Information about Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart (formerly known as Adult Contemporary Singles, Easy Listening, and only Adult Contemporary) lists the most popular songs weekly calculated by airplay and occasionally sales in the United States. Billboard magazine publishes this listing which includes adult contemporary and pop songs played on "lite-pop" and adult contemporary radio stations and available for sale in stores across the United States.
Like most other Billboard charts since 1998, airplay-only songs are allowed to enter the Adult Contemporary chart besides commercially available singles. The first song to reach the AC chart without being available as a retail single was Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" in 1977.
In 1965, Billboard revamped the Easy Listening chart to better reflect what middle of the road stations were actually playing, and the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s. Several #1 Easy Listening hits of the late 1960s made the pop chart in only minor positions, "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100, or (as was the case with John Gary's 1967 hit "Cold") failed even to "Bubble Under". In 1967, only one single reached #1 on both the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts - "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra.
By the same token, many of the 1960s hits that later became AC radio staples, such as "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, "Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, "Downtown" by Petula Clark, and "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & The Papas, never made the AC chart when they were first released (or, in the case of "Unchained Melody," did not chart AC until they were re-released years later) because they were considered too "hard" for the middle of the road format of the day. The Beatles and Diana Ross & The Supremes did not enter the AC chart until 1969 (with "Something" and "Someday We'll Be Together," respectively). Songs that were popular on Easy Listening radio during the 1960s have, for the most part, been relegated to the Adult Standards radio format.
This situation began to change toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s, when the texture of much of the music played on Top 40 radio once more began to soften. Contemporary artists who recorded adult-appeal music, such as The Carpenters, Bread, The Fifth Dimension, Barry Manilow, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, Barbra Streisand, and John Denver, began to be played more often on Top 40 radio. Much of the music recorded by singer-songwriters such as Carole King, Carly Simon, James Taylor and Janis Ian got as much, if not more, airplay on AC radio than on Top 40 stations. Easy Listening radio by then had also begun to open its airwaves to artists who had begun in the rock and roll or R&B fields, such as Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, and The Vogues, along with individual singles released by the former Beatles (such as John Lennon's "Imagine" and George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"). Once again, there was a good amount of crossover between the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts, and many more songs reached #1 on both charts.
Billboard changed the name of the Easy Listening chart to the younger-sounding "Adult Contemporary" in 1979, by which time, like most other music formats, the format had transitioned from the AM dial to the FM dial. Since then, the amount of crossover between the AC chart and the Hot 100 has varied based on how much the passing pop music trends of the times appealed to adult listeners. Not many disco or new wave songs were particularly successful on the AC chart during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and much of the hip-hop and harder rock music now featured on CHR formats would be unacceptable on AC. But in the 1980s and 1990s and into the new millennium, artists like Elton John, Cher, Hall & Oates, REO Speedwagon, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Anita Baker, Eric Clapton, Melissa Etheridge, Sarah McLachlan, the Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, and Shania Twain appealed to both CHR and AC listeners.
More recently, AC radio has come to embrace more artists and songs from the softer side of pop rock and alternative rock, from artists such as Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson, Daniel Powter, Natasha Bedingfield, The Fray, Lifehouse, James Blunt, and Daughtry, all of whom have had #1 AC hits. However, relatively few urban contemporary and hip-hop artists manage to successfully cross over to AC, although there have been a few recent exceptions, such as Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," Fergie's hit ballad "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)," and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."
Crossover from the country charts has also been common on the AC chart since the chart began. Among the country stars who had a number of singles cross over to the AC chart (and the pop chart as well) from the 1960s through the 1980s included Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Roger Miller, Ronnie Milsap, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Alabama, Willie Nelson, and Juice Newton. The huge growth of country music as a radio format in the 1990s brought a number of new country crossovers onto the AC airwaves, including Restless Heart, LeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Lonestar, Lee Ann Womack (whose "I Hope You Dance" reached #1 AC as well as Country), and Garth Brooks. More recently, a new wave of country performers has been crossing over to AC, including Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, the Dixie Chicks (who topped the AC chart with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide"), Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, and Big & Rich.
