This week on American Top 40 from 1979, Casey made a big deal out of "Le Freak" by Chic moving into the #1 position for the 3rd time in the same chart run. Once hitting #1, it was replaced by "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," regained the top spot, was replaced by "Too Much Heaven" for a couple weeks, then regained the top spot again. No record in the rock era had ever done that.
And for the next few decades, no one did again! Even the arrival of the Soundscan era didn't lead to a lot of bouncing and rebounding near the top, though some #1 runs were interrupted by the first-week surge of an artist with a huge fan base (mostly Mariah Carey).
The introduction of streaming and digital downloads made that easier to do, leading to
a) More interruptions by a surge from a new release (at first, many "American Idol" winners then later big sellers like BTS, Drake, and Taylor Swift)
b) true dueling between songs, which began most seriously in 2008 with T.I. matching "Le Freak"
c) occasional remixes and the addition of a duet partner leading to a resurgence of popularity, and
d) the late 2010's rise in Holiday hits disrupting the normal charts
The first song to have 4 runs at #1 was Drake's "Nice for What" in 2018 which logged 8 weeks over the course of thirteen weeks, including one gap with two different songs.
2022 took the record to 5 separate moves into the #1 spot, with Harry Styles "As it Was" being bumped mostly for reason a) above, including once by 3 different songs in a row! Despite the bumps, it logged 15 weeks at #1 over a stunning 25-week period -- the longest such period in a single chart run -- look for that in the next listing of biggest hits of all time!
Speaking of which, also look for Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" -- it too has risen to #1 five times, four of them marking the beginning of the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 holiday seasons dominating streaming and sales...plus being interrupted during the 2020 run. She's now logged 12 weeks at #1, with four this year. She'll almost certainly break Styles' record for runs at #1 by the same song and within three years should have the most weeks at #1 overall (the record is currently 19 by "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X)...a record she held for a long time at 16 weeks for "One Sweet Day."
