Monday, September 6, 2021

Billboard: Best Sellers, 1940-1958

Billboard’s Best Sellers:

1940-1958

Billboard magazine started its best seller chart in 1940. It tracked the songs which sold the most according to surveys of stores which sold music. The chart ran until 1958 when it was merged, along with charts of the biggest DJ hits and jukebox hits, into the Billboard Hot 100.

These, however, were the biggest #1 songs on the Billboard Best Sellers chart from 1940 to 1958. All songs which spent four weeks or more at #1 are listed here. Ties are broken by songs’ overall Dave’s Music Database points.

See other chart-based lists here and specific Billboard lists here.

13 weeks:

Artie Shaw “Frenesi” (1940)
The Weavers with Gordon Jenkins’ Orchestra “Goodnight Irene” (1950)
12 weeks:
Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra with Frank Sinatra & the Pied Pipers “I’ll Never Smile Again” (1940)
Francis Craig with Bob Lamm “Near You” (1947)
Ted Weems with Elmo Tanner “Heartaches” (1947)
11 weeks:
Elvis Presley “Don’t Be Cruel” (1956) /
Elvis Presley “Hound Dog” (1956)
Vaughn Monroe “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” (1949)
Johnnie Ray & the Four Lads “Cry” (1951)
Les Paul with Mary Ford “Vaya Con Dios (May God Be with You)” (1953)
Anton Karas “The Third Man Theme” (1950)
10 weeks:
Dinah Shore & Her Harper Valley Boys “Buttons and Bows” (1948)
The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” (1946)
Perry Como “Till the End of Time” (1945)
Vaughn Monroe’s Orchestra “Ballerina” (1947)
Percy Faith with Felicia Sanders “Where Is Your Heart (Song from “Moulin Rouge”)” (1953)
Perez “Prez” Prado “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” (1955)
9 weeks:
Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” (1945)
Patti Page “Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
Bing Crosby with John Scottt Trotter’s Orchestra “Swinging on a Star” (1944)
Les Paul & Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (1951)
Guy Mitchell “Singing the Blues” (1956)
Kitty Kallen with Jack Pleis’ Orchestra “Little Things Mean a Lot” (1954)
Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour’s Orchestra “Manana Is Soon Enough for Me” (1948)
Kay Starr “Wheel of Fortune” (1952)
Vera Lynn with Ronald Shaw’s Orchestra “Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart” (1952)
Bing Corsby “Only Forever” (1940)
8 weeks:
Bill Haley & the Comets “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock” (1954)
Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel” / “I Was the One” (1956)
Elvis Presley “All Shook Up” (1957)
Pee Wee Hunt “Twelfth Street Rag” (1948)
The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen’s Orchestra “Rum and Coca-Cola” (1945)
Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters “Don’t Fence Me In” (1944)
Tonny Bennett with Percy Faith’s Orchestra “Because of You” (1951)
Frankie Laine with Jud Conlon’s Rhythmaires “That Lucky Old Sun” (1949)
Patti Page “The Doggie in the Window” (1953)
Perry Como with Hugo Winterhalter’s Orchestar “Wanted” (1954)
Eddie Fisher with Hugo Winterhalter’s Orchestra “O Mein Papa (Oh My Papa)” (1953) Frankie Carle with Marjorie Hughes “Rumors Are Flying” (1946)
7 weeks:
Elvis Presley “Jailhouse Rock” (1957)
Tennessee Ernie Ford “Sixteen Tons” (1955)
Nat “King” Cole with Frank DeVol’s Orchestra “Nature Boy” (1948)
Jo Mercer with the Pied Pipers “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” (1945)
The Chordettes “Mr. Sandman” (1954)
Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen “Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)” (1944)
Elvis Presley “Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear” (1957)
Evelyn Knight & the Stardusters “A Little Bird Told Me” (1948)
The Crew-Cuts “Sh-Boom” (1954)
Les Brown with Doris Day “My Dreams Are Getting Bigger All the Time” (1945)
Sammy Kaye with Billy Williams “The Old Lamplighter” (1946)
Russ Morgan & the Skylarks “Cruising Down the River on a Sunday Afternoon” (1949)
6 weeks:
Mitch Miller “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1955)
The McGuire Sisters “Sincerely” (1954)
Frankie Carle & Marjorie Hughes “Oh What It Seemed to Be” (1946)
Tex Williams “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” (1947)
Frankie Laine & the Muleskinners “Mule Train” (1949)
Rosemary Clooney with Buddy Cole “Hey There” (1954)
Gogi Grant “Thw Wayward Wind” (1956)
Sheb Wooley “The Purple People Eater” (1958)
Kay Kyser with Gloria Wood “Woody Woodpecker” (1948)
Perry Como with Mitchell Ayres Orchestra “If (They Made Me a King)” (1951)
Tony Bennett with Percy Faith’s Orchestra “Rags to Riches” (1953)
Rosemary Clooney “Come on-a My House” (1951)
Tony Bennett with Percy Faith’s Orchestra “Cold Cold Heart” (1951)
5 weeks:
Elvis Presley “Love Me Tender” / “Any Way You Want Me” (1956)
Danny & The Juniors “At the Hop” (1957)
Nat “King” Cole “Mona Lisa” (1950)
Jo Stafford “You Belong to Me” (1952)
Vaughn Monroe “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (1945)
Perry Como “Some Enchanted Evening” (1949)
Domenico Modugno “Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blue)” (1958)
The Champs “Tequila” (1958)
Pat Boone “Love Letters in the Sand” (1957)
Nat “King” Cole “Too Young” (1951)
Shep Fields with Hal Derwin “South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)” (1939)
Eddy Howard “To Each His Own” (1946)
Bill Hayes “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (1955)
The Mills Brothers “You Always Hurt the One You Love” (1944)
Dean Martin “Memories Are Made of This” (1955)
Perry Como & the Ramblers with Mitchell Ayres’ Orchestra “Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” (1952)
Glen Gray with Eugenie Baird “My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?)” (1943)
Teresa Brewer with Jack Pleis’ Orchestra “Till I Waltz Again with You” (1952)
Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra “I Love You” (1944)
Patti Page “I Went to Your Wedding” (1954)
Elvis Presley “Don’t” (1958)
Tab Hunter “Young Love” (1956)
Leroy Anderson & His “Pops” Concert Orchestra “Blue Tango” (1951)
4 weeks:
The Everly Brothers “All I Have to Do Is Dream” (1958)
Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944)
The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” (1947)
Roger Williams “Autumn Leaves” (1955)
Harry James with Dick Haymes “I’ll Get by As Long As I Have You” (1941)
Vic Damone “You’re Breaking My Heart” (1949)
The Andrews Sisters with Gordon Jenkin’s Orchestra “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” (1949)
Dinah Shore “I’ll Walk Alone” (1944)
Red Foley “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy” (1950)
Teresa Brewer with the Dixieland All Stars “Music! Music! Music!” (1950)
Les Baxter “The Poor People of Paris” (1956)
Joni James with Lew Douglas’ Orchestra “Why Don’t You Believe Me” (1952)
Phil Harris with Walter Scharf’s Orchestra “The Thing” (1950)
Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra “Lisbon Antigua” (1955)
Stan Freberg with Daws Butler & June Foray “St. George and the Dragonet” (1953)