It was August 4th, 1958 -- the Billboard Hot 100 was born! In honor of the chart's 65th anniversary Billboard staff has been pulling together a huge list of the top 500 best pop songs.
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00:00 It was August 4th, 1958.
00:02 The Billboard Hot 100 was born.
00:05 In honor of the chart's 65th anniversary,
00:07 Billboard staff has been putting together a huge list
00:10 of the top 500 best pop songs.
00:13 Everything from Tony Bennett to SZA,
00:15 The Kinks to The Chainsmokers,
00:17 Chevy Checker to NSYNC.
00:19 And now we're revealing the top 10,
00:22 coming to you from the people who put the list together.
00:25 Here is the Billboard top 10
00:27 from the 500 best pop songs of all time.
00:31 Let's kick off the top 10 with The Beatles,
00:33 "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."
00:34 ♪ You let me hold your hand ♪
00:38 ♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪
00:40 The Beatles are the group that turned rock music
00:43 into the new pop music.
00:44 They combined the rock and roll of early rockers
00:47 like Little Richard and Chuck Berry,
00:49 melded it with girl group singles.
00:51 The result was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."
00:53 It became the first Beatles song
00:55 to top the Billboard Hot 100.
00:57 This was the song that had a generation of teenagers
01:00 losing their minds, screaming in the streets,
01:02 ripping their clothes off.
01:03 The Beatles were the original boy band,
01:05 and this is the song where all that started.
01:07 ♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪
01:11 (crowd cheering)
01:13 Coming in at our number nine spot,
01:16 Tupac featuring Dr. Dre, "California Love."
01:19 ♪ Bumping and grinding like a slow jam ♪
01:21 ♪ It's west side so you know to roll a bell ♪
01:23 ♪ Damn, the no man ♪
01:24 This was the song that the last 10 years
01:26 of West Coast rap had been leading up to.
01:28 Dr. Dre had been the best producer for about a decade.
01:31 Tupac had been the best rapper for about a half decade.
01:34 So Tupac gets out of jail, he comes to Death Row Records,
01:37 he gets a Dr. Dre beat, and they make "California Love."
01:39 It's one of the best rap songs of the decade,
01:42 and it does what all the best rap songs do,
01:43 which is that it's super local to the West Coast,
01:45 but it's super global in its appeal.
01:47 We talked about what rap songs
01:49 should sort of be the highest on this list,
01:50 and "California Love" is sort of the beginning of the era
01:53 where rap music could be pop music.
01:55 Today, rap is the most popular music on the globe.
01:57 It's more popular than pop, even.
01:59 At its heart, pop stands for popular,
02:01 and this was the most popular music at the time,
02:03 and it was the number one hit,
02:04 and it's a song that everybody still remembers.
02:06 ♪ Only in Cali where we riot, not rally ♪
02:08 ♪ So live and die ♪
02:09 ♪ In L.A. we wear chucks, not belly ♪
02:10 ♪ Yeah, that's right ♪
02:11 Now let's move on to the song in our number eight spot.
02:14 Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe."
02:16 ♪ But here's my number ♪
02:18 ♪ So call me maybe ♪
02:19 During the birth of the streaming age,
02:22 "Call Me Maybe" was a early viral video.
02:25 It proliferated on the internet,
02:27 it became huge over the course of weeks and months,
02:31 and then radio and streaming platforms
02:33 and TV and award shows all latched on.
02:36 It hit number one on the Hot 100,
02:38 it stayed there for nine weeks.
02:39 "Call Me Maybe" was the type of enormous hit
02:42 that is career-defining.
02:43 It will always be her biggest hit.
02:45 ♪ Hey, I just met you ♪
02:47 ♪ And this is crazy ♪
02:49 ♪ But here's my number ♪
02:51 Coming in at number seven is Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."
02:54 ♪ Billie Jean is my number ♪
02:57 When "Billie Jean" came out in 1983,
03:01 not only was it this new sound
03:03 that we had never heard from Michael Jackson,
03:05 it was a new sound completely for any artist.
03:09 Between his vocal delivery
03:12 and Quincy Jones' impeccable, pristine production,
03:17 it was a revelation.
03:19 And it was also Michael Jackson talking about something
03:23 he'd never talked about before.
03:24 The song is about an illegitimate child,
03:27 and he's saying, "This child is not my kid."
03:29 ♪ The kid is not my son ♪
03:32 It just set the world on fire.
03:34 And then, what I really remember about it personally
03:38 is on Motown's 25th anniversary television special,
03:42 he performed it and he did the moonwalk
03:44 on TV for the first time.
03:45 It felt like the country just exploded,
03:48 and then it got added to MTV
03:50 and was one of the first videos by a black artist
03:53 to be in heavy rotation.
03:55 So it really was not only an incredible song,
03:59 it was an incredible cultural moment.
04:01 ♪ Then showed a photo of a baby crying ♪
04:04 ♪ His eyes were like mine ♪
04:07 ♪ Go and dance all night ♪
04:08 Now let's move on to the song
04:09 that is in our number six spot, Madonna's "Like a Prayer."
