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Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States. It comprises 25 positions that represent songs that are close to charting on the main singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100, acting as an extension to Hot 100. Many times, singles halt their progress at this chart, and never debut on the Hot 100. For example, Kelly Clarkson's "The Trouble with Love Is" stayed at #101 and never went any higher. Also, more noticeable examples are Pet Shop Boys's "Can You Forgive Her?", "Go West", "Before", "Somewhere" and George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", which halted their progress in #101, #106, #107, #125 and #109 respectively, never to appear again in the chart. Other songs initially appear on the Bubbling Under charts, like James Taylor's memorable "Carolina in My Mind" (#118 in 1969), only to resurface a year or two later as a more successful hit (#67 in 1971).
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart can also be seen as a 25-position addendum to the Hot 100, but the chart only represents the 25 songs below position #100 which have not yet appeared on the Hot 100. If a song were to be ranked at #99 but then moved the following week to a position that is comparable to #105, it would not be eligible for the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart because it already appeared on the Hot 100 (although it would be eligible to re-enter the Hot 100 if it rebounded to such a level). The chart has sometimes been reduced to as few as 15 songs (during 1959-1960), but expanded to as many as 35 during the 1960s, particularly during years when over 1000 singles made the Hot 100 Pop charts. However, the Bubbling Under charts eventually settled down to 25 positions, from 1992 onward.
The Bubbling Under charts first appeared in Billboard's June 1, 1959 issue. It continued until August 31, 1985, but was dropped from the magazine for seven years, apparently due to lack of interest from radio stations and retail stores. The "Bubbling Under" charts reappeared without fanfare in the December 5, 1992 issue, and continues to the present day.
Several reference books on the history of the Billboard "Bubbling Under" charts have been published by Joel Whitburn's Record Research company. The latest book (from 2005) was Bubbling Under The Billboard Hot 100: 1959-2004 (ISBN 0898201624).