Joel Whitburn Ranking of Artists

I have been using his books for many years.

I originally bought
Top Pop 1955 - 1972

Then I bought the yearly supplements

Later I purchased Top Pop Singles 1955 - 2002
to aid in my collecting of songs

He has a way of ranking artists, which I usually agree with

Here is the top 10
1. Elvis Presley
2. The Beatles
3. Elton John
4. Madonna
5. Stevie Wonder
6. James Brown
7. Michael Jackson
8. The Rolling Stones
9. Janet Jackson
10. Aretha Franklin

I agree with all of the names except one.
I guess my age is showing,
but I really didn't believe that
Janet Jackson had that big of an
impact upon the music scene.

Maybe someone can enlighten me.

edafan

Isn't he with Billboard? If so, then the criteria for the list is based on sales and chart positions. And Janet Jackson had some huge selling albums and a number of top ten songs.

Yes, he says he uses Billboard

edafan

My real question, why is MJ NO.7???? Elton John outranks him?????

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Originally Posted by Ngroove

My real question, why is MJ NO.7???? Elton John outranks him?????

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You can't argue with record sales and radio airplay. Personal preference does not enter into it. face it: Elton John has sold more records, tapes, and CDs than Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson was HUGE in the 80s and 90s.

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Originally Posted by soulster

You can't argue with record sales and radio airplay. Personal preference does not enter into it. face it: Elton John has sold more records, tapes, and CDs than Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson was HUGE in the 80s and 90s.

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Just thought MJ was bigger; the self-proclaimed "King of Pop"; not gonna argue Janet though, as she was consistent from mid 80s through early 00s.

Although, am impressed, for the list being evaluated be Billboard POP, how high James Brown and Aretha Franklin is; for Aretha, her number ones were just "Respect" and 80s power duet "I Knew You Were Waiting [[For Me), and James Brown, never made one. So I'd assume Prince or Mariah Carey be higher up, wherever their place is, assumably in top 20, in place of them, but James and Aretha's quality deserves their placement all the same.

What years does this list cover? It doesn't seem to be complete without Mariah Carey.

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Originally Posted by Ngroove

Just thought MJ was bigger; the self-proclaimed "King of Pop"; not gonna argue Janet though, as she was consistent from mid 80s through early 00s.

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Think about it: Both Elton John and Michael Jackson hit the big-time roughly around the same time. Jackson got a bigger head-start, but petered-out just when John got going. Remember Elton John's records, now, Hit after hit, after hit! Where was Michael all that time between 1973 and 1976? Languishing at Motown while Elton John was busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest, selling millions of top 10 and #1 records.

"Thriller" brought Michael unheard of wealth, fame, and fortune, but it was a spurt compared to what Elton did almost consistently. Michael was all over radio with "Thriller", "Bad", a little bit of "Off The Wall", but "The Bitch Is Back", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Your Song", "Crocodile Rock", "Daniel", Don't let The Sun Go Down On Me", "Island Girl", "Rocket Man", "Sorry Seems To be The Hardest Word", "Mama Can't "buy You Love", Someone Saved My Life Tonight", "I Guess That' Why They Call It The Blues", "Candle" in The Wind"...and I could keep going! Michael had "Ben", "I Wanna be Where You Are", and I don't even remember "Got To be There" on the radio. How many albums has Michael made compared to Elton?

It isn't hard to see why Elton John ranked higher than Michael. The real head-scratcher is Whitney Houston. She sold big, but she was big at a time when a lot of people stopped looking.