A hit song , also known as a hit record , hit single or simply hit , is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although hit song means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term hit record usually refers to a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio airplay audience impressions, or significant streaming data and commercial sales.
26-594: The Johnston Brothers were a vocal group who had a No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1955 with their cover version of " Hernando's Hideaway ". The group was formed by Johnny Johnston (born John Harold Johnston, 10 July 1919 – 10 June 1998, London). He had formed a music publishing company, Michael Reine Music, in London in 1946, and was used by the BBC Light Programme radio channel as
52-568: A number one hit , a top 5 hit , a top 10 hit , a top 20 hit or a top 40 hit , depending on its peak position. In the UK (where radio play is not included in the official charts), this does not completely reflect the song's popularity—as the weekly chart position is based solely on direct comparison with concurrent sales of other singles. It is, therefore, not uncommon that a single fails to chart, but has actually sold more copies than other singles regarded as "hits" based on their higher chart placement in
78-508: A can of beans and say – Beanz Meanz Heinz !", "You can be sure of Shell ", and the first ever colour TV commercial in Britain, for Birds Eye peas in 1969. Hit record Prior to the dominance of recorded music, commercial sheet music sales of individual songs were similarly promoted and tracked as singles and albums are now. For example, in 1894, Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern released The Little Lost Child , which sold more than
104-609: A million copies nationwide, based mainly on its success as an illustrated song , analogous to today's music videos . In the United States and the United Kingdom , a single is usually considered a hit when it reaches the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 or the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart . The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles has used this definition since the 1970s. Some argue that reaching at least
130-468: A period of low sales. (This is also possible in the United States, or anywhere, with slow but steady sellers; a number of minor hits, especially those that are popular in specific genre, have earned gold certifications despite relatively poor pop chart performances.) In the UK, the number of sales required to achieve a hit single steadily declined in line with a general decline in single sales until
156-462: A recording contract with Decca Records , and had their first UK Top 10 hit in 1953 with " Oh Happy Day ". In November 1955, their version of "Hernando's Hideaway", from the movie The Pajama Game , reached the number one spot for two weeks, beating off the American versions by both Johnnie Ray and Archie Bleyer . The Johnston Brothers had a number of smaller follow-up hits in the UK, including
182-573: A singer and arranger. His first big success was to write and perform, with his vocal quartet The Keynotes, the theme to the successful comedy series Take It From Here in 1948. The Keynotes remained a popular singing group in the United Kingdom throughout the 1950s, winning several awards but having no hit records. In 1949, Johnston formed an all-male singing trio, The Johnston Brothers, the other members being Alan Dean, Eddie Lester and Canadian singer Denny Vaughan (who died in 1972). They won
208-592: The Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer , portable media player , MP3 player or smartphone . This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyrighted material without permission or legal payment. Music downloads are typically encoded with modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) audio data compression , particularly the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format used by iTunes as well as
234-658: The MP3 audio coding format . According to a Nielsen report, downloadable music accounted for 55.9 percent of all music sales in the US in 2012. By the beginning of 2011, Apple's iTunes Store alone made US$ 1.1 billion of revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year. According to the RIAA , music downloads peaked at 43% of industry revenue in the US in 2012, and has since fallen to 3% in 2022. Paid downloads are sometimes encoded with digital rights management that restricts copying
260-608: The "download revolution" by making legal services attractive for users. Even legal music downloads have faced a number of challenges from artists, record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America . In July 2007, the Universal Music Group decided not to renew their long-term contracts with iTunes. This decision was primarily based on the issue of pricing of songs, as Universal wanted to be able to charge more or less depending on
286-775: The RIAJ. The first was Songs for Japan (2011), a charity compilation album raising profits for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , which was certified gold for 100,000 downloads in June 2011. The second album was the Japanese language cast recording of the Frozen soundtrack, which sold 100,000 copies between its release in March 2014 and January 2015. In South Korea, Circle Digital Chart has been tracking digital sales since 2009. The most successful song according to their published data
SECTION 10
#1732786895829312-438: The United States was held by Gwen Stefani 's " Hollaback Girl ", which sold over one million downloads, making it the first song to achieve platinum download status. As of July 2012 , the record for the best-selling downloaded single in the United States on the iTunes Store is held by The Black Eyed Peas 's " I Gotta Feeling ", which has sold over 8 million downloads. Soon after his death in 2009, Michael Jackson became
