Dutch Top 40

This chart is often confused with the Single Top 100.

Hans Breukhoven and Lex Harding celebrating a printed edition of the Dutch Top 40 in 2005

The Dutch Top 40 (Dutch: Nederlandse Top 40) is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting. Joost den Draaijer was the initiator of the top 40 in the Netherlands.

History

On January 2, 1965, the first Top 40 was compiled, with its first #1 hit "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles. In 1974, the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40 bought the Top 40 and named it De Nederlandse Top 40. It is one of the three official charts in the Netherlands, the other two being the Single Top 100 and the Mega Top 50. Contrary to the Single Top 100, the Top 40, like the Mega Top 50, includes airplay data.

Currently, Radio 538 is airing the Dutch Top 40 on radio. Jeroen Nieuwenhuize is presenting the program every Friday afternoon from 14.00 until 18.00. The Dutch Top 40 is the 'most-listened-to' program on Dutch radio during its timeslot.

Compilation

Composition

Like the Mega Top 50, the chart is a combination of single sales and airplay. The more often a song gets played on the radio, the higher its place in the Top 40. As of 2003, digital downloads are also counted.

For year end chart positions: #1 position gets 40 points, #2 position gets 39 points .... #40 position get one point. This way you just count up all numbers and sort them from most points till least points.

Rules

There is a set of rules, of which some have existed since 1972, that are still maintained. Because of these rules the Top 40 has been criticised.

• Singles must remain minimal two weeks in the chart. If a single officially no longer belongs in the top 40, these are placed on #40.

• Example: Missy Elliott's "Lose Control": Remained two weeks on #40 in the chart, because it did not sell enough and also wasn't played enough on the radio.

• Singles noted with the superstip, may not fall down in chart position the following week. If a single in fact was to drop, it remains on the position it ended, so the following week it drops hard in chart positions.

• Recent example: Guus Meeuwis' "Ik Wil Dat Ons Land Juicht": The song entered the chart at #11 (superstip), rose up to #5 (superstip again) in its second week. The following week it was meant to drop in chart position, but remained on the #5 position. The following two weeks, it went from #5 to #39. Because of this rule, this single is the biggest fall down in the Dutch Top 40.

• Re-entry only takes place when the single re-enters within the top 30, if differently, these re-entried singles are ignored.

• Example: Racoon recently re-entered the Dutch Top 40 at #31 though with the song "Love You More".

• Singles with double A-side are noted separately in the top 40; due the (possible) different number of airplay the two songs get.

• Example: Robbie Williams' first single off his 2005 album Intensive Care was "Tripping" with the B-side being "Make Me Pure". While "Tripping" topped the chart by peaking at #1, "Make Me Pure" peaked at #15 in the Top 40.

Records in the Dutch Top 40

Most successful single-artists Artist weeks points Madonna 470 12550 Rolling Stones 448 11649 The Beatles 312 9220 Golden Earring 365 9093 Michael Jackson 336 8563 BZN 373 8249 The Cats 335 8077 Bee Gees 326 7625 Queen 323 7577 U2 247 7349

Most hit singles in the Top 40 Artist singles Cliff Richard 62 BZN 54 Madonna 52 Rolling Stones 48 Golden Earring 47 Normaal 42 Bee Gees 41 Michael Jackson 38 Queen 38 U2 38 Update on July 10, 2010.

Best selling artists (combined Single top 40 and Album top 100) Artist weeks points BZN 1106 60375 The Rolling Stones 1117 57200 Madonna 1107 53994 Golden Earring 1039 53833 Queen 1014 53647 André Hazes 972 49412 ABBA 761 46439 U2 906 45913 Michael Jackson 873 44240 Celine Dion 775 43119 Updated on January 1, 2004.

See also

• List of number-one hits (Netherlands)
• MegaCharts
• Mega Top 50
• Mega Single Top 100

References

External links

• (Dutch) Dutch Top 40 website (contains archive from 1965 onwards)
• (Dutch) Direct link to the charts (contains archive from 1965 onwards)