Lists of the number one and top·ranked Album Rock Songs of 1983
SPECIAL NOTICE: Two new Radio Underground exclusive year · end rankings for 1983 using the Radio Underground point system and the Joel Whitburn method are now available! See "Year End Charts" section below.
| Title | Artist | Weeks at #1 | Starting Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Down Under | Men At Work | 5 week(s) (2 week(s) in 1983) | see 1982 Number Ones for start date |
| You Got Lucky | Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers | 3 week(s) (1 week(s) in 1983) | see 1982 Number Ones for start date |
| Hungry Like The Wolf | Duran Duran | 3 weeks | 1983-01-22 |
| Twilight Zone | Golden Earring | 1 week | 1983-02-12 |
| Separate Ways | Journey | 4 weeks | 1983-02-19 |
| Photograph | Def Leppard | 6 weeks | 1983-03-19 |
| She's A Beauty | The Tubes | 5 weeks | 1983-04-30 |
| Rock Of Ages | Def Leppard | 1 week | 1983-06-04 |
| Every Breath You Take | The Police | 9 weeks | 1983-06-11 |
| Other Arms | Robert Plant | 1 week | 1983-08-13 |
| Don't Cry | Asia | 1 week | 1983-08-20 |
| King Of Pain | The Police | 5 weeks | 1983-08-27 |
| How Can I Refuse | Heart | 1 week | 1983-09-24 |
| Suddenly Last Summer | The Motels | 2 weeks | 1983-10-08 |
| Synchronicity | The Police | 1 week | 1983-10-22 |
| Love Is A Battlefield | Pat Benatar | 3 weeks | 1983-10-29 |
| Heart And Soul | Huey Lewis And The News | 1 week | 1983-11-05 |
| Owner Of A Lonely Heart | Yes | 4 weeks | 1983-11-26 |
| If I'd Been The One | 38 Special | 4 week(s) (2 week(s) in 1983) | 1983-12-24 |
| 19 total | |||
<< Previous Year's Number One Rock Tracks | Next Year's Number One Rock Tracks >>
Billboard Magazine didn't publish a year · end countdown for their Album Rock Tracks chart until 1985. I HAD to do something about this for Radio Underground, so...
This chart ranks the top 40 Album Rock tracks for 1983, based on chart data from Billboard Magazine's Album Rock Tracks Chart, using my "point system". By assigning a specific number of points for each track (view the point system here), based on their rank for each week, and using the "magic" of some PHP programming, I came up with a year·end ranking for 1983! In case of a tie in points, I use the "Joel Whitburn" method (see the next chart below this one) to break the tie.
This countdown surveys the Album Rock Tracks Chart from the first week of the calendar year to the last week of the calendar year.
| Rank | Title | Artist | Peak | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Separate Ways | Journey | # 1 | 1295 |
| 2. | One Thing Leads To Another | The Fixx | # 2 | 1252 |
| 3. | King Of Pain | The Police | # 1 | 1231 |
| 4. | Photograph | Def Leppard | # 1 | 1161 |
| 5. | Rock Of Ages | Def Leppard | # 1 | 1079 |
| 6. | Every Breath You Take | The Police | # 1 | 1063 |
| 7. | Synchronicity II | The Police | # 9 | 933 |
| 8. | Twilight Zone | Golden Earring | # 1 | 924 |
| 9. | Cuts Like A Knife | Bryan Adams | # 6 | 924 |
| 10. | Even Now | Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band | # 2 | 902 |
| 11. | Modern Love | David Bowie | # 6 | 900 |
| 12. | All The Way | Triumph | # 2 | 899 |
| 13. | Other Arms | Robert Plant | # 1 | 885 |
| 14. | A World Of Fantasy | Triumph | # 3 | 875 |
| 15. | She's A Beauty | The Tubes | # 1 | 874 |
| 16. | In A Big Country | Big Country | # 3 | 849 |
| 17. | The One Thing | INXS | # 2 | 838 |
| 18. | Stand Back | Stevie Nicks | # 2 | 822 |
| 19. | Hungry Like The Wolf | Duran Duran | # 1 | 813 |
| 20. | Hot Girls In Love | Loverboy | # 2 | 800 |
| 21. | China Girl | David Bowie | # 3 | 797 |
| 22. | Burning Down The House | The Talking Heads | # 6 | 770 |
| 23. | Heart And Soul | Huey Lewis And The News | # 1 | 762 |
| 24. | How Can I Refuse | Heart | # 1 | 747 |
| 25. | Street Of Dreams | Rainbow | # 2 | 747 |
| 26. | Not Now John | Pink Floyd | # 7 | 744 |
| 27. | Is There Something I Should Know | Duran Duran | # 3 | 740 |
| 28. | Wrapped Around Your Finger | The Police | # 9 | 727 |
| 29. | Gimme All Your Lovin' | Z.Z. Top | # 2 | 714 |
| 30. | Suddenly Last Summer | The Motels | # 1 | 713 |
| 31. | Something To Grab For | Rick Ocasek | # 5 | 711 |
| 32. | Foolin | Def Leppard | # 9 | 709 |
| 33. | Jeopardy | The Greg Kihn Band | # 5 | 708 |
| 34. | Love Is A Battlefield | Pat Benatar | # 1 | 686 |
| 35. | Who's Behind The Door | Zebra | # 10 | 683 |
| 36. | Don't Cry | Asia | # 1 | 681 |
| 37. | Cum On Feel The Noise | Quiet Riot | # 7 | 678 |
| 38. | Back On The Chain Gang | The Pretenders | # 4 | 675 |
| 39. | Come On Eileen | Dexy's Midnight Runners | # 6 | 673 |
| 40. | Crumblin' Down | John Cougar Mellencamp | # 2 | 666 |
<< Previous Year's Radio Underground Point System Year End Chart | Next Year's Radio Underground Point System Year End Chart >>
Joel Whitburn was an author, writer of many books listing and archiving songs that charted on Billboard Magazine's various charts over the past few decades, mostly 1955 and later. In his books related to the Hot 100 chart, Whitburn ranks the top 25 songs for each decade. The method he uses starts with all of the songs that reached number one, then ranks them according to weeks spent at number one (the more weeks, the higher the ranking), then weeks spent in the top 10 (also the more weeks, the higher the ranking), then weeks spent in the top 40 (see previous two).
