Talk:List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 2018

Change in Billboard's dating of the charts

This press release explains the change. Effective with the first chart dated in 2018, Billboard is dating their charts closer to when they compile and release them, one week sooner than we have been used to seeing. For the first chart dated in 2018, however, they have settled on January 3 as the date for the charts they released online last Wednesday (December 27, 2017). The table below illustrates this change, showing how they will be dated (bold), and how they would've been dated without the change (italics):

Release date of charts	Charts dated (revised method)	Charts dated (obsolete method)
December 12, 2017	December 23, 2017
December 19, 2017	December 30, 2017
December 27, 2017 (delayed by Christmas)	January 3, 2018	January 6, 2018
January 3, 2018 (delayed by New Year's Day)	January 6, 2018	January 13, 2018
January 9, 2018	January 13, 2018	January 20, 2018
January 17, 2018 (delayed by Martin Luther King Day)	January 20, 2018	January 27, 2018
January 23, 2018	January 27, 2018	February 3, 2018
January 30, 2018	February 3, 2018	February 10, 2018
February 6, 2018	February 10, 2018	February 17, 2018
February 13, 2018	February 17, 2018	February 24, 2018
February 21, 2018 (delayed by Presidents Day)	February 24, 2018	March 3, 2018
February 27, 2018	March 3, 2018	March 10, 2018

MPFitz1968 (talk) 22:43, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Beyonce is not credited on Perfect

You might want to recheck Billboard's primary archives. Beyonce is not credited as a secondary artist on "Perfect" for any of its weeks at #1.

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2017-12-23

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2017-12-30

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2018-01-03

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2018-01-06

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2018-01-13

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2018-01-20

She is also not listed as a primary artist on either of the "archives" pages:

https://www.billboard.com/archive/charts/2017/hot-100

https://www.billboard.com/archive/charts/2018/hot-100

Looking at the "Wayback Machine", she was originally credited, but has now been retroactively taken off. Probably because Billboard made an error and then went back and fixed it, which is not all that uncommon for Billboard to do.

Whatever the reason for Billboard making the update, it seems clear that Wikipedia should use the more up to date and more "official" source from the same publisher, than the weekly Top 10 preview articles, which have a tendency to get redacted on later dates. Nikki Lee 1999 (talk) 09:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

@Nikki Lee 1999: If the magazine (print) issues of Billboard from December 23, 2017 to January 13, 2018 showed Beyoncé as featured on "Perfect" on the Hot 100, that is as good a source as the preview articles which are cited at List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2018 and doesn't matter what the online charts show. It was no error about Billboard crediting Beyoncé during those weeks, because the duet version accounted for more of the chart points at that time than the solo by Sheeran accounted for. Once the solo version accounted for the majority of the points, Billboard went back to billing the solo version on the Hot 100. MPFitz1968 (talk) 16:15, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

As I recall, they only claimed during the first or maybe second week that it was the more popular version. But my guess is that they discovered some sort of error, and then realized that the duet was never the more popular version. But that's irrelevant either way. The print version can be wrong. And that seems to be what's going on here, since they went back and corrected what they previously wrote. Furthermore, the print version isn't what is sourced on the page you edited. I can find more examples of print errors and typos that are present in the weekly Gary Trust articles, the print issues, as well as print media in general. And we don't include those errors on Wikipedia just because they can't be changed on the print source.

My main point is that we should probably be using the updated archive, rather than those weekly Gary Trust articles which have a tendency to be redacted. Nikki Lee 1999 (talk) 14:36, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

@Nikki Lee 1999: Exceptions have been made before concerning what credits (for other songs) were shown in the original print editions and what was shown later, like online, in later print editions of Billboard, as well as Joel Whitburn's books, so I wouldn't mind the change if other editors don't object either. As I mentioned on your talk page (informing you about moving this topic from mine), other editors/IPs have made the change to this entry back and forth since early this year, and I'm not sure consensus has been achieved either way. Notes appearing in List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of the 2010s and List of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in 2018 regarding Beyoncé's credit seem to be more appropriate. MPFitz1968 (talk) 15:21, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

I agree that notes could definitely be useful. Can you tell me what other times similar things like this have happened? The one I know is "Too Hotty" by Quavo was originally called "Too Hotty" by Quality Control. But that wasn't a Top 10, so it wasn't really an issue anywhere on Wikipedia. Nikki Lee 1999 (talk) 15:51, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm definitely an old-timer when it comes to pop music, but back in 1981, the song "Just the Two of Us" was credited to just Grover Washington, Jr. in the print editions of the Hot 100 well into its chart run. This was the case even when it was at its peak spot of #2. Not until the chart dated May 23, 1981, fifteen weeks into its run and when it dropped from its peak to #3, was Bill Withers (the vocalist and also a co-writer of the song) billed as a performing artist on that one. (Check it out here.) The online charts have Bill Withers credited all the way back to the song's debut on February 14 of that year.

I haven't kept an active list of songs where the artist credits changed during the song's run, and may have later been corrected in the online version, but that's one I could remember looking at their charts. But here's one very recent example. I'm sure we remember when Bieber was added to the credits for "Despacito" last year - that's when the remix came out and the week that followed it rocketed into the top 10 from like #48 or something. Looking at the online charts now, from before it went top 10, they have gone back and added Bieber's name to the credits in those weeks. (Didn't get removed from the credits later, unlike with Beyoncé on "Perfect", as the remix stayed the dominant/primary version.) MPFitz1968 (talk) 16:23, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Now why didn't I remember this one? When Rihanna's "S&M" hit #1, roughly seven years ago this week on the chart dated April 30, 2011, the artist billing had Britney Spears as the featured artist, but apparently in no other week of that song's run was Britney credited. (The online charts I recall had it this way originally, but not anymore - Spears is credited as the featured artist in every week of the song's run there.) MPFitz1968 (talk) 17:15, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. I never knew that about S&M. How long do have to wait for people to chime in before we can edit the page? Nikki Lee 1999 (talk) 23:34, 10 May 2018 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2020 which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:04, 5 August 2020 (UTC)