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 1961
Jan 7, 1961 → Dec 30, 1961 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Elvis Presley122
- 2Connie Francis103
- 3Brenda Lee88
- 4Bobby Vee87
- 5The Shirelles82
- 6Chubby Checker82
- 7Del Shannon80
- 8Roy Orbison72
- 9The Everly Brothers71
- 10Ricky Nelson59
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elvis Presley | 122 | 2.35% | 4.29% | 2.90% | 8 | 26 | 52 |
| 2 | Connie Francis | 103 | 1.98% | 3.00% | 2.98% | 1 | 14 | 52 |
| 3 | Brenda Lee | 88 | 1.69% | 3.12% | 2.23% | 1 | 12 | 49 |
| 4 | Bobby Vee | 87 | 1.67% | 3.71% | 2.47% | 2 | 16 | 51 |
| 5 | The Shirelles | 82 | 1.59% | 4.43% | 2.92% | 6 | 16 | 45 |
| 6 | Chubby Checker | 82 | 1.58% | 3.55% | 2.31% | 1 | 9 | 47 |
| 7 | Del Shannon | 80 | 1.54% | 3.36% | 2.58% | 5 | 16 | 43 |
| 8 | Roy Orbison | 72 | 1.38% | 3.43% | 2.29% | 1 | 12 | 40 |
| 9 | The Everly Brothers | 71 | 1.37% | 4.26% | 2.93% | 5 | 9 | 46 |
| 10 | Ricky Nelson | 59 | 1.14% | 4.32% | 2.74% | 8 | 11 | 35 |
| 11 | Floyd Cramer | 58 | 1.12% | 2.75% | 1.97% | 0 | 8 | 42 |
| 12 | Neil Sedaka | 54 | 1.04% | 2.91% | 1.70% | 0 | 5 | 45 |
| 13 | Brook Benton | 54 | 1.04% | 2.78% | 1.83% | 0 | 4 | 47 |
| 14 | Ben E. King | 50 | 0.96% | 2.43% | 1.46% | 0 | 1 | 45 |
| 15 | Linda Scott | 49 | 0.95% | 2.49% | 1.53% | 0 | 1 | 39 |
| 16 | Adam Wade | 46 | 0.89% | 2.53% | 1.81% | 0 | 4 | 34 |
| 17 | The Marcels | 46 | 0.88% | 3.29% | 2.00% | 4 | 7 | 30 |
| 18 | The Drifters | 46 | 0.88% | 2.17% | 2.02% | 0 | 0 | 46 |
| 19 | Bobby Lewis | 46 | 0.88% | 2.82% | 2.06% | 2 | 7 | 31 |
| 20 | Fats Domino | 45 | 0.86% | 1.71% | 1.59% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 21 | Cliff Richard | 44 | 0.85% | 1.45% | 1.16% | 0 | 0 | 49 |
| 22 | Bobby Darin | 44 | 0.85% | 2.55% | 1.39% | 0 | 2 | 46 |
| 23 | Gene McDaniels | 44 | 0.84% | 2.37% | 1.37% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 24 | The Shadows | 44 | 0.84% | 1.37% | 1.02% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 25 | Dion | 42 | 0.81% | 3.23% | 2.10% | 0 | 8 | 28 |
| 26 | Johnny Burnette | 41 | 0.80% | 2.54% | 1.98% | 1 | 2 | 40 |
| 27 | Bobby Rydell | 41 | 0.80% | 2.25% | 1.71% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 28 | Helen Shapiro | 41 | 0.78% | 1.63% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 29 | Pat Boone | 40 | 0.77% | 2.47% | 1.55% | 0 | 4 | 38 |
| 30 | The Highwaymen | 40 | 0.76% | 3.21% | 1.96% | 0 | 8 | 25 |
| 31 | U.S. Bonds | 38 | 0.73% | 2.71% | 1.72% | 0 | 5 | 34 |
| 32 | The String-A-Longs | 36 | 0.69% | 3.20% | 1.82% | 0 | 5 | 31 |
| 33 | Jimmy Dean | 35 | 0.68% | 3.55% | 2.25% | 7 | 9 | 13 |
| 34 | Matt Monro | 33 | 0.63% | 1.35% | 1.07% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 35 | Ral Donner | 33 | 0.63% | 2.21% | 1.36% | 0 | 1 | 32 |
| 36 | Jackie Wilson | 33 | 0.63% | 2.16% | 1.59% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 37 | Paul Anka | 32 | 0.62% | 1.80% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 38 | Billy Fury | 32 | 0.62% | 1.46% | 1.06% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 39 | Adam Faith | 31 | 0.60% | 1.00% | 0.88% | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| 40 | Johnny Tillotson | 31 | 0.59% | 2.26% | 1.80% | 0 | 0 | 29 |
| 41 | Clarence Henry | 31 | 0.59% | 2.23% | 1.39% | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 42 | Jerry Butler | 31 | 0.59% | 1.77% | 1.18% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 43 | Lawrence Welk And His Orchestra | 30 | 0.58% | 2.50% | 1.73% | 0 | 4 | 23 |
| 44 | Ray Charles and his Orchestra | 29 | 0.56% | 2.48% | 1.46% | 0 | 3 | 22 |
| 45 | Shirley Bassey | 29 | 0.55% | 1.18% | 0.91% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 46 | Ernie K-Doe | 29 | 0.55% | 2.80% | 1.60% | 0 | 5 | 23 |
| 47 | The Jordanaires | 28 | 0.53% | 1.53% | 1.29% | 0 | 0 | 31 |
| 48 | Dee Clark | 28 | 0.53% | 2.38% | 1.49% | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| 49 | Marty Robbins | 28 | 0.53% | 2.33% | 1.47% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 50 | Sam Cooke | 27 | 0.52% | 1.84% | 1.44% | 0 | 0 | 35 |