The Comparison Book 1954-1982

$79.95

Record Research staff member Paul Haney places The Comparison Book at the top of his charts of all our books! In his words, “Growing up with a passion for Top 40 music and charts, I was a big fan of Joel Whitburn’s books. As a young disc jockey, I used them on a daily basis. Little did I know that one day I would join the staff of Record Research, let alone spend the next 30 years working on the books that I loved. My all-time favorite Record Research publication will always be The Comparison Book. Imagine, being able to compare and contrast every charted song on the “Big 3” music trades, Billboard, Cash Box and Record World, all at a single glance…it’s literally a chart fanatic’s dream come true! Not a single day goes by when I don’t refer to this invaluable book. No serious music lover should be without it!”

The Comparison Book contains EVERY song that appeared on any of the main pop singles charts of the three top music magazines, Billboard, Cash Box or Record World/Music Vendor, when these three periodicals existed together, from 1954-1982.

Test your knowledge across the three charts with two quizzes on our Trivia page: #1 in 1962 and The Comparison Book Quiz!

Highlights
Specs

This alphabetical by artist listing displays for each charted single its date charted, peak position and total weeks charted — for each pop chart on which it appeared!

Chart data for all songs with multiple chart entries is listed in order of peak chart performance.

The research for this book kicks off with the debut of Music Vendor on October 4, 1954, and continues for all three magazines through the final issue of Record World on April 10, 1982.

It’s in this book if it hit the charts below from October of 1954 to April of 1982.

Billboard:
– Hot 100 & pre-Hot 100
– Bubbling Under the Hot 100

Cash Box:
– Top 100 & pre-Top 100
– Looking Ahead

Music Vendor & Record World:
– Top 100 & pre-Top 100
– #101-150 & pre #101-150

Convenient! At a glance see data from multiple charts for one song! Not shown are record labels, biographies, symbols, title trivia, certifications, etc.

#1 Hits Section! Comprehensive listing of every #1 hit on all three charts, week by week, from 1954-1982!

Shaded chart data of top hit for artists with 10 or more hits — see at a glance the biggest hit across all three charts for artists with extensive chart histories!

New research on Music Vendor and Record World charts!

– We now show everything that appeared below the Top 100 of Music Vendor and Record World’s pop singles charts, not just the exclusive titles that appeared in our sold-out #101-150 Hit Records book.

– Also appearing are the “coat-tail” hits! From 1954-69, songs recorded by multiple artists were listed together at one chart position. On the actual charts, Music Vendor/Record World listed the artists for every version in current release under each title according to popularity. However, some songs that were big hits by more than one artist (ex: “Raunchy” by Bill Justis and by Ernie Freeman) were always shown with just one artist listed first under the title. Since many of these “coat-tail” songs were considered hits in their own right, we’ve added them to the Music Vendor/Record World listings with an asterisk (*) next to the peak position.