List of Harlem Hit Parade number ones of 1944

In 1944, Billboard magazine published a chart ranking the "most popular records in Harlem" under the title of the Harlem Hit Parade. Placings were based on a survey of record stores primarily in the Harlem district of New York City, an area noted for its African American population and regarded as the "black capital of America".[1] The chart is considered to be the start of the lineage of the magazine's multimetric R&B chart,[2] which since 2005 has been published under the title Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs.

Nat King Cole (right) led his trio to two chart-toppers.

Most of 1944's number ones were in the jazz and swing genres, which were among the most popular styles of music in the early 1940s.[3] Four acts achieved more than one chart-topper during the year: Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five with "Ration Blues" and "G.I. Jive", Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra with "Do Nothing till You Hear from Me" and "Main Stem", the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald with "Cow-Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and the King Cole Trio with "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You". Jordan's version of "G.I. Jive" was the second recording of the song to top the chart in 1944, following a rendition by Johnny Mercer with Paul Weston and his Orchestra earlier in the year. It was the most successful of many songs released during World War II which bemoaned life in the army.[4] The King Cole Trio had the highest total number of weeks at number one, spending 14 weeks in the top spot; pianist and vocalist Nat King Cole would soon move on from the jazz field to become a hugely successful pop artist.[5]

Two of 1944's Harlem Hit Parade number ones also topped the Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart, which was first published in the issue of Billboard dated January 8 and covered "Hillbillies, Spirituals, Cowboy Songs, etc";[6] the latter chart is considered to be the start of the lineage of the magazine's country music chart.[7] "Ration Blues" by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five topped the Harlem chart in the issue of Billboard dated January 1 and the Folk chart eight weeks later. Jordan would go on to be one of the most successful black artists of the 1940s, achieving 18 number ones on the Harlem Hit Parade and its successor charts by 1950, a record which would stand until Aretha Franklin gained her 19th chart-topper in 1985.[8][9] "Straighten Up and Fly Right" by the King Cole Trio topped both listings simultaneously in June.[10]