338-778: The United States. Their stated goal is to support artists' creativity and help them not be cheated out of money by illegal downloading. The Recording Industry Association of America launched its first lawsuits on the 8th of September 2003, against individuals who illegally downloaded music files from the Kazaa FastTrack network. Two years after it began, the campaign survived at least one major legal challenge. The RIAA said it filed 750 suits in February 2006 against individuals downloading music files without paying for them in hopes of putting an end to Internet music piracy . The RIAA hopes their campaign will force people to respect
364-591: The album sold 430,000 digital copies. Adele's third studio album 25 became the fastest-selling album in a week in iTunes history after it was released on 20 November 2015. It sold 1.64 million digital copies in its first week (included preorders on the iTunes store since the release of the album's lead single "Hello" in October 2015). In 2006, the Recording Industry Association of Japan began issuing certifications for digitally released music in Japan, compiling data from
390-504: The artist, a shift away from iTunes' standard—at the time—99 cents per song pricing. Many industry leaders feel that this is only the first of many show-downs between Apple Inc. and the various record labels. According to research by the website TorrentFreak , 38 percent of Swedish artists support file share downloading and claim that it helps artists in early career stages. Artists, including Swedish rock group Lamont, have profited from file sharing. The recording industry vs Napster: In
416-474: The beginning of the 2000s Napster was sued due to mass infringement of music ownership copyrights by the record industry- a sue which issued a preliminary injunction for the service and was concluded by the closure of the Napster free music sharing between its users. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) oversees about 85 percent of published music production, distribution and manufacturing in
442-417: The copyrights of music labels and eventually minimize the number of illegal downloads. The Official Charts Company began to incorporate downloads in the UK Singles Chart on 17 April 2005, at which time Radio 1 stopped broadcasting the separate download chart, although the chart is still compiled. Initially this was on condition that the song must have a physical media release at the same time; this rule
468-420: The early 2000s onwards. The best-selling song is Fukushima -based vocal group Greeeen 's song " Kiseki " (2008), which was certified for being legally downloaded four million times between 2008 and 2015, followed by R&B singer Thelma Aoyama 's " Soba ni Iru ne " (2008) featuring rapper SoulJa , which was certified for three million downloads between 2008 and 2014. Greeeen's song " Ai Uta " (2007) ranks as
494-405: The early 2000s. The number has, however, recovered strongly with growth in official digital downloads . 2011 was a record year for UK singles sales. Actual figures vary considerably depending on the time of year. In 2010 a number one single usually sold around 100,000 copies per week; sales of around 30,000 were often sufficient to reach the top ten, and a single selling over 6,000 copies could make
520-692: The first artist to sell over one million songs downloaded via the Internet in one week. However, Adele marks the most downloads sold by a single song in a week, with " Hello " selling 1.12 million copies in November 2015. Eminem 's seventh studio album, Recovery (2010), became the first album to sell one million digital copies. Beyoncé 's self-titled fifth studio album became the fastest-selling album within 24 hours in iTunes history after its release in December 2013. Within 24 hours of availability,
546-578: The medley "Join in And Sing Again" (1955) and "Heart" (1957), and also recorded with Joan Regan . They provided backing for the British vocalist, Suzi Miller, on their UK No. 14 joint hit, "Happy Days and Lonely Nights" in 1955. By 1956, Johnston had established Johnny Johnston Jingles Ltd., which was responsible for hundreds of advertising jingles in the early years of British commercial television, including "A million housewives every day pick up
SECTION 20
#1732786895829572-419: The music or playing purchased songs on certain digital audio players. They are almost always compressed using a lossy codec (usually MPEG-1 Layer 3, Windows Media, or AAC), which reduces file size and bandwidth requirements. These music resources have been created as a response to expanding technology and needs of customers who wanted and/or needed easy, quick access to music. Their business models respond to
598-500: The third highest certified song, with 2.5 million downloads tracked between 2007 and 2009. Two more songs have sold more than two million paid downloads: Ayaka 's " Mikazuki " (2006) and Kobukuro 's " Tsubomi " (2007). The most successful ringtone in Japan is Moldovan-Romanian band O-Zone 's " Dragostea din tei " (2003), known locally as "Koi no Maiahi" ( 恋のマイアヒ ) , which was certified as having four million units sold. In Japan, only two albums have received digital certifications by
624-487: The top 100—since the Official Charts Company increased the chart size on their website on 23 June 2007—lets a single be considered a hit due to the increasing singles market after chart rules included download singles. In most cases, the amount of weeks spent on either music chart may also play a big part in its relevance as a 'hit,' regardless of its peak chart position. A hit single is variously called
650-485: The top forty. Record companies often release collections of hit singles by various artists as compilation albums , such as the Now That's What I Call Music! series. Well-known bands and artists also frequently release collections of their most popular singles as Greatest hits albums. Music download A music download (commonly referred to as a digital download ) is the digital transfer of music via
676-434: Was fully lifted on 1 January 2007, meaning all download sales are now eligible in the chart. Music downloads have been measured by the Official Charts Company since 2004 and included in the main UK Singles Chart from 2005. Up to November 2022, the most-streamed song in the UK is " Someone You Loved " by Lewis Capaldi , with over 562 million streams. In November 2005, the record for the best-selling downloaded single in
#828171