The Billboard Hot 100’s

As I mentioned in my 1st post to this Blog, one of my main goals is to collect each of the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles (available in the 7″ 45 rpm vinyl format) for each year beginning in 1955. (July 9, 1955 is the date that “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets went to No. 1 and is considered by many to be the beginning of the “Rock Era”.) This would amount to approximately 3800 titles since singles being released on vinyl began to be phased out in the early 1990’s in favor of digital releases on CD and digital download formats. (Sales of 45’s actually began to slip in the 1980’s due to the cassette tape format and the ability to create one’s own mix tapes. The latest Hot 100 45’s I have been able to collect to date were produced in 1996.)

There were three catalysts that led me to this goal. The first was the Christmas gift of an iPod from my wife and children. The second was the purchase of a new turntable. The third was the purchase of a book entitled “Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits” by Fred Bronson, 4th Edition.

• The iPod: One Christmas (maybe 2006 or 2007 I’m not sure) my wife and kids got me an 80 gig iPod Classic. It was (and still is) very cool! My kids each had smaller iPods and I never paid too much attention to how they worked. But now that I had my own I was hooked, especially when my daughter said that “You’ll never be able to fill it up with ‘your music’.” Challenge Accepted! I immediately began ripping my CD’s to iTunes as I was learning about the capabilities of the iPod (like playlists, and genres, etc.). Once I had exhausted my supply of CD’s I (like “Number 5“) desperately needed more “input”. (Movie reference!) I could buy songs on iTunes but that could become costly and I wouldn’t have a hard copy. Hmmmmm!

• The Turntable: About the same time I was having the above dilemma, I saw an article about turning vinyl records into digital mp3’s. “Eureka!” I had a turntable in my stereo component system and the article explained how to hook it to your computer through a “box” (I forget the name of the actual piece of equipment) with some patch cables. Then, utilizing a computer program called “Audacity” you can convert your vinyl to mp3 format. Since I had some vinyl LP’s I thought “cool, another way to get more content on my iPod”. So I went to Radio Shack and got the necessary equipment and began “ripping”. This worked pretty well, however once the file had been loaded to my iPod I noticed the songs sounded somewhat “tinny” and distant. Not very satisfying. I used this method for a while but kept my eyes open for a better alternative. I found that alternative when I was shopping one day at an electronics store. In the audio department I saw a turntable (SONY model PS-LX300USB) that had a USB cable to hook directly to your computer and convert vinyl to mp3. I snatched it up and raced home to give it a try. It worked great! Now I was in business! I then began, in earnest to convert my vinyl to digital. (In retrospect the unsatisfying sounds I got with the initial setup probably were due to the settings I was using rather than the equipment. But hey, I got a new turntable out of the deal!)

• The Book: Sometime later I was browsing at a bookstore in the music section and a book with a bright pink cover caught my eye. It was entitled “Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits” by Fred Bronson, 4th Edition. I pulled it off the shelf and began skimming it’s contents. “Wow!” Here was all kinds of really cool information about the songs that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 Chart starting in 1956. I immediately thought of listening to “American Top 40” on the radio when I was a teenager and Casey Kasem’s voice began narrating the book in my head as I was reading. We all know that “Sex Sells”, but Nostalgia runs a pretty close second as a motivation to buy. I bought the book. After taking the book home I began devouring it’s contents. Rather than simply printing each Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles list (which would be interesting enough) the author began to look at the songs in different ways and, utilizing the Billboard Charts and other pertinent information about sales, airplay, release information, etc. came up with a unique “ranking” system that is the basis of the book. In addition to Yearly lists of the top songs, the book has lists of Top 100 songs by Categories, Artists, Labels, and more. It also contains a list of the Top 5000 Songs of the Rock Era.

And so, as all of these elements fell into place, my diabolical mind began to formulate an idea. Wham! What if I were to collect all of the songs listed in this book on my iPod? I could create playlists based on the yearly charts, categories, etc. I already had a good start with the files currently on my iPod. But how to get the rest? Yes, I could simply go to iTunes and buy them, but as I said before that would be too costly and leave me without hard copies (one of my own requirements should my digital files all of a sudden disappear). Collecting LP’s with the songs I needed on them was one way to achieve this goal, but most LP’s only contained 1 or 2 of the hit songs required and that would be way too many records, requiring too much storage space. Hmmmmm!

At the same time I was contemplating how to “fill” my iPod to prove my daughter wrong, I found myself falling in love with the vinyl format all over again. I had rediscovered the vinyl records from my teen years that had been shoved into the back of the closet. My wife also had some 7″ 45 rpm singles from her youth that I dug out and began playing. I loved the warm sound of the vinyl recordings (as opposed to the stripped down sound of CD’s or the hiss of cassette tapes). I loved rediscovering the cover art and liner notes and lyric sheets that came with the LP’s. I loved the picture sleeves that sometimes came with the 45’s. You don’t get these with a digital download and even though CD’s tried to include these items, it just wasn’t the same. (Besides, the print on CD inserts is just way too small for my aging eyes!) And I really loved spending time with my wife at antique stores, garage sales, flea markets and the like, cause that’s where you find vintage vinyl and usually at affordable prices!

And so, dear reader I ultimately decided that the goal of collecting all of the Billboard Hot 100 songs on my iPod would be my “impossible” goal and that collecting as many of these songs on vinyl as I can would be my more “attainable” goal (although still a lofty one).

In Part 2 of this post I will explain how collecting 45’s became an obsession even greater than “filling my iPod. Thanks for visiting, and:

Keep it in the groove!

p.s. Be sure to visit my Facebook page to see shorter posts, pictures and interesting details of individual records in my vinyl collection.