On August 4th, 1958 the song "Poor Little Fool" by Rick Nelson became the first #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
The Hot 100 was designed to track the popularity of individual songs by looking at both the amount of airplay a song is getting as well as sales numbers. This gives good insight into what is popular at a given moment in time. Billboard has changed the weighting between airplay and sales many times over the decades.
In 2003 they started including digital downloads in the equation, and just this year they began including subscription music service streams. So when you click the little "Play" buttons in this post you'll be contributing to each song's numbers!
With 2007 now behind us I thought it a good time to look back at the small number of songs lucky enough to make it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
This year there were 18 songs that made it to the top, and every one of them is available for streaming.
The #1 hits of 2007 in chronological order:
1. Irreplaceable - Beyonce (7 Weeks at #1)
2. Say It Right - Nelly Furtado (1 Week at #1)
3. What Goes Around.../...Comes Around - Justin Timberlake (1 Week at #1)
4. This Is Why I'm Hot - Mims (2 Weeks at #1)
5. Glamorous - Fergie (2 Weeks at #1)
6. Don't Matter - Akon (2 Weeks at #1)
7. Give It To Me - Timbaland (2 Weeks at #1)
8. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne (1 Week at #1)
9. Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5 (3 Weeks at #1)
10. Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin') - T-Pain (1 Week at #1)
11. Umbrella - Rihanna (7 Weeks at #1)
12. Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's (2 Weeks at #1)
13. Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston (4 Weeks at #1)
14. Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie (1 Week at #1)
15. Stronger - Kanye West (1 Week at #1)
16. Crank That (Soulja Boy) - Soulja Boy Tellem (7 Weeks at #1)
17. Kiss Kiss - Chris Brown (3 Weeks at #1)
18. No One - Alicia Keys (5 Weeks at #1)