ISBN: 978-0-89820-226-4
It’s the stats and facts of the original edition minus the tracks.
To make this long out-of-stock essential reference available again, we turned to our new print-on-demand (POD) option. As the book’s original 1,600 pages proved too many, we removed the album track listings, thereby reducing the page count down to 888, a size manageable for the POD printer. It’s our same trusted data with album facts and updated artist bios. Biographical information has been updated through April 30, 2026, and all references to track listings have been removed from the introductory pages.
Top Pop Albums 1955-2016 Abridged Edition is an artist-by-artist compendium of every album to appear on the pop albums charts and the “Bubbling Under” chart!
All the Album Chart Data!
- Peak chart position
- Chart debut date
- Total weeks charted
- Total weeks at #1, or #2 or #3 positions
- Original record label and number
All the Essential Album Info!
- Unique to 8th edition: Albums with 10 million plus units sold are highlighted
- Albums of major artists are broken into sub-categories: Live, Greatest Hits & Compilations, Christmas, etc.
- Grammy Awards, Hall Of Fame, National Recording Registry & Rolling Stone 500 information shown under each honored title! Title notes providing details of interest on many charted albums, such as guest artists, group personnel changes or notable recording sites and dates
- RIAA Gold or Platinum Record Certification (includes total number of million units sold)
- Symbols indicating special types of albums, such as re-entries, reissues or remixes; 7″ extended play or mini albums; or comedy, novelty, spoken word, foreign language, Christmas, original cast, instrumental, live, compilation, greatest hits, or movie or TV soundtrack albums
All the Artist Info
- Decade & All-Time Artist Rankings plus Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Years & notable awards
- Biographies chronicling artist lives and careers
- Boldfaced names of artists mentioned in the bios or title notes who have their own listings elsewhere in the book
Big Bonus Sections!
- Top 500 Artists Ranking
- Chronological Listing Of All #1 Albums
- Top Artist & Album Achievements
From pastime to passion to profitable enterprise, the growth of Record Research has been the outgrowth of Joel Whitburn’s hobby. Joel began collecting records as a teenager in the 1950s. As his collection grew, he began to sort, categorize and file each record according to the highest position it reached on Billboard magazine's charts. He went on to publish this information — first on individual artists’ cards, then in book form in 1970 — and a business was born.
Over the nearly six decades since, Record Research has created data of the life of a recording on America's major music charts, publishing 189 reference books in print. Joel also collaborated with Warner/Rhino Records in creating a series of 150 CD albums, plus five CD albums with Curb Records.
The Joel Whitburn Music Archive remains unrivaled and includes every charted Hot 100 and pop single (back to 1936), every charted pop album (back to 1945), collections of nearly every charted Country, R&B, Bubbling Under The Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary records. The collection also boasts one of the world’s largest picture sleeve collections, many of which are displayed in the series of books (Top 40 Hits, Top 40 Albums, Top 40 Country Hits, Top 40 R&B Hits) he authored for Billboard’s book division.
The world's most authoritative historian on charted music passed away in 2022, still researching the charts until his final day. His Record Research legacy continues.
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