Chartmasters' Rock 100: An Authoritative Ranking of the Most Popular Songs for Each Year, 1954 Through 1991 [Paperback]

Jim Quirin (Author), Barry Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1992

An Authoritative Ranking Of The Most Popular Songs From 1954 Through 1991, contains the rankings for some 3700 records, including Title, Artist, Label, and Chart Information for each. Quirin & Cohen's book traverses that varied and broad expanse of musical terrain from Kitty Kallen's "LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT" (the #1 recording of 1954) to "STRIKE IT UP" by Black Box (#100 for 1991).

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

For some time, there has been a growing interest in the idea of a year-by-year ranking of popular music single records. The simplest and most obvious system of rankings might be one based solely on record sales. Due to the unavailability or unreliability of sales figures, however, such a system will probably never be instituted. Thus record rankings lean toward popularity (as measured by, for example, retail sales reports, radio station requests, jukebox plays, and disk jockey polls) as the standard of comparison. Although numerous record ranking systems based on popularity are currently in existence, most seem to suffer in varying degrees from credibility problems. The authors of ROCK 100 have attempted to resolve this difficulty by creating a unique system formulated on a firm, objective, mathematical basis. ROCK 100 is now in its 5th printing and is sold internationally.

From the Author

Quirin & Cohen combined their mutual interests in music and mathematics to formulate a unique ranking system for popular music recordings. Utilizing the principles of calculus, they developed the Cumulative Popularity Index, or CPI, which allowed them to accurately rank the relative popularity of nearly 10,000 recordings by year from the 50's to the 90's.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Chartmasters; 5th edition (September 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0917190211
• ISBN-13: 978-0917190216
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,133,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ChartMaster's an Authority, June 13, 2007

By 

Glen Turnbull "Fly Fisher" (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chartmasters' Rock 100: An Authoritative Ranking of the Most Popular Songs for Each Year, 1954 Through 1991 (Paperback)

I bought this book years ago while doing research into a game board game that uses song title trivia and song titles.
The infomration was accurate, sufficient and very helpful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Year Ranking of Hit Records Ever, October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chartmasters' Rock 100: An Authoritative Ranking of the Most Popular Songs for Each Year, 1954 Through 1991 (Paperback)

No other listing of the top hits of each year gives full credit to those songs released at the beginning or end of the year. These rankings are as accurate as i've seen and i've followed the charts for over 45 years. I would like the years 1992 to 1998 done though.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very handy book for the record collector, January 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chartmasters' Rock 100: An Authoritative Ranking of the Most Popular Songs for Each Year, 1954 Through 1991 (Paperback)

ive worn out 2 copies of this book while trying to collect every 45 listed in it over the past 19 years. i like the fact that the listings are in the year that the song was popular. the authors go from jan 1 to dec 31 unlike billboard who use nov 1 to oct31 of each yr. the book has a very useful title and artist listing in addition to the listings by year. all in all a very necessary book for the serious record collector i only wish they would follow up with a listing from 1992 to 1998. how about it jim & barry?