List of Billboard number-one singles of the 1940s

This article is about the US number-one songs chart held during the 1940s.

Billboard number-one singles chart (which preceded the Billboard Hot 100 chart), which was updated weekly by the Billboard magazine, was the main singles chart of the American music industry since 1940 and until the Billboard Hot 100 chart was established in 1958.

Before the Billboard Hot 100 chart was established (in August 1958), which would solely be based on the sales data and airplay on American radio stations, the Billboard magazine used to published several weekly charts every time. Throughout most of the 1950s the magazine published the following three charts:

Best Sellers in Stores – ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country.
Most Played by Jockeys – ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys and radio stations.
Most Played in Jukeboxes – ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. At that time, this chart used to be one of the most important channels for measuring the popularity of a song among the younger generation of listeners, as many US radio stations resisted adding rock 'n roll music to their playlists for many years.

The list below includes the Best Sellers in Stores singles chart only (for the expanded detailed lists of the three charts, see articles of individual years in the Billboard charts).

 Number ones 
Key
 – Number-one single of the year

19401941 194219431944194519461947194819491950s →


 Reachednumber one Artist(s) Single Record label Weeks atnumber one Ref1940 July 27, 1940  Tommy Dorsey  "I'll Never Smile Again"    12   October 19, 1940  Bing Crosby  "Only Forever"    9   December 21, 1940  Artie Shaw  "Frenesi"  RCA Victor  12  1941 March 15, 1941  Glenn Miller  "Song Of The Volga Boatmen"    1   March 22, 1941  Artie Shaw  "Frenesi"  RCA Victor  1   March 29, 1941  Jimmy Dorsey  "Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy)"    10   June 7, 1941  Jimmy Dorsey  "My Sister And I"    1   June 14, 1941  Jimmy Dorsey  "Maria Elena"    1   June 21, 1941   Sammy Kaye  "Daddy"    1   June 28, 1941   Jimmy Dorsey  "My Sister And I"    1   July 5, 1941   Jimmy Dorsey  "Maria Elena"    1   July 12, 1941   Sammy Kaye  "Daddy"    7   August 30, 1941   Jimmy Dorsey  "Green Eyes (Aquellos Ojos Verdes)"    4   September 27, 1941   Jimmy Dorsey  "Blue Champagne"    1   October 4, 1941   Freddy Martin  "Piano Concerto In B Flat"    8   November 29, 1941   Glenn Miller  "Chattanooga Choo Choo"    3   December 20, 1941   Glenn Miller  "Elmer's Tune"    1   December 27, 1941   Glenn Miller  "Chattanooga Choo Choo"    6  1942 February 7, 1942   Glenn Miller  "A String Of Pearls"    1   February 14, 1942   Woody Herman  "Blues In The Night (My Mama Done Tol' Me)"    1   February 21, 1942   Glenn Miller  "A String Of Pearls"    1   February 28, 1942   Glenn Miller  "Moonlight Cocktail"    10   May 9, 1942   Jimmy Dorsey  "Tangerine"    6   June 20, 1942   Harry James  "Sleepy Lagoon"    4   July 18, 1942   Kay Kyser  "Jingle Jangle Jingle"    8   September 12, 1942   Glenn Miller  "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo"    7   October 31, 1942   Bing Crosby  "White Christmas"    11  1943 January 16, 1943   Tommy Dorsey  "There Are Such Things"    4   February 13, 1943   Harry James  "I Had The Craziest Dream"    2   February 27, 1943   Tommy Dorsey  "There Are Such Things"    1   March 6, 1943   Harry James  "I've Heard That Song Before"    12   May 29, 1943   Glenn Miller  "That Old Black Magic"    1   June 5, 1943   Harry James  "I've Heard That Song Before"    1   June 12, 1943   Benny Goodman  "Taking A Chance On Love"    3   July 3, 1943   The Song Spinners  "Comin' In On A Wing And A Prayer"    3   July 24, 1943   Dick Haymes  "You'll Never Know"    4   August 21, 1943   Tommy Dorsey  "In The Blue Of Evening"    3   September 11, 1943   Bing Crosby  "Sunday, Monday Or Always"    7   October 30, 1943   Al Dexter  "Pistol Packin' Mama"    1   November 6, 1943   Mills Brothers  "Paper Doll"    12  1944 January 29, 1944   Glen Gray  "My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart)"    5   March 4, 1944   Jimmy Dorsey  "Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)"    7   April 22, 1944   Guy Lombardo  "It's Love-Love-Love"    2   May 6, 1944   Bing Crosby  "I Love You"    5   June 10, 1944   Harry James  "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)"    3   July 1, 1944   Bing Crosby  "I'll Be Seeing You"    1   July 8, 1944   Harry James  "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)"    1   July 15, 1944   Bing Crosby  "I'll Be Seeing You"    3   August 5, 1944   Bing Crosby  "Swinging On A Star"    9   October 7, 1944   Mills Brothers  "You Always Hurt The One You Love"    1   October 14, 1944   Dinah Shore  "I'll Walk Alone"    1   October 21, 1944   Mills Brothers  "You Always Hurt The One You Love"    2   November 4, 1944   Dinah Shore  "I'll Walk Alone"    3   November 25, 1944   Mills Brothers  "You Always Hurt The One You Love"    2   December 9, 1944   The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald  "I'm Making Believe"    2   December 23, 1944   Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters  "Don't Fence Me In"    8  1945 February 17, 1945   The Andrews Sisters  "Rum and Coca-Cola"    7   April 7, 1945   Les Brown  "My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time"    7   May 26, 1945   Les Brown  "Sentimental Journey"    9   July 28, 1945   Johnny Mercer  "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"    7   September 15, 1945   Perry Como  "Till The End Of Time"    9   November 17, 1945   Sammy Kaye  "Chickery Chick"    1   November 24, 1945   Harry James  "It's Been A Long, Long Time"    2   December 8, 1945   Bing Crosby and The Les Paul Trio  "It's Been A Long, Long Time"    1   December 15, 1945   Sammy Kaye  "Chickery Chick"    1   December 22, 1945   Harry James  "It's Been A Long, Long Time"    1   December 29, 1945   Sammy Kaye  "Chickery Chick"    1  1946 January 5, 1946   Freddy Martin  "Symphony"    2   January 19, 1946   Bing Crosby and Carmen Cavallaro  "I Can't Begin To Tell You"    1   January 26, 1946   Vaughn Monroe  "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"    5   March 2, 1946   Betty Hutton  "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief"    1   March 9, 1946   Johnny Mercer  "Personality"    1   March 16, 1946   Frankie Carle  "Oh! What It Seemed To Be"    6   April 27, 1946   Sammy Kaye  "I'm A Big Girl Now"    1   May 4, 1946   Perry Como"Prisoner Of Love"♪ (1946)    3   May 25, 1946   The Ink Spots  "The Gypsy"    10   August 3, 1946   Perry Como  "Surrender"    1   August 10, 1946   Eddy Howard  "To Each His Own"    3   August 31, 1946   Freddy Martin  "To Each His Own"    2   September 14, 1946   Frank Sinatra  "Five Minutes More"    1   September 21, 1946   The Ink Spots  "To Each His Own"    1   September 28, 1946   Frank Sinatra  "Five Minutes More"    1   October 5, 1946   Eddy Howard  "To Each His Own"    2   October 19, 1946   Frankie Carle  "Rumors Are Flying"    8   December 14, 1946   Kay Kyser  "Old Buttermilk Sky"    2   December 28, 1946   Sammy Kaye  "The Old Lamp-Lighter"    7  1947 February 15, 1947   The King Cole Trio  "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons"    1   February 22, 1947   Count Basie  "Open The Door, Richard!"    1   March 1, 1947   Freddy Martin  "Managua, Nicaragua"    2   March 15, 1947   Ted Weems  "Heartaches"    12   June 7, 1947   Art Lund  "Mam'selle"    2   June 21, 1947   The Harmonicats  "Peg O' My Heart"    1   June 28, 1947   Perry Como  "Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep)"    3   July 19, 1947   The Harmonicats  "Peg O' My Heart"    3   August 9, 1947   Tex Williams  "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)"    6   September 20, 1947   Francis Craig"Near You"♪ (1947)    12   December 13, 1947   Vaughn Monroe  "Ballerina"    10  1948 February 21, 1948   Art Mooney  "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover"    3   March 13, 1948   Peggy Lee  "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)"    9   May 15, 1948   Nat King Cole  "Nature Boy"    7   July 3, 1948   Kay Kyser  "Woody Wood-Pecker"    6   August 14, 1948   Al Trace  "You Call Everybody Darlin'"    2   August 28, 1948   Pee Wee Hunt  "Twelfth Street Rag"    6   October 9, 1948   Margaret Whiting  "A Tree In The Meadow"    2   October 23, 1948   Pee Wee Hunt"Twelfth Street Rag"♪ (1948)    2   November 6, 1948   Dinah Shore  "Buttons And Bows"    9  1949 January 8, 1949   Spike Jones  "All I Want For Christmas (is My Two Front Teeth)"    1   January 15, 1949   Dinah Shore  "Buttons And Bows"    1   January 22, 1949   Evelyn Knight  "A Little Bird Told Me"    7   March 12, 1949   Blue Barron  "Cruising Down the River"    2   April 2, 1949   Russ Morgan  "Cruising Down the River"    7   May 14, 1949   Vaughn Monroe"Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend)"♪ (1949)    11   July 30, 1949   Perry Como  "Some Enchanted Evening"    5   September 3, 1949   Vic Damone  "You're Breaking My Heart"    4   October 1, 1949   Frankie Laine  "That Lucky Old Sun"    8   November 26, 1949   Frankie Laine  "Mule Train"    6  

 Statistics by decade 
 By artist 
The following artists achieved four or more number-one hits during the 1940s. A number of artists had number-one singles on their own as well as part of a collaboration.

 Artists by total number of weeks at number-one 
The following artists were featured in top of the chart for the highest total number of weeks during the 1940s.

 Songs by total number of weeks at number-one 
The following songs were featured in top of the chart for the highest total number of weeks during the 1940s.

References

Category:Billboard charts
Category:Lists of number-one songs
Category:1940s songs