Jessica's Top 40

Jessica’s Top 40 is a personal fan chart used to compile charts based on fans and not by radio airplay or sales. The chart has been a contributor to Top Hits Online since July 2003, the Globalchart since May 2004, and the Pulse 100 since July 2007.

Jessica’s Top 40 originally began off the Internet in July 2002, a personal music chart I used to put together on Microsoft Word. I thought I was the only one who liked keeping personal records of my favorite songs on the computer, and I was wrong when I discovered Top Hits Online in June 2003 through an internet search on “music charts”.

The first #1 on Jessica's Top 40 when it debuted online in June 2003 was "Hollywood" by Madonna. To date, 194 songs have reached #1. The current #1 is "Boom Clap" by Charli XCX.

2003-2004: Beginning Of Online Era & Madonna Domination
On June 30, 2003, my chart first went on the air as a top 25 music chart, with my biggest core artist being Madonna, my favorite singer at the time. Other than Madonna, I enjoyed many mainstream pop artists including Christina Aguilera, Beyonce', Kelly Clarkson, Michelle Branch, Ashanti, and Evanescence. Since my chart went on the Internet, Madonna had appeared on 45 consecutive charts with seven different songs including “Hollywood”.

Things started to change once Madonna’s last hit single “Love Profusion” dropped from the top of my chart. I let my obsession with Madonna’s older music go so overboard I didn’t even listen to any of the songs on the top 40 chart once on certain weeks! It greatly affected the chart, as there were a notable number of weak #1s between May and July, and other songs were hits purely for the fact that I wanted to get songs I didn't like to drop on the Top Hits Online chart. I regret Beyonce’s “Naughty Girl” getting to #1 over Liz Phair’s “Extraordinary” and Sarah McLachlan’s “Stupid”, though in the long run, the latter two songs were among the top 5 biggest hits of 2004.

2004-2006: M4B Charts Central, Countdown Show, & Top 40 Expansion
Then things changed once again when I joined the M4B panel in May 2004, run by Bryan Armstrong of Freaky Fly Bry’s Top 100. Two months later it would join forces with Bill Smith from Charts Central to merge into the Globalchart. But though I was losing interest in the mainstream pop genre with a lot of rap songs and Usher gaining more popularity over my favorites, Madonna was also burning out on me as an Internet radio station on Netscape playing nothing but Madonna which I was obsessed with played the same songs all the time. That allowed Ashlee Simpson to have an instant hit in June 2004 with her debut single “Pieces Of Me”, in spite of the fact that I was looking for something more than the big pop hits to chart.

Becoming a regular on M4B’s message boards, I joined their affiliated radio station, Variety FM 104, in 2004 to do a countdown of the chart on a weekly basis on Friday nights. Every week I would get half of the maximum listener slots tuned in, with one of the biggest programs on the station. Being a regular on M4B also included the plus of having much more of a say in what was popular on the charts, with a lot of songs being passed around by word of mouth in the “Play It or Trash It” forum. Thanks to that, The Rasmus’ “In The Shadows”, Emma Bunton’s “Maybe”, and Darren Hayes’ “Popular” were all hits on my chart.

While I enjoyed the chart more than ever, I enjoyed broadcasting on Variety FM 104 more than Madonna, eventually leading to enjoying Alanis Morissette’s music more. The week of September 12, 2004, Alanis Morissette went to #1 on the chart with “Eight Easy Steps” and stayed on top for 12 weeks, leading a change for the best on my chart.

The chart became less mainstream in late 2004 with independent artists Christia Mantzke and Naomi Striemer (both of whom I interviewed on my countdown show) scoring two top ten hits. While Alanis was #1, Canadian artists such as Melissa McClelland, Kalan Porter, and Mitchell Hunter had hits without any US exposure, in what has since been billed as "the Canadian invasion". British group Girls Aloud and Australian vocalist Delta Goodrem, both of which would grow to become two of my chart’s most successful hitmakers, successfully broke through. And many overlooked songs such as Phil Collins’ “Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away” and Mick Jagger and Sheryl Crow’s “Old Habits Die Hard” were hits without crossover airplay. The bad news: I liked too many songs to fit a top 25. I expanded to a top 30 in December, but still faced the difficulty of too many songs coming out that I liked, so I finally expanded to a top 40 the next month.

