Hot 100 55th Anniversary: The All-Time Top 100 Songs

Arista A&R VP Richard Sweret was on a Stockholm bus with Jonas Berggren of Ace of Base when the musician played him a new demo intended for the group's second album. Sweret loved "The Sign" and insisted the quartet record it immediately. He added it to the group's first album for its U.S. release and changed the CD title from "Happy Nation" to "The Sign."

While most people know this song is by OneRepublic, the artist credit is "Timbaland featuring OneRepublic" because the hip-hop artist signed the group to his Mosley imprint and remixed "Apologize" for his album "Timbaland Presents Shock Value."

West wrote the song from a female point of view for rapper Shawna. When she didn't record it, he rewrote it for himself, and enrolled Jamie Foxx as a featured artist. The result was West's first No. 1 as a lead artist.

Music publisher Don Kirshner asked his friend Jeff Barry to find an even bigger hit to follow "Last Train to Clarksville." Barry was working with Neil Diamond and thought his song "I'm a Believer" would do the trick. The single had an advance order of 1,051,280 copies.

With nine weeks on top, this became the longest-running No. 1 debut single for any lead artist since Ashanti led the list for 10 weeks with "Foolish" in 2002.

Charting pop, R&B and country, "Lady" was the ultimate crossover hit and the first production work for Lionel Richie outside of the Commodores, resulting in Richie signing with Rogers' manager, Ken Kragen, for his solo career.

Robert Stigwood was expecting a song from the Bee Gees called "Saturday Night, Saturday Night," so he was not happy to hear a demo titled "Stayin' Alive." Heard in a 30-second trailer played in theaters one week prior to the release of "Saturday Night Fever," a demand for the song was created before the LP hit the street.

Kameron Houff, who wrote the song with Scott Storch and a then-unknown Ne-Yo, remembers when their tune hit the top of the Hot 100. "Every week, my wife would look online and come into the bedroom and say, ‘Baby, it's No. 1.' It was like ‘Groundhog Day.' It was the greatest nine weeks of my life waking up and hearing her tell me every week it's still No. 1."

Giorgio Moroder composed the music for the film "American Gigolo" and wanted Stevie Nicks to sing the title song. When she turned him down, Moroder asked Debbie Harry of Blondie to write the lyrics and record the movie's theme. "Call Me" was Billboard's No. 1 single of 1980.

will.i.am told Billboard that this song was, "made for underground clubs. Like, if I would have thought it was going to be a radio song, I would have made it different." Radio loved "Boom Boom Pow" just the way it was and the single became the Peas' first No. 1 on the Hot 100.

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