of a mixed blessing – but still a big difference in the Hot 100 history books. In the early ’80s, Foreigner spent 10 weeks at no. 2 through with his brilliant power ballad ‘Waiting For a Girl Like You’, behind Olivia Newton-John’s’ Physical ‘and Hall & Oates” I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) ‘- a record that has not been released for two decades more to do, until Missy Elliott spent a similar length on the runway with her classic banger “Work It”, held by Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. Their mutual mark has since stood – although last year was threatened by Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’, who spent nine weeks at No. 2 behind “Old Town Road” before finally reaching the top spot.
