The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits [Paperback]

Joel Whitburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2006

From the classic days of Red Foley, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash to the country super-stars of today like the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith, "Billboard" magazine has been keeping tabs on the best-sellers in country music and today, country music is hotter than ever before. Now, all the information since the earliest Billboard charts - compiled in 1942 - has been gathered into one essential reference: "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits", newly updated and expanded to capture today's top recording artists and their biggest songs. Complete, authoritative chart information on the most popular songs and artists make this a great book for music fans, record collectors, industry professionals, and trivia lovers. Joel Whitburn is the leading authority on charted music and began collecting records in the 1950s, filing each one according to the position it reached on Billboard's charts. He went on to publish this information - and his business, "Record Research", was born. Today, he leads a team of chart researchers from his home base in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joel Whitburn began collecting records in the 1950s, filing each one according to the position it reached on Billboard’s charts. He went on to publish this information--and his business, Record Research, was born. Today, he leads a team of chart researchers from his home base in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books; Revised edition (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823082911
• ISBN-13: 978-0823082919
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Music
  • #97 in Books > Education & Reference > Publishing & Books > Bibliographies & Indexes

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a perfect present!, January 13, 2005

By 

Mcgivern Owen L (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits (Paperback)

Want to know how many Top 40 hits Connie Smith or Red Sovine had? Where those their real names? What were their hometowns? How many Top 40 songs did Tammy have with George? How often and by which artists did "I Take the Chance" make the charts? (Answers below!). Compiler Whitburn has produced the ultimate toy for country music lovers. Also included is each chart hit, singer by singer, song by song. There is an alphabetical listing of each hit, showing who recorded them and another menu of the Top 100 singles going back to 1944. Readers will learn the Top Artists according to decade and all #1 songs cataloged chronologically. Plus more! What is not to like? This reviewer has found the listings for each artist VERY helpful in deciding to buy CDs. We all know some compilations are better than others. Armed with Whitburn's information, one can tell how many tracks on a given album made it in the world and which fizzled. Apparently this gem is only available as "used". I would not hesitate. Amazon does a good job on used books. Whitburn belongs on the shelf of any serious country fan-or any who would like to be. The answers from above are 39, 13, Constance June Meadows from Elkhart, Indiana, Woodrow Wilson Sovine from Charleston, West Virginia, 13 and 2 (by Ernest Ashworth in '63 and The Browns in '56.) Haven't you placed an order yet?

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Joel Whitburn's Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits, July 12, 2008

By 

Tom Tobben "Tom Tobben" (St. Louis, Missouri) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits (Paperback)

In keeping with the overall quality of his series of Billboard Top 40 books, Joel Whitburn has once again provided an excellent compendium of the top charting country hits and artists, dating all the way back from 1944 to 2006. Whether you're a died-in-the-wool country music fan or just a big fan of music, this book is a delight to simply peruse or to use as your bible for country music.

Organized like the other books in this series (e.g., Top 40 Hits, Top 40 R&B Hits), the book lists all the charted songs by each artist, organized alphabetically by artist. For each song, the date, number of weeks, highest chart position, and record label are provided. Likewise, for each artist or group, some brief biographical information is provided. Interspersed throughout the book are pages with pictures of album or singles covers from sample artists and brief narratives about those artists or songs. The back of the book also includes an alphabetical index of all charted songs, as well as listing the artist, year, and highest chart position.

And for people who are interested in rankings of the best songs and artists, additional tables at the back of the book list the Top 100 songs of the era, the top singles by decade, the Top 100 artists of the era, the top artists by decade, the biggest top 40 artist achievements (e.g., most #1 hits), and a chronological list of all #1 songs by year.

I started many years ago with Joel Whitburn's book of popular Top 40 hits and have purchased multiple editions of that book in subsequent years. I found those books so enjoyable as handy references and to help me get deeper into many artists catalogues of hits, that I eventually also purchased the Book of Top 40 R&B Hits and this Book of Top 40 Country Hits as my musical interests expanded and deepened in these genres.

I would think that books like this one would be "must-have's" for disc jockeys and music historians. For died-in-the-wool music fans like myself, books like this one are a pure delight that I keep handy whenever I am listening to music, adding songs to my iPod, creating personal playlists of songs, or simply wanting to expand or refresh my knowledge about particular artists and songs over the years.

I highly recommend this book as being up to the same high standards as the other books in Joel Whitburn's series of Billboard Top 40 hits. It's a great reference book for any serious music fan to keep handy when listening to or thinking about all these delightful (and not-so-delightful) songs and artists that made it into the enviable weekly "top 40" lists on the music charts.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A country disk jockey's must have, February 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits (Paperback)

If you are a country music disk jockey, you must have this book. The way the book is compiled is very helpful to the country DJ. It would be great if this book could be updated every year or two.