Bob Barry’s Unearthed Interviews Podcast: Joel Whitburn

We recently lost a music historian, Joel Whitburn. Joel collected thousands of records and CDs, all the top hits from 1940 to the present, in a huge record vault in the basement of his home in Menomonee Falls Wisconsin. Joel owned every album and single ever to appear on Billboard’s “Hot 100” and “Top Pop Albums” charts. In 1970, he had enough information to start a book. When Joel first started, he was on my program with trivia, including the record race. He was given a title and artist of a song that was on the Billboard Top 100 charts between 1955 and the present day. He had to find and play the record on the air from his home within 30 seconds or the listener would win $920. We would knock off a second each time he would find the song. There was a setup in his home where his record player could be heard over the air. He only lost once, when someone accidentally unplugged the player.

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