List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1986

"Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie concluded another four week run that began in 1985.

That year, 20 acts earned their first number one song, such as Heart, Falco, Robert Palmer, Pet Shop Boys, Simply Red, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Steve Winwood, Bananarama, Berlin, Janet Jackson, Boston, Bon Jovi, Amy Grant, Bruce Hornsby & the Range, and The Bangles.

Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Michael McDonald, and Peter Cetera, already having hit number one with Gladys Knight & the Pips, Labelle, The Doobie Brothers, and Chicago, respectively, also earn their first number one songs as solo acts.

Whitney Houston, Madonna, and Peter Cetera were the only acts to earn more than one number one song, with each of them hitting the top twice.

An asterisk (*) by a date indicates an unpublished, "frozen" week, due to the special double issues that Billboard published in print at the end of the year for their year-end charts.

Dionne Warwick (pictured with Pat Nixon ) aged 45 earned her second Hot 100 number-one single with " That's What Friends Are For ", which stayed at the top position for four straight weeks.