1916
A hundred and fifty-two songs chart — the biggest year yet. The war is creeping closer, and the chart’s mood shifts with it: “Keep the Home Fires Burning” and “There’s a Long, Long Trail” aren’t novelty war songs anymore but genuine expressions of anxiety, the sound of a country drifting toward entry. Henry Burr takes #1 with “M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me),” a sentimental spelling song that leans hard into direct emotional appeal. The Hawaiian craze lands on the chart with steel guitar sounds that are genuinely new — Prince’s Orchestra and Arthur Collins ride the wave, and this is the first appearance of a timbre that’ll keep influencing American music for the next century. Irving Berlin keeps filling the dance-oriented side (“I Love a Piano,” “Pretty Baby”) as the fox-trot and jazz-adjacent rhythms keep loosening up. McCormack stays warm and dominant; Jolson’s comedy timing is getting sharper by the year.
Henry Burr — “M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me)” (#1) — Archive.org
James F. Harrison — “Keep the Home Fires Burning” (#14) — Archive.org
John McCormack — “The Sunshine of Your Smile” (#4) — Archive.org
Billy Murray — “Pretty Baby” (#19) — Archive.org
Billy Murray — “I Love a Piano” (#18) — Archive.org
Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan — “Oh How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wachi Woo” (#12) — Archive.org
James F. Harrison & James Reed — “There’s a Long, Long Trail” (#5) — Archive.org
Orpheus Quartet — “Turn Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday” (#6) — Archive.org
Al Jolson — “I Sent My Wife to the Thousand Isles” (#10) — Archive.org