Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

is a

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

published by ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

(AC) market. In 1998, eight different songs topped the chart in 52 issues of the magazine, based on weekly

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

data from radio stations compiled by

Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems Broadcast Data Systems (also known as BDS or Luminate BDS), is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned ...

. In the year's first issue of ''Billboard'' the number one song was "

Something About the Way You Look Tonight "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" is a song by English musician Elton John, taken from his 25th studio album, '' The Big Picture''. It was written by John and Bernie Taupin, and produced by Chris Thomas. It was released as the album ...

" by British singer

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

, which was in its seventh week at number one. The song would go on to extend its unbroken run in the top spot to ten weeks before it was displaced by "

My Heart Will Go On "My Heart Will Go On" is a 1997 song recorded by Canadian singer Celine Dion. The song serves as the main theme to James Cameron's blockbuster film ''Titanic'', based on an account of the transatlantic ocean liner of the same name which san ...

" by Canadian vocalist

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

in the issue dated January 31. Dion's song, taken from the soundtrack of the film ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

'', also spent ten weeks at number one. It dominated radio airplay across a number of formats, even acquiring enough spins on

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...

stations to become the first non-Spanish language song to top the

Hot Latin Tracks The ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Since October 2012, chart rankings are based on digital sales, rad ...

chart. It also won a range of awards, including the

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...

and the

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song is a Golden Globe Award that was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The award is presented to the songwriters of a ...

as well as the

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

, Song of the Year,

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television. Dion would return to the top spot later in the year with both "

To Love You More "To Love You More" is a song by Canadian singer Celine Dion, written by David Foster and Edgar Bronfman Jr., writing under the pen-name Junior Miles. It was released as a single in Japan on 21 October 1995 and became a hit, reaching number one ...

" and "

I'm Your Angel "I'm Your Angel" is a duet by Celine Dion and R. Kelly from Dion's ''These Are Special Times'' album and Kelly's '' R.'' album. It was released on 13 October 1998. The song was written and produced by R. Kelly. The single was very successful, rea ...

", the latter a duet with American artist

R. Kelly Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses. During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwid ...

. Her 21 weeks spent at number one during 1998 was the most by any artist. The only artist other than Dion to achieve more than one AC number one in 1998 was fellow Canadian vocalist

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( , ; née Edwards; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history and one of the best-s ...

, who spent eight non-consecutive weeks in the top spot with "

You're Still the One "You're Still the One" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Shania Twain. It was released as the third single from her third studio album ''Come On Over'' (1997). The song was written by Twain and Robert John "Mutt" Lange and produced by Lange. ...

" and one week with " From This Moment On". The former song also topped ''Billboard''s

Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart, on which Twain had experienced considerable success since 1995, but it was her first entry on the AC listing, as her music began to be marketed toward pop audiences for the first time. Her second number one of the year, "From This Moment On", had originally been recorded as a duet with country singer

Bryan White Bryan Shelton White (born February 17, 1974) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to Asylum Records in 1994 at age 20, White released his self-titled debut album that year. Both it and its follow-up, 1996's '' Between Now ...

, but his vocals were removed from the version released as a single, in order to make it more appealing to pop music radio. The longest unbroken run at number one on the AC chart during the year was 11 weeks, achieved by Australian duo

Savage Garden Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. Formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993, the duo achieved international success from the mid-1990s to early 2000s with the No. ...

with the song "

Truly Madly Deeply "Truly Madly Deeply" is a song by Australian pop duo Savage Garden, released in March 1997 as the third single from their self-titled debut album (1997) by Roadshow and Warner Music. It won the 1997 ARIA Music Award for both Single of the Year ...

". The track would prove to be one of the most enduring songs in the history of AC radio, and set a new record for the highest total number of weeks spent on ''Billboard''s Adult Contemporary chart with a total of 123 weeks on the listing, a mark that stood only until 2002 when Savage Garden broke its own record.

Chart history

Chart history

References

See also