Wikipedia:Today's featured list/January 28, 2022
Six songs reached number one on the Harlem Hit Parade chart in 1942. Launched by Billboard in the same year, it ranked the "most popular records in Harlem". The chart was based on a survey of record stores primarily in the Harlem district of New York City. It is considered to be the start of the lineage of the magazine's R&B chart. Most of 1942's number ones were in the genres of jazz and swing, which were among the most popular styles of music in the early 1940s. The first chart-topper was "Take It and Git" by the tuba player and bandleader Andy Kirk and his band the Twelve Clouds of Joy, which occupied the top spot for a single week. The only song to spend multiple consecutive weeks at number one in 1942 was "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, which reached the top spot in the December 19 issue of Billboard and remained there the following week. "Trav'lin' Light" by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra featuring Lady Day, a pseudonym for singer Billie Holiday (pictured), had the highest total number of weeks atop the chart in 1942, spending three non-consecutive weeks in the top spot. (Full list...)