Joel Whitburn

From pastime to passion to profitable enterprise, the growth of Record Research has been the outgrowth of Joel Whitburn’s hobby. Joel began collecting records as a teenager in the 1950s. As his collection grew, he began to sort, categorize and file each record according to the highest position it reached on Billboard magazine’s charts.

In the five-plus decades that followed, Joel and his team researched with unmatched degree of depth and detail not only the music charts of Billboard but also those of industry trade magazines Cash Box, Radio & Records, and Music Vendor / Record World. With worldwide recognition as the most authoritative historian on charted music, Joel also collaborated with Warner/Rhino Records in creating a series of 150 CD albums, plus five CD albums with Curb Records.

Joel’s own record collection remains unrivaled the world over and includes every charted Hot 100 and pop single (back to 1936), every charted pop album (back to 1945), collections of nearly every charted Country, R&B, Bubbling Under The "Hot 100" and Adult Contemporary records.

Since 1970, Joel Whitburn's Record Research has published nearly 300 books. Joel’s passion for music, old and new, and his penchant for accurate detail was lifelong. He spent his final day in this life at his desk researching, as sharp as ever. Joel's beloved employees share his heart for the charts and are maintaining his legacy with ongoing research and new projects on the horizon. Stay tuned, there's more to come.