achieved 33 number-one singles on the chart, the most by any artist. From October 26, 1974 until August 28, 1976,
Billboard magazine's
Disco Action section published weekly charts of
retail single sales from various local regions along with Top Audience Response Records.
Billboard debuted its first national chart devoted exclusively to sales of
12-inch singles in their issue dated March 16, 1985. This record type is most commonly used in disco and
dance music genres where
DJs use them to play in discos or
dance clubs because of the exclusive extended
remixes that are often only made available on this format, but ''Billboard's'' 12-inch Single Sales chart ranks releases by artists from all styles of music that release
maxi-singles. The 50-position weekly ranking joined
Billboards established
Dance/Disco Top 80 chart, reduced to the same 50 positions, both under the title
Hot Dance/Disco, becoming two separate Top 50 charts: 12-Inch Singles Sales and Club Play. A coupling from
MCA Records'
Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack,
Patti LaBelle's "
New Attitude" and
Harold Faltermeyer's "
Axel F", held the No. 1 slot for the 12-inch Singles Sales chart's first week and was also No. 1 for the second consecutive week on the most played dance/disco chart. After being temporarily renamed
Hot Dance 50,
Billboard retitled the section
Hot Dance Music on October 24, 1987. On the first
Billboard Music Awards in 1990,
Janet Jackson was awarded #1 Hot Dance 12-inch Singles Sales Artist. The 1991 winner for #1 Hot Dance 12" Singles Sales was
C + C Music Factory featuring
Freedom Williams' "
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)". On June 20, 1992,
Billboard began to also survey
cassette tape and
CD maxi-singles along with vinyl twelve-inch singles renaming the chart
Maxi-Singles Sales. In 1993, the
Billboard Music Award winner for #1 12" Dance Single was
RuPaul's "
Supermodel (You Better Work)". The Maxi-Singles Sales survey began using actual sales figures (
SoundScan) to compile the chart on August 28, 1993. On July 28, 2001,
Billboard launches the 15 position
Top Electronic Albums chart and reduces the Maxi-Singles Sales chart size from 50 to 25 positions, 30 positions online.
Billboard renamed the Maxi-Singles Sales survey to
Dance Singles Sales on March 1, 2003, although the survey would continue to chart popular maxi-singles by artists from other genres of music besides dance even more frequently such as
hip hop &
rap artists like
Public Enemy and
2Pac and
alternative rock &
industrial metal bands such as
The Smiths and
Ministry. 2006's "
Every Day Is Exactly the Same" by
Nine Inch Nails topped the sales chart more than any other single with 36 inconsecutive weeks, yet never appeared on the Hot Dance Club Play survey. Dance Singles Sales is retitled
Hot Dance Single Sales when the top 25
Hot Dance Radio Airplay begins to appear in print on October 25 of that year. The single "
Me Against the Music" by
Britney Spears and Madonna won the award for "Hot Dance Singles Sales Single of the Year" at the
Billboard Music Awards in 2004. Beginning April 30, 2005, the
Billboard Dance section started alternately printing Hot Dance Single Sales and Top Electronic Albums every other week in the magazine until Hot Dance Single Sales became only available at billboard.biz after the February 24, 2007 issue.
Billboard reduces the position size of the Hot Dance Singles chart from 25 to 15 positions on March 30, 2007. The size of the Dance Singles Sales chart is reduced further down to 10 positions on October 3, 2009. ''Billboard's
Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales, a 50 position chart ranking of the most popular downloaded songs ranked by sales data as compiled by Luminate, debuted online January 23, 2010. After years of falling record sales, Billboard'' discontinued their weekly Dance Singles Sales survey in 2013. The last chart of the nearly 29 year old national survey was published online November 30, 2013. ==List of number-one singles==