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The Legendary Cash Box Magazine Charts
Chart data collected by Randy Price

What was tops on the record charts the day you were born? Your graduation day? Your wedding day? Pick a decade. Pick a year. Pick a week. Let the fun begin.

Select a Decade:

The ’50s: 

The ’60s: 

The ’70s: 

The ’80s: 

The ’90s: 


Also in This Archive:

• POP SINGLES

• COUNTRY SINGLES

• R&B/SOUL SINGLES
 The original Cash Box Magazine was a weekly coin-machine and music-industry publication from July 1942 through its last issue dated November 16, 1996. In the issue dated March 13, 1954, Cash Box introduced its section featuring the best-selling records in retail stores, including the Top 5 Best Selling Pop Albums. Two weeks later, that album chart was expanded to 10 positions. In the issue dated September 25, 1954, Cash Box began listing the catalog number for the EP version of each album (where available), in addition to the LP catalog number.

In the issue dated May 7, 1955, the album chart was expanded to 15 positions. In the issue dated October 29, 1955, the top 15 albums were supplemented by 2 or 3 Top Selling Promotional Albums. This feature was discontinued with the issue dated December 17, 1955.

The album chart was expanded to 20 positions in the issue dated June 16, 1956; to 23 positions in the issue dated July 21, 1956, and to 25 positions the following week.

Beginning with the issue dated December 28, 1957, Cash Box began listing 5 additional titles below the Top 25 (numbered 26-30), but without artist names or catalog numbers. This Archive treats those additional titles as part of the regular chart, with artist and label info included from later chart weeks when an album moved up into the Top 25, or from other sources.

Throughout 1958, the number of those additional titles remained at 5 most weeks, but occasionally increased to 10 or 15. Beginning with the issue dated December 13, 1958, the number of additional titles below the Top 25 remained steady at 10 for most weeks. In the issue dated December 20, 1958, Cash Box began listing both mono and stereo catalog numbers for each album (if a stereo version was available).

In the issue dated March 28, 1959, Cash Box introduced separate Mono and Stereo LP charts, with the Mono chart comprising 40 positions and the Stereo chart 30 positions. That week, the Mono chart included full information for just the Top 20 positions and titles only for positions 21-40; on the Stereo chart, full info was listed for the Top 20, and titles and artists were shown for positions 21-30. In the following week’s issue, full info was listed for the Top 40 Mono LPs (titles only for positions 41-50), and the Stereo chart was increased to 32 positions, all with full title-artist-label info. In the issue dated December 19, 1959, the Stereo chart was expanded to 50 positions, and full info was listed for all 50 positions on both charts.

In the issue dated February 23, 1963, Cash Box expanded the Mono chart to 100 positions, and started including “bullets” on that chart, indicating which albums made a “strong upward move.” Bullets were added to the Top 50 Stereo chart the following week.

In the issue dated January 16, 1965, Cash Box combined the mono and stereo listings into one overall Top 100 chart, combining the sales totals for the mono and stereo versions of each album. Also that week, Cash Box introduced a Looking Ahead albums chart, numbered from 1 to 26. The Looking Ahead charts are included below the Top 100 charts in this Archive. Through the end of 1965, they varied in depth from 18 to 42 positions. Starting in 1966, the depth of the Looking Ahead charts ranged between 12 and 30 positions. In the issue dated December 10, 1966, Cash Box eliminated the Looking Ahead banner and began numbering albums in positions below the Top 100 from 101, with a total of 140 positions.

The overall depth of the album chart remained at 140 positions until the issue dated April 10, 1971, when it was increased to 150 positions. It increased to 160 positions in the November 4, 1972, issue; to 165 positions in the November 11, 1972, issue; to 170 positions in the December 16, 1972, issue; to 175 positions in the November 10, 1973, issue; and to 200 positions in the June 7, 1975, issue. In the issue dated April 24, 1993, the depth of the album chart was reduced from 200 to 100 positions.

(Click on the links to the left to access the Pop Singles, Country Singles and R&B Singles sections of the archive.)