Eras
Who was the most powerful artist in a year, who dominated a decade, who held #1 the longest. Every figure is a defined metric summed or maximised over a date range of stored weekly rows — nothing is weighted by opinion.
Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart combined, weighted · UK Singles Chart data ends Aug 1, 2025 · How it works
Each week an artist's share is the weighted mean of their Power Share across Billboard Hot 100 ×1 and UK Singles Chart ×0.45 (weights ∝ √population, US = 1). The divisor is every chart's weight, so a number one is worth the same share in any era — and a week before every chart exists, or after one's data ends, sums to less than 100.
UK Singles Chart data runs to Aug 1, 2025; later weeks combine the Billboard Hot 100 only, so their shares — and the most recent years' Era Power — are lower than a full week's would be.
Leader of every year
Column height = the leader's average Power Share over the period. Click a column to explore that range.
- The Beatles4 periods
- Madonna3 periods
- Frankie Laine2 periods
- Elvis Presley2 periods
- Michael Jackson2 periods
- Elton John2 periods
- Bee Gees2 periods
- TLC2 periods
- Destiny's Child2 periods
- Bruno Mars2 periods
- The Weeknd2 periods
- Drake2 periods
- Bing Crosby1 period
- Ruby Murray1 period
- Bill Haley And His Comets1 period
- The Everly Brothers1 period
- Paul Anka1 period
- Connie Francis1 period
- Chubby Checker1 period
- Roy Orbison1 period
- The Monkees1 period
- Creedence Clearwater Revival1 period
- Jackson 51 period
- Carpenters1 period
- Eagles1 period
- Fleetwood Mac1 period
- Donna Summer1 period
- Queen1 period
- Daryl Hall John Oates1 period
- John Cougar1 period
- Lionel Richie1 period
- George Michael1 period
- Bobby Brown1 period
- Janet Jackson1 period
- Mariah Carey1 period
- Boyz II Men1 period
- Whitney Houston1 period
- Ace Of Base1 period
- Celine Dion1 period
- Spice Girls1 period
- Savage Garden1 period
- Ashanti1 period
- 50 Cent1 period
- Usher1 period
- Kelly Clarkson1 period
- Chris Brown1 period
- Fergie1 period
- Rihanna1 period
- Lady Gaga1 period
- Ke$ha1 period
- Flo Rida1 period
- Sam Smith1 period
- Ed Sheeran1 period
- Post Malone1 period
- Olivia Rodrigo1 period
- Harry Styles1 period
- Taylor Swift1 period
- Sabrina Carpenter1 period
- Morgan Wallen1 period
- Ella Langley1 period
Leaders in 1957
Jan 5, 1957 → Dec 28, 1957 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Elvis Presley68
- 2Pat Boone63
- 3Lonnie Donegan52
- 4Harry Belafonte45
- 5Guy Mitchell43
- 6Tommy Steele and the Steelmen42
- 7Johnnie Ray38
- 8Little Richard34
- 9Frankie Vaughan29
- 10Paul Anka27
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elvis Presley | 68 | 1.31% | 2.46% | 1.99% | 25 | 32 | 45 |
| 2 | Pat Boone | 63 | 1.21% | 1.76% | 1.43% | 2 | 30 | 49 |
| 3 | Lonnie Donegan | 52 | 1.01% | 1.88% | 1.28% | 4 | 19 | 52 |
| 4 | Harry Belafonte | 45 | 0.87% | 1.58% | 1.20% | 0 | 18 | 44 |
| 5 | Guy Mitchell | 43 | 0.82% | 1.81% | 1.42% | 3 | 19 | 39 |
| 6 | Tommy Steele and the Steelmen | 42 | 0.80% | 1.72% | 1.05% | 0 | 8 | 47 |
| 7 | Johnnie Ray | 38 | 0.73% | 1.46% | 1.07% | 2 | 13 | 42 |
| 8 | Little Richard | 34 | 0.66% | 2.03% | 1.22% | 5 | 11 | 36 |
| 9 | Frankie Vaughan | 29 | 0.55% | 1.85% | 1.19% | 4 | 7 | 27 |
| 10 | Paul Anka | 27 | 0.52% | 1.89% | 1.29% | 3 | 17 | 21 |
| 11 | Charlie Gracie | 26 | 0.49% | 1.42% | 0.94% | 0 | 6 | 32 |
| 12 | Tab Hunter | 25 | 0.49% | 1.81% | 1.22% | 3 | 16 | 21 |
