Ranking the #1 Songs

Since August of 1958, Billboard has been coming out with its "Hot 100," a chart that attempts to determine what the most popular song in the US is at the time. Many songs have made it to #1 over the years. Most of these are because they're good songs with widespread appeal, but as we'll see, there are plenty of bad songs, too.

I have decided to listen to every #1 song in history, and hold a tournament. At one end, I will give my favorite song, and on the other, my least favorite. What will be crowned the best song in history? What will be the worst song to make it to the top of the charts?

I'll first break it down year by year, and then decade by decade. I'll start at the beginning, 1958. Since the chart started in August, I'll have fewer songs to judge this time around.

Here are the contenders (in chronological order of when they first topped the charts):

Poor Little Fool - Ricky Nelson
Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) - Domenico Modugno
Little Star - The Elegants
It's All In The Game - Tommy Edwards
 It's Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty
Tom Dooley - The Kingston Trio
To Know Him, Is To Love Him - The Teddy Bears
The Chipmunk Song - The Chipmunks With David Seville

The first ever song to top the charts was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool." "Poor Little Fool" spent two weeks at number one before it was knocked off by "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)" by Domenico Modugno, an Italian song that would ultimately spend 5 weeks at #1. The only song to spend more time at #1 was Tommy Edwards' "It's All in the Game," which went 6 straight weeks as the top song in the country. The year ended with "The Chipmunk Song," at #1, which has become a Christmas classic.

The Best:

While "It's All in the Game" is a great song, listening to it today, it sounds dated. That is not the case with "Volare," and for that reason, I have to go with it for best song of 1958.



The Worst:

This one was a little trickier. None of the songs are bad, per se, but a few are rather dated. "The Chipmunk Song" is a novelty song, but it also spent 4 weeks at the top (including January 1959), and continues to be played at Christmas time to this day. "Little Star" is basically putting a rock beat behind the lullaby "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star," and "To Know Him, Is to Love Him" is just kind of boring. In the end, I think I'm going to go with "Little Star" for its lack of creativity.