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Fifty years ago, in the Aug. 4, 1958, issue, Billboard launched a revolutionary chart called the Hot 100. After nearly two decades of tracking songs distinctively by sales or plays (on jukeboxes and at radio), the Hot 100 was the first list to measure popularity by incorporating both radio play and sales. Scoring the chart's inaugural No. 1 was Ricky Nelson with "Poor Little Fool." Billboard.com is celebrating this milestone in a big way. We have posted all kinds of Hot 100-based charts leading up to the newly-unveiled special All-Time Hot 100 chart and the commemorative Hot 100 Anniversary issue of Billboard Magazine.
