Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944-2005 [Hardcover]

Joel Whitburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2006

In this comprehensive artist-by-artist listing, you'll find the more than 2,300 artists and 17,800 songs that debuted on Billboard's country singles charts from 1944-2005. Not only does it cover the complete chart careers of legendary country greats such as Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson, and Reba McEntire, it also introduces fresh country voices like Gretchen Wilson, Bobby Pinson, Keith Anderson and others. This unique country compilation is a priceless gold mine of stats and facts, all presented in a handy, easy-to-use format!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 621 pages
• Publisher: Record Research (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898201659
• ISBN-13: 978-0898201659
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,553,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Song Data Removed - HORRIBLE!, June 7, 2006

By 

C. Hatch - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944-2005 (Hardcover)

With this edition, the author has inexplicably (and unforgivably) removed the B-side information of all singles, and even worse, the Billboard Hot 100 data for each song. One must now fork over another $50 for the author's "Top Pop Singles" book to obtain this information.

Also, no longer is the following included: picture sleeve availability; catalog numbers of post-1989 singles; price guide estimates; and Bubbling Under the Hot 100 data, all of which were in the 2002 edition. Too much space is wasted on songwriting credits, this edition's sole major new feature. Unfortunately, it is at the expense of the previously mentioned data.

One wonders how this figures into their "continuing efforts to improve each subsequent edition." Worthless.

2008 UPDATE: To their credit, the fine folks at Record Research have learned from this debacle and listened to their customers' complaints. The data that was stripped from the 2005 edition will be restored to the 7th edition of this book, due November 2008.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boo! Too many bad changes!, September 29, 2006

By 

TJ the DJ "Country music lover" (Algoma, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944-2005 (Hardcover)

I have to agree with previous online writers that the latest version of Billboard's Top Country Singles is not one to own. After seeing a sample page in a flyer sent to me and on Billboard's website, I noticed the changes: dropping the b-side information, discontinuing ranking the top five hits of each artist, discontinuing pricing information for each single among many other changes. I would like to get the latest version of this book, but I will not waste my money if this information is not included. I have the two previous versions of this book and those are great. I can only hope that if enough people don't like the new version that future versions will be changed back.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stay away! What they have done here is unforgivable., June 27, 2006

By 

smoked (TwinCities, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944-2005 (Hardcover)

I have the previous version of this book entitled Top County Singles (5th Edition, 1944 to 2001). The version you see being reviewed here is the really dumbed down 6th Edition with a new title. Someone made a VERY bad decision to remove quite a bit of information from this book. And seeing as how it is the most recent of their main books to be released, it has to make one wonder if ALL their future books will be lacking information they once had. Previous to this release, I would applaud Record Research for their continuing additions to every new edition in their main series of books (Top Country Singles, Billboard Albums, Top Pop Singles, Pop Annual, R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Rock Tracks) but these changes will NOT go unnoticed. One could speculate that they are slowly removing information from their books in order to promote other means of obtaining information (online?). Anyways, take a long hard look before you actually spend your hard earned cash on this series of books, as it is not what it once was. Luckily I spent an hour looking through the new version at a bookstore and decided not to buy, given the absence of information.