@mccabebabe: "My Heart Will Go On" was a victim of Billboard's chart policy. When the song was released, for a song to rank on the Hot 100, it had to have a US commercially-available single (cassette or CD single; import singles don't count). The commercial single wasn't released until Feb of 1998 (in time for Valentine's Day), nearly 3 months after its radio release. When it did enter the Hot 100, it debuted at #1 but partly due to the single's limited availability (fewer than 750,000 copies were produced) its sales factor was limited, and in the late 1990s, most #1 chart hits made it there because of sales (a lot of hip-hop and rap singles did very well on the chart in spite of limited radio airplay because they had very strong sales).
Billboard didn't change its chart policy until December of 1998 when album-only cuts were finally allowed to chart. Coincidentally, the first #1 song under the new chart policy was Celine's duet with R. Kelly, "I'm Your Angel." |
Number Bands
First Hit Song
3+ Billboard #1s
