Songs from the Year 1938

Other Years:

1938

1939

1940

This page lists the top songs of 1938 in the source charts. The way that the various charts are combined to reach this final list is described on the in the site generation page.

Between 1920 and 1940 there are few available charts (at least that we can find), hence these results should be treated with caution since, with few exceptions, they are based on fairly subjective charts.

During this era music was dominated by a number of "Big Bands" and songs could be attributed to the band leader, the band name, the lead singer or a combination of the them. It is common, for example, to see the same song listed with three different artists. And, just to stop us from getting bored, the success of a song was tied to the sales of sheet music, so a popular song would often be perfomed by many different combinations of singers and bands and the contemporary charts would list the song, without clarifying whose version was the major hit. Where we have found such issues we have attempted to consolidate the entries using the most widely accepted value for the artist in each case.

#	Artist	Song Title	Year	Chart Entries
1	Artie Shaw	Begin the Beguine	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (18 weeks), Grammy Hall of Fame in 1977 (1938), US BB 2 of 1938, POP 2 of 1938, RYM 10 of 1938, Brazil 32 of 1939, DMDB 84 (1938), RIAA 91, Acclaimed 1163 (1938)
2	Benny Goodman	Sing, Sing, Sing (With A Swing)	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982 (1937), US BB 3 of 1938, Peel list 3 of 1937, POP 3 of 1938, US Billboard 7 - 1938 (6 weeks), Brazil 54 of 1939, RIAA 205, Acclaimed 526 (1937), WXPN 766
3	Ella Fitzgerald	A-Tisket A-Tasket	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (19 weeks), Grammy Hall of Fame in 1986 (1938), US BB 8 of 1938, RYM 8 of 1938, POP 8 of 1938, Brazil 57 of 1939, RIAA 104, Acclaimed 848 (1938)
4	The Andrews Sisters	Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (10 weeks), Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996 (1938), US BB 5 of 1938, RYM 5 of 1937, POP 5 of 1938, Europe 6 of the 1930s (1938), Brazil 73 of 1938
5	Seven Dwarfs	Whistle While You Work	1938	US BB 1 of 1938, POP 1 of 1938, US Billboard 2 - 1938 (13 weeks)
6	Bunny Berigan	I Can't Get Started	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 1975 (1937), US Billboard 10 - 1938 (3 weeks), US BB 15 of 1938, POP 15 of 1938, Acclaimed 1480 (1937)
7	Fred Astaire	Nice Work If You Can Get It	1938	US Billboard 1 - Nov 1937 (15 weeks), US BB 13 of 1938, POP 13 of 1938, RYM 20 of 1937, Europe 79 of the 1930s (1938)
8	Bing Crosby	I've Got a Pocket Full of Dreams	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (17 weeks), US BB 20 of 1938, POP 20 of 1938, Europe 26 of the 1930s (1938), RYM 43 of 1938
9	Fred Astaire	Change Partners	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (8 weeks), US BB 16 of 1938, POP 16 of 1938, Europe 83 of the 1930s (1938), RYM 89 of 1938
10	Duke Ellington	I Let a Song Go out of My Heart	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (19 weeks), US BB 10 of 1938, POP 10 of 1938, RYM 54 of 1938
11	Bing Crosby	You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks), US BB 12 of 1938, POP 12 of 1938, Europe 25 of the 1930s (1938)
12	Tommy Dorsey	Music, Maestro, Please	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (20 weeks), US BB 11 of 1938, POP 11 of 1938, Europe 55 of the 1930s (1938)
13	Benny Goodman	Don't Be That Way	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (13 weeks), US BB 14 of 1938, POP 14 of 1938, Europe 65 of the 1930s (1938)
14	Larry Clinton	My Reverie	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (19 weeks), US BB 17 of 1938, POP 17 of 1938, Brazil 38 of 1938
15	Bob Hope & Shirley Ross	Thanks For the Memory	1938	Oscar in 1938 (film 'The Big Broadcast of 1938'), AFI 63, RIAA 170, Acclaimed 1316 (1938)
16	Larry Clinton	Heart & Soul	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (14 weeks), US BB 6 of 1938, POP 6 of 1938
17	Larry Clinton	Cry, Baby, Cry	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (25 weeks), US BB 18 of 1938, POP 18 of 1938
18	The Andrews Sisters	Short'nin' Bread	1938	US BB 4 of 1938, POP 4 of 1938, US Billboard 16 - 1938 (2 weeks), RYM 42 of 1938
19	Fats Waller	Two Sleepy People	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks), Europe 78 of the 1930s (1938), RYM 93 of 1938
20	The Boswell Sisters	Alexander's ragtime band	1938	US Billboard 4 - 1938 (5 weeks), POP 9 of 1938, Europe 17 of the 1930s (1935), RIAA 154
21	Al Jolson & Bing Crosby	Alexander's ragtime band	1938	US BB 9 of 1938, POP 9 of 1938, Europe 16 of the 1930s (1938), US Billboard 20 - May 1947 (2 weeks)
22	Larry Clinton	You Go to My Head	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (12 weeks), US BB 7 of 1938, POP 7 of 1938
23	Mary Martin	My Heart Belongs to Daddy	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 (1938), US Billboard 9 - 1939 (2 weeks)
24	Walter Huston	September Song	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 (1938), US Billboard 12 - 1939 (5 weeks)
25	Tampa Red	Lula Mae	1938	Peel list 1 of 1944, RYM 12 of 1938
26	Woody Herman	Four Brothers	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 (1948), RYM 39 of 1938
27	Artie Shaw	Any Old Time	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001 (1938), RYM 44 of 1938
28	Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra	Cathedral In The Pines	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (10 weeks), Europe 93 of the 1930s (1938)
29	The Andrews Sisters	Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood, Mama)	1938	US Billboard 2 - 1939 (11 weeks), RYM 2 of 1938
30	Tommy Dorsey	Boogie Woogie	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (9 weeks), US 1940s 4 - Oct 1943 (10 weeks)
31	Robert Johnson	Honeymoon Blues	1938	RYM 1 of 1938
32	Jimmy Dorsey	Change Partners	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (12 weeks)
33	Sammy Kaye	Love Walked In	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (16 weeks)
34	Horace Heidt	Ti-Pi-Tin	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (13 weeks)
35	Martha Tilton	I Let a Song Go out of My Heart	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (9 weeks)
36	Kokomo	Goin' Down in Galilee	1938	Peel list 1 of 1938
37	Russ Morgan	I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (13 weeks)
38	Red Norvo & His Orchestra	Please Be Kind	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (16 weeks)
39	Bing Crosby & Connee Boswell	Alexander's ragtime band	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks)
40	Robert Johnson	Stop Breakin' Down Blues	1938	RYM 1 of 1938
41	Andy Kirk	I Won't Tell a Soul (I Love You)	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (12 weeks)
42	Charles Trenet	Je Chante	1938	France (Historical) 1 of the 1930s (1938)
43	Silvio Caldas	Pastorinhas	1938	Brazil 1 of 1938
44	Kay Kyser	The Umbrella Man	1938	US Billboard 1 - Dec 1938 (11 weeks)
45	Dolly Dawn & Her Dawn Patrol	You're a Sweetheart	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks)
46	Bing Crosby	Mexicali Rose	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (10 weeks), Europe 7 of the 1930s (1938)
47	Ella Fitzgerald	I Found My Yellow Basket	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (6 weeks), RYM 7 of 1938
48	Guy Lombardo	Ti-Pi-Tin	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (10 weeks), Brazil 67 of 1939
49	Count Basie	Panassie Stomp	1938	Peel list 4 of 1938, RYM 38 of 1939
50	Artie Shaw	Indian Love Call	1938	US Billboard 6 - 1938 (8 weeks), RYM 10 of 1938

