The Dance Club Songs chart (previously known as Hot Dance Club Songs, Club Play Singles, Hot Dance Club Play, Hot Dance/Disco and Disco Action) is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. It is compiled by Billboard exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclub disc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard-reporting DJs."
The current number-one song on the Dance Club Songs chart for the issue dated March 18, 2017, is "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran.
Dance Club Songs has undergone several incarnations since its inception in 1974. Originally a top-ten list of tracks that garnered the largest audience response in New York City discothèques, the chart began on October 26, 1974 under the title Disco Action. The chart went on to feature playlists from various cities around the country from week to week. Billboard continued to run regional and city-specific charts throughout 1975 and 1976 until the issue dated August 28, 1976, when a thirty-position National Disco Action Top 30 premiered. This quickly expanded to forty positions, then in 1979 the chart expanded to sixty positions, then eighty, and eventually reached 100 positions from 1979 until 1981, when it was reduced to eighty again.
During the first half of the 1980s the chart maintained eighty slots until March 16, 1985 when the Disco charts were splintered and renamed. Two charts appeared: Hot Dance/Disco, which ranked club play (fifty positions), and Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales, which ranked 12-inch single (or maxi-single) sales (also fifty positions, now reduced to ten and available through Billboard.biz only).
Only Hot Dance Club Songs still exists today. In 2003 Billboard introduced the Hot Dance Airplay chart (now known as Dance/Mix Show Airplay), which is based solely on radio airplay of six dance music stations and top 40 mix shows electronically monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. These stations are also a part of the electronically monitored panel that encompasses the Hot 100.
On January 26, 2013, Billboard added a new chart, Dance/Electronic Songs, which tracks the 50 most popular Dance and Electronic singles and tracks based on digital single sales, streaming, radio airplay, and club play as reported on the component Dance/Electronic Digital Songs, Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs, and Dance Club Songs charts. Radio airplay is not limited to that counted on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart.
Statistics and Record World data
Although the disco chart began reporting popular songs in New York City nightclubs, Billboard soon expanded coverage to feature multiple charts each week which highlighted playlists in various cities such as San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Detroit and Houston (among others). During this time, Billboard rival publication Record World was the first to compile a dance chart which incorporated club play on a national level. Noted Billboard statistician Joel Whitburn has since "adopted" Record Worlds chart data from the weeks between March 29, 1975 and August 21, 1976 into Billboards club play history. For the sake of continuity, Record Worlds national chart is incorporated into both Whitburn's Dance/Disco publication (via his Record Research company) as well as the 1975 and 1976 number-ones lists.
With the issue dated August 28, 1976, Billboard premiered its own national chart (National Disco Action Top 30) and their data is used from this date forward.
For the full list of all 100 All Time Top Dance Club Artists, click here.
3rd week — "Be Near Me" by ABC
4th week — "Erotica" by Madonna
4th week — "Impressive Instant" by Madonna
4th week — "Hung Up" by Madonna
4th week — "4 Minutes" by Madonna
4th week — "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga
5th week — "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" by Beyoncé
5th week — "Strict Machine" by Goldfrapp
5th week — "Slow Down" by Selena Gomez
5th week — "Disrespectful" by Chaka Khan featuring Mary J. Blige
5th week — "Telephone" by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé
5th week — "Marry the Night" by Lady Gaga
5th week — "Applause" by Lady Gaga
5th week — "Hold It, Don't Drop It" by Jennifer Lopez
5th week — "Dance Again" by Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull
5th week — "Cool for the Summer" by Demi Lovato
5th week — "Die Another Day" by Madonna
5th week — "Give It 2 Me" by Madonna
5th week — "Give Me All Your Luvin'" by Madonna Featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.
5th week — "Girl Gone Wild" by Madonna
5th week — "We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris
5th week — "Omen" by Disclosure featuring Sam Smith
19th week — "Wordy Rappinghood"/"Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club
19th week — "Walking on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun
16th week — "The Look of Love" by ABC
16th week — "Most Precious Love" by Blaze presents U.D.A.U.F.L. featuring Barbara Tucker
16th week — "Where Have You Been" by Rihanna
16th week — "Right Now" by Rihanna featuring David Guetta
Sources:
(27-1) Thriller (all cuts) by Michael Jackson
"The Boss" — Diana Ross (1979), The Braxtons (1997) and Kristine W (2008).
