In the 1950’s Billboard had three distinct pop music charts based on sales, a survey of radio airplay, and jukebox plays. They did away with jukebox totals in 1957 and combined sales and airplay on August 4, 1958, creating the Hot 100 chart. Each side of a single was then tracked separately, though. That probably hurt the Beatles more than anyone, since their 45’s would’ve done even better in America (imagine that!) if counted as one entry instead of two. Starting this week in 1969 Billboard went back to their old method of treating A- and B-sides as one. So the first act to benefit was...the Beatles. Neither “Something” or “Come Together” reached the top on their own. Together, it became Billboard’s first two-sided #1 single since Elvis did so with “Hard Headed Woman”/“Don’t Ask Me Why” in 1958.
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