The Contemporary Christian music market has also been relatively successful in crossing over to mainstream radio. In the mid-1980s, one of the biggest CCM artists at the time, Amy Grant, crossed over into secular music with the 1985 single "Find a Way," which became a Top Ten AC hit and a #1 Christian single simultaneously. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, while Grant continued to enjoy AC success, other artists such as MercyMe (including "I Can Only Imagine" and "So Long Self"), Chris Rice ("When Did You Fall (In Love With Me)"), Natalie Grant, Kathy Troccoli, Sixpence None the Richer ("Kiss Me"), and Michael W. Smith (who had a Top Ten Hot 100 and AC hit in 1991 with "Place in this World") have crossed in between the Christian and secular worlds with little disapproval from their fan bases.
Songs released to adult contemporary radio tend to remain at top positions of the chart longer than in many other music formats. "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer, for example, was still at #2 on August 24, 2007, a full year after the song first entered the chart. One reason for this is artists release fewer songs to the format than other formats that may be their "main" style of music (Tim McGraw, for example, released four AC singles over the span of ten country singles). Also the wide chronological breadth of the format - most other formats focus on the last fifteen years or fewer, while AC oftentimes stretches to the 1960s - results in fewer new songs being played in the span of a day or week.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Fifth Dimension, also known as The 5th Dimension, is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes R&B, soul, and jazz.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article may be too long.
..... Click the link for more information.
Like most other Billboard charts since 1998, airplay-only songs are allowed to enter the Adult Contemporary chart besides commercially available singles. The first song to reach the AC chart without being available as a retail single was Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" in 1977.
Chart history and composition
Billboard has published an adult-music chart since July 1961; it was originally called "Easy Listening" and was simply a listing of the top Hot 100 hits of the week excluding songs considered to be rock and roll. The #1 song on the first Easy Listening chart was "The Boll Weevil Song" by Brook Benton; the first female artist to top the chart was Connie Francis with her version of the standard "Together". In the early years of the Easy Listening chart, the top song on the chart was generally always a Top 10 pop hit as well. The methodology for compiling the chart at that time allowed some rock and roll artists, such as Lesley Gore and The Drifters, to make the AC chart on occasion with their softer or ballad releases, regardless of whether Easy Listening and middle of the road radio stations were actually playing those songs. Over the next several years, the chart went by a variety of names, including "Middle-Road Singles" and "Pop-Standard Singles".In 1965, Billboard revamped the Easy Listening chart to better reflect what middle of the road stations were actually playing, and the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s. Several #1 Easy Listening hits of the late 1960s made the pop chart in only minor positions, "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100, or (as was the case with John Gary's 1967 hit "Cold") failed even to "Bubble Under". In 1967, only one single reached #1 on both the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts - "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra.
By the same token, many of the 1960s hits that later became AC radio staples, such as "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, "Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, "Downtown" by Petula Clark, and "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & The Papas, never made the AC chart when they were first released (or, in the case of "Unchained Melody," did not chart AC until they were re-released years later) because they were considered too "hard" for the middle of the road format of the day. The Beatles and Diana Ross & The Supremes did not enter the AC chart until 1969 (with "Something" and "Someday We'll Be Together," respectively). Songs that were popular on Easy Listening radio during the 1960s have, for the most part, been relegated to the Adult Standards radio format.
This situation began to change toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s, when the texture of much of the music played on Top 40 radio once more began to soften. Contemporary artists who recorded adult-appeal music, such as The Carpenters, Bread, The Fifth Dimension, Barry Manilow, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, Barbra Streisand, and John Denver, began to be played more often on Top 40 radio. Much of the music recorded by singer-songwriters such as Carole King, Carly Simon, James Taylor and Janis Ian got as much, if not more, airplay on AC radio than on Top 40 stations. Easy Listening radio by then had also begun to open its airwaves to artists who had begun in the rock and roll or R&B fields, such as Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, and The Vogues, along with individual singles released by the former Beatles (such as John Lennon's "Imagine" and George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"). Once again, there was a good amount of crossover between the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts, and many more songs reached #1 on both charts.
Billboard changed the name of the Easy Listening chart to the younger-sounding "Adult Contemporary" in 1979, by which time, like most other music formats, the format had transitioned from the AM dial to the FM dial. Since then, the amount of crossover between the AC chart and the Hot 100 has varied based on how much the passing pop music trends of the times appealed to adult listeners. Not many disco or new wave songs were particularly successful on the AC chart during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and much of the hip-hop and harder rock music now featured on CHR formats would be unacceptable on AC. But in the 1980s and 1990s and into the new millennium, artists like Elton John, Cher, Hall & Oates, REO Speedwagon, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Anita Baker, Eric Clapton, Melissa Etheridge, Sarah McLachlan, the Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, and Shania Twain appealed to both CHR and AC listeners.
More recently, AC radio has come to embrace more artists and songs from the softer side of pop rock and alternative rock, from artists such as Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson, Daniel Powter, Natasha Bedingfield, The Fray, Lifehouse, James Blunt, and Daughtry, all of whom have had #1 AC hits. However, relatively few urban contemporary and hip-hop artists manage to successfully cross over to AC, although there have been a few recent exceptions, such as Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," Fergie's hit ballad "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)," and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."
Crossover from the country charts has also been common on the AC chart since the chart began. Among the country stars who had a number of singles cross over to the AC chart (and the pop chart as well) from the 1960s through the 1980s included Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Roger Miller, Ronnie Milsap, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Alabama, Willie Nelson, and Juice Newton. The huge growth of country music as a radio format in the 1990s brought a number of new country crossovers onto the AC airwaves, including Restless Heart, LeAnn Rimes, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Lonestar, Lee Ann Womack (whose "I Hope You Dance" reached #1 AC as well as Country), and Garth Brooks. More recently, a new wave of country performers has been crossing over to AC, including Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, the Dixie Chicks (who topped the AC chart with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide"), Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, and Big & Rich.
The Contemporary Christian music market has also been relatively successful in crossing over to mainstream radio. In the mid-1980s, one of the biggest CCM artists at the time, Amy Grant, crossed over into secular music with the 1985 single "Find a Way," which became a Top Ten AC hit and a #1 Christian single simultaneously. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, while Grant continued to enjoy AC success, other artists such as MercyMe (including "I Can Only Imagine" and "So Long Self"), Chris Rice ("When Did You Fall (In Love With Me)"), Natalie Grant, Kathy Troccoli, Sixpence None the Richer ("Kiss Me"), and Michael W. Smith (who had a Top Ten Hot 100 and AC hit in 1991 with "Place in this World") have crossed in between the Christian and secular worlds with little disapproval from their fan bases.
Songs released to adult contemporary radio tend to remain at top positions of the chart longer than in many other music formats. "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer, for example, was still at #2 on August 24, 2007, a full year after the song first entered the chart. One reason for this is artists release fewer songs to the format than other formats that may be their "main" style of music (Tim McGraw, for example, released four AC singles over the span of ten country singles). Also the wide chronological breadth of the format - most other formats focus on the last fifteen years or fewer, while AC oftentimes stretches to the 1960s - results in fewer new songs being played in the span of a day or week.
See also
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view.
Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreviated AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream contemporary popular music, excluding hip hop, hard rock, some teen pop music, and rhythmic dance tracks, which is intended for a mature adult..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
..... Click the link for more information.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.
This article has been tagged since October 2007.
This article has been tagged since October 2007.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1995 1996 1997 - 1998 - 1999 2000 2001
Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII
..... Click the link for more information.
1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1995 1996 1997 - 1998 - 1999 2000 2001
Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII
..... Click the link for more information.
Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris),[1] is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1958 1959 1960 - 1961 - 1962 1963 1964
Year 1961 (MCMLXI
..... Click the link for more information.
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1958 1959 1960 - 1961 - 1962 1963 1964
Year 1961 (MCMLXI
..... Click the link for more information.
Brook Benton (19 September 1931 — 9 April 1988) was an American singer and songwriter most remembered for his mournful R&B ballad, "Rainy Night in Georgia."
..... Click the link for more information.
Biography
Rise to fame
Benjamin Franklin Peay was born 19 September 1931 in Lugoff, South Carolina...... Click the link for more information.
Connie Francis (born December 12, 1938 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American pop singer best known for international hit songs such as "Who's Sorry Now?", "Where The Boys Are", and "Everybody's Somebody's Fool".
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lesley Gore (born May 2, 1946 in New York City as Lesley Sue Goldstein) is an American singer-songwriter of the "girl group era". She is perhaps best known for her 1963 pop hit, "It's My Party," which she recorded at the age of 16.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo wop/R&B vocal group, originally formed by Clyde McPhatter (of Billy Ward & the Dominoes) in 1953.
..... Click the link for more information.
History
The original Drifters
..... Click the link for more information.
Middle of the Road was a Scottish pop group who enjoyed great success across Europe in the early 1970s.
..... Click the link for more information.
Career
They had three major hits in the UK Singles Chart, all of them bubblegum pop classics: "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" (Number 1), "Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum" (Number..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1962 1963 1964 - 1965 - 1966 1967 1968
Year 1965 (MCMLXV
..... Click the link for more information.
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1962 1963 1964 - 1965 - 1966 1967 1968
Year 1965 (MCMLXV
..... Click the link for more information.
- For the U.S. politician of the same name, see John G. Gary.
Early Life
Gary started singing at the age of 5...... Click the link for more information.
Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an Italian American jazz-oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great
..... Click the link for more information.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great
..... Click the link for more information.
Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of popular singer Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They recorded from 1963 through 1975, and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003. Their emotive vocal stylings were sometimes dubbed "blue-eyed soul.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
George Ivan Morrison OBE (generally known as Van Morrison) (born August 31, 1945) is a Grammy Award-winning Northern Irish singer, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician during the last five decades.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has been called for many years "The Queen of Soul", but many also call her "Lady Soul," as well as the more affectionate "Sister Ree.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932), is an English singer, actress and composer best known for her upbeat popular international hits of the 1960s. With more than 70 million records sold worldwide, she is the most successful British female solo recording artist and is cited as
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Mamas & the Papas (credited as The Mama's and the Papa's on the debut album cover) were a leading vocal group of the 1960s. The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968, releasing five albums and achieving ten hit singles; while they were active for a relatively
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Beatles were an English musical group from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Supremes were a Motown all-female singing group. Active as The Supremes from 1961 until 1977, the Supremes performed, at various times, doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, and disco.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1966 1967 1968 - 1969 - 1970 1971 1972
..... Click the link for more information.
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1966 1967 1968 - 1969 - 1970 1971 1972
- Also:
- *:1969 (number)
- *:
..... Click the link for more information.
Adult Standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.
Adult Standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those 50 and older, often considerably older.
..... Click the link for more information.
Adult Standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those 50 and older, often considerably older.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses, see Carpenter (disambiguation).
The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bread was a 1970s rock and roll band from Los Angeles, California. They were one of the most popular rock groups of the early 1970s, a primary example of what later was labeled "soft rock", earning a string of well-crafted, melodic soft rock singles.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses, see Fifth Dimension (disambiguation).
The Fifth Dimension, also known as The 5th Dimension, is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes R&B, soul, and jazz.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.
You can assist by [ editing it] now. A how-to guide is available, as is general .
This article has been tagged since May 2007.
You can assist by [ editing it] now. A how-to guide is available, as is general .
This article has been tagged since May 2007.
This article may be too long.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus
