Joel was suffering from long-time ailments very recently. Billboard received the news of the chart historian’s death through his trusted friend and colleague paul Haney via social media giant Facebook.
Paul confirmed that Joel passed away peacefully last night in his bed. although, paul avoided sharing details of his medical condition.
Record research Inc. company.
Joel was a genius at numbers, he founded Record research Inc. company and wrote many reference books on billboard charts. since he started his company in 1970 he has changed billboard charts entirely.
Without the internet, it was difficult to gather authentic stat information. his charts were accessible to the industry. It gave an accurate idea to musicians and producers about Music and its sells. Whitman’s work helped a lot of artists, music mixing technicians, and record producers.
His work worked as resistance against data manipulators, it was a common thing back in the 70s. with his correct data representation, it became difficult for fake numbers to gain public support.
Early life and his journey to becoming a chart historian:
Joel was born and raised in Menomonee Falls (Wisconsin) in late thirties. His childhood passion was sports and music. His passion grew when he read the billboard magazine for the first time.
his passion for the book brought him to his father and Joe requested his father to provide him with a yearly subscription. That $10 subscription changed the life of Young Joel. in an interview, he shared his story of being a chart historian
“I grabbed it and started paging through it, and saw all these big, full-page ads for all these artists I had listened to on the radio… And then, all these charts,” he remembered
“It was October 1953 when I first subscribed, and I don’t think I’ve missed an issue through today,” he offered. “I look forward to it every week. I can’t go a week without reading my Billboard,” he said.
Joel was also an avid collector of records collection. He had over 20000 records in his library which is a huge deal for the non-internet era.
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