2005 began where late 2004 left off, with a focus on personal interest over motivation to knock songs from the top of the big charts. Once again, I switched favorite artists with a growing interest in Tori Amos while awaiting the release of The Beekeeper, her eighth album. The first single “Sleeps With Butterflies” went to #1 in just its second chart week, and in March 2005, I introduced a new rule to my chart methodology on album tracks, allowing Tori songs from The Beekeeper, even non-singles, to chart as long as at least one other person was charting them. Early in the year, this allowed songs like Sarah McLachlan’s “Dirty Little Secret” and Tyler Hilton’s “The Letter Song” to chart, though past non-single album tracks to chart included Hilary Duff’s “Haters” and Vanessa Carlton’s “Private Radio” and “Who’s To Say”.

The new rule worked in Tori’s favor as she managed to get her three singles from the album (“Sleeps With Butterflies”, “Sweet The Sting”, and “Cars And Guitars”) and six non-singles on the top 40, making her the most charted artist with 10 songs in the top 40 (she has since extended her record to 21 songs), and giving The Beekeeper the honor of having the most top 40 hits from one album with a grand total of nine tracks to make the chart.

After getting fired from Variety FM 104 regarding an incident that cost me access to message boards and instant messengers, I vowed to continue to do my show, and I broadcasted on three other radio stations on different weeks to do the show until I finally set up my own radio station, LouLou Radio 103, in March 2005. Station errors and little interest caused me to shut the server down after three weeks of broadcasting; after a week of not doing the show I finally returned to Variety FM 104 four months after my show was removed from their schedule.

Meanwhile, favor was being given to songs that received exposure outside of the USA. Oasis’s “The Importance Of Being Idle”, which despite the band’s worldwide popularity was released only in Europe, spent five weeks at #1 and ranked as one of the biggest hits of the year and of all time. Rock songs gained some momentum as well; Nine Inch Nails charted with “The Hand That Feeds”, an entry most likely influenced by the fact lead singer Trent Reznor did backup vocals on Tori Amos’s song “Past The Mission". However, personal interest didn't always result in enduring hits; I have since regretted the performances of many alt-rock chart hits from this period, most infamously "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers and "Do You Want To" by Franz Ferdinand, while also regretting the poor performances of the singles from Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway and Gwen Stefani's Love Angel Music Baby; I have since referred to this period as "the rebellious phase".

US hits regained a bit of dominance in 2006 thanks to pop's growing comeback on mainstream top 40 radio, though like in 2005, most US hits that were hits on my chart were bigger on rock stations. "Coalmine", a minor word-of-mouth hit from the little-known Victoria, British Columbia rock band Armchair Cynics, began the year as my chart's standout hit, but 90's grunge band Pearl Jam's comeback would help make them a dominant force on my chart and make things more challenging for contenders just as big. Between the weeks of March 26 and June 25, Pearl Jam spent 14 straight weeks at #1 thanks to the success of singles "World Wide Suicide" and "Life Wasted".

At that point I had begun to enjoy 80s and 90s songs more than currents, especially with a weekend tradition of getting up early on Saturday mornings to listen to AT40 Flashback. Because of that, some of my charts would have weak competition, as there would be some weeks where I listened to older music more than newer music; for example, Everclear’s “Hater” reached #1 in July, and ultimately became one of my weakest-ever #1s. Later in the year, an obsession with the XM 80’s on 8 channel and Pat Benatar (and later on, Heart, Lita Ford, Rush and Dokken) kept me from keeping up with currents, leading to more weak charts.

In September 2006, I became a regular on Fusion Radio, while still doing my broadcasting on VFM. However I ended up enjoying my broadcasting on Fusion more than VFM because the station’s free DJing schedules were more flexible. My love for DJing on Fusion affected my chart as a result, and many of station owner Josh’s favorite songs began to appear on my chart; most notably, Christian rock band Fireflight reached #1 with “You Decide”, which had been played in nearly all of my October broadcasts at least once. However, the biggest hit of the period was "Acquiesce" by Oasis, which, despite not being their biggest hit, stands as one of my personal favorite songs to chart.

