New edition of Top Pop Singles

[mstgator]

Coming in June is the 14th edition of Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles" (1955-2012). Songwriters will now be included for every chart hit. Not sure what else they have left to add to future editions (unless they decide to bring back sales/airplay numbers for 1984-present).

www.recordresearch.com/pop/top_pop_singles_1955_2012.php

[rayshae3]

When you look at the most recent versions of “Top Pop Singles” (like 1955-2010/13th ed.) all versions of the same songs are grouped together in the main artists section; for example on p.510 Cyndi Lauper’s first entry (“Girls Just Want To Have Fun”) is immediately followed by its new version “Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)” from 1995 listed BEFORE “Time After Time” from 1984. In the upcoming new edition, the Acts’ songs will revert back being in strict chronological order.
Other out-of-sequence instances, like Johnny Cash’s grouping of all Sun singles before his Columbia recordings, would also be in sequence.

[mstgator]

Being slightly OCD, I prefer true chronological order, so that's a definite improvement.

[donwa001]

I hate when they add something to the previous version and it doesn't last to the new version. In the 13th edition of Top Pop Singles, I was glad to see these additions:

TOTAL HITS

For major artists, there is a summary listing of their totals for #1, Top 10, Top 20 and Top 40 hits. These are shown below the artist biography.

TOTAL TOP 10 ALBUMS

For any artist with a Top 10 album, a count of their total Top 10 albums is shown below the artist biography.

So now when I look at the sample page they have for the 14th edition, those 2 stat sections are gone.

Personally I think it is too soon to update this book. I would have liked to see a new book, such as, "Across the Charts - The 70's", "Across the Charts - The 80's", "Pop Album Charts - 1970 - 1974", "Pop Album Charts - 1975 - 1979" or DVD's of PDF's for the Soul or Easy Listening weekly charts.

[rayshae3]

Mar 24, 2013 22:34:02 GMT -5 donwa001 said:

Personally I think it is too soon to update this book. I would have liked to see a new book, such as, "Across the Charts - The 70's", "Across the Charts - The 80's", "Pop Album Charts - 1970 - 1974", "Pop Album Charts - 1975 - 1979" or DVD's of PDF's for the Soul or Easy Listening weekly charts.

The truth of the matter is from a business standpoint they are struggling. Their current number of staff is a skeleton of what it was in late 80s or early 90s; so what sells takes priority whenever they release new research. And the Top Pop Singles & Pop Annual are their best-selling material.
And I doubt if the week-by-week Pop Album 1965-1969 chartbook (like the Disco/Dance book) ever gets updated. Besides, if they release the DVD-rom or book version of any album chart collection, it makes sense first to update that 65-69 chartbook back to 1963 (the year Billboard consolidated their mono and stereo album lists).

But I somewhat agree with you. Many years ago Record Research released a non-chart book “Billboard Singles Reviews 1958”. If they had kept up with that one thru 1960s to 2000s, it would’ve given a wealth of information unmatched all in one place. But again apparently the book didn’t sell well, so the project got scrapped.

[atruefan]

I completely agree with rayshae3's analysis. There are any number of books on the 70s and 80s that I would buy, but once they published the entire collection of Hot 100 charts, there really wasn't a lot left they could mine, so they haven't.

I think a lot of what they do with the Singles and Annual books is try to find a way to incorporate some new twist, but clearly even that well is running dry. With charts today being viewed as less important than they were in the past, I can't imagine that many people are interested in updated information from the 2010s.

You are definitely right about there never being an update on the Disco/Dance book. I am the only person I know who purchased that book, and even being a disco connoisseur, I found I only was interested in the 70s and 80s info.

[donwa001]

I own almost every Record Research book, so I always welcome a "new" book such as the Record World history in "Hit Records 1954-1982" rather than an "update" to an existing book.

I did email Record Research and asked about coming out with a book on the Cashbox charts. Their reply was "We are considering it".

I hope they eventually release DVD's of other weekly charts. Google Books helps some with the older charts but they don't have every issue of Billboard online.

[bestmusicexpert]

Hope they do this correctly. The 1955-2010 book was FULL of mistakes!

[Deleted]

The only thing I truly wish they would do is release the actual charts for the 50s on DVD-Rom like they did with the others.

[rayshae3]

Mar 27, 2013 21:59:05 GMT -5 donwa001 said:

I own almost every Record Research book, so I always welcome a "new" book such as the Record World history in "Hit Records 1954-1982" rather than an "update" to an existing book.

I did email Record Research and asked about coming out with a book on the Cashbox charts. Their reply was "We are considering it".

Joel Whitburn’s new project of the CashBox chartbook is scheduled to be released around the end of this year 2013. It is NOT the updated version of Albert/Hoffman books published mostly in the 80s. The research is done from scratch.