Records and other notable achievements
Both Enrique Iglesias and Dave Aude are tied with 14 number-ones on the chart, the most among male artists. Iglesias, however, is the only male vocalist to accomplish this feat, while Aude is the only producer to achieve this milestone, as his singles feature a different vocalist.
Four acts have attained thirteen number-one songs: Whitney Houston, Kylie Minogue, Yoko Ono (aka ONO), and Pitbull.
Kylie Minogue became the first act to have two songs in the top three on March 5, 2011. Her song "Better than Today" was number-one while "Higher", a song by Taio Cruz on which Minogue features, was number three. On July 28, 2016, Rihanna became the second act to achieve this when her songs "Kiss It Better" and "Needed Me" were number one and three concurrently, however it made her the first act to have two songs in the top three as the lead act on both.
The first 12-inch single made commercially available to the public was "Ten Percent" by Double Exposure in 1976.
The first number one on Billboard's Disco Action chart was "Never Can Say Goodbye" by Gloria Gaynor in 1974.
The first number one on Billboard's National Disco Action Top 30 was "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees in 1976.
From the dance chart's inception until the week of February 16, 1991, several (or even all) songs on an EP, album or 12-inch single could occupy the same position if more than one track from a release was receiving significant play in clubs (for example, Donna Summer charted several full-length albums, both Chaka Khan and Madonna have hit number one with remix albums). Chart entries like this were especially prevalent during the disco era, where an entire side of an album would contain several songs segued together seamlessly to replicate a night of dancing in a club. Beginning with the February 23, 1991 issue, the dance chart became "song specific," meaning only one song could occupy each position at a time.
Because of the former policy allowing multiple songs to occupy one position at the same time, there have been three instances when not only multiple songs were at number one, but the songs were performed by different artists. In all scenarios this was due to the tracks being included in film soundtrack albums. In 1978, four tracks from Thank God It's Friday (Donna Summer, Pattie Brooks, Love & Kisses, Sunshine), in 1980, two tracks from Fame (Irene Cara, Linda Clifford) and in 1985 two songs from Beverly Hills Cop (Patti LaBelle, Harold Faltermeyer) hit number one together.
Madonna holds the record for the most chart hits, the most top-twenty hits, the most top-ten hits and the most total weeks at number one (74 weeks).
The Trammps are the only act to replace themselves at number one (issue date June 5, 1976, "That's Where the Happy People Go" → "Disco Party").
The longest running number-ones on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart are "Bad Luck" by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes2 in 1975 and the album Thriller by Michael Jackson. Both entries spent eleven weeks in the top spot.
"One Word" by Kelly Osbourne made chart history on June 18, 2005 when it became the first song to simultaneously top the Hot Dance Club Songs, Hot Dance Singles Sales and Hot Dance Airplay charts.
LeAnn Rimes became the first country music artist to have topped both the Billboard country chart and the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Rimes, who had several remixes of her country hits reach the dance chart, achieved that distinction during the week of February 28, 2009, when the electronic dance music remixes of her 2008 single "What I Cannot Change" reached number one.
Olivia Newton-John and Chloe Lattanzi's collaboration with Dave Aude, "You Have To Believe," which reached number one in its November 21, 2015 issue, made history for Newton-John and Lattanzi, as they became the first mother-daughter duo to reach number one on this chart as well as picking up their first number ones at Dance Club Songs as well, although Newton-John had charted four times prior to this.
Sting has the distinction of being the only artist to reach number one twice on this chart with a song he recorded and re-recorded, as his original version of "Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)" featuring Twista reached that position in 2004, and again in 2016 as a featured duet with Mylene Farmer for "Stolen Car." In both cases, they were also remixed by Dave Aude, which is another first on this chart that a remixer reached number one with a song he remixed twice.
At age 83, Yoko Ono (who was born on February 18, 1933) is the oldest artist to chart Dance Club Songs as of 2017, with 13 number ones to her credit.
Footnotes
1 Summer's total includes two titles which hit number one during the span of time in which Record World's dance chart data is used (see "Statistics and Record World data"). Some Billboard columnists credit Summer with only 15 number-ones.
2 Eight of the 11 weeks-at-number-one for "Bad Luck" is during the span of time in which Record World's dance chart data is used (see "Statistics and Record World data").
