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). These results should be treated with some caution since, with few exceptions, they are based on fairly subjective charts and biased towards the USA.

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.

The top five song artists of 1938 were:
1:Larry Clinton	2:Tommy Dorsey	3:The Andrews Sisters	4:Artie Shaw	5:Bing Crosby

#	Artist	Song Title	Year	Chart Entries
1	Artie Shaw	Begin the Beguine	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (18 weeks), Your Hit Parade 1 of 1938, Grammy Hall of Fame in 1977 (1938), US BB 2 of 1938, POP 2 of 1938, Music Imprint 4 of 1930s, RYM 10 of 1938, nuTsie 18 of 1930s, Brazil 32 of 1939, DMDB 84 (1938), RIAA 91, Acclaimed 1163 (1938), Song of 1938
2	Ella Fitzgerald	A-Tisket A-Tasket	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (19 weeks), Grammy Hall of Fame in 1986 (1938), Your Hit Parade 3 of 1938, Music Imprint 6 of 1930s, US BB 8 of 1938, RYM 8 of 1938, POP 8 of 1938, nuTsie 20 of 1930s, Brazil 57 of 1939, RIAA 104, Acclaimed 848 (1938)
3	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, Your Hit Parade 5 of 1938, RYM 5 of 1937, POP 5 of 1938, Europe 6 of the 1930s (1938), nuTsie 40 of 1930s, Brazil 73 of 1938
4	Fred Astaire	Change Partners	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (8 weeks), Oscar in 1938 (film 'Carefree') (Nominated), Your Hit Parade 6 of 1938, US BB 16 of 1938, POP 16 of 1938, Europe 83 of the 1930s (1938), RYM 89 of 1938
5	Benny Goodman	Don't Be That Way	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (13 weeks), US BB 14 of 1938, POP 14 of 1938, Your Hit Parade 21 of 1938, nuTsie 22 of 1930s, Europe 65 of the 1930s (1938)
6	Bing Crosby	I've Got a Pocketful 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, nuTsie 78 of 1930s
7	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, nuTsie 19 of 1930s, Acclaimed 1480 (1937)
8	Bing Crosby	You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks), Your Hit Parade 7 of 1938, US BB 12 of 1938, POP 12 of 1938, Europe 25 of the 1930s (1938)
9	Bing Crosby & Connee Boswell	Alexander's ragtime band	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks), POP 9 of 1938, Europe 16 of the 1930s (1938), Your Hit Parade 19 of 1938, nuTsie 62 of 1930s
10	Tommy Dorsey	Music, Maestro, Please	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (20 weeks), US BB 11 of 1938, POP 11 of 1938, Your Hit Parade 24 of 1938, Europe 55 of the 1930s (1938)
11	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)
12	Bob Hope & Shirley Ross	Thanks For the Memory	1938	Oscar in 1938 (film 'The Big Broadcast of 1938'), Music Imprint 13 of 1930s, nuTsie 52 of 1930s, AFI 63, RIAA 170, Acclaimed 1316 (1938)
13	Larry Clinton	Heart & Soul	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (14 weeks), Your Hit Parade 4 of 1938, US BB 6 of 1938, POP 6 of 1938, nuTsie 45 of 1930s
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, nuTsie 61 of 1930s
15	Seven Dwarfs	Whistle While You Work	1938	US BB 1 of 1938, POP 1 of 1938, US Billboard 2 - 1938 (13 weeks)
16	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, Your Hit Parade 20 of 1938, RYM 54 of 1938
17	Al Donahue	Jeepers Creepers	1938	US Billboard 1 - Dec 1938 (13 weeks), Oscar in 1938 (film 'Going Places') (Nominated), US BB 11 of 1939, POP 11 of 1939
18	The Boswell Sisters	Alexander's ragtime band	1938	US Billboard 4 - 1938 (5 weeks), POP 9 of 1938, Music Imprint 11 of 1930s, Europe 17 of the 1930s (1935), RIAA 154
19	Tampa Red	Lula Mae	1938	Peel list 1 of 1944, RYM 12 of 1938
20	Artie Shaw	They Say	1938	US Billboard 1 - Dec 1938 (8 weeks), US BB 17 of 1939, Your Hit Parade 17 of 1938, POP 17 of 1939
21	Shep Fields & his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra	Cathedral In The Pines	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (10 weeks), Your Hit Parade 8 of 1938, Europe 93 of the 1930s (1938)
22	Sidney Bechet	Summertime	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011 (1939), Music Imprint 2 of 1930s, RIAA 74