| 13 | Malcolm Vaughan | 22 | 0.42% | 1.14% | 0.81% | 0 | 2 | 27 |
| 14 | Bing Crosby | 21 | 0.40% | 0.97% | 0.71% | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 15 | Petula Clark | 20 | 0.39% | 1.12% | 0.83% | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| 16 | The Everly Brothers | 19 | 0.37% | 1.10% | 0.80% | 0 | 2 | 24 |
| 17 | Nat King Cole | 19 | 0.37% | 1.22% | 0.81% | 1 | 6 | 23 |
| 18 | Russ Hamilton | 19 | 0.36% | 1.06% | 0.74% | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| 19 | Ronnie Hilton | 18 | 0.35% | 1.18% | 0.77% | 0 | 5 | 23 |
| 20 | King Brothers | 18 | 0.34% | 0.98% | 0.68% | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| 21 | Andy Williams | 17 | 0.33% | 1.33% | 0.84% | 0 | 9 | 20 |
| 22 | Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys | 16 | 0.31% | 1.15% | 0.82% | 0 | 1 | 18 |
| 23 | Bill Haley And His Comets | 16 | 0.31% | 1.68% | 1.67% | 0 | 8 | 13 |
| 24 | Fats Domino | 16 | 0.30% | 1.45% | 0.74% | 0 | 2 | 21 |
| 25 | Debbie Reynolds | 15 | 0.29% | 1.21% | 0.81% | 0 | 5 | 17 |
| 26 | The Diamonds | 15 | 0.28% | 1.06% | 0.73% | 0 | 5 | 17 |
| 27 | Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers | 15 | 0.28% | 1.53% | 0.74% | 0 | 3 | 17 |
| 28 | The Crickets | 14 | 0.27% | 1.28% | 0.77% | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| 29 | Vipers Skiffle Group | 11 | 0.22% | 0.90% | 0.58% | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| 30 | Jim Dale | 11 | 0.21% | 1.10% | 0.70% | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| 31 | Frankie Laine | 10 | 0.20% | 1.39% | 1.03% | 0 | 2 | 16 |
| 32 | Peggy Lee | 10 | 0.19% | 0.97% | 0.57% | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 33 | Charles McDevitt Skiffle Group | 10 | 0.19% | 0.80% | 0.49% | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 34 | Slim Whitman | 10 | 0.19% | 0.91% | 0.57% | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 35 | David Whitfield | 9 | 0.18% | 0.89% | 0.57% | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| 36 | Grace Kelly | 9 | 0.18% | 0.53% | 0.44% | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| 37 | Jerry Lee Lewis | 9 | 0.18% | 1.29% | 0.52% | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| 38 | The Platters | 9 | 0.17% | 1.04% | 0.91% | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| 39 | Shirley Bassey | 8 | 0.16% | 0.94% | 0.50% | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 40 | Tony Brent | 8 | 0.16% | 0.68% | 0.42% | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| 41 | Eddie Fisher | 8 | 0.16% | 1.04% | 0.71% | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 42 | Terry Dene | 8 | 0.15% | 0.75% | 0.44% | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| 43 | Billy Ward and His Dominoes | 7 | 0.14% | 0.77% | 0.43% | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 44 | Frankie Vaughan and the Kaye Sisters | 7 | 0.13% | 1.01% | 0.48% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 45 | Winifred Atwell | 7 | 0.13% | 1.04% | 0.65% | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 46 | Sal Mineo | 6 | 0.12% | 0.68% | 0.41% | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 47 | Gracie Fields | 6 | 0.12% | 0.87% | 0.41% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 48 | Peter Sellers | 6 | 0.12% | 0.68% | 0.39% | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 49 | Max Bygraves | 6 | 0.11% | 0.79% | 0.41% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 50 | Jerry Lewis | 5 | 0.10% | 0.81% | 0.37% | 0 | 0 | 8 |