List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of the 1990s

During the 1990s the chart was based collectively on each single's weekly physical sales figures and airplay on American radio stations.

The methodology for determining sales and airplay figures drastically changed with the chart dated November 30, 1991.

Instead of surveying retail stores and radio stations, sales data was now gathered by Soundscan via a collection of the number of barcode scans a record received while airplay was to be compiled by Broadcast Data Systems, which continuously monitored what songs were being played on radio.

[1] As the decade progressed, a growing trend in the music industry was to promote songs to radio without the release of a commercially available singles in an attempt by record companies to boost albums sales.

Santana's "Smooth" featuring Rob Thomas finished the decade and began the next with a 12-week run atop the Hot 100.

Mariah Carey amassed the most number-one hits (14 songs) and had the longest cumulative run atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart (60 weeks) during the 1990s. Carey is also the only artist to spend at least one week at the summit of the chart in each year of the decade.
Boyz II Men remained at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 50 weeks during the 1990s. They scored five number-one songs, with three of them spending over 10 weeks atop the chart.
The song " One Sweet Day ", performed by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men , spent 16 weeks on top of the chart and became the longest-running number-one song in history, until surpassed in 2019 by " Old Town Road ".
Janet Jackson earned six number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1990s.
Whitney Houston 's cover of " I Will Always Love You " spent 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time was a record. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Lisa Loeb became the first artist to score a #1 hit before signing to any record label, with " Stay (I Missed You) ".
Michael Jackson became the first artist to debut at #1 with " You Are Not Alone ". His song " Black or White " also spent seven weeks at number one during 1991 and 1992.
" Candle in the Wind 1997 " by Elton John topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks. It is the best-selling single in the chart's history.