23	Fats Waller	Two Sleepy People	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (11 weeks), Europe 78 of the 1930s (1938), RYM 93 of 1938
24	Mary Martin	My Heart Belongs to Daddy	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 (1938), Your Hit Parade 7 of 1939, US Billboard 9 - 1939 (2 weeks), Song of 1938
25	Tommy Dorsey	Boogie Woogie	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (9 weeks), US 1940s 4 - Oct 1943 (10 weeks), Your Hit Parade 13 of 1938, nuTsie 29 of 1930s
26	Kokomo	Goin' Down in Galilee	1938	Peel list 1 of 1938
27	Charles Trenet	Je Chante	1938	France (Historical) 1 of the 1930s (1938)
28	Silvio Caldas	Pastorinhas	1938	Brazil 1 of 1938
29	Larry Clinton	Cry, Baby, Cry	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (25 weeks), US BB 18 of 1938, POP 18 of 1938
30	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
31	Count Basie	Jumpin' At The Woodside	1938	US Billboard 11 - Dec 1938 (4 weeks), RYM 13 of 1938, Your Hit Parade 15 of 1938, nuTsie 83 of 1930s
32	Larry Clinton	You Go to My Head	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (12 weeks), US BB 7 of 1938, POP 7 of 1938
33	Horace Heidt	Ti-Pi-Tin	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (13 weeks), Your Hit Parade 9 of 1938
34	Kay Kyser	The Umbrella Man	1938	US Billboard 1 - Dec 1938 (11 weeks), Your Hit Parade 10 of 1938
35	Walter Huston	September Song	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 (1938), US Billboard 12 - 1939 (5 weeks)
36	Russ Morgan	I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (13 weeks), Your Hit Parade 16 of 1938
37	Woody Herman	Four Brothers	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 (1948), RYM 39 of 1938
38	Artie Shaw	Any Old Time	1938	Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001 (1938), RYM 44 of 1938, Song of 1938
39	Bing Crosby	Mexicali Rose	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (10 weeks), Europe 7 of the 1930s (1938)
40	Tommy Dorsey	Now it Can be Told	1938	US Billboard 2 - 1938 (15 weeks), Oscar in 1938 (film 'Alexander's Ragtime Band') (Nominated)
41	Count Basie	Panassie Stomp	1938	Peel list 4 of 1938, RYM 38 of 1939
42	Tommy Trinder	I Don't Do Things Like That	1938	Peel list 2 of 1938, Song of 1938
43	Carmen Miranda	Camisa Listada	1938	Brazil 2 of 1938
44	Guy Lombardo	Ti-Pi-Tin	1938	US Billboard 3 - 1938 (10 weeks), Brazil 67 of 1939
45	Shep Fields & his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra	Whistle While You Work	1938	US Billboard 5 - 1938 (6 weeks), Brazil 84 of 1938
46	Tommy Dorsey	My Own	1938	Oscar in 1938 (film 'That Certain Age') (Nominated), US Billboard 5 - 1938 (11 weeks)
47	Ray Noble	Alexander's ragtime band	1938	US Billboard 6 - 1938 (4 weeks), Brazil 87 of 1939
48	Mildred Bailey	So Help Me	1938	US Billboard 2 - 1938 (11 weeks), Your Hit Parade 12 of 1938
49	Kenny Baker	Love Walked In	1938	Your Hit Parade 2 of 1938, US Billboard 14 - 1938 (3 weeks)
50	Billie Holiday	I'm Gonna Lock My Heart	1938	US Billboard 2 - 1938 (9 weeks), Your Hit Parade 14 of 1938
51	Allan Jones	Donkey Serenade	1938	US Billboard 8 - 1938 (6 weeks), Brazil 59 of 1938
52	Jimmy Dorsey	Deep Purple	1938	US Billboard 2 - 1939 (7 weeks), Your Hit Parade 23 of 1938
53	Larry Clinton	Always & Always	1938	Oscar in 1938 (film 'Mannequin') (Nominated), US Billboard 9 - 1938 (7 weeks)
54	Robert Johnson	Honeymoon Blues	1938	RYM 1 of 1938
55	Jimmy Dorsey	Change Partners	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (12 weeks)
56	Sammy Kaye	Love Walked In	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (16 weeks)
57	Martha Tilton	I Let a Song Go out of My Heart	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (9 weeks)
58	Red Norvo & his Orchestra	Please Be Kind	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (16 weeks)
59	Robert Johnson	Stop Breakin' Down Blues	1938	RYM 1 of 1938
60	Andy Kirk	I Won't Tell a Soul (I Love You)	1938	US Billboard 1 - 1938 (12 weeks)

