Joel Carver Whitburn
Billboard chart historian and Record Research founder; born Wauwatosa; lived and worked in Menomonee Falls until 2022
Net worth
$3 million+
June 14, 2022
About
Joel Whitburn turned a teenage habit of copying Billboard chart positions onto index cards into Record Research, Inc., the Menomonee Falls company whose nearly 300 books became scripture for DJs, collectors, and label people.
Every radio argument about a number one was, in some sense, an argument with a man working from a Falls basement vault.
Born in Wauwatosa on November 29, 1939, he graduated from Menomonee Falls High School in 1957. At six-foot-six he played basketball for the Falls and for Elmhurst College, though he never took a degree. He subscribed to Billboard in 1953 and, when the Hot 100 launched in 1958, began the card system. In the 1960s he sold records for RCA; in 1970 he licensed Billboard’s charts and founded Record Research in the Falls. Top Pop Singles was the flagship.
He kept a climate-controlled vault under the house that by 2013 held more than 200,000 singles, plus albums, country, R&B, and digital files, built to hold a copy of nearly every 78, 45, LP, and CD that made a Billboard chart. With friend Mike Curb he also created Warner/Rhino’s long “Billboard Top Hits” CD series. He did not move to New York. He shopped vinyl in Thiensville, went to Brewers and Bucks games, and died at home in Menomonee Falls on June 14, 2022, at 82, of complications from congestive heart failure, still working. Frances Mudgett Whitburn, his wife of 58 years, died five months later. The charts outlived them both.
Notable facts
Born in Wauwatosa on November 29, 1939; Menomonee Falls High School class of 1957; founded Record Research, Inc. in the Falls in 1970.
Published nearly 300 Billboard-licensed chart books over 52 years; flagship title Top Pop Singles; by 2013 his vault held more than 200,000 singles.
Died at home in Menomonee Falls on June 14, 2022, of complications from congestive heart failure; wife Frances died five months later.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Joel Carver Whitburn notable?
- Joel Whitburn turned a teenage habit of copying Billboard chart positions onto index cards into Record Research, Inc., the Menomonee Falls company whose nearly 300 books became scripture for DJs, collectors, and label people. Every radio argument about a number one was, in some sense, an argument with a man working…
- What is Joel Carver Whitburn's estimated net worth?
- Joel Carver Whitburn's estimated net worth is $3 million+ as of 2022-06-14.