Well, close. The guy from "Wings" actually said it. Doc replied with Fredrick Fucking Chopin but you knew enough to get it.
Probably just educated guesses according to sheet music sales... or maybe somebody applied today's sales of those same songs back to their years of issuance. Anyway, I'm sure it's inexact. The one thing I got from the list is how crappy popular music has been since about the year 2000. And it also reminded me of how dominant the Beatles and Rolling Stones were back in the 60's... although I'm surprised "All You Need Is Love" was the best selling song of its year.
A few of the picks got my interest, so I went to Wikipedia.....a. Why would the 1812 Overture been a #1 hit in the US in 1882? Turns out that Tchaikovsky - a Russian - actually debut'd the piece in Carnegie Hall, marking the first time a major European composer performed in the US. b. How was Singin' In The Rain - the title song of a 50s musical - the #1 hit of 1929? Well, the song was not written for the show, but was in fact written in '29, maybe even as early as '27, and was recorded by several different artists that year. c. I knew The Entertainer comes from the early 20th century (it got a revival in the 70s thanks to "The Sting"), but was it that popular in 1902? Yes, at least according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which reviewed it as Scott Joplin's best work to date.