Comment on the contents of the 'Songs from the Year 1938' page
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Previous Comments (newest first)

29 Dec 2012

Alexander's Ragtime +Band (1938)

I like to believe that number 9 and 18 are the same release, but credited in two different ways. Look at the US BB en POP ranking which is both 9. Alexander's Ragtime Band should be credited by Bing Crosby and Connie Boswell (like it was done at number 9).

The Bullfrog listing has two distinct IDs, 1938_020 and 1938_076 and the Europe chart also lists them seperately. Given that the Billboard listing is normally pretty reliable we suspect that there were two distinct releases.

Thanks for brining this interesting case to our attention.

23 Dec 2012

1938 school yearbook

I found my mother's high school senior yearbook on Ancestry.com.Next to the pictures of all the seniors were song titles that, I guess, described each of them. Almost all the song titles I see can be found on the list you have here of songs that were popular in 1938. The name of the song next to my mother is "All By Myself". I found a song by that title from 1921 (by Irving Berlin) but am curious if there was a song by that title nearer the year 1938.

Do you know?

Big Bill Broonzy had a minor hit with it in 1941

10 Oct 2012

An answer for Travis

"You may not be an angel, but still I'm sure you'll do, And until the day that one comes along I'll string along with you."

The last line is the title of the song - it's a beauty! Jonathan

19 Aug 2012

!930's song

My 95 year old Mother-in Law told me today that Her and her husband's son when they were engaged was "You're Not An Angle". She said it goes "you're not an angle but you'll do until one comes along". I checked You Tube and I checked Google and cannot find the song. Can you help me find it?

Travis

18 Jun 2012

Denny Farrell , I think your site is wonderful

I have been doing a radio show that covers all the great music of the 20's 30's and 40's for over 40 years now. We have listeners from the early teens up to 100 who tune in every week. Music was a big part of everyones life long before 1940. It did matter.

Big Band Hall of Fame Inductee, Denny Farrell

25 Jan 2012

music

Born in 38. post depression/pre-war. Must have been an anxiety free time so IT is hard to understand why music before 1940 didn't matter. maybe they didn't realize how important and life enhancing music is. That was certainly corrected in the 60's and 70's.

As you will see if you look at our pages we don't think that music from before 1940 "didn't matter", we do have pages for 1900-1939 which present what we have found for that period.

We guess that your issue is that we don't have a listing for the weekly number one from before 1940. If there are no reasonable sources (note here we are not even asking for reliable sources, just ones that are not clearly wrong)

We don't make things up (well we try not to anyway)

Find us a list of dated number ones from before 1940 and we'll extend the listing

5 Jan 2012

Top Hit for week of 12/17/38

I'm trying to find out if possible what song was the top hit when I was born, Dec. 17th 1938.

There are no reliable listings of number 1 songs from before 1940. You could try looking at the 1938 page to find the songs that were hits that year

29 Nov 2011

Use of the Chart to Help Score a Film

Hello! How wonderful to discover your site and this chart. I'm the Creative Director of feature film about the life of Vivien Leigh. Our script begins in 1938. We are beginning to talk about the music direction, have a theme concept, and are identifying potential movie supervisors/editors. Your charts will be very useful to us. Happy days!

14 Aug 2011

Confused

I love the charts, but I wonder why removing the duplicate entry for "And The Angels Sing" can drop the previously #24 entry "Artie Shaw's Jeepers Creepers" completely off the charts?