04:13 ♪ Just like a prayer ♪
04:14 ♪ Your skin take me there ♪
04:17 Madonna is pop music.
04:18 Like, she just completely and utterly defines what pop is,
04:23 and we had to have her in our top 10
04:25 because she is just a pop legend,
04:27 and this is her quintessential pop hit.
04:30 Of course, when the song was released,
04:31 it was a little controversial,
04:33 especially because of the music video,
04:35 which included burning crosses,
04:37 it included an interracial kiss.
04:38 She even lost the Pepsi sponsorship over it.
04:40 But in the end, the song was just too big to deny,
04:44 and it got past all that controversy
04:46 and just became a timeless classic.
04:49 ♪ Just like a prayer ♪
04:51 ♪ Your skin take me there ♪
04:53 ♪ Just like a muse to me ♪
04:55 Our number five is Kelly Clarkson, "Since You Been Gone."
04:57 ♪ Since you been gone ♪
05:01 ♪ I can't breathe for the first time ♪
05:04 We put Kelly Clarkson at number five
05:06 because "Since You Been Gone" encapsulates
05:07 the perfect pop song structure.
05:09 You have soft verses, a large chorus,
05:11 and an even bigger bridge.
05:12 This is the lead single from her second album, "Breakaway,"
05:15 and it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
05:17 ♪ So move it on, yeah, yeah ♪
05:21 Now let's move on to the song in our number four spot,
05:23 the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way."
05:25 ♪ I want it that way ♪
05:28 "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys
05:31 was peak Backstreet Boys.
05:33 It's one of those perfect encapsulations
05:35 of the late '90s bubblegum pop.
05:37 It's a mid-tempo track,
05:39 has the amazing harmonies that Backstreet Boys
05:41 were known for, and of course,
05:43 that beautiful production from Max Martin,
05:46 who we know did a lot of the really popular songs
05:49 from the 1990s in the pop genre.
05:51 ♪ Tell me why it ain't nothing but a lie ♪
05:55 ♪ Tell me why ♪
05:57 The Temptations' "My Girl" is number three on our list.
05:59 ♪ Back in the morning ♪
06:03 ♪ Talking 'bout all my lies ♪
06:06 "My Girl" is the kind of song
06:07 that everybody knows that it's great,
06:08 but nobody really thinks about its greatness
06:10 because it's just kind of self-evident.
06:12 "My Girl" has existed for almost 60 years now,
06:15 and it's just sort of in the ether.
06:16 It's just kind of part of our lives,
06:18 and we don't really think about it,
06:19 but the greatness is self-evident
06:21 because it's still around, you know?
06:22 And it's written by Smokey Robinson,
06:24 who's very arguably the greatest pop songwriter of all time,
06:27 so it's no surprise that the song
06:30 still kind of resonates today,
06:31 again, nearly 60 years after it was released.
06:33 ♪ I've got sunshine ♪
06:37 ♪ On a cloudy day ♪
06:40 Our number two is ABBA's "Dancing Queen."
06:42 ♪ You are the dancing queen ♪
06:46 ♪ Young and sweet ♪
06:47 "Dancing Queen" is so high on our list
06:50 because in a lot of ways,
06:51 what does seem like a very simple, straightforward song
06:55 is really quite an achievement.
06:57 There's a lot going on here.
06:58 There's a lot going on with their vocal harmonies.
07:00 It takes a lot of effort and a lot of sophistication
07:03 and planning to sound this effortless,
07:06 and what ABBA was so good at
07:07 is doing it without ever letting you see any of those scenes.
07:11 "Dancing Queen" is a disco song.
07:14 Most people don't really think of it that way,
07:16 in the same way that you kind of think
07:17 of a Bee Gees song as a disco song,
07:20 because there's something just so pure and liberating
07:22 about it that it's transcended the moment.
07:24 It's transcended the era.
07:26 This is a song for everyone.
07:27 It gets everyone dancing.
07:28 It makes everyone happy.
07:30 It makes everyone feel like they are
07:31 a 17-year-old dancing queen.
07:33 ♪ See that girl ♪
07:36 ♪ Watch that scene ♪
07:37 ♪ Diggin' dancing queen ♪
07:40 - Coming in at number one is Whitney Houston's
07:42 "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."
07:44 ♪ Oh, I wanna dance with somebody ♪
07:48 ♪ I wanna feel the heat with somebody ♪
07:50 - Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"
07:52 is our number one song
07:53 because it did everything a perfect pop song should do.
07:56 It served a specific purpose of Whitney's career,
07:58 made her more than just a balladeer
07:59 and showed that she can compete with the big pop dogs,
08:02 but it also transcended its era and its genre,
08:05 becoming an anthem for people of all walks of life
08:07 around the world.
08:07 ♪ With somebody who loves me ♪
08:11 ♪ Oh, I wanna dance with somebody ♪