Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties [Hardcover]

Joel Whitburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1995

Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 570 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (July 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898200741
• ISBN-13: 978-0898200744
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 56.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Goldmine, December 26, 2001

By 

George (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties (Hardcover)

It was fascinating to go throught this book chart by chart and almost relive the 60s by following the rise and fall of singles. With this book, and the music samples available on Amazon for most of the CD's it sells, I have been able to go on a magical journey of discovery. I have been able to listen to the vast majority of the singles that hit the top 40 in the 60s after the British Invasion. The book is well worth the rather exorbitant price.

That being said, for a book this expensive, one would think it would have been prepared with more care. The reduction in size from that of Billboard Magazine makes the charts hard to read at best. Worse, many of the charts were reproduced in a shoddy fashion, making the group names almost illegible at times. And there is no interpretive material. For instance, it would have been interesting to read essays on the history of Top 100 chart, how it was compiled, its importance to the recording and radio industries, and on how successful a single had to be to get on the chart (how many singles were issued at any one time -- 200?, 500? 1,000?).

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reference Book, December 25, 2002

By 

Robert Weingartner (Staten Island, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties (Hardcover)

This book was a dream for me. I constantly refer to this book while doing research on The Rolling Stones chart positions in the Sixties. Of course it can be used for just general research, or for a particular artist. It tracks the Top 100 singles and how they charted week by week. The charts eventually expanded beyond the Top 100 during the decade. You see how each song climbs to its peak position and then declines off the charts. I felt like I was going back in time and watching the weekly charts myself during a decade which I was way too young to remember. A great book I highly recommend.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compilation Of The Billboard Hot 100 Radio Charts From The Sixties, December 15, 2008

By 

Rob W. "Sounddude™" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties (Hardcover)

One of the many jobs I've had over my life was just out of college in radio. I worked for six years as an on air personality, a news director, music director and in other capacities. And of course, Billboard Magazine was one of the many references we used to help determine what our playlists were.

Joel Whitburn's passion for music is legend. And his hobby of collecting singles, albums and CDs is how he has turned that hobby into an enterprise. It started with his card cataloging his collection according to the Billboard charts. Years later, he has not only published the Billboard charts in book form but is a writer for Billboard.

The Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties is just that, a compilation of the "actual" charts as published in Billboard Magazine in the sixties. Now Whitburn's company Record Research has published 100 books on music, groups and charts, all of them different with different features. Some reviewers here have missed the point that all of these books have different content and features and must be taken singularly, not as a template of what each book will be.

The following is quoted under Fair Use law for published reviews.

Stated plainly on the back of the Sixties chart book we read this:

"Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties is a one-of-a-kind collection of 520 actual 'Hot 100' charts reproduced exactly as they appeared in the original issues of Billboard. This convenient and comprehensive volume puts the most diverse decade in Pop music history right at your fingertips."

And from the author's opening notes inside (edited):

"After searching the country for perfect condition back issues of Billboard to compliment my Record Research library, I put together a pristine collection of Hot 100s for our readers.

We left the charts exactly as they were...we did not correct any of the chart's original typesetting errors.

I found this to be a fascinating book to put together. Without lengthy narratives or critical commentaries, 520 actual Hot 100 charts tell the story of one of the most exciting eras in American popular music as it has never been told.

Joel Whitburn"

So it is plain that the intent of the author was to present only the charts as they appeared in Billboard, without commentary or embellishment. He has released many other books since where he has indeed included background on groups and their music and other features.

Also, a couple of reviewers complained about the size. The original Billboard magazine of the sixties was a quite large soft cover magazine and the charts covered the whole page. It would have been cost prohibitive to try to reproduce those in their original size, especially in a hard backed book. These books are already costly due to the licensing that Record Research must pay to use the charts and information from Billboard.

So I basically just want to tell these couple of people to stop whinning. This is a fabulous collection of charts, well worth the price and will not only bring back incredible memories of the songs that were playing on the radio during any particular week of the 1960s, but you'll see and remember songs and artists that you liked which are not played on any oldies station and haven't been reissued in most oldies CD collections.

I can highly recommend Joel Whiburn's Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties to that die-hard sixties music fan who wants to look back and see what was playing during the different eras of their life. Just be aware that you are buying a book of charts only. You have to provide the memories.