What were the biggest hits of the '70s, '80s and '90s? If you go strictly by weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, the answers are Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" for the '70s, Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" for the '80s and the Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men collaboration "One Sweet Day" for the '90s.
But you could argue that the real biggest hits of bygone decades are those songs that fans are paying to download to this day. None of the monster hits cited above are included on Nielsen/SoundScan's running list of the 200 songs with the most paid downloads.
The vast majority of the songs on that list were hits within the last few years. That's no surprise: These are the songs that have been on the radio most frequently in the period in which has downloading has really taken off. The list of the top 200 songs with the most paid downloads includes just 10 songs from the '70s, '80s, and '90s. And they're not necessarily the songs you might expect. But these are the "blasts from the past"
Read More »from Chart Watch Extra: The 10 Most Downloaded Golden Oldies