Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles

The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100. The chart initially had 15 positions (during 1959–1960), but expanded to as many as 35 during the 1960s, particularly during years when over 1,000 singles made the Hot 100 chart. From 1974 to 1985, the chart consisted of 10 positions. Since 1992, the Bubbling Under chart has listed 25 positions.

Chart history

The Bubbling Under chart first appeared in Billboard's June 1, 1959 issue. It continued until August 24, 1985, when it was discontinued. (Whitburn notes that during its original run, for unknown reasons the weekly chart was not issued on four occasions—three of them in 1974, and one in 1978.) The Bubbling Under chart re-appeared 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 978-0-89820-162-8). Whitburn's most recent book Top Pop Singles, 12th Edition (ISBN 978-0-89820-180-2), which covers all Hot 100 chart hits from 1955 through 2008, now includes all Bubbling Under entries also.

Notable "bubblers"

• "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6 spent 15 weeks on the Bubbling Under chart, including a record seven weeks at #101, but never cracked the Hot 100. Luther Vandross' "Think About You" also never made the main chart, despite spending 43 weeks bubbling under in 2004.
• During the 1960s, there were as many as 35 slots in the Bubbling Under chart (with two exceptions; see below). Forty-three different songs grabbed the very bottom rung by peaking at #135, including tunes from Sammy Davis, Jr. ("If I Ruled The World"), Donovan ("Summer Day Reflection Song"), Doris Day ("Send Me No Flowers"), The Applejacks ("Tell Me When", a Top 10 UK hit) and Shirley Ellis, with "Ever See A Diver Kiss His Wife While The Bubbles Bounce About Above The Water?".
• The chart contained 36 positions on two occasions. The two records that appeared at #136 were "The Bounce" by the Olympics (April 6, 1963; the song eventually hit #40) and "Turn Around, Look at Me" by the Vogues (May 25, 1968; a huge hit that peaked at #7).
• Ray Charles has the most bubblers ever under a consistent artist credit, charting 14 bubblers from 1963 to 1993. (A 'bubbler' is a track that appears on the bubbling under charts without ever making the leap into the Hot 100.) Don Everly also appears as an artist on 14 bubblers, 13 as one-half of The Everly Brothers, and one as a solo artist. Similarly, Joel Whitburn also gives credit for 14 bubblers to George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic aggregation, which issued records under a variety of band names or solo identities. On the bubbling under charts, the loose-knit group appeared three times as Parliament, once as The Parliaments, three times as Funkadelic, once as The Brides of Funkenstein, twice as Bootsy's Rubber Band, once under the name of William "Bootsy" Collins, and three times under George Clinton's name. It could be argued that at least some of these groups are actually separate (though related) artists, however Whitburn lists them as one act under multiple aliases.
• The Robbs, a pop/rock band from Wisconsin, hold the record for the act with the most "Bubbling Under" appearances without ever once having any of their records cross over into the Hot 100. Between 1966 and 1971, six Robbs singles appeared on the bubbling under charts. (Their best showing was 1966's "Race With The Wind", which peaked at #103.) All four members of the Robbs later worked as writers, producers and session musicians, and—after their group had broken up—individually or collectively participated in the making of dozens of Hot 100 hits.
• One of the most mysterious records ever to appear in any Billboard chart was "Ready 'n' Steady", listed as recorded by an artist named "D.A.", which spent three weeks on the Bubbling Under chart in June 1979. In a 1995 interview, Joel Whitburn said that "Ready 'n' Steady" was "the only record we've never been able to find in the history of the pop charts." It was released on the Rascal label (which Whitburn postulated was run "out of a guy's home in Detroit"). However, in the 4th edition of Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Hot 100, published in 2005, the entry for "D.A." was amended with a note stating "the existence of this record and artist is in question." The most recent edition of Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles" book, published in 2009, includes both Top 100 and Bubbling Under singles—but D.A. is not listed. Collectors now generally treat "Ready 'n' Steady" as a "phantom record", at least until Whitburn—or someone—can locate a copy.