As I slowly assemble the 1939 bracket, I thought I’d give an updated on where I grab these songs from.
Acclaimed Music: Top Songs of 1939
Manually assembled and weighted, someone went through all the “greatest songs of all time” lists, weighed them for such things as importance, breadth, and recency, and outputs the best into a list. For 1939, it lists 30 songs, and they all went into my listening playlist. I usually try to include the top 20 each year automatically onto the bracket. Afterwards a song might be included if it appears well on other lists and/or if they add diversity (musically, culturally, genderly). Sometimes it’s as simple as I need one more blues song to complete a section, so I’ll pick the highest seeded blues song remaining.
Rate Your Music: Top Singles of 1939
Rate Your Music differs in that any user can sign up and rate music. It’s as close we can get to a People’s Choice Awards” for older music. Acclaimed Music also cares about originals, while during this era an artist will often rerecord their hit song. Billy Holiday does this a lot when she moves to a different label. Probably the most famous example is Bing Crosby rerecording “White Christmas” (the one you hear in December is probably the rerecording).
It’s helpful in curating a list of songs for a best of bracket from this era, is that James from Centuries of Sound has already done it, and better. His sound collages are well curated and endlessly listenable, spending much much more time on it than I have on this project. Beyond the listening pleasure, Centuries of Sound helps me pick songs already on my radar but I might be on the fence about, or pick ones that I haven’t come across. In the later category, he’s very good at finding great gems that are not in the English language, as nearly every other list here mostly stays in the Anglosphere.
Popularity Lists
There are a bunch of useful lists on Wikipedia, but the ones I use the most are the list of top popular recordings and the Hit Parade #1 songs of the era. Although some of the songs don’t hold up after 80 years, many do, and sometimes the critics and music buffs downplay the pop hits of the era (or really any era). Plus, there’s a question, “what would the Grammys have nominated if it was around back then?” and the chances are, as they do now, they’d pick a recording already very popular.
Another sign of popularity, then an now, is if the song has a Wikipedia article. Although imperfect, it’s often a sign that the recording was memorable.
There is also a list of Christmas songs, which along with Disney songs, are most of songs from the era the general public still listens to regularly.
Other Assorted Lists
If a song is in the Grammy Hall of Fame or the National Recording Registry, I’m including it. If it sold 15 million copies, it’s in. If you won the Oscar for Best Original Song, you’re likely in. If you were nominated, ehh that’s a mixed bag. Same if you were on the American Film Institute’s list of best songs. And, as mentioned above, if it was in an iconic Disney film, it’ll be considered. I also consulted lists by the RIAA, NPR, and CBC of the greatest songs of the 20th Century, which looked big-picture at the important songs of the era, not just the ones made after 1955.