Editor’s Note: The Bean managed to post this by writing it and having someone else send it to us for posting to 100b. That’s dedication. It’s what we do and how much we dig blogging for you.

So after moving to a whole new country and spending many hours drowning in boxes, I finally have the time and energy to scribble something down for our lovely blog. The problem is, I don’t have any of those handy internets in my new house yet. So I went old school on this post and used books. Yup, those paper things that take way longer to search through than getting information from the tubes.

All I could really use to look up chart information was Rock & Pop: Year By Year by Luke Crampton and Dafydd Rees, a great overview of popular music since 1954, like the title says, year by year. I started at the beginning - 1954, commonly believed to be the birth year of Rock ‘n Roll - and checked out the songs that held the #1 spot every 10 years. I also had a look at the amazing songs that weren’t nearly as popular yet have become classics over the years.

1954
Perry Como - Wanted
Kitty Kallen - Little Things Mean A Lot

Both of these songs held the top spot for 9 weeks. Have you ever heard of either of them? Nope, me neither. And somehow, Crew-Cuts’ “Sh-Boom” - probably the best doo-wop pop song ever - only held the spot for 7 weeks.

   Crew-Cuts - Sh-Boom

1964
The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand

Number 1 for 7 weeks. Which is pretty awesome, I really can’t find any fault with that.

1974
Barbara Streisand - The Way We Were
Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun
Ray Stevens - The Streak
Paul Anka - (You’re) Having My Baby

All of these spent three weeks at number 1. The only one I even know is “The Way We Were”, which I do enjoy for the cheese factor, but there’s no way it’s better than:

   John Lennon with The Plastic Ono Band - Whatever Gets You Thru The Night

which only got to shine for one measly week. That’s just wrong.

1984
Madonna - Like A Virgin

“Like A Virgin” spent 7 weeks at the top. I’m ok with that.

1994
Boyz II Men - I’ll Make Love To You

Boyz II Men really rocked 1994. “I’ll Make Love To You” was number 1 for 14 damn weeks, which was followed by their next single, “On Bended Knee”. Lisa Loeb had a respectable 3 weeks with this 90s classic:

   Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Stay (I Missed You)

2002 *
Ashanti - Foolish
Nelly ft Kelly Rowland - Dilemma

These two songs spent 10 weeks at the top of the chart each, but I don’t remember that Ashanti song. Was it that one where she sang a a little and danced a little and made sultry badass faces? Hmm. Like everyone else, I liked “Dilemma”. But not as much as I liked “Lose Yourself”, which was at number 1 for 8 weeks in 2002 and I hope stayed on for at least a few more weeks into the next year.* This anthem just has to have beat out a song I can’t even remember.

   Eminem - Lose Yourself

* The book is awesome but it only goes up to 2002. Hey, I think I done pretty good for an internet-less post, even if the whole thing is a tiny bit pointless.