The VJ Big 40 people seem to have used a loose variation on the ranking system that Joel Whitburn uses in his Record Research books. (At the top of the show Alan even admits "the songs are loosely ranked," as though that would make it OK.) While Joel clearly breaks ties according to weeks at #1, then top 10, then 40, then 100, this list stops at #1 then seems to be based on radio-friendliness, as some of you are pointing out. Otherwise, records like "Don't You Want Me" (28 weeks on the Hot 100), "What's Love Got to Do with It?" (28), "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (26), "Beat It" (25), "Straight Up" (25), "Against All Odds" (24), and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (24) might have been considered more carefully.
Because we in this thread and the Errors thread are all about accuracy, I sought out, and found, not only a more authoritative ranking, but the closest thing we have to a definitive one at this point. Back in August, for the 60th anniversary of the Hot 100,
Billboard listed the top 600 tunes of those six decades. The 80s are represented pretty well -- by 132 songs. Of those, I pulled the top 40 number-ones. (Did you get all that?)
Billboard anniversary rankings are in brackets:
1. "Physical" [#10]
2. "Bette Davis Eyes" [#17]
3. "Endless Love" [#18]
4. "Eye of the Tiger" [#26]
5. "Every Breath You Take" [#31]
6. "Flashdance...What a Feeling" [#34]
7. "Another One Bites the Dust" [#43]
8. "Say Say Say" [#44]
9. "Call Me" [#57]
10. "Lady" [#60]
11. "Centerfold" [#66]
12. "(Just Like) Starting Over" [#68]
13. "I Love Rock 'n Roll" [#72]
14. "Ebony and Ivory" [#76]
15. "That's What Friends Are For" [#78]
16. "Upside Down" [#80]
17. "Billie Jean" [#86]
18. "Abracadabra" [#90]
19. "Say You, Say Me" [#94]
20. "All Night Long (All Night)" [#96]
21. "Another Day in Paradise" [#109]
22. "Do That to Me One More Time" [#119]
23. "Like a Virgin" [#121]
24. "When Doves Cry" [#123]
25. "Maneater" [#133]
26. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" [#146]
27. "Faith" [#150]
28. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" [#156]
29. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" [#161]
30. "Careless Whisper" [#162]
31. "Walk Like an Egyptian" [#165]
32. "Don't You Want Me" [#179]
33. "Jessie's Girl" [#186]
34. "Woman in Love" [#189]
35. "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" [#213]
36. "Miss You Much" [#216]
37. "Down Under" [#219]
38. "We Are the World" [#221]
39. "Jack and Diane" [#226]
40. "Jump" [#227]
43. "Arthur's Theme" [#246]
50. "Livin' on a Prayer" [#270]
56. "Rock with You" [#295]
63. "Roll with It" [#321]
73. "Funkytown" [#375]
74. "Magic" [#376]
This is great research and makes for an interesting "general music discussion." "Kiss on My List" must have been really low for you to leave it out. Maybe the Big 40 came closer to being more accurate than I originally thought, and their personal early 80's bias worked out in their favor. I still believe their personal bias for songs 37-40 were based out of laziness and they picked the first four songs they saw that spent three weeks at the top (and not radio friendliness, as "Woman in Love" is not exactly filling the airwaves these days.) I sort of liked the theme of using weeks at #1 to determine which songs to include, as a way to inform and entertain the audience, so I am OK with "Do That to me one More Time," "Abracadabra" and "Careless Whisper" being omitted with the theme they used this weekend on Big 80's. If only they remembered to include "(Just Like) Starting Over, then there are 37 songs that spent 4 weeks or more at the top. Based on the list above, the final three spots (three weeks at the top) would then be "Another One Bites the Dust", "Don't You Want Me", and "Woman in Love" and they got two of them correct and "Arthur's Theme" was right there too.