Singing News Top 80 Chart (1970 - Present)
Also see Singing News Number One Songs
History
The Singing News launched a monthly airplay chart in 1970. Initially, the chart placed an emphasis on the song, so it was possible for more than one artist to share the same position. By the end of 1971, the chart featured specific recordings, so only one artist was credited for each song going forward.
The main airplay chart was eventually expanded to include 80 songs each month.
In late 1972, The Singing News add a "Top 10 Songs" chart, which listed song titles with no artist associated. It was similar to the earlier charts, which listed several artists with a song if more than one artist was getting airplay, except on this chart, no artist was listed.
In 1973, several "Top 20" charts were launched for various sheet music companies, and several "Top 10" album charts were launched for various record labels. It is not clear whether these were advertisements purchased by the sheet music companies and record labels. A "Sacred Hits" chart was added in September 1973. This chart covered artists that would typically be categorized in later years as "Inspirational" in style.
Several more charts have come and gone over the years. There were Traditional and Contemporary charts for a while. In recent years, the main Southern Gospel Top 80 chart has continued to appear monthly as well as a Bluegrass Chart and a New Releases Chart. The Singing News also publishes a Weekly Chart on their website.
Please note that artist names and song titles were not listed with consistent spellings on these charts in the 1970s and early 1980s. The Florida Boys might be listed as "Florida Boys Qt" on one chart and "The Florida Boys" on another. Some song titles were spelled incorrectly. In the interest of preserving the original appearance, we have attempted to transcribe these charts with no attempt to fix the inconsistencies or correct the errors.
DBM/site owner's note: If a link prompts you for a password, that means the data for that page has not yet been entered by our editors, not that you need a password in order to view it. A ? mark beside a link means we have not yet entered that chart data.
DBM/site owner's note to site editors: Please use July 1970, January 1980, and May 2019 for reference on format.