On the Record: 99 Hits from 1956 and Two Blasts from the Blasters’ Past

Most multi-artist anthologies have a musical theme, such as a genre or subgenre (The Bakersfield Sound 1940–1974, for example) or the work of a particular artist (Ladies Sing Lightfoot, for instance). One exception is a series of box sets from Acrobat, a reissue label, that simply collects all the songs that made Billboard ’s Top 100 chart in a particular week, no matter whether they’re pop, rock, novelties, or whatever.

Previous releases in this long-running series have included titles such as The 20 th Anniversary Billboard Chart (from July 20, 1960), The JFK Inauguration Hot 100…