Was Elton John Mr. Top 40?

[beegee3]

This might have been covered somewhere else on the site, but I was listening to a 1986 show when Elton John debuted with "Nikita," and Casey mentioned it was his 40th Top 40 hit. I was wondering if Elton is the artist who had the most hits on American Top 40. Since he started hitting in 1970 (the same year AT40 started), he naturally had a leg up on acts like the Beatles and Elvis who had most of their hits before AT40 started. And given that he managed at least one hit a year for so many years, he seemed a logical choice. But as he's been pretty much absent from the Top 40 for the last 15 years, someone else might have lapped him (maybe Madonna?). Just curious if anyone knows. Thanks.

[dukelightning]

What a coincidence because I just heard the show in which Elton scored his 50th top 40 hit. Shadoe mentioned the other artists who had achieved that and they are all of the Beatles, Diana Ross, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Michael Jackson. Obviously that is all of chart history. And MJ is the only one besides Elton who scored all of his (except the first 2) in AT40 history. BTW, the show is 12/5/92.

[jdelachjr2002]

Oct 11, 2013 18:48:43 GMT -5 beegee3 said:

This might have been covered somewhere else on the site, but I was listening to a 1986 show when Elton John debuted with "Nikita," and Casey mentioned it was his 40th Top 40 hit. I was wondering if Elton is the artist who had the most hits on American Top 40. Since he started hitting in 1970 (the same year AT40 started), he naturally had a leg up on acts like the Beatles and Elvis who had most of their hits before AT40 started. And given that he managed at least one hit a year for so many years, he seemed a logical choice. But as he's been pretty much absent from the Top 40 for the last 15 years, someone else might have lapped him (maybe Madonna?). Just curious if anyone knows. Thanks.

I think there was a good chance Madonna surpassed Sir Elton. Using Casey Kasem (not Ryan Seacrest) post-1998 AT40 history, Madonna had 55 Top 40 hits.

[Mike]

How do we properly gauge what "makes" a Top 40 hit post-1991, though?

For 1992, 1993, and the first part of 1994, it gets tricky when considering songs that might have peaked in the lower reaches of R&R, that also didn't reach Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 chart that AT40 was using until 1/28/95. (Elton's "True Love" falls into this bracket.) Should we say that anything that reached either chart post-1991 is enough to qualify?

[mct1]

Here's another way of looking at this question: I have a 1989 edition of Joel Whitburn's The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits, with chart data through the end of 1988. The listing in the back of the book shows Elton in fifth place among artists with the most Top 40 hits, with 42. Elton's entry in the book shows him with 43 Top 40 hits, however; maybe Whitburn was keeping a running list and neglected to update it when Elton had his 43rd Top 40 hit a few months before the time period covered in the book closed out. All of Elton's 43 hits came after AT40 went on the air, and up to that point all but the 43rd had been with Casey at the helm. The four artists ahead of Elton -- Elvis, the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and James Brown -- all had a significant number of hits before 1970. At that point, none had more than 28 Top 40 hits (Wonder) from the point when AT40 went on the air.

Looking at the artists behind Elton, almost all had a significant number of Top 40 hits before 1970. The Top 25 are listed (actually 27 due to ties), with the last artists on the list having 29 Top 40 hits. The only two artists I see with more Top 40 hits in the AT40 era than Steveie Wonder's 28 are Paul McCartney (all 34 of his Top 40 hits, which includes Wings, had come after AT40 went on the air) and Chicago (31 of their 32 Top 40 hits had come after AT40 went on the air; their first Top 40 hit, "Make Me Smile", fell out of the Top 40 a few weeks before AT40 made its debut).

Based on the above:

1) Elton John had more Top 40 hits than any other artist during the Classic AT40 era (1970-88), by a wide margin. I've never really thought about that before, but Elton is the artist whose songs were most frequently counted down by Casey during that period.

2) Given how far ahead of everyone else he was in 1988, Elton John almost certainly had more Top 40 hits than any other artist between the time AT40 went on the air and the start of the Soundscan era in 1991.

What has happened since 1991, I'll leave to others...

[dukelightning]

Actually if you use Shadoe's criteria that allowed him to place Michael Jackson in the group of artists with 50 top 40 hits as of 12/5/92 which is all hits as a solo artist or as part of a group or duo, MJ had 45 top 40 hits by my calculations in the classic AT40 era. And that does not include "I Want You Back" or "ABC" which charted in the first half of 1970 before AT40 started. (Although that is a subject for discussion seeing as those songs DID appear on the year end countdown).

[bestmusicexpert]

I'd say yes since he had the greatest run of consecutive years on the top 40.