This is a weird one.
A thought popped in my head this evening I couldn’t shake. What would a music critic from the first year the Billboard Hot 100 launched think of the progression of pop music since? We live in the age where all the information you could want is at your finger tips so I decided to try and find out. Here’s what I did:
- I went to Billboard’s website and got a list the #1 song from each year since its founding in 1958
- I loaded up Audacity and configured it to capture audio from my computer
- I searched Youtube for every single song on the list in chronological order and played a random short sample from each song, recording directly to an MP3
- I saved that file, uploaded it here and is now available for your listening enjoyment (62 years of music in 16 minutes)
If you’re going to consume this silly experiment the way it was intended, I recommend putting on a pair of headphones, closing your eyes and pretending you are a music critic from the late 1950s. You’ve been told you will hear #1 hits from the future and you must attempt to find the throughline of themes and melodies for the next 60 years of music. Listening to this all at once proved to be an enlightening experience as the individual threads that make up the progress of modern pop music became ever more visible.
A few notes of trivia:
- From 1958 to 2020 only one artist has has a #1 hit more than once. Can you guess who? Yep. The Beatles
- Elton John gets an honorable mention though as he had a second bonus number one in 1997 for his tribute to Princess Diana
- A few of the song clips go a little longer than others. That wasn’t intentional but rather I realized I was vibing to the music. I opted to leave those slightly longer clips in
The full list of songs is below:
| Year | Song Title | Artist |
| 1958 | Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) | Domenico Modugno |
| 1959 | The Battle Of New Orleans | Johnny Horton |
| 1960 | Theme from ‘A Summer Place’ | Percy Faith |
| 1961 | Tossin’ And Turnin’ | Bobby Lewis |
| 1962 | Stranger On The Shore | Mr. Acker Bilk |
| 1963 | Sugar Shack | Jimmy Gilmer And The Fireballs |
| 1964 | I Want To Hold Your Hand | The Beatles |
| 1965 | Wooly Bully | Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs |
| 1966 | The Ballad Of The Green Berets | Sgt. Barry Sadler |
| 1967 | To Sir With Love | Lulu |
| 1968 | Hey Jude | The Beatles |
| 1969 | Sugar, Sugar | The Archies |
| 1970 | Bridge Over Troubled Water | Simon & Garfunkel |
| 1971 | Joy To The World | Three Dog Night |
| 1972 | The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face | Roberta Flack |
| 1973 | Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree | Tony Orlando & Dawn |
| 1974 | The Way We Were | Barbra Streisand |
| 1975 | Love Will Keep Us Together | Captain & Tennille |
| 1976 | Silly Love Songs | Wings |
| 1977 | Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright) | Rod Stewart |
| 1978 | Shadow Dancing | Andy Gibb |
| 1979 | My Sharona | The Knack |
| 1980 | Call Me | Blondie |
| 1981 | Bette Davis Eyes | Kim Carnes |
| 1982 | Physical | Olivia Newton-John |
| 1983 | Every Breath You Take | The Police |
| 1984 | When Doves Cry | Prince |
| 1985 | Careless Whisper | Wham! Featuring George Michael |
| 1986 | That’s What Friends Are For | Dionne and Friends |
| 1987 | Walk Like An Egyptian | Bangles |
| 1988 | Faith | George Michael |
| 1989 | Look Away | Chicago |
| 1990 | Hold On | Wilson Phillips |
| 1991 | Everything I Do (I Do It For You) | Bryan Adams |
| 1992 | End Of The Road | Boyz II Men |
| 1993 | I Will Always Love You | Whitney Houston |
| 1994 | The Sign | Ace Of Base |
| 1995 | Gangsta’s Paradise | Coolio Featuring L.V. |
| 1996 | Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix) | Los Del Rio |
| 1997 | Something About The Way You Look Tonight | Elton John |
| 1998 | Too Close | Next |
| 1999 | Believe | Cher |
| 2000 | Breathe | Faith Hill |
| 2001 | Hanging By A Moment | Lifehouse |
| 2002 | How You Remind Me | Nickelback |
| 2003 | In Da Club | 50 Cent |
| 2004 | Yeah! | Usher |
| 2005 | We Belong Together | Mariah Carey |
| 2006 | Bad Day | Daniel Powter |
| 2007 | Irreplaceable | Beyonce |
| 2008 | Low | Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain |
| 2009 | Boom Boom Pow | The Black Eyed Peas |
| 2010 | Tik Tok | Ke$ha |
| 2011 | Rolling In The Deep | Adele |
| 2012 | Somebody That I Used To Know | Gotye Featuring Kimbra |
| 2013 | Thrift Shop | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Featuring Wanz |
| 2014 | Happy | Pharrell Williams |
| 2015 | Uptown Funk! | Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars |
| 2016 | Love Yourself | Justin Bieber |
| 2017 | Shape of You | Ed Sheeran |
| 2018 | God’s Plan | Drake |
| 2019 | Old Town Road | Lil Nas X Ft. Billy Ray Cyrus |
| 2020 | Blinding Lights | The Weeknd |
Published without permission by the copyright owners under fair use. There are no ads on this site.
Robbie, what a treat to hear 62 years of music . Thanks for reminding us of all the great tunes of the past.
A pleasure to sit back and enjoy.
Some of those songs are still popular while others I haven’t heard at all.
cool project, thank you for sharing.