For my first topic on ATRL, I thought it would be an interesting idea to take the discographies of some of the most popular artists on this site and see how all of their singles stack up against each other based on worldwide chart performance. I will pick a new artist every few days and will include their ranked list of singles. Below is some additional information about how this thread will work:
Methodology
Similar to how Billboard calculates its “best of” charts, I used an inverse point system, with peaks of 1 contributing 100 points to a song’s total number of points, peaks of 100 contributing 1, and so on. The 28 charts that were used in calculating these totals are the official charts of the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium (both the Dutch and French charts), Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States (including the adult contemporary, adult pop, alternative, country, dance, hip-hop, pop, rap and rock charts).
Since there are 28 charts, the theoretical maximum score a song can obtain is 2,800. However, because I decided to include all of the various genre-specific charts, there is no chance that any song could obtain this total (since a country single would not appear on the dance or rap charts, for example). After doing this for several artists, I've realized that songs with totals over 1,000 would be considered decent hits, while songs with totals over 2,000 were massive successes.
The songs I am including for each artist are every song in which the selected artist is the lead artist. While this ignores features, it does not exclude any random album tracks that may have charted or any songs where several artists are credited as lead artists (such as Lady Marmalade).
If any songs happen to tie, the song that was released first wins the tiebreaker.
Disadvantages
While this scoring system gives a general idea of how an artist’s collection of singles compares to each other, there are two main drawbacks.
Because it would be too time-consuming to do otherwise, I only took into account the peak position of each song on this chart. So while this takes into account the basic popularity of all the songs in each country, it doesn’t take into account longevity, another main factor that contributes to success.
Another thing to consider is that some charts are relatively new, so some older songs have a disadvantage to newer songs as they were unable to appear on the same possible number of charts. This is most evident in artists whose careers date back before 2002 (keep this in mind for future reference, Britney stans).
I’ll release the final list for each artist in parts, so feel free to try and guess the positions of songs or to suggest artists for me to do next. The only thing I ask you to consider when suggesting artists is to pick artists that are between album cycles. This way, there are no songs currently charting that may have yet to reach their peaks, which puts every song on an equal playing field and leaves less room for debate. Enjoy!
Lady Gaga (25,921)
01. Born This Way - 2,265
02. Bad Romance - 2,261
03. Telephone - 2,227
04. Alejandro - 2,219
05. Poker Face - 2,213
06. The Edge Of Glory - 2,199
07. Just Dance - 2,111
08. Paparazzi - 2,031
09. Judas - 2,026
10. Love Game - 1,636
11. You And I - 1,258
12. Hair - 1,226
13. Marry The Night - 988
14. Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) - 609
15. Dance In The Dark - 211
16. Monster - 177
17. Black Jesus (Amen Fashion) - 79
18. So Happy I Could Die - 48
19. Speechless - 41
20. Heavy Metal Lover - 40
21. Starstruck - 27
22. Christmas Tree - 22
23. Poker Face / Speechless / Your Song - 7
Kelly Clarkson (18,009)
01. Stronger - 1,908
02. My Life Would Suck Without You - 1,711
03. Because Of You - 1,668
04. Since You Been Gone - 1,541
05. Behind These Hazel Eyes - 1,319
06. Mister Know It All - 1,265
07. Never Again - 1,253
08. Breakaway - 1,187
09. Walk Away - 1,078
10. Already Gone - 1,032
11. Miss Independent - 995
12. I Do Not Hook Up - 846
13. Dark Side - 662
14. The Trouble With Love Is - 478
15. A Moment Like This - 411
16. Low - 286
17. All I Ever Wanted - 159
18. My Grown Up Christmas List - 84
19. One Minute - 65
20. Up To The Mountain - 45
21. Don't Waste Your Time - 8
22. I'll Be Home For Christmas - 8
Avril Lavigne (17,883)
01. Complicated - 1,933
02. Girlfriend - 1,636
03. Skater Boy - 1,612
04. I'm With You - 1,587
05. Don't Tell Me - 1,524
06. When You're Gone - 1,500
07. My Happy Ending - 1,466
08. What The Hell - 1,312
09. Nobody's Home - 967
10. Hot - 808
11. Losing Grip - 776
12. He Wasn't - 589
13. Smile - 529
14. Alice - 460
15. Keep Holding On - 426
16. Wish You Were Here - 299
17. The Best Damn Thing - 192
18. Fall To Pieces - 150
19. Mobile - 75
20. Innocence - 42