BIGGEST SONG EACH YEAR FOR 100 YEARS (1921-2021)

What Decade Was YOUR FAVORITE When It Comes To Music??

Subscribe with notifications ON or I'll turn into a shrimp.

BIGGEST SONG EACH YEAR FOR 100 YEARS (1921-2021)

Edited by Joshua Fish

[xxHIMfanxoxo]

What's really interesting is seeing how little rock music actually tops the charts, despite there being a lot of rock music from like the 70s to the early 00's. On another note, I think this video is from a U.S. perspective. I'd be really curious to see what was popular in other countries, so I think it'd be fun to see Joel do a video like this on what was popular in Sweden.

[samittoxx]

The absence of Michael Jackson is really weird, he was on the top during the mid-80's and early 90's, and Thriller is also the biggest selling album of all time.

[rickicoughlan]

Being 65 I can confidently say that often the biggest tunes of any year don't define or reflect what is more broadly popular across that year.

[christinebingham]

"Barbara Streisand...did she start out as a singer?" She was one of the greatest singers of the 60s!

[alexthurgood]

The absence of ABBA, Michael Jackson, Queen, Brit Pop bands, Rock Bands, was very interesting. 

Guessing this was a USA charts? I'd be interested to see how UK or even European Charts would differ.

[dieypslackiert]

My grandma was born in summer of 1921 and passed away three weeks ago. Thanks to Joel i can now go on a musical journey of her entire life.

[AkumaAPN]

Fyi, candle in the wind was an older song from 1973 on his Yellow Brick Road album, but it came back onto the charts out of nowhere, because he played it at Princess Diana's funeral.

[findusfishfingers]

it's so cute to see people who weren't alive at the time talk about the music of the past.

[quietviolence]

I think in the 60's music took a completely different direction and everything changed forever (P.S. It's weird there's not a single Queen song on the list).

[Kanjo_Bazooie]

Led Zeppelin was a surprise no show. I can’t believe they didn’t get one in the 70s! I also think they were hugely influential with the electric/distorted guitars

[ernestitoe]

Elvis was making fun of the way his upper lip would curl on one side when he sang. He was pantomiming pushing it down, but it would always come up again. Elsewhere in that show, he sang a line -- his upper lip curling -- then said, "The lip still does that, man."

[seanchadwick]

On July 6, 1937, "Sing, Sing, Sing" was recorded in Hollywood with Benny Goodman on clarinet; Gene Krupa on drums; Harry James, Ziggy Elman, and Chris Griffin on trumpets; Red Ballard and Murray McEachern on trombones; Hymie Schertzer and George Koenig on alto saxophones; Art Rollini and Vido Musso on tenor saxophone; Jess Stacy on piano; Allan Reuss on guitar; and Harry Goodman on bass. The song was arranged by Jimmy Mundy. Unlike most big band arrangements of that era, limited in length to three minutes so that they could be recorded on one side of a standard 10-inch 78-rpm record, the version which Goodman’s band recorded was an extended work. The 1937 recording lasted 8 minutes and 43 seconds, and it took up both sides of a 12-inch 78. The recording of Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall live performance (with impromptu solos) took 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Mundy's arrangement incorporated "Christopher Columbus", a piece written by Chu Berry for the Fletcher Henderson band, as well as Prima's work. Fletcher Henderson recorded a vocal version in August 1936. The 1937 Benny Goodman recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982.

Ross Firestone says that the 1937 recording "bore only the slightest resemblance to the original score." Helen Ward said that the changes started spontaneously: "One night Gene just refused to stop drumming when he got to the end of the third chorus, where the tune was supposed to end, so Benny blithely picked up the clarinet and noodled along with him. Then someone else stood up and took it, and it went on from there." Firestone says the elements from "Christopher Columbus" were added this way. The title of the number as given on the Goodman recordings acknowledges the additional tune - "Sing, Sing, Sing (introducing Christopher Columbus)”.

In their 1966 book Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya: The Story Of Jazz As Told By The Men Who Made It, music critics Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff quote Goodman as saying, "'Sing, Sing, Sing' (which we started doing back at the Palomar on our second trip there in 1936) was still a big thing, and no one-nighter was complete without it." Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall jazz concert performance with Christopher Columbus interpolation was different from the commercial release and from subsequent performances with the Goodman band. The personnel of the Goodman band for the Carnegie Hall concert were the same as in the 1937 recording session, except that Vernon Brown replaced Murray McEachern on trombone, and Babe Russin replaced Vido Musso on tenor saxophone.

Stacy was quoted as saying he was glad he did not know Goodman was going to let him solo, because then he would have gotten nervous and "screwed it up." For the 1955 recording recreating the Carnegie Hall performance for the movie The Benny Goodman Story, Stacy declined to participate and there was no piano solo, because he was offered only a standard daily wage for one day's work.

[taiguy]

I'm really surprised that we didn't see Michael Jackson, Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc. Those guys were BIG

[highkage]

It's crazy how Bohemian Rhapsody, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Wonderwall, 3 of the biggest and most timeless songs of all time, aren't even here.

[genxchildhoodofirony]

This is interesting (and maybe painful) to watch as so MUCH music is left out in the summary of an entire decade of music 😮

[picketf]

2:06 1931's Minnie The Moocher was so cool & IN that Cab Calloway was rotoscoped dancing for a Betty Boop cartoon by Max Fleischer. The definition of Pop-culture, making it into cartoon shorts served as a warm-up act in drive-in cinemas. Cab Calloway's performance remained one of the most iconic uses of rotoscoping in Fleischer's animations and it's inpact could be compared to modern day music video productions.

[papajiggly]

These lists are always odd to me. I don't think they really reflect the music choices of those decades: no grunge representation in the 90's, no Michael Jackson in the 80's. Someone pointed out on another thread that people were buying the whole albums of alot of these people, and not the singles, so they didn't make it to the top of the singles charts.

[MaxRide]

I'm pretty sure the reason why most to hits in the 1920's/30's were very similar is mostly down to music being expensive to purchase (as in records/players) and so it was out of reach of the 'general public'. Most of the time, even up to the 40s and 50s, if you wanted to listen to music you went to a music hall (see: club) or dance hall and listened to music with your friends. Music was very much a social thing in the earlier eras and even the radio was not in _every_ household. So a lot of the earlier eras 'top hits' were decided by the wealthy (who bought the albums/singles/LPs) as opposed to the general public's opinion.
Still amazes me that Queen, MJ etc. didn't get to the no1 spot. I know they were usually in the top 10 or 20 but actual No1s were rare - also it depends a lot on which 'top hits' you go by. In the UK they might have had a No1 hit but only made it to ... top 5 in the USA. Would love to see a version of this video for europe/the uk rather than based on the USA charts (even though they're the basis for most top hits these days). Another great video would be to see Joel react to Queen's career or Queen vs MJ (that comment war would be something to see haha)

[jcb]

90s was the beginning of R&B becoming truly mainstream, so not a surprise to see so much of it hitting the tops in the 2000s.

[YeagerX]

It’s funny that you spend so little time on the first song from 1921, “I ain’t got nobody”. That is a legendary song. It became a jazz standard, it was a big pop hit in the 50’s as “Just a Gigolo/I ain’t got nobody” and then was covered as a HUGE hit by David Lee Roth in the 80s and even covered by the Village People. Give that song some credit!