2007-2008: Countdown Show/Chart Hiatus & Departure From M4B Charts Central
In 2007, ex-Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan was easily the most dominant force on the chart; her first solo single “Ordinary Day” spent 10 weeks at #1, and the follow-up “When We Were Young” had strong staying power behind it before it ultimately succeeded “Ordinary Day” at #1. But after her reign ended, power was shared between a number of strong chart players. Two years after a major burnout on her music due to radio overkill, Kelly Clarkson came back big on JT40 with two #1 hits from her My December album. Tennessee pop-punk band Paramore emerged as a standout over the summer, earning five successful chart entries from their sophomore album Riot! including four #1s (three in 2007). Canadian active rock act Evans Blue followed up their first chart entry – a #29 – with one of the year’s biggest #1 singles, “The Pursuit”. British pop group Girls Aloud, who saw their greatest success the previous spring with the single “Whole Lotta History”, achieved new highs with the first two singles from their fourth studio album Tangled Up.

However, 2007 was a disappointing year for me personally, and a number of negative events affected my interest in doing the countdown show, as I had felt recording became more of a chore to me. I decided to begin an indefinite hiatus in November 2007; a month later I decided to part ways with M4B Charts Central.

Music-wise, 2008 started out extremely weak, with no songs standing out to me to maintain an interest in current music, and no clear favorite to dominate the chart. In order to bring that interest back up, I decided to give doing the radio show a second chance (if only when I felt like recording), as it helped take my chart out of a slump in the summer of 2004. However, it only lasted two shows and then I stopped again. It didn’t silence the voice of my chart; I rejoined M4B Charts Central two months after I left, while I also became a reporter on smaller personal chart compilations from the Sound Loaded and Media Source forums.

In early 2008, the high quality of chartworthy songs made up for the low quantity. #1 hits from the likes of Fireflight, Sixx:A.M., Natasha Bedingfield, Ashlee Simpson, Def Leppard, and Madonna had strong chart runs due to less fierce competition, a sharp change from 2005-07 when many #1 songs had fast burnouts. Veteran Canadian rock band Rush had the first #1 to go beyond four weeks at #1, spending eight weeks on top with “Workin' Them Angels”, but unlike Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos, Oasis, Pearl Jam, and Dolores O'Riordan did in years past, the Rush song failed to increase my enjoyment in compiling my chart. Regardless, I favored 2008’s music over 2007’s; the second half of the year continued to see more strong #1s from the likes of Rihanna, Oasis, and Christina Aguilera.

July 2008 marked five years since the web site was first launched, which was honored with a full makeover for the web site. In late 2008, Girls Aloud earned the chart’s 1000th top 40 single with “The Promise” and Guns N' Roses earned the 100th #1 single with “Chinese Democracy”. However, after months and months of deliberation, I decided to put my chart on hiatus as of December 7, 2008 after a five and a half year run online.

2009-2010: The Metal Era & “Fill In The Blank” Charts
During the chart’s hiatus, I became heavily into heavy metal music and started following metal more than mainstream pop and rock. I would listen to Eddie Trunk’s XM show every Monday and his New York show every Friday for all the latest metal music. Although I did not properly bring back my chart until April 2011, shortly after bringing back my chart I did “fill in the blank” charts, where I compiled charts from 2009-2010. My love for metal showed as some of the biggest hits of 2009 and 2010 include Lita Ford’s “Crave”, Heaven & Hell’s “Bible Black”, Rush’s “Caravan”, Dream Theater’s “A Rite Of Passage”, Accept’s “Pandemic”, and many others.

2011-2012: Return From Hiatus
In April 2011, I properly brought back my chart, although it wasn’t until October 2011 when I returned it to its top 40 format (January 2009 – September 2011, it was back to its original top 25 format). The first #1 from the new era was Whitesnake’s “Love Will Set You Free”, which spent a total of six weeks at #1. I also returned to M4B Charts Central in February 2011 and Pulse Music Board in August 2011, after leaving both in December 2008 and April 2010 respectively for personal reasons; also, the Jessica's Top 40 Countdown returned to the airwaves, with its first new show airing on August 13, 2011.

