Here are the #1 hits of 1905. Since there was no Billboard or comparable charts, how is that possible? Joel Whitburn’s Pop Memories 1890-1954 gives due credit to Jim Walsh. He is “the world’s leading authority on the pioneer recording age.” His columns in Hobbies magazine ran “a remarkable 40 years.”
The Whitburn book also notes: We compiled charts for those years by incorporating various surveys and sources, notably the Talking Machine World periodical, offered monthly listings of all popular records released starting in 1905 and frequently provided information on the hottest current hits, although not in charge chart form.”
“In the early decades of the 20th century, a song’s popularity was measured by its sales of sheet music and recordings… nearly every department store in five & dime, in addition to music shops, sold sheet music to the day’s top hits. Annual sheet music sales were approaching 30 million by decade’s end. A driving force behind these sails was the ubiquity of pianos in middle and upper-class American homes.”
The songs
The Preacher and the Bear – Arthur Collins (Edison), 11 weeks at #1, gold record. It is listed as a comedy record. It is… of its time.
Yankee Doodle Boy – Billy Murray (Columbia), eight weeks at #1. You’ll recognize part of this. He was The Biggest Star of the Phonograph Era.
In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree – Irving Gillette (Edison), seven weeks at #1
In My Merry Oldsmobile – Billy Murray (Victor), seven weeks at #1. These were still the early days of the automobile industry in the United States. I’ve heard this song!
Give My Regards to Broadway – Billy Murray (Columbia), five weeks at #1. I had forgotten how old Broadway was until my daughter and I went to the Museum Of Broadway earlier this year.
Where The Morning Glories Twine Around the Door – Byron Harlan (Columbia), 5 weeks at #1
Come Take A Trip In My Air-Ship – Billy Murray (Victor), four weeks at #1. Air-Ship, just two years after the Wright Brothers flew in Kitty Hawk
Dearie– Corinne Morgan and Hayden Quartet (Victor), two weeks at #1