EURweb |
CHECKER'S 'TWIST' MOST POPULAR SINGLE EVER: Songs from Braxton and Carey also make top 10.
*Chubby Checker has a huge smile on his face these days after Billboard announced that his classic hit "The Twist" ranks as the most popular single in the 50-year history of its Hot 100 chart.
"I'm glad they've finally recognized it," Checker told the Associated Press, adding that the song broke new ground when it was released in 1960. "Anyplace on the planet, when someone has a song that has a beat, they're on the floor dancing apart to the beat, and before Chubby Checker, it wasn't here, and I think that has a lot to do with me being on the charts."
The Billboard Hot 100 chart measures airplay and sales information (and more recently digital downloads) in determining the nation's most popular songs. To determine the most popular song of the Hot 100 era, Billboard used a formula to determine the top song — not always relying on weeks at No. 1 since the data was reported differently in its early days.
"We went through each era, and we looked through the rate of turnover. The rate of turnover was very high in the late '50s and early '60s, and we had to put a weight on that to make the chart runs of that era equal to the chart runs that can be accomplished since 1991," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard magazine.
Checker's "The Twist" spent a total of only three weeks at the top of the charts, but did so twice in two separate runs more than a year apart.
"It's the only song that was ever No. 1 in two different chart runs," Mayfield said.
Following Checker on the list of most popular Hot 100 songs are Santana's "Smooth" at No. 2, Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," Leann Rimes' "How Do I Live" and "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio at 3, 4 an 5 respectively.
Rounding out the top ten are Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," The Beatles' "Hey Jude," Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" at No. 9 and Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart" at No. 10.
Click for the latest Obama - Political headlines
Share and Bookmark |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
.jpg)
