A Compilation of Hit Recordings from the 20th Century
Click to Hear the collection on Streaming Audio
Compilers' Comments:
Each of these recordings was a "Number One Hit", a top selling record for many consecutive weeks. Initially, we really had no idea what Americans were listening to during the early decades of the century, so we relied heavily on Billboard's charting of popular music in identifying tunes which represented the century's most recognizable hits. In particular, Joel Whitburn's series of books tracking the popular record charts were invaluable references.
Other factors which weighed in our selection were availability, quality of recording, and listenability. For example, many early recordings were so scratchy as to be unbearable, and several more recent cases were just too boring. (How much Mariah Carey can we stand?)
We noticed that many of our own favorite songs were missing, as were entire musical genres: country, folk, soul, rap, heavy metal, hip-hop (whatever that is), new age, and alternative (another curious classification) are simply not here. There is nothing from Joni Mitchell, the Stones, Hendrix, Zappa, Paul Simon, or countless others. It seems that the top selling records, as a collection, don't represent any one person's personal favorites, but rather reflect the deepest part of the cultural main stream.
We also noticed how technology shaped what was recorded. Early wax gramophone cylinders had no place for printing, so the title was announced, yelled really, at the beginning. The invention of the microphone and loud speaker allowed much better fidelity and thus more complex orchestrations. Then the proliferation of portable transistor radios with tiny, cheap speakers spawned a wave of simpler arrangements. Stereo, and multi-track recording, and later FM and CD's, permitted a growth of full, rich mixes, only to be undermined by synthesizers, samplers and digital signal processing, and the resultant trite sound effects and gimmicks. This shaping of our culture by rapid technology change sounds a bit like the story of the 20th century as a whole.
In the end, we found that all of these songs are strongly evocative of their times, reminding us of entire decades with just a few notes. And this is exactly what we set out to do: to let the soundtrack from this passing century guide our reflection while we wonder about what lies ahead.
Adrian Pearson and Scott Wedge December 31, 1999
Technical Notes:
Songs were collected from 45 RPM records, LP records (yes, we are talking about vinyl), audio-cassette tapes and compact discs A few tunes were downloaded from the internet as MP3 files. The most arcane technique was needed for much of the older material, which was found on the internet in RealAudio format. We played them through the computer's audio output, fed them by patch cord back into the audio input and recorded them on hard disk using CD Spin Doctor software. We were tempted to record "Cheek to Cheek" from a video of the 1930's movie Top Hat, but wisdom prevailed. The project consumed 3,100 megabytes of hard disk space, and was done on an Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3 laptop computer with no extra sound card and no Y2K fear: it's a Mac. The disks were burned with Adaptec Toast on a LaCie SCSI CDR drive at 2X speed for good compatibility with audio CD players. No licensees were sought, so this is for fair use only.
Track List
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Title | Artist | Year | Time |
| 1 | My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean | Haydn Quartet | 1901 | 1:38 |
| 2 | Hiawatha | Harry MacDonough | 1903 | 3:01 |
| 3 | Out In An Automobile | Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan | 1906 | 2:31 |
| 4 | Wild Cherries Rag | Victor Orchestra | 1910 | 2:46 |
| 5 | You Made Me Love You | Al Jolson | 1913 | 3:20 |
| 6 | Dardanella | Prince's Dance Orchestra | 1919 | 3:04 |
| 7 | Bo-la-bo | Billy Murray's Melody Men | 1920 | 3:11 |
| 8 | Swanee | Al Jolson | 1920 | 2:37 |
| 9 | April Showers | Al Jolson | 1921 | 3:03 |
| 10 | Linger Awhile | Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra | 1924 | 2:38 |
| 11 | Little White Lies | Annette Hanshaw | 1930 | 2:57 |
| 12 | Night and Day | Leo Reisman Orch w Fred Astaire | 1932 | 3:30 |
| 13 | If I could Be With You | Benny Goodman | 1935 | 2:19 |
| 14 | Goodnight My Love | Benny Goodman w Ella Fitzgerald | 1936 | 3:17 |
| 15 | Star Dust | Benny Goodman | 1936 | 2:56 |
| 16 | Pennies From Heaven | Bing Crosby | 1936 | 3:12 |
| 17 | They All Laughed | Fred Astaire & Johnny Green Orch | 1937 | 2:40 |
| 18 | Begin the Beguine | Artie Shaw & His Orchestra | 1938 | 3:18 |
| 19 | Deep Purple | Artie Shaw Orch w/Helen Forrest | 1939 | 3:18 |
| 20 | In The Mood | Glenn Miller & His Orchestra | 1940 | 3:38 |
| 21 | Frenesi | Artie Shaw & His Orchestra | 1940 | 3:10 |
| 22 | Moonglow | Artie Shaw & His Orchestra | 1941 | 3:34 |
| 23 | It's Been a Long Long Time | Harry James & His Music Makers | 1945 | 3:10 |
| 24 | Cry | Johnnie Ray & The Four Lads | 1951 | 3:07 |
| 25 | You Belong to Me | Jo Stafford | 1952 | 3:09 |
| 26 | Song from Moulin Rouge | Percy Faith w/ Felicia Sanders | 1953 | 3:17 |
| 27 | Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing | Four Aces | 1955 | 3:05 |
| 28 | Rock Around the Clock | Bill Haley & His Comets | 1955 | 2:28 |
| 29 | Sincerely | McGuire Sisters | 1955 | 3:02 |
| 30 | Hound Dog | Elvis Presley | 1956 | 2:17 |
| 31 | Jailhouse Rock | Elvis Presley | 1957 | 2:32 |
| 32 | Love Letters in the Sand | Pat Boone | 1957 | 2:26 |
| 33 | Big Girls Don't Cry | The Four Seasons | 1962 | 2:36 |
| 34 | Sherry | The Four Seasons | 1962 | 2:29 |
| 35 | Sugar Shack | Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs | 1963 | 2:11 |
| 36 | I Want to Hold Your Hand | The Beatles | 1963 | 2:28 |
| 37 | She Loves You | The Beatles | 1963 | 2:23 |
| 38 | Can't Buy Me Love | The Beatles | 1964 | 2:10 |
| 39 | I'm a Believer | The Monkees | 1966 | 2:47 |
| 40 | Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay | Otis Redding | 1968 | 2:44 |
| 41 | Heard it Through the Grapevine | Marvin Gaye | 1968 | 3:16 |
| 42 | Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In | The 5th Dimension | 1969 | 4:50 |
| 43 | I'll Be There | The Jackson 5 | 1970 | 4:00 |
| 44 | Maggie May | Rod Stewart | 1971 | 5:13 |
| 45 | It's Too Late | Carole King | 1971 | 3:56 |
| 46 | Stayin' Alive | Bee Gees | 1978 | 4:39 |
| 47 | Night Fever | Bee Gees | 1978 | 3:56 |
| 48 | Starting Over | John Lennon | 1980 | 3:55 |
| 49 | Bette Davis Eyes | Kim Carnes | 1981 | 4:52 |
| 50 | Down Under | Men at Work | 1983 | 3:36 |
| 51 | Every Breath You Take | The Police | 1983 | 4:04 |
| 52 | Billie Jean | Michael Jackson | 1983 | 4:43 |
| 53 | All Night Long | Lionel Richie | 1983 | 6:06 |
| 54 | Material Girl | Madonna | 1984 | 3:45 |
| 55 | Express Yourself | Madonna | 1989 | 3:55 |
| 56 | One Sweet Day | Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men | 1995 | 4:38 |
| 57 | Un-Break My Heart | Toni Braxton | 1996 | 4:20 |
| 58 | Change the World | Eric Clapton | 1997 | 3:46 |
| 59 | Believe | Cher | 1998 | 4:00 |
| 60 | Livin' la Vida Loca | Ricky Martin | 1999 | 4:09 |
| 61 | Smooth | Santana | 1999 | 4:38 |
| 62 | Bailamos | Enrique Iglesias | 1999 | 3:31 |