Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and

music historian Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history o ...

, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on

record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often ...

placings.

Early life

Joel Carver Whitburn was born in

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 census. Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, and is a p ...

on November 29, 1939."Joel (Carver) Whitburn". '' Contemporary Authors''. Detroit: Gale. 2002. He started collecting records in his teens, first subscribed to '' Billboard'' in 1953, and when the Hot 100 was introduced in 1958 started recording the chart placings of records on index cards. After graduating from

Menomonee Falls High School Menomonee Falls High School is a four-year public high school located in the village of Menomonee Falls in Waukesha County, Wisconsin in the United States. History Prior to 1969 a building on Garfield Drive was known as Menomonee Falls High S ...

in 1957, he attended

Elmhurst College Elmhurst University is a private university in Elmhurst, Illinois. It has a tradition of service-oriented learning and an affiliation with the United Church of Christ. The university changed its name from Elmhurst College on July 1, 2020. Hist ...

and the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscon ...

, but did not receive a degree from either institution.

Career

Whitburn worked on record distribution for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in the mid 1960s, using his chart statistics to inform radio stations, before founding his own company, Record Research, Inc., in

Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin Menomonee Falls is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States, and is part of the Greater Milwaukee area. The population was 35,626 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous village in Wisconsin. It is the fourth largest commun ...

, in 1970. He put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of ''Billboard''s music and video charts, and set up a licensing arrangement with ''Billboard''. Since then, Record Research has published reference books based on data from the various

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

charts and to date has published over 200 books, 50 of which are in the Record Research catalog. His research extends from 1890 to the present and covers many genres. Featuring each recording's peak position, date charted, weeks charted, label and information, and trivia on recordings and artists, Whitburn's books are used extensively by the entertainment industry (especially radio

DJs A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

) and music fans worldwide. His flagship publication was ''Top Pop Singles'', which covers the history of ''Billboard''s popular singles charts, primarily the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The most recent edition, ''Top Pop Singles 1955–2018'', was released in June 2019. Whitburn was also the author of the series ''Top 40 Hits'', published by Billboard Books. The ninth edition, covering the years 1955 to 2009, was published in 2012.

Personal life

Whitburn was an avid collector of

phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

s, with extensive collections in his underground vaults. His collection includes a copy of nearly every 78-rpm record, 45-rpm single, LP, and compact disc to reach the ''Billboard'' charts. In 2013, his collection was estimated to contain over 200,000 singles. Whitburn was married to Frances (née Mudgett), and they had a daughter. He died at his home in

at the age of 82 on June 14, 2022.

References

External links

* *
Interview with Whitburn
by

Larry LeBlanc Larry LeBlanc is a music journalist who wrote hundreds of articles about the music industry in Canada as the Canadian bureau chief of '' Billboard'' as well as a number of other publications, and contributed to the development of the National Music ...

, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitburn, Joel 1939 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers American music historians Discographers Historians from Wisconsin People from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin People from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Record collectors