Joel Whitburn Is No. 1 When It Comes To Pop Music Charts

Joel Whitburn

In 1958, Elvis entered the Army and Joel Whitburn took out his first subscription to Billboard.

Elvis' hitch lasted two years; Whitburn got hooked for life, according to a profile of Whitburn in the Milwaukee Sentinel.

The Menomonee Falls teenager obsessed with tracking the movement of Elvis and Chuck Berry and Brenda Lee and Little Richard and countless others up — and, inevitably, down — the Billboard Hot 100 became the man who realized that his obsession might hold the seed of a profitable business.

Half a century later, his business Record Research still stands. And Whitburn, now 74, still in Menomonee Falls, still enthusiastic about his life's work, remains unchallenged as the pre-eminent authority on America's pop music charts.

His books — he has published more than 130 of them chronicling the record-chart performance of all forms of popular music over the last 70 years — line the reference shelves of critics, disc jockeys, enthusiasts and scholars worldwide.

Whitburn is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And he is meticulously organized.

The shelves in his office hold copies of his scores of books, more than 100 hit-collection CDs issued by Rhino Records with Whitburn as the presenter, a couple of turntables (one for 45s and LPs, another for 78s), a stack of the latest Billboard magazines and a stand-up cutout of Elvis in a gold lamé suit. It's all very neat.

Whitburn's record collection — 150,000 singles, albums and CDs — is even more well tended. It's housed in a vault with walls of a double course of concrete block, a 4-inch Spancrete ceiling and steel doors rated to withstand four hours of fire.

Whitburn's collection includes every record ever listed in the Billboard Hot 100, every record listed in rival and now defunct charts, and every pre-rock-era 78 that charted from 1940 through 1954.

About 10 years ago, Heritage Auctions, of Dallas, said the collection was "known among music enthusiasts the world over as the most complete library of America's most popular recordings of the 20th century."

In an offering for a sealed bid auction that was never held — Whitburn said he wasn't really interested in selling — Heritage set a minimum bid of $4 million.

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