...I meant Al Donahue not Artie Shaw

The answer is that it didn't, it was a completely different change that affected it.

The list of Oscars was expanded from just the songs that won to all those nominated, previously "Jeepers Creepers" had three entries: US Billboard 1 from Dec 1938; US BB 11 of 1939; and POP 11 of 1939. This assigned it a year of 1939.

The way we work out the year is to select the median of all the years suggested by charts, having been released in December 1938 this song is on the borderline. With two "votes" for 1939 and one for 1938 the song had been placed in 1939.

When we added the fact that it was nominated for an Oscar in 1938, that changed its assigned year to 1938. The song is still in the chart (at position 17 no less) but its in the chart for 1938 rather than for 1939.

20 Jul 2011

24 Bing Crosby & Al Jolson Alexnder's Ragtime Band

The collaboration of Bing and Al on Alexander's Ragtime Band is from a 1947 broadcast of Bing's Philco Radow Show which was transcribed by Decca.

Bing did record Alexander's Ragtime Band with Connee Boswell which in 1938 which you have listed as #49. The BB POP and Europe ratings from 1938 that you have assigned to the 1947 recording must actually belong to this one.

You make a convincing case, we've changed the entries as you suggest. Thanks for the input

30 Dec 2010

This is great!

What an amazing way to bring back all my old memories. I still have my records.

9 Nov 2010

DO YOU KNOW +THIS SONG 1937/38/36?

the song is called I WISH I'D NEVER SEEN SUNSHINE +- SINGER - JIMMIE DAVIS

5 Jul 2010

8 - Bing Crosby - I've Got a Pocket Full of Dreams

Dear Sir:

I think the song below

8 - Bing Crosby - I've Got a Pocket Full of Dreams

should be corrected to

8 - Bing Crosby - I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams

Please listen to the song then you will agree.

Thanks.

Lin

We already have a song "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams" by Russ Morgan, so it is likely that your comment is correct. We don't have a copy of the song by Bing Crosby but since there is obviously a potential case, and you have listened to the song, we have changed the entry.

Thanks for the input

17 May 2010

top songs of the year

What makes a song a US BB top song of the year, as opposed to simply "on thecharts" of Billboard? +thanks! +

We have answered this question in full in a reply to Jim which is on our "Source Song Charts" page.

The short version is that Billboard used to have some pages that listed "Top Songs of the Year" and these entries come from there.

13 May 2010

10/15/1938

what was number 1 song on this date

You obviously have not read the reply to the comment above labelled as "1 Feb 2010"

Your question as posed is unanswerable, and even if we assume some aspects (like country and source) we don't have the information available for 1938 (we suspect that no-one does).

11 May 2010

DO YOU KNOW +THIS SONG 1937/38/36?

I WISH THAT I'D NEVER SEEN SUNSHINE AND I WISH THAT I'D NEVER SEEN RAIN... I WISH THAT MY SOUL WOULD NEVER GROW OLD FOR THE TEARS THAT I SHED WERE IN VAIN????????? I WISH THAT SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME THAT THE LOVE THAT YOU GAVE WAS UNTRUE OH I WISH THAT I DIED IN MY CRADLE BEFORE I GREW UP TO LOVE YOU

No idea, never heard of it

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.

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.

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.

26 May 2009

Thanks for clarifying that, although I'm not quite convinced when I look at the already existing Bing Crosby collaborations for example. Anyway it's okay for me with the newly added comments on the Ella Fitzgerald page.

I got another one: #34 ("Hold Tight, Hold Tight", 1939) and #35 ("Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Sea Food, Mama?)", 1938) on the Andrews Sisters' page and is the same song and the same record, released at the end of 1938 and charted in the beginning of 1939, see the record label on http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/andrews_sisters/hold_tight__hold_tight__want_some_sea_food__mama_____billy_boy/ (which also shows that it was a collaboration of the Andrews Sisters with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra).

Corrected, thanks again for the info

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 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 them.

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

19 May 2009

A-Tisket A-Tasket Again

Regards Cornelius

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

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.

8 May 2009

A Tisket A Tasket

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.