YOUR HIT PARADE
(Broadcast: April 20, 1935 - January 16, 1953)

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Developed under the patronage of the American Tobacco Company and NBC, Your Hit Parade brought to a national audience of radio listeners each week a presentation of the "most popular songs in America" sung by a revolving cast of vocalists who performed cover versions of contemporary popular music. The program's format, which included a survey of the "top ten" songs as defined by record and sheet music sales, was among the first of its type to establish an explicit relationship between aggregate sales data and the concept of national popular taste on commercial radio. Vocalists that appeared on the program included: Joan Edwards, Frank Sinatra, Andy Russell and Snooky Lanson.

In July of 1950 a simulcast version of Hit Parade was broadcast on the NBC television network following the diverse trend of importing successful radio formats, producers and performers for use on television. Although a steady ratings success on NBC for many years, Your Hit Parade encountered challenges as changes in popular music, signaled predominately by the expansion of the rock 'n' roll genre and the development of youth-orientated marketing, caused a shift in television and radio programming unable to sustain the 'big band' cover arrangements that were a mainstay on the Hit Parade. By 1959, a year after its debut on the CBS television network, the show was cancelled. A revival of the program was attempted in 1974 as a replacement spot in the summer schedule on CBS, but the show failed to find an audience and was removed from the broadcast schedule after a brief period.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds multiple copies of Your Hit Parade in both its radio and television formats available for use on-site at the Archive Research and Study Center.