It's unclear from his books whether Mr. Whitburn devised this method for ranking songs, or someone else did, but this is the method used in his books. The following ranking, again through the use of a PHP program, uses this method for ranking Billboard's top 40 Album Rock Tracks for 1983.
Like the chart above, this countdown also surveys the Album Rock Tracks Chart from the first week of the calendar year to the last week of the calendar year.
| Rank | Title | Artist | Peak* | Wks@Pk | WksTop10 | WksTop40 | WksOnCht |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Every Breath You Take | The Police | # 1 | 9 | 11 | 17 | 21 |
| 2. | Photograph | Def Leppard | # 1 | 6 | 12 | 19 | 26 |
| 3. | King Of Pain | The Police | # 1 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 26 |
| 4. | She's A Beauty | The Tubes | # 1 | 5 | 12 | 13 | 15 |
| 5. | Separate Ways | Journey | # 1 | 4 | 16 | 19 | 25 |
| 6. | Owner Of A Lonely Heart | Yes | # 1 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 7. | Hungry Like The Wolf | Duran Duran | # 1 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 18 |
| 8. | Love Is A Battlefield | Pat Benatar | # 1 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 13 |
| 9. | Suddenly Last Summer | The Motels | # 1 | 2 | 7 | 13 | 17 |
| 10. | If I'd Been The One | 38 Special | # 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| 11. | Down Under | Men At Work | # 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 |
| 12. | Rock Of Ages | Def Leppard | # 1 | 1 | 13 | 19 | 24 |
| 13. | Twilight Zone | Golden Earring | # 1 | 1 | 11 | 16 | 20 |
| 14. | Other Arms | Robert Plant | # 1 | 1 | 10 | 16 | 21 |
| 15. | How Can I Refuse | Heart | # 1 | 1 | 10 | 12 | 16 |
| 16. | Heart And Soul | Huey Lewis And The News | # 1 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 13 |
| 17. | Don't Cry | Asia | # 1 | 1 | 8 | 11 | 14 |
| 18. | You Got Lucky | Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers | # 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| 19. | Synchronicity | The Police | # 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 20. | Stand Back | Stevie Nicks | # 2 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 18 |
| 21. | Hot Girls In Love | Loverboy | # 2 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 14 |
| 22. | Even Now | Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band | # 2 | 3 | 9 | 18 | 19 |
| 23. | Gimme All Your Lovin' | Z.Z. Top | # 2 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 14 |
| 24. | All The Way | Triumph | # 2 | 2 | 9 | 16 | 19 |
| 25. | Talking In Your Sleep | The Romantics | # 2 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 12 |
| 26. | New Year's Day | U2 | # 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 9 |
| 27. | One Thing Leads To Another | The Fixx | # 2 | 1 | 10 | 25 | 26 |
| 28. | The One Thing | INXS | # 2 | 1 | 8 | 18 | 20 |
| 29. | Crumblin' Down | John Cougar Mellencamp | # 2 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 12 |
| 30. | Undercover Of The Night | The Rolling Stones | # 2 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 31. | Street Of Dreams | Rainbow | # 2 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 15 |
| 32. | (She's) Sexy + 17 | The Stray Cats | # 2 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 15 |
| 33. | Overkill | Men At Work | # 3 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 14 |
| 34. | Be Good Johnny | Men At Work | # 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 35. | China Girl | David Bowie | # 3 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 17 |
| 36. | Is There Something I Should Know | Duran Duran | # 3 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 15 |
| 37. | Mr. Roboto | Styx | # 3 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 15 |
| 38. | A World Of Fantasy | Triumph | # 3 | 1 | 7 | 17 | 19 |
| 39. | In A Big Country | Big Country | # 3 | 1 | 7 | 17 | 17 |
| 40. | Fight Fire With Fire | Kansas | # 3 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 13 |
<< Previous Year's "Joel Whitburn" Method Year · End Chart | Next Year's "Joel Whitburn" Method Year · End Chart >>
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