The #1 Hot Adult Contemporary Hits of 1986 had been a category called easy listening for the latter half of the 1960s and most of the 1970s. It became Adult Contemporary in the spring of 1979, then Hot Adult Contemporary in the autumn of 1984.
The roster has a hefty crossover with the Hot 100 pop hits, which I linked to last week. So I’m only linking to the songs that differ, but I’m listing them all.
Greatest Love Of All – Whitney Houston, five weeks at #1 AC, three weeks at #1 pop
Glory Of Love – Peter Cetera, five weeks at #1 AC, two weeks at #1 pop
Stuck With You – Huey Lewis & the News, three weeks at #1 AC and pop
Sara – Starship, three weeks at #1 AC, one week at #1 pop
These Dreams – Heart, three weeks at #1 AC, one week at #1 pop
Live To Tell – Madonna, three weeks at #1 AC, one week at #1 pop
Love Is Forever – Billy Ocean, three weeks at #1 AC, #16 pop
That’s What Friends Are For – Dionne & Friends, two weeks at #1 pop, four weeks at #1 pop
The Next Time I Fall- Peter Cetera with Amy Grant, two weeks at #1 AC, one week at #1 pop
The Way It Is – Bruce Hornsby & The Range, two weeks at #1 AC, one week at #1 pop
Friends and Lovers – Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson, two weeks at #1 AC, #2 for two weeks pop, thanks to exposure on TV’s Days of Our Lives
Throwing It All Away – Genesis, two weeks at #1 AC, #4 pop
Words Get In The Way – Miami Sound Machine, two weeks at #1 AC, #5 pop. Featuring Gloria Estefan
Your Wildest Dreams – The Moody Blues, two weeks at #1 AC, #9 pop
Love Will Conquer All – Lionel Richie, two weeks at #1, #9 pop
I’ll Be Over You – Toto, two weeks at #1 AC, #11 pop
Overjoyed – Stevie Wonder, two weeks at #1 AC, #24 pop
#1 AC for one week
How Will I Know – Whitney Houston, two weeks at #1 pop
They’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry) – Billy Ocean, one week at #1 pop
Secret Lovers – Atlantic Starr, #3 pop for two weeks
No One Is To Blame – Howard Jones, #4 pop
The Sweetest Taboo – Sade, #5 pop
My Hometown – Bruce Springsteen, #6 pop
Go Home– Stevie Wonder, #10 pop
The #1 easy listening hits of 1966 are listed here. Interestingly, the category name went from easy listening (7/17/1961) to middle-road singles (11/3/1962) to pop-standard singles (5/2/1964) to middle-road singles (10/24/1964), back to pop-standard singles (5/1/1965), finally back to easy listening (6/5/1965). It stayed there until 4/7/1979, when it became adult contemporary. I usually list the category as AC.
From Joel Whitburn’s Christmas in the Charts, 1920 to 2004, Top Adult Contemporary Christmas Hits lists the peak positions these seasonal songs reached on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.
Here are the Billboard pop Hot 100 #1s for 1995, A nice short list. And the Hot Adult Contemporary is both so short and has so much in common that I will note them here.
The category that eventually became adult contemporary started on July 17th, 1961, as easy listening. On November 3, 1962, it became Middle-Road singles. Then on May 2nd, 1964, pop standard singles. On October 24, 1964, Middle-Road singles again. Then, back to Pop-Standard Singles on May 1, 1965. Finally, it reverted to easy listening on June 5, 1965, a format it maintained until 1979, when it transitioned to adult contemporary.