Access Every Weekly:

- Best Sellers chart from January 7, 1950 through July 28, 1958 (the definitive pop chart prior to the debut of the "Hot 100" chart)

- Top 100 chart from November 12, 1955 through July 28, 1958

- Hot 100 chart from August 4, 1958 through December 28, 1959

What's special about the 1950s charts? B-sides are shown for all titles on the chart from 1/7/50 right up to the start of the Hot 100 chart on 8/4/58. If applicable, a record's 45 rpm and 78 rpm label numbers were shown on the chart from 1/7/50 through 5/23/53, when the "45" record became the standard configuration for singles.

In the following example from the first chart in this book (1/7/50), the "V" stands for the RCA Victor label:

"A Dreamer's Holiday"...Perry Como... V (78) 20-3543; (45) 47-3036

Discographers will find such data invaluable in determining which songs were available on "45" -- especially when this configuration was so new in 1950.

It's interesting to note the chart's changes in style and size. From 5/29/54 through 6/17/57, the Best Sellers was a single column chart occupying 1/3 of a Billboard magazine page. The "Hot 100" debuted as a two-page chart on 8/4/58 and underwent three style changes by the decade's end.