Previous Comments

8 May 2009

A Tisket A Tasket

Thanks for this great site that I must have overlooked for a considerable time. There are some mistakes of course, e.g. Ella Fitzgerald's "A-Tisket A-Tasket" (#8 in the 1938 chart) is the same record as Chick Webb's (#26 in the year chart) because she was the band's singer at the time and Joel Whitburn is always listing the bandleader and the featured singer. Here you can see the label of the original 78 rpm record with both names on it: http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/chick_webb__and_his_orchestra_/a_tisket_a_tasket___liza__all_the_cloudsll_roll_away_/

Best wishes from Germany Cornelius

Thanks for the correction, the data has been fixed. That type of issue is the most difficult one to spot.

19 May 2009

A-Tisket A-Tasket Again

Thanks for fixing the "A-Tisket A-Tasket" entry. I'd say however that the correct artist specification for this record would be "Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald" (with a link to Ella, the same way as you did with some other collaborations, e), not just Ella Fitzgerald.

Regards Cornelius

You make a valid point, there certainly is a good case for listing it under "Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald". However, many sources list the song under just "Ella Fitzgerald" (possibly because she co-wrote it), there is no separate page for Chick Webb on the site and the "Chick Webb Orchestra" was renamed in 1939 as "Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra" (after Chick Webb died) so we decided to assign this song to "Ella Fitzgerald".

The goal of this site is to consolidate the range of input charts, this often means that we have to "standardise" names. For example some artists have different names in different countries (like "Yazoo" or "The Detroit Spinners"), some artists change names from one year to the next (like "Prince"), or for a particular song (for "(Meet) the Flintstones" "The B52s" became "The BC52s"). Mapping the actual names on the record labels or printed charts to a "most common form" makes it easier for users to find connections between charts, if they then use that information to track to the original chart data they will find the original information and can decide if our consolidations are valid for their purposes.

A note has been added to Ella Fitzgerald's page to explain the situation, this also means that anyone looking up Chick Webb in the index will be directed to the right place as well.

Thanks for the input

2 Jun 2009

Andrews Sisters

Corrected? I still see them both (now #35 and #36).

What we meant was that the data was corrected in the source data set, it obviously takes some time to "publish" from the source to the web pages. The processing alone takes about 16 hours.

In addition for the last couple of days the result has failed some of our quality tests, so we have had to correct some elements and resubmit the job (which adds another day).

The data should now show the correct values.

1 Feb 2010

song

what was the number one song on nov.08, 1938 and by who? thank you.

The first question is "where?", the number one song would vary from one country to the next.

We assume, since you have not specified a location you mean the number 1 song in the USA.

So the next question would be "according to who?", there were no official charts published in the 1930s, the closest would be some occasional charts published by Billboard magazine. Billboard produced a variety of different charts starting in 1936 these were finally consolidated in 1958 into the "Hot 100" which has been published ever since (although the way they are calculated has changed of course).

Unfortunately before 1940 all we have access to are annual summaries of the Billboard charts, they tell us for example, that "A-Tisket A-Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald was in the Billboard charts for 19 weeks in 1938 and reached number 1 but they don't tell us which months it was released.

18 Feb 2010

Words in this song!

I sing at a senior home once a month. A gentleman who lives there asked if I can find a song from the 30s (1938?) with the words "Especially for you" in it. Can you help me with the title of the song? Thanks.

Bill Davis Lake City, MI

The phrase "Especially for you" occurs in quite a few songs.

We suspect that the song you are after has the title "Especially for you". Versions were recorded by Freddy Fender and Phil Grogan & Orrin Tucker in 1938 which failed to chart. However it was a hit for Jimmy Dorsey in 1939 reaching number 10 in the Billboard chart.