Joel Whitburn

Joel Whitburn invented music-chart research. Joel began collecting records as a teenager in the 1950s. As his collection grew, he began to set out to sort, categorize and file each record according to the highest position it reached on Billboard magazine's charts. To do so, he opened his collection of weekly Billboard issues and began to detail on 3"x5" cards, each song's journey on the charts. Joel finally published his data in a book simply titled "Record Research," and a business was born. In the five-plus decades that followed, Joel and his Record Research team researched with unmatched degree of depth and detail not only the music charts of Billboard but also those of other music industry trade magazines Cash Box, Gavin Report, Radio & Record, and Music Vendor/Record World. Since 1970, Joel Whitburn's Record Research has published nearly 300 books.

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.

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.