Crunching the Charts: A Closer Look @ Women's Performance on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100

Singles released by women that did not make the Billboard Year-End Hot 100

I don’t care about hits. It’s kind of my whole “thing” - seeking out the records from the past that have been forgotten or were overlooked. HOWEVER, I recently did a presentation at the Happy Valley Library, and in prep for that I decided to take a closer look at decades of the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 charts to see whether women had achieved greater chart success over time.There has always been a thumb on the scales for record sales & radio play. In the 1950s there was “payola” which involved record companies bribing DJs & others to play records and/or give artists exposure. So, chart success for an artist often depended a lot on which record labels could afford to shell out $$$ AND which artists they wanted to push the most.

After the big Alan Freed payola scandal of 1962, payola was banned. However, it never really went away, it evolved. Radio stations and DJs still received perks and incentives to play records.

What I found in my chart research was shocking, even for someone like me who’s come to expect the worst for women in the music industry. I’m going to address some of my findings over TWO episodes of Respected LadyLand, this one & the next one.

What’s known as the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 chart began in 1959. This chart is an annual ranking of the top hits of the year based on sales, radio airplay, & jukebox activity. What I found when crunching numbers is that the first year-end hot 100 hits list contained only 10 records by women (3 of them 10 were by Connie Francis). Only 7 women made it onto a chart of ONE HUNDRED records.

On this week's episode of Respected LadyLand I’m featuring some of my favorite 1959 singles by women artists that did NOT make the Billboard Hot 100.

I hope you’ll check it out!

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