From Elvis to Whiskey: Billboard Revives a 1950s Chart — And Today It’s Mostly About Drinking

(April 27, 2025).  How did I miss this one?  Last July, Billboard reinstated a chart it hadn’t published in nearly 70 years — well, kinda — and it didn’t hit my radar until the magazine introduced a companion chart just this month.

The old chart — last published in June 1957 — was called Most Played in Jukeboxes.  The last No. 1 song on it was Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up.”  Also on that historically significant list were contemporary acts like Pat Boone, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Dorsey, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Gale Storm, Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, and the Coasters.  Only Boone remains alive among those iconic figures.

As one of several predecessors to Billboard’s marquee song popularity chart, the Hot 100, the trade publication discontinued the ranking of songs generating the most buzz in the nation’s jukeboxes after it consolidated radio, sales and jukebox activity into a single 100-position ranking that ultimately became the Hot 100 in 1958.

For nearly seven decades, the Hot 100 has remained the industry standard upon which song consumption is measured in this country.  And while jukeboxes continued to exist in the years since, they weren’t the force they once were… at least, apparently, until now. 

Just last July, Billboard inaugurated a contemporary version of the Most Played in Jukeboxes chart — called TouchTunes Frontline.  It ranks the most played songs in TouchTunes jukeboxes in 60,000 locations nationwide.  And since most of those locations are bars and pubs, the tunes that dominate are, naturally, drinking songs.

Take the latest chart, revealed Friday (April 25).  Sitting at the top is “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey.  While fellow country crooner Morgan Wallen has six songs on the 25-position list… and — true to his brand — all of them contain at least one lyric line about drinking, including his featured turn on rapper Moneybagg Yo’s “Whiskey Whiskey.”

In fact, “A Bar Song” has been No. 1 on all four of the Frontline charts — which are published quarterly — issued to date. The latest ranking covers the period from Jan. 1 through March 31.  Shaboozey’s ubiquitous hit — which also still sits in the top ten of the Hot 100 — will likely remain at No. 1 on the next two TouchTunes Frontline rankings before finally graduating to a companion chart called TouchTunes Catalog, which ranks songs that have been in release for 18 months or more.  “A Bar Song” has been playing ad nauseam at a pub near you since debuting in April 2024.

Over on TouchTunes Catalog, the scene is pretty much the same.  At No. 1 is Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey,” while songs like “I Love This Bar” (Toby Keith), “Friends in Low Places” (Garth Brooks), “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” (Merle Haggard), “Drinkin’ Problem” (Midland), and “Whiskey Glasses” (Wallen) take up barstools throughout the chart.  Neither TouchTunes Frontline nor TouchTunes Catalog contribute to the Hot 100 chart.  

The new companion ranking Billboard and its jukebox partner introduced this quarter is TouchTunes Artists, which ranks the most played acts on their jukeboxes throughout the country.  Naturally, the No. 1 artist on the inaugural ranking is Morgan Wallen, who has eight songs — six on Frontline, two on Catalog — on the TouchTunes lists.  And with Wallen set to release his aptly titled 37-song project I’m The Problem on May 16, you can bet he’ll be adding a few more alcohol-soaked anthems to next quarter’s ranking (publishing in July).  

All of this whiskey-infused content is a far cry from what appeared on the last jukebox rankings in 1957, when titles like “Love Letters in the Sand” (Boone), “Little Darlin’” (Diamonds), “Teenager’s Romance” (Nelson), and “I Like Your Kind of Love” (Williams) had people dropping quarters in jukeboxes from coast to coast.

Here are the top five titles and artists on each of the TouchTunes charts for the past quarter (Jan. 1 – Mar. 31):

TouchTunes Frontline

1. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey 
2. “Pink Pony Club” – Chappell Roane
3. “I Had Some Help” – Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen
4. “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar
5. “I Never Lie” – Zach Top

TouchTunes Catalog

1. “Tennessee Whiskey” – Chris Stapleton 
2. “Lose Control” – Teddy Swims
3. “I Love This Bar” – Toby Keith
4. “Friends in Low Places” – Garth Brooks
5. “Neon Moon” – Brooks & Dunn 

TouchTunes Artists 

1. Morgan Wallen
2. Shaboozey 
3. Kendrick Lamar
4. Chris Stapleton 
5. Toby Keith

It’s a different jukebox world now — fewer sock hops, more shots of whiskey — but the spirit of communal listening lives on.  Whether it’s Elvis shaking things up in a ‘50s diner or Shaboozey getting everyone tipsy in a bar today, some things about music and human nature never really change.  People still find the songs that soundtrack their best memories… and we still can’t resist dropping a quarter — or tapping a screen — to hear them.

DJRob

DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff!  You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.

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