Yearly #1 Hit Songs in the U.S.

surely 2012 should be psy?!?!

Popular for a few months but then died out on Spotify and sales. Youtube views don't count.

The Billboard chart is totally arbitrary. For awhile artists in the 90s manipulated the chart by holding off on an official release of a single so it could debut at #1. They didn't count YouTube hits for awhile, and when they finally did, a random French song had a video with girls kissing that went top 10 even though no one ever listened to it. Now Spotify plays give the chart a little more legitimacy, but the whole system is totally arbitrary. Rival chart Cashbox had different songs as the biggest hit of the year throughout the 60s and 70s because they measured different things (and were considerably more corrupt, selling chart positions for cash until that went public in the 90s and they collapsed as a result). Long story short, Billboard is not the greatest measure of popularity. More evidence... BTS's chart success in 2020 is very suspect to me.

More people got Adele than the Beatles? That's heavy... I mean... I feel like I'm drowning over here... ~\o/~

because the beatles are old and adele is now

Please also accept Kimbra for the Gotye song.

You don't include featured artists. You wouldn't include Little John with Yeah!

Ha! Here in New Zealand, Kimbra (from Hamilton, just down the road) got equal billing with Gotye from Belgium.

Of course you wouldn't. He was too busy hanging out with Robin Hood.

careless whisper was not wham, it was michael solo....in the uk anyway , see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Michael_discography

thought the same thing... always known it as a Georgey solo track. it should probably be accepted at least.

although Wham is still accepted. Probably should take that off.

Say what you like, doesn't make it right!

It was released in at least a few countries as Wham! featuring George Michael. Wham! should be an acceptable answer.

I'm part of that very select group of 19 year olds that somehow knows who Sgt. Barry Sadler was... for shame.

I'm impressed with you. I listened to it on the radio when it came out so I would have been shamed not to have gotten it. Am mad at self for not remembering Lulu. I knew she had only one name but just couldn't remember it.

Man. A lot of these songs really do not hold up. A few classics, but most of these are real clunkers.

just goes to show, the best sellers are not the best songs.

The Grammy's will never, never learn that.

Now I'll have that song in my head all day.

So Michael Jackson never had a top charting hit? Wow

Michael Jackson doesn't get one, but Justin Bieber does. Go figure.

Actually, even worse, the top two-charting singles of 2016 were both by Bieber.

Shouldn't it be "Chart-topping Songs by Year"?

If you liked this quiz, check out my similar one: http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/154362/most-popular-song-by-year-1940-2016 It has slightly different answers though.

Crazy that Michael Jackson nor the Bee Gees never had one and even crazier that only one artist did it twice. All hail Paul who is three times greater than any not named John, George or Ringo. He's just 50% better than them :)

But George Michael did have two songs here.

I did have George on my list, although I was only thinking about Harrison when I posted it initially.

No Taylor Swift or Katy Perry? Also, I love Tik Tok.

i see the music snobs are in full force today

Huh, I tried "Isaac Watts" and "Handel" for Joy to the World.

Handel's version only went to Number Two.

Wham should be the answer. It is a quiz based off an American list so it should be the way it appeared on the American Label, "Wham! featuring George Michael". If you want George Micheal to be an acceptable answer so be it. Go search for Careless Whisper record photos. The ones with Columbia on the label (North America was the only place that Columbia released it) it is Wham.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71eTw9bGA5L._SX522_.jpg

Actually it should only be credited to Wham! according to the guidelines that the rest of the quiz uses.

I guess I am going to have to do this once a year until it finally gets updated...

"Careless Whisper" was the number one song in the US for 1985 not the UK where is was the number five song. In the US it was Wham! featuring Gorge Michael. From the Wikipedia article...

The song also topped the charts in 25 other countries, including the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in February 1985 under the credit "Wham! featuring George Michael". Spending three weeks at the top in America, the song was later named Billboard's number-one song of 1985.

Every other song on the quiz that has a featured artist only the credited artist is acceptable much less listed. Please correct.

Surprised Michael Jackson didn't get any. Accidentally got George Michaels and 50 cent by typing his name in though.

Most of these songs are pretty lame, but to get the kind of mass appeal that gets you to Song of the Year, you either need to be really, uncommonly great (see "Bridge Over Troubled Water" or "I Will Always Love You"), or shallow and catchy in a way that hits everyone. I was a teenager in 2001. I don't know anyone who was a devoted Lifehouse fan, or anyone who called Hanging By a Moment their favorite song, but everyone *liked* it. That chorus is impossibly catchy. And that's what does it. It's the kind of song you always hear in bars and restaurants and stores because they know it won't offend anyone and it's a toe-tapper. So this is less about what people love and more about the nature of mass appeal. (I know that distinction sounds minor, but I don't think it is.)

Also remember that from sometime in the mid 60s until the mid 2000s, the single was not how most people purchased music especially by better bands. Lots of good songs were never purchased as singles. The album was how the song was purchased. I think that is a major reason that there are a lot of one hit wonders types from the 70s 80s and 90s.Album sales are somewhat accounted for in the Billboard numbers but not enough to make up for the lost single purchase.

28. Blondie was an easy one I should've gotten

Should be Sam the Sham and the PharaohS plural.

Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In is an absolute banger IMO. Billy Davis Jr. had the voice of a preacher