About Joel

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About Our Founder

From pastime to passion to profitable enterprise, the growth of Record Research has been the outgrowth of Joel Whitburn’s hobby.

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Joel began collecting records as a teenager in the 1950s. As his collection grew, he began to sort, categorize and file each record according to the highest position it reached on Billboard magazine’s charts.

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He went on to publish this information — first on individual artists’ cards, then in book form in 1970 — and a business was born.

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In the five-plus decades that followed, Joel and his team researched with unmatched degree of depth and detail not only the music charts of Billboard but also those of industry trade magazines Cash Box, Radio & Records, and Music Vendor / Record World. With worldwide recognition as the most authoritative historian on charted music, Joel also collaborated with Warner/Rhino Records in creating a series of 150 CD albums, plus five CD albums with Curb Records.

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Joel’s own record collection remains unrivaled the world over and includes every charted Hot 100 and pop single (back to 1936), every charted pop album (back to 1945), collections of nearly every charted Country, R&B, Bubbling Under The “Hot 100” and Adult Contemporary records.

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Since 1970, Joel Whitburn’s Record Research has published 174 books, and Joel has authored 19 books published by Billboard Books and Hal Leonard.

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Joel’s other interests included water, winter and motor sports, and the six-and-a-half footer fondly recalled his days playing semi-pro basketball. The Wisconsinite and his wife, Fran, a native of Honduras, together cheered on their Brewers, Bucks, Packers and Badgers, and enjoyed spending time with the family of their daughter, Kim Bloxdorf, also of Record Research, as well as with longtime, key employees/dear friends Brent Olynick and Paul Haney.

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Joel’s passion for music, old and new, and his penchant for accurate detail was lifelong. He spent his final day in this life at his desk researching, as sharp as ever. Joel’s beloved employees share his heart for the charts and are maintaining his legacy with ongoing research and new projects on the horizon. Stay tuned, there’s more to come.

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Billboard's Chart Beat Podcast

‘A Kid From Menomonee Falls Doing the Billboard Charts … How’d That Happen?’
In 2016, the legendary chronicler of Billboard charts chatted with Billboard’s Gary Trust about his hobby that led to a partnership that dates back 50 years.

Music Man Behind the Numbers

A few facts and stats on “the platinum-certified Milwaukee treasure” himself

How a Hobby Became an Industry

From cataloguing baseball cards to creating music index cards to formulating ‘the gold standard’ of music reference books …

Joel's Passion for the Charts

On Books, Music & the ‘Weekly Thrill’ of Billboard – Exclusive Q&A with Gary Trust

Tributes to Joel

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