List of Harlem Hit Parade number ones of 1942

The chart was first published in the issue of Billboard dated October 24, 1942 and six songs reached number one in the remainder of the year.

[5] The first chart-topper was "Take It and Git" by tuba player and bandleader Andy Kirk and his band the Twelve Clouds of Joy, which occupied the top spot for a single week.

It would prove to be the only chart-topper for Kirk,[6] who remained successful until the end of the 1940s but then broke up his band and largely left the music industry.

This was the original release of the song, written by Irving Berlin for the film Holiday Inn, which has remained a perennial favorite for more than 70 years and has been acclaimed by Guinness World Records as the world's best-selling single, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.

Lady Day was a pseudonym for singer Billie Holiday, one of the most influential and highly regarded jazz vocalists of all time;[10] she was credited under her nickname because she was under contract as a soloist to a different record label.