Based on the official Top 20 charts from Billboard in the US and NME/Music Week in the UK, this entertaining book shows at a glance the monthly international status of the hits. The fully updated and revised fourth edition lists the charts since they began in January 1954 all the way through December 2000. Each song is listed with artist name and nationality, current and previous month's chart position, record label, weeks on the chart, and simultaneous position on the "other side of the pond." Special symbols indicate million-sellers, plus artists' first and most recent hits. All stars and songs are indexed separately, making it especially easy to pinpoint any Top 20 hit. Includes 200 photos, plus new pop trivia and star gossip!
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
In the middle of the night, Slim Whitman's TV ads claim number-one hit songs no one has heard of. With this new book you can check out his sales and see that for the U.K. his claims are true.
The bulk of the book is made up of top-20 charts from 1954 through 1993. Each section opens with an overview of the decade before presenting the charts year by year. U.K. and U.S. monthly charts are given on facing pages for easy comparison. Each listing gives that month's and the previous month's position, title, artist, record label, weeks in the top 20, position in the other country's chart, and initials indicating gold or platinum sales or first or last appearance on the charts. Alongside the charts are sidebars with music trivia, illustrated with black-and-white photographs.
Two indexes allow access by artist and song title. The artist index gives song title and first month it appeared on the charts. Notation is given for shared hits and reissued songs. The title index cross-references the user to the artist index.
The All Music Book of Hit Singles complements rather than competes with Whitburn's Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (5th ed., Watson-Guptill, 1992). McAleer allows easy access by date and covers the hits in the U.K. as well as the U.S. Whitburn covers recordings weekly rather than monthly and looks at the top 40, not just the top 20. At this price, public libraries will want to own both. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Offers both the music researcher and the pop music aficionado a lot of information for the money." -- American Reference Book Annual
"Wonderful and easy to use." -- Dirty Linen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Wonderful and easy to use." -- Dirty Linen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not up to Joel Whitburn but an interesting variation,
By A Customer
This review is from: All Music Guide to Hit Singles 1954 to Present Day (All Music Guides) (Paperback)
A variation on pop-chart history books, McAleer summarizes a month's worth of charts into a single top twenty. Each page contains 3 months of singles charts, with the even numbered pages showing UK charts directly opposite the same month's summary in the US. The margins are filled with the music trivia of the day. The odd format of monthly charts exaggerates the chart success of songs that were around at the start of the month, but hurts songs that peaked in mid-month. Also odd, each country's chart also include a cross-reference to the WEEKLY position in the other country. But as a nostalgia tool, it's great fun to see what songs were popular in a given month, such as a birthday, wedding or graduation. Also includes an All-time US 100 (with The Twist at #1) and UK Top 100 (where Rock Around the Clock reigns), and cross reference by song title & artist.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Update this book!,
By Sam Quintin "sam quintin" (Wasteland, NV USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Book of Hit Singles 4 Ed: Top 20 Charts from 1954 to the Present Day (Paperback)
I really love this book and pop/rock music fans will spend hours with it...HOWEVER this book really needs an editor to catch those little mistakes, ie, its "Topsy II" (Cozy Cole) not "Topsy Li"; "Affair of The Heart" (Rick Springfield) not "Affair of The Night". And with each succeeding edition, the charts need to be updated, (Britney Spears, for instance, has had more than one hit- "Baby, One More Time" listed as first and last both right off the bat in each succeeding edition! Adam Ant had a US Top 20 hit with "Goody Two Shoes",(1983) so why is the book listing "Room At The Top"(1990)as his first and last, just as it did with "Goody Two Shoes"?), the listings need updating, not merely added onto. Again, this is a book worth its weight in gold...but it could be SOLID GOLD with a thorough revisioning, revising.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great way to see popular music,
By
This review is from: The Book of Hit Singles 4 Ed: Top 20 Charts from 1954 to the Present Day (Paperback)
I love this book because it is a great way to compare and contrast the music scenes in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as some music history tidbits and photos as well.
No music fan's library should be without this book, especially if you have a collection of CDs from the United Kingdom as well as the United States. This is also a great way to try a new singer out, by checking out their singles output.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Swiss song 'Oh Mein Papa' (aka 'Oh! My Pa-Pa') was the top transatlantic hit. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bru ary, transatlantic topper, pte mber, transatlantic charts, transatlantic hit, vem ber, cem ber, chart debut, debut hit, chart topper, album chart, tape sales, rock era Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
London American, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Michael Jackson, Prev Wks, Elton John, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Bee Gees, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston Arista, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, George Michael, Bad Boy, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder Tamla, Bryan Adams, Olivia Newton-John, Bill Haley, Aretha Franklin, Beatles Parlophone, Fleetwood Mac New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Swiss song 'Oh Mein Papa' (aka 'Oh! My Pa-Pa') was the top transatlantic hit. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bru ary, transatlantic topper, pte mber, transatlantic charts, transatlantic hit, vem ber, cem ber, chart debut, debut hit, chart topper, album chart, tape sales, rock era Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
London American, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Michael Jackson, Prev Wks, Elton John, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Bee Gees, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston Arista, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, George Michael, Bad Boy, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder Tamla, Bryan Adams, Olivia Newton-John, Bill Haley, Aretha Franklin, Beatles Parlophone, Fleetwood Mac New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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