One day I realized that a lot of old songs I wanted to buy were not available on CD. A search showed me that nearly one-third of the Top 40 hits of the 1950s were not on CD at that time. I decided to collect all of the songs I could, starting with the oldest ones, so I would not have to depend on record companies to keep songs in print for when I might want to buy them.
I am up to about 5,000 of the Top 40 hits from 1955 to 2006. That's nearly half of the total songs that made the Top 40 during those 50 years. Many of the songs I don't yet have, like the hits of Barry Manilow, will be easy to buy when I have the hard ones out of the way.
I will post here a list of the Top 40 hits I own. They are not for sale, and certainly not for trade, but a look at my list may help you remember songs you liked, and maybe I can tell you how to find them if you contact me.
I have completed my list of the rock era 1950s songs I own and need. Virtually every song mentioned in The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn is mentioned in the list--if something's missing, I simply overlooked it. Pre-1955 songs are not as thoroughly examined, I'm afraid. I'll update the list soon.
The songs are listed in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. I intended to make a chart here, but it would be huge, and I can't get the software to import the data correctly. The songs are listed by chart date, artist name and song title. Use the tabs at the bottom of the page to see different sorts of the data.
Another goal reached: Thanks to iTunes, eMusic and SpiralFrog, as well as the Now series of CDs, I own every Top 40 hit from 2006. It's the first year I completed, and it was fairly easy to accomplish, thanks to legal downloading. The song list is in another spreadsheet.
Caveat: I have locked the spreadsheets, but if you take the file from any source but directly from my site, you risk having someone hack it and install a virus. Your best bet is to read the sheet here and come back whenever you want to peruse it.