Has anyone got the weekly American Billboard charts in Excel format from over the years? I know there is an excellent website that shows weekly positions way back to 1958, but I'm hoping I don't have to start putting that information manually. Please let me know.

Cheers

Finn

I think UKMIX might be the place to ask, but I wouldn't get your hopes up that someone would be willing to freely provide such a thing (due to the amount of work it would've taken to collate). I found a thread there from a few years ago where someone asked for similar and they didn't seem to get it: https://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=109171

I could be wrong though, maybe someone here has one for all I know.

I'm willing to share my excel format weekly ARIA chart (singles and albums) information as well as weekly AMR charts. I can't say I did it all myself, but I've put a lot of work into it, especially in more recent years.

I'd love the same for the Billboard charts.

I've resorted to entering it into a excel register myself. I've already done all of 1990. If anyone wants to help, send me a message. There's plenty of other decades to enter.



Finn

I'm making great progress with inputting these charts thanks to Dave NT's excel help. Almost finished the 90's and partly done the 80's.


5 Dec 1998 was a very weird chart for the Billboard Hot 100. 60 new entries in one week. Put it down to the rules changing what constitutes a song that can be counted for the chart, mainly airplay was then added. Can you believe 'Do the Bartman' was not released as a single in the US therefore did not qualify for the charts. Ignoring what people think of the song, it was a number 1 song in Australia.

Very interesting doing this exercise.

Finn

I believe in addition to allowing airplay-only songs to chart, 1998 is also when they expanded airplay to include R&B/hip hop and country stations, whereas before it was heavy on Top 40 stations (alongside adult contemporary, alternative and maybe rhythmic, I think). The airplay chart that week has some big climbs like Lauryn Hill moving 13-2 and Jay-Z 41-13, and numerous country debuts in the bottom half, and a few sharp drops for pop songs like the Backstreet Boys falling 14-29: https://www.billboard.com/charts/radio-songs/1998-12-05

You probably already know this, but there are heaps of very-popular '90s songs that didn't chart due to not being released physically! There's a list with airplay chart peaks here: https://www.ukmix.org/showthread.php?66999-Billboard-Hot-100-Airplay-Hits-That-Did-Not-Chart-On-Hot-100&p=2267602&viewfull=1#post2267602

I don't think that list covers all of them either. I don't see Black Box 'Ride on Time' in that list.

I assume "Ride On Time" didn't reach the airplay chart. Billboard's site only has it archived back to 1990, but the Radio & Records CHR airplay chart was pretty similar at the time and it didn't make the top 40: https://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/gghunt/charts/blackbox.html . It peaked at #39 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart (whereas their 3 Hot 100 hits made #1), and I checked that week's Billboard magazine and it wasn't on any other charts (you can find PDFs here: https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Billboard-Magazine.htm ). Dance music has mostly always struggled in the US mainstream and it came before Technotronic and Snap! had broken through so I'm not too surprised.