Ask Billboard is updated every Friday. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.


ASK BILLBOARD: HOME CHARTS EDITION

Hi Gary,

In last week's "Ask Billboard" column, you encouraged chart fanatics to write in about their "personal charts."

From 1981 to '85, I kept a local radio chart as a teen. I tracked several local radio stations to compile my weekly list. I used various criteria for how to rank songs, starting with an inverse point system for the previous week's No. 1 down through No. 40, eventually expanding to 100.

In 1984, I started tracking my own music use and charting it. At first, I included singles and albums all on one chart. By 1992, I had dropped singles and compiled just albums (by then, CDs).

I just compiled "GGK III Chart No. 1345," dated April 30, 2011. Here is the 30-position chart's top 10:

Position, Artist, Title, Total Weeks
1, Chris Brown, "F.A.M.E," four
2, Bob Marley, "Africa Unite," 15
3, Cut/Copy, "Zonoscope," 10
4, Aimee Mann, "Smilers," 39
5, DJ Tiesto, "Parade of the Athletes," 70
6, DJ Tiesto, "Club Life in Las Vegas Volume 1," four
7, Mariah Carey, "The Emancipation of Mimi," 61
8, Earth, Wind & Fire, "Spirit," six
9, Enya, "Watermark," 191
10, Lightning Seeds, "Sense," 189

Albums come and go on my chart, with some disappearing for years, such as Marley's, above, at No. 2.

Others seem to never go away; Sinead O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" (No. 21) is at 450 weeks since 1990 (and is my No. 1 album of all-time).

By basing the list on what albums I listen to, I obviously influence my own chart. I play whatever I feel like hearing, however, so it's not really rigged.

So far this year, Rihanna's "Loud" is my top album, having spent eight weeks at No. 1.

I love charts, I love Billboard and I thank you for giving me the chance to share one of my passions with you!

George G. Kitchens III
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania