One Week on Top: The Hot 100's Shortest Reigns, 1958–1990
Nine weeks is a story. One week is a footnote, or so the assumption goes. A record climbs for two months, touches the top of the Hot 100 for seven days, and then something shoves it aside. No victory lap. No second week to prove it wasn't a fluke. Just a line in the ledger saying that, for one week, this was the biggest song in America.
I've come to think the footnotes are the better story. There are 735 songs that reached #1 in this archive, from the first Hot 100 in August 1958 through the end of 1990. Of those, 288 held the top for one week and never came back. That's just under forty percent, nearly two of every five chart-toppers in these pages, and then the door closed behind them.
How the Count Moves
The share isn't steady, and the way it moves says a lot about the record business. Counting from the dates in the archive: the tail end of the 1950s, from August 1958 through 1959, produced five one-week #1s. The 1960s produced 55. The 1970s produced 125. The 1980s produced 91, and 1990 alone added 12 more.
Look at the seventies number again. That decade produced more one-week champions than the fifties and sixties combined, and more than the eighties by a comfortable margin. Year by year the peak is unmistakable: 23 in 1974, 24 in 1975, 19 in 1977. I suspect the singles business was simply moving faster then, more records pushed harder and radio less willing to sit with any of them. Then the count collapses. 1980 managed three, 1984 exactly one, before it climbed back through the late eighties: 16 in 1986, 19 in 1989.
The Early Years: Interrupted, Not Dethroned
The first one-week #1 in this archive is "Little Star" by The Elegants, on the chart of August 25, 1958, only the fourth Hot 100 ever printed. It's a doo-wop lullaby, "Twinkle Twinkle" with a backbeat, and it broke up the reign of Domenico Modugno's "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volaré)" for exactly one week before "Volaré" took the top back. The Elegants never returned to #1, but "Little Star" stayed on the chart for 17 weeks, longer than plenty of records that hold the top for a month.
That sandwich pattern, a big hit interrupted and then resuming, shows up constantly early on. "Tom Dooley" by The Kingston Trio broke up Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe" on November 17, 1958, and Twitty was back the next week. "Mr. Blue" by The Fleetwoods did the same to "Mack The Knife" a year later.
My favorite case from that stretch is a pair. On November 14, 1960, Ray Charles took "Georgia On My Mind" to #1, replacing The Drifters' "Save The Last Dance For Me." Seven days later he was gone, replaced by "Stay" by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, which lasted exactly one week itself before Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome To-night?" arrived. Two of the most beloved records of the era, back to back, and neither got a second week. "Stay" hung around for 18 weeks.
The Sixties: Even the Beatles Got One Week
You'd think the biggest band in the world would be immune. They weren't. On May 9, 1964, Louis Armstrong knocked "Can't Buy Me Love" off the top with "Hello, Dolly!" He held it for one week, gave way to Mary Wells and "My Guy," and then "Love Me Do" by the Beatles came along on May 30 and did exactly the same thing: one week, replaced by "Chapel Of Love." Satchmo's record stuck around for 22 weeks, outlasting the Beatles' single by two months.
They'd feel it again with "Ticket To Ride" in May 1965 and "All You Need Is Love" in August 1967. And in March 1967 came the tightest squeeze. "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones went to #1 on March 4, was replaced by The Supremes' "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone" on March 11, which was replaced by "Penny Lane" on March 18, which was replaced by The Turtles' "Happy Together." Three weeks, three one-week #1s, and the Stones, the Supremes and the Beatles each got exactly seven days.
Then there's "Good Vibrations." The Beach Boys' most elaborate single reached #1 on December 10, 1966. It replaced "Winchester Cathedral" by The New Vaudeville Band, a novelty record sung through a megaphone. One week later, "Winchester Cathedral" took the top back. I don't know what that says about the record buyer of 1966. But it's in the ledger.
And one I can't leave out: Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley P.T.A." spent a single week on top, September 21, 1968, before "Hey Jude" arrived and stayed for nine. If you want a picture of a one-week #1 next to the other kind, that's it.
Winter 1975: Twelve Weeks, Twelve Champions
The seventies are where the pattern becomes a way of life, and the winter of 1975 is the purest example. Starting with Barry Manilow's "Mandy" on January 18, 1975, the #1 spot changed hands every week for twelve straight weeks. The Carpenters' "Please Mr. Postman." Neil Sedaka's "Laughter In The Rain." "Fire" by the Ohio Players. Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good." AWB's "Pick Up The Pieces." The Eagles' "Best Of My Love." Olivia Newton-John. The Doobie Brothers. Frankie Valli. Labelle's "Lady Marmalade." And finally Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You," on April 5, 1975, the twelfth one-week #1 in a row before "Philadelphia Freedom" broke the streak.
Twelve acts, twelve sounds, soft rock to funk to Philly soul, and not one could hold the top a second week. The chart was a turnstile. These weren't weak records, either. "My Eyes Adored You" stayed on the Hot 100 for 23 weeks; "Best Of My Love" lasted 19. They just kept running into each other.
The same decade gives us the other kind of case. Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" reached #1 on January 27, 1973, replacing Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," and gave way a week later to "Crocodile Rock." One of the great singles of the seventies, in and out in seven days. Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City" spent its one week on top on October 28, 1978 and still logged 31 weeks on the chart, the longest run of any one-week #1 in the decade.
The Eighties: One Week Between Giants
The eighties count is lower, mostly because the first half of the decade belonged to long reigns. In 1984 only one song managed a single week at #1, John Waite's "Missing You." But the one-week records that did slip through are often wedged between monsters. "Come On Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners hit #1 on April 23, 1983, replacing "Billie Jean" and replaced by "Beat It." A fiddle-driven single from Birmingham, England, between two Michael Jackson records at the height of Thriller. It stayed on the chart 23 weeks.
Then the turnover came back. Autumn 1985 brought five one-week #1s in a row: "Oh Sheila" by Ready For The World, then a-ha's "Take On Me" on October 19, 1985, then Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You," then Stevie Wonder's "Part-Time Lover," then the "Miami Vice Theme." "Take On Me," a song most people would guess spent a month on top, got one week and 27 weeks on the chart. That's the shape of a lot of these: a short summit, a long descent.
The strangest eighties case is "Red Red Wine." UB40's version first appeared on the Hot 100 on January 28, 1984. Four and a half years later it came back around, and on October 15, 1988 it was #1, replacing Def Leppard's "Love Bites" and giving way to Phil Collins' "Groovy Kind Of Love." One week at the top, 40 weeks on the chart in total, the longest of any one-week #1 in this archive. Sheriff's "When I'm With You" pulled a similar trick, debuting in May 1983 and reaching #1 in February 1989. Both are reminders that a chart week is not the same as a song's lifetime.
By 1989 the turnstile was spinning like 1975 again: seven straight one-week #1s from June 3 through July 15, Bette Midler and New Kids On The Block and Milli Vanilli passing the crown down the line. The archive closes on another streak. From Nelson's "(Can't Live Without Your) Love And Affection" on September 29, 1990, through Maxi Priest, George Michael, James Ingram and Janet Jackson, to "Ice Ice Baby" on November 3, 1990, six weeks brought six different champions.
So 288 records out of 735 got their one week. Some are novelties and some are "Superstition." What they share is a modesty in the record books that has nothing to do with how they sounded on the radio. A week at #1 is still a week at #1. And the ones that only got the one tend to have come in the most crowded, most alive weeks the chart ever had.
Charts mentioned in this story
More stories from the archive
Explore the numbers behind this story in the full chart archive.