Top American HAC Acts, 1994-2007

[Shadoe Fan]

As I listened to the July 4, 1991 AT40 Special "The Top 40 American Acts of the Past 10 Years", I was inspired to calculate the top American Acts on the Hot AC chart since Radio and Records started it in 1994. (Mediabase data is used from August 2006-present).

Each song by the artist was awarded points based on an inverse point system for each week on the chart (just like the method used for my calculation of the Top 100 songs). Each artist's song's points are then combined to give a total for the artist.

If I've made any errors, please let me know:

1. Matchbox 20
2. Goo Goo Dolls
3. Sheryl Crow
4. Train
5. 3 Doors Down
6. John Mayer
7. Rob Thomas
8. Hootie & the Blowfish
9. Jewel
10. Madonna
11. Kelly Clarkson
12. Lifehouse
13. Smash Mouth
14. Sugar Ray
15. Melissa Etheridge
16. Creed
17. Third Eye Blind
18. No Doubt
19. Michelle Branch
20. Lenny Kravitz
21. Maroon 5
22. Five for Fighting
23. Vertical Horizon
24. Counting Crows
25. Natalie Merchant
26. Mariah Carey
27. The Fray
28. Uncle Kracker
29. Green Day
30. Bon Jovi
31. John Mellencamp
32. The Calling
33. Fastball
34. Sister Hazel
35. Evanescence
36. Sixpence None the Richer
37. Faith Hill
38. Backstreet Boys
39. Boyz II Men
40. Paula Cole

[Scott Lakefield]

You ought to re-rank this as either the top acts of the past 10 years or the top acts of this decade so far and send it in to Casey's staff suggesting it be used for a special edition of the show. No idea if that would actually be considered, but it's worth a shot!

[Shadoe Fan]

Well I did pass along the above chart to the staff and did offer to alter the time period if they're interested.

[Shadoe Fan]

Sorry to report...but no special is forthcoming. At least I tried. :-)

[tacomalo]

Great list! How did Paula Cole manage to make it? I thought she had only two hits?

[BrettVW]

Honestly, I think this would be a great special! For the three hour format, you could do a "Top 30 Acts of the Last 10 Years/So Far This Decade", and then for each act play the biggest charting hit they have had on HAC. They could even pull it off without ever saying "Hot AC".

[Hervard]

Yeah, and for "extras", they could pick out acts that ranked in the 31-40 zone, such as The Calling, Evanescence, the Backstreet Boys, and Boyz II Men.

[mstgator]

tacomalo said:

Great list! How did Paula Cole manage to make it? I thought she had only two hits?

Four, actually... and her two biggies had plenty of longevity (which also explains the healthy rankings for several other acts who only had one or two big hits).

[Shadoe Fan]

1. Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? - #4, 27 weeks on
2. I Don’t Want to Wait - #1 for 6 weeks, 40 weeks on
3. Me - #11, 18 weeks on
4. I Believe in Love [as ‘Paula Cole Band’] - #20, 9 weeks on

As mstgator noted above, longevity has a lot to do with the higher rankings when using an inverse point system.

[tacomalo]

While you were compiling the list, did you also do a list of the top 40 songs from 1994-2007?

[Shadoe Fan]

I do have a list of top HAC songs from 1994-2006, available here:

www.geocities.com/at40fantoo/at20/top100hac.html

I will update the list for 2007 at the end of the year.

[tacomalo]

Great list, did I miss it, or did Breathe by Anna Nalick not make the chart?

[Shadoe Fan]

Breathe did not make the top 100. The song has 1029 points.

[tacomalo]

Wow, I guess it didn't log the chart weeks some of the other songs did. Do you happen to have a link that show the rankings year by year for the AC chart?

[Shadoe Fan]

Sorry, but I do not have any rankings for the AC chart.