Today's technology, yesteryear
The UK's Official Chart Company has identified the top-streamed hits from 1952 to 2022. Obviously, Gene Kelly's Singin' In The Rain wasn't the most streamed song during 1952, because the technology wasn't available then. Sales were strictly old skool back in those days—vinyl was for everyone, not just hipsters.
No, its ascent to the top occurred only recently.
1982 was not a great year for the UK's music charts. Two of the biggest hits that year were Dexy's Midnight Runners' Come On Eileen and Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger. I hated both of those songs with a passion, and the passing of forty years hasn't dimmed my ire. Nevertheless, neither one is the most streamed song from that year. The one that is, is one of several that took time to reach mainstream popularity and achieve classic status.
They include San Francisco rock band Journey, whose single Don't Stop Believin' stalled at number 62 in 1982, but subsequently became a rock standard, thanks to its inclusion in TV shows like The Sopranos and Glee.
Mark Savage, BBC music correspondent, BBC News
I dunno, Mark, I think it was rereleased several times, and used elsewhere; including Final Fantasy VIII mashups—at least one of which predates its use in either of those shows, and has attained around 160k views on YouTube. That's how I came to know it, and I don't even play video games. Damned sight better song than those other two, though. Definitely! (nod)
One strange thing is that while the BBC's countdowns of the decades will be broadcast on 11th and 12th of this month, the programmes are, fittingly enough, available for streaming from BBC Sounds now. So, if you can stand the inane babbling of BBC Radio's disc jockeys, you can steal a march on the ordinary radio listener. Personally, there's only so much Fearne Cotton I can stand, but I have a weak stomach.