In 2011 the chart has had a mix of pop, rock and R&B, reminiscent of the charts in 2005-2007. 2011’s biggest success story, however, has been Adele, who previously bubbled under in January 2008 with “Chasing Pavements”. She scored four #1’s this year from her album 21, became the second artist to hold the entire top three in one week (the first being Tori Amos in May 2005), broke the record for most weeks in the top 10 with "Set Fire To The Rain" (33 weeks), and spent 18 consecutive weeks at #1, breaking Pearl Jam’s 2006 record. Adele ended the year by becoming the first artist to have three songs inside my year end top 5 (let alone the year end top 10), as well as the second artist to have my top two songs of the year (the first being Dolores O'Riordan in 2007), with "Rolling In The Deep" at #1 and "Set Fire To The Rain" at #2. The following year, "Set Fire To The Rain" became the first song in chart history to spend a full year (52 weeks) in the top 40, and it is expected to become the first song to rank in the year end top 10 for two separate years.

2012 started with the return of familiar core chart artists at #1; Dolores O'Riordan's band The Cranberries scored the first #1 of the year with "Tomorrow", followed by Oasis singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher's new band Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds with "AKA... What A Life!" Months later, Katy Perry earned her third #1 hit with "Part Of Me", and broke Tori Amos's record for most top 40 hits from one album when the 10th chart entry from Teenage Dream, "Wide Awake", debuted in June.

Three bands who achieved considerable success in the past without reaching #1 - Within Temptation, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Garbage - all earned their first #1 singles in the first part of the year. Garbage's "Blood For Poppies" broke the record for an artist's longest wait for a #1 hit, topping the chart exactly seven years to the week of the debut of their first entry "Why Do You Love Me".

The mid-spring marked three highly anticipated returns, with Rush's "Headlong Flight" and Lita Ford's "Branded" debuting at #1 and Alanis Morissette's "Guardian" becoming her biggest hit since 2006 despite failing to top the chart. Lita achieved greater success with "Living Like A Runaway", the title track from her newest studio album, which stands as my favorite song of the 2010s so far. "Living Like A Runaway" scored a record-breaking 14-week stay at #1 and also helped Lita break the records for most career weeks at #1, a record held by Madonna since the chart's inception, and most consecutive weeks at #1, which was set by Adele just 11 months before. At the end of the year, Lita also broke Madonna's record for most weeks at #1 in one year, as her total weeks at #1 in the year amounted to 29 - one better than Madonna's 28 weeks in 2003.

2013-present: 10 Years Of Awesomeness, countdown show's end, and 70's invasion
2013 was expected to see many of 2012's biggest success stories continue. The year began with Alanis Morissette at long last earning her first #1 since 2005 as "Receive", the follow-up to the previous year's strong hit "Guardian", did what her previous single couldn't do and beat Lita Ford to earn her first #1 in over seven years. The last week of January, Kelly Clarkson broke Tori Amos's record for most top 10 hits when "People Like Us", the second of three songs from her greatest hits collection to reach the top 40, became her 17th top 10 hit; the following week, Kelly broke Tori's record of most top 40 hits when her 22nd top 40 hit, a collaboration with Jewel on a re-recording of "Foolish Games", debuted at #38. Doro earned her first #1 since 2009 with "Hero", a tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio.

However, the biggest record to be broken came February 10, 2013, when Lita Ford earned her ninth #1 hit with "Asylum". With a ninth #1 under her belt, Lita shattered the record for most songs to reach #1 that had been held by Madonna since my chart's online debut in June 2003. Adding to Lita's long list of achievements, Living Like A Runaway became the first album in JT40 history to spawn five #1 hits, and the fifth week at #1 for "Asylum" on March 24, 2013 marked Lita's 52nd cumulative week at #1, equal to Lita spending one whole year out of the chart's 10 year run at #1.

In January, Jessica's Top 40 began its yearlong celebration of its 10-year anniversary known as "10 Years Of Awesomeness" with the debut of a chart magazine. JT40 Magazine debuted January 27, 2013 with Kelly Clarkson on the cover supporting a story about her record-breaking 17th top 10 hit; the issue also featured stories about Doro, Alanis Morissette, and Justin Timberlake's return to music, as well as music reviews and a story on the impact of the Jessica's Top 40 Countdown segment Making Kanye Mad.

On March 16, 2013, the Jessica's Top 40 Countdown aired for the last time. The show was discontinued as a result of my brother Michael getting a full time job, with his new responsibilities preventing him from continuing to write and act in the Making Kanye Mad segment. The big farewell show was a major success, and even though the show will no longer air weekly, the door remains open for one-off specials and year end retrospectives.

