Post by pg on Apr 10, 2024 12:46:34 GMT
Here in the UK, we just know it was a number 1 over there, and that was rare for Queen. But I just waded through a little Billboard archive and it was clearly some sort of phenomenon over there...
3 weeks at number 1 these days, we shrug our shoulders, but here's the chart run in sequence..
67-50-28-23-9-3-3-1-1-1-2-2-4-4-4-4-3-3-7-14-14-20-30-47-54-67-70-96-96-98-98
That's 31 weeks - by the last week it had been in the Top 100 for seven weeks longer than anything else in that chart - and the only other song that lasted anything like as long during that run was Upside Down by Diana Ross (it's predecessor as #1) at 29 weeks. 15 weeks in the top 10, 13 of those in the top 5. Another week and it would have overlapped Flash's entire chart run.
Add the 9 weeks Chic spent in the top 10, 17 overall, in summer '79 with Good Times, and the 12 weeks either side of Xmas '79 that Rapper's Delight was hovering around the middle of the chart, and the US public must have been thoroughly sick of that bassline by early 1981....!
as an aside, I have to say I'm not convinced that Billboard's system was entirely sales-based. Those last four weeks look suspicious, although what benefit fixing the low levels might have is not clear - maybe I'm too cynical!
3 weeks at number 1 these days, we shrug our shoulders, but here's the chart run in sequence..
67-50-28-23-9-3-3-1-1-1-2-2-4-4-4-4-3-3-7-14-14-20-30-47-54-67-70-96-96-98-98
That's 31 weeks - by the last week it had been in the Top 100 for seven weeks longer than anything else in that chart - and the only other song that lasted anything like as long during that run was Upside Down by Diana Ross (it's predecessor as #1) at 29 weeks. 15 weeks in the top 10, 13 of those in the top 5. Another week and it would have overlapped Flash's entire chart run.
Add the 9 weeks Chic spent in the top 10, 17 overall, in summer '79 with Good Times, and the 12 weeks either side of Xmas '79 that Rapper's Delight was hovering around the middle of the chart, and the US public must have been thoroughly sick of that bassline by early 1981....!
as an aside, I have to say I'm not convinced that Billboard's system was entirely sales-based. Those last four weeks look suspicious, although what benefit fixing the low levels might have is not clear - maybe I'm too cynical!
