Billboard's Year End #1s - In Order Quiz

Originally written in 1931 to be sung on the stage, it was rejected by Flo Ziegfeld, the head of the Ziegfeld Follies, as just not a good fit because of the lyrics. The writer, Russ Columbo, started performing it on his own radio show. It gained traction and was eventually covered by numerous other artists, becoming a major hit for Perry Como, and also the Inkspots, but was even covered by James Brown, Les Paul, and Frank Sinatra.

Its main distinction is as the first Billboard Year-End Number One (1946), but if you are a fan of great movies, you may have heard it in the classic, "Raging Bull".

Probably the saddest song on this list, "Heartbreak Hotel" was inspired by a news report of a lonely young man who had jumped to his death from a hotel window. The single was Presley's first million selling record and his first at RCA after jumping ship from SUN Records. Elvis loved this song and performed it at most shows from its release in 1956 till his last concert in 1977.

Though remembered as being written by the Beach Boys, the song is actually the product of both Brian Wilson and Chuck Berry, as the music is from Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen". The song mentions fourteen surfing spots in the USA, all of them but one in California, and a surprising fifteenth in Australia.
[1963]

The only (admitted) fictional band on the list, "The Archies" were supposedly a band made up of members from the Archie Comics (Jughead on drums). Amazingly hitting the number one spot in 1969 and selling over 3,000,000 units this piece of Bazooka Joe bubble gum schlock is the earworm to beat all earworms.

A vapid and vanilla song, no rant about how insipid this piece of art is could better sum it up than this simple fact...the single was available for free with the purchase of any box of "Super Sugar Crisp" cereal.

Tom & Jerry, who had become Simon and Garfunkel by this time, were extremely successful musicians who had released a string of hits and moved off into other projects - Simon continuing writing while Garfunkel acted in an adaptation of "Catch-22". Garfunkel's acting career would peak with the soft-core porn movie "Carnal Knowledge" where he starred alongside Jack Nicholson.

The eponymous album is chock-full of hits including "The Boxer", "El Condor Pasa" and of course "Bridge". The song, written entirely by Simon, but sung solo by Garfunkel, was one of the last straws to snap in the frayed relationship that broke up one of the better song duos of the 70s. Luckily, Simon would don a lampshade for a second great collaboration...Chevy Chase on the trombone.
[1970]

Prince, a songwriter who lives in the pantheon of names like Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Hal David, and Don Pomus, could churn out songs like no other. This hit was reputedly written in a single night after his director on the film "Purple Rain" asked Prince to write a song about domestic strife.

The next day Prince gave him "When Doves Cry", which became Squiggle's (then known as Prince) first number one hit. The amount of music that Squiggle subsequently created is astounding - he wrote "Nothing Compares 2U" for Sinead O'Connor, "Kiss" for Tom Jones, "Manic Monday" for the Bangles, "I Feel for You" for Chaka Khan... Reportedly, "the vault" at Paisley Park contains over 8,000 songs that Squiggle wrote, before the elevator finally did let him down. [1984]

This 1991 power ballad ranks right up there with the most played love songs of all time, standing next to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", and the GOAT, Whitney's "I Will Always Love You". Like "Heart" this is from a movie, "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".

A film that saw Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, doing the greatest English accent by an American since Dick Van Dyke gave us Bert from "Mary Poppins". It hit number one on the charts in 19 countries and was number one for seven weeks in the USA.

It sold over four million copies and continues to get play in its original and cover versions.

The best cut off Usher's fourth album, "Confessions", had a long and winding road to the top. Originally, Usher (hot take, a third-rate musician), submitted his album to his label, Arista. It was seen as mediocre and so a true talent, Lil John, was brought in to pump it up. Like all great writers, Lil John had a closet full of beats to drop and he and Usher decided on one to headline the album. However, another studio had, unbeknownst to Lil John, purchased that track from an option contract and so he had to come up with a replacement ASAP. He hit the studio and produced the 2004 hit, "Yeah!"

Usher, displaying his usual taste and foresight, didn't think the song was all that good and was considering dropping "Yeah!" in favour of a decent mid- track, "Burn". Lil John got hot and leaked "Yeah!" to DJs all across the country during the Christmas break when the studios were closed. It got HUGE play and a giant fan base, as Lil John knew it would. By the time everyone rolled back into the studios after the New Year, it was already a hit and Usher, ever the gentleman, claimed all the glory for this banger of a track.

While Pharrell was the original author of the song, he wrote it for CeeLo Green who recorded it, but eventually passed because he was about to release a Christmas album and he didn't want it to interfere with that project. Pharrell then recorded it himself and released it in 2013, when it became the eighth highest selling single of all time.

Many more things could be said about this poppy and uptempo neo-soul classic, but the highest praise must be that Weird Al recorded the amazing parody song "Tacky" based on this work.

This EDM club song was a strong hit in 2021. It is heavily influenced by nu-disco, so much so that the middle of the song has a Debbie Harry "Rapture" style rap in it. As with much music from the early 2000s, there are several remixes that also hit on streaming. Two notable ones are from The Blessed Madonna, with samples from Madonna and Missy Elliot. In the promotional video for the song, Missy actually appears.

The second remix, from DaBaby, took a hit when he did a live show and told his audience to hold up their phone lights if they didn't have HIV or AIDS. Sales fell.