April 2013 was a big month for Jessica's Top 40 as the chart celebrated the inductions of core chart artists Heart and Rush in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Ahead of the induction, Heart scored two #1 hits three weeks apart from each other, their critically acclaimed Kennedy Centers Honors performance of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven", and their fifth chart entry from their Fanatic album, "A Million Miles". The month also marked Jewel and Mariah Carey's first trips to #1, reaching the top nearly 10 years after marking their first appearances on the inaugural JT40 chart.

Also reaching #1 for the first time was Demi Lovato, who strongly benefited from an unexpected positive reception to her fourth studio album Demi. Upon the album's release, its lead single "Heart Attack" climbed to #1, and has since established itself as one of the year's biggest hits so far. Demi's success, as well as the return of Mariah Carey, helped lead an unexpected resurgence of mainstream top 40 hits, with Justin Timberlake scoring his best performing single to date and crossover hits from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Robin Thicke showing surprising strength.

In June 2013, Jessica's Top 40 marked its 10-year anniversary. A radio show celebrating the occasion aired on the weekend marking 10 years since the chart's debut, with part one airing June 29 (the date of the first ever chart) and part two airing June 30 (the date the first chart was posted online). The show counted down the chart's biggest hits of its first 10 years, with Adele ranking #1 with "Set Fire To The Rain".

Timing with the biggest musical event of the year, the beginning of my life-changing obsession with Grace Slick, her former band Starship instantly impacted and scored one of the biggest hits of the year with "It's Not The Same As Love", the lead single from their first album in almost a quarter-century.

What was dubbed "Slickmania" led to me gaining interest in pop music of the 1970s, just as my obsession with Lita Ford led to increased interest in hard rock and heavy metal. This showed in my chart as several 1970s-influenced pop songs from the likes of Robin Thicke, Bruno Mars and Daft Punk achieved massive success in the summer months.

It strongly intensified in 2014 to the point where the 70's invasion generated more huge hits than a single core artist! It resulted in three 1970s-influenced pop songs topping the chart, "Birthday" by Katy Perry, "You Don't Know What To Do" by Mariah Carey, and "Superbad" by Jesse McCartney, the latter becoming his first #1 and paired with previous single "Tie The Knot" marked a surprising comeback for an artist who previously achieved only modest chart success. Despite losing #1 to Lita Ford, Elton John's collaboration with Take That singer Gary Barlow on "Face To Face" achieved strong longevity and showed strength as one of the biggest songs not to top the chart, while Linda Ronstadt becoming one of two new queens in the year (the other being Carly Simon, who has yet to chart) led to her reaching #1 with "Pretty Bird", taken from a duets compilation released in advance of her induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Linda's chart-topper was one of a number of significant milestones in the year as it was the first song of the country music genre to reach #1. Prior to that, A Great Big World earned the first #1 of the indie music genre with "Say Something", their collaboration with pop singer and core chart artist Christina Aguilera, and electronic group Clean Bandit scored the first dance music #1 since 2005 with their worldwide hit "Rather Be".

2014 has also been defined by a number of surprise successes. Australian rapper Iggy Azalea achieved a strong breakthrough based on the #2 peaks and longevity of her first big hit "Fancy" and her featured stint on Ariana Grande's "Problem". One Direction earned their first #1 hit with "You & I", influenced by me meeting M4B Charts Central members John and Bryan for the first time. But perhaps the biggest surprise of the year was a long-running, top 3-peaking novelty hit from Sebastian Prospero; utilizing sped-up clips of bad 70s pop songs spliced in with comedic recordings, "70's Whore" unexpectedly achieved enduring chart success after it was surprisingly well-received among some members of M4B Charts Central, leading to it becoming his first Globalchart Top 100 hit.

The year, however, also was marked by a decline in rock music hits. By the start of September, only two have reached #1, and despite hits from the likes of Lacuna Coil and Courtney Love keeping the genre alive on the chart, their successes have been outnumbered by the 70's invasion.

As of mid-September 2014, 194 songs have reached #1. The 200th #1 is expected to arrive between late fall 2014 and early winter 2015, and will be commemorated with a special one-off Jessica's Top 40 Countdown show.