The Petrillo recording ban ends in time for America to celebrate its returning soldiers and victory in World War 2 with one last burst of Big Band Swing. Glenn Miller is lost over the English Channel, but new bands step into the limelight, girl singers tear up the charts, the Crooner craze rolls on with new bobbysoxer heartthrobs and everyone is humming a heroic theme by Frédéric Chopin.

#1 Song of the Year   The top song according to our Chartcrush ranking of all songs that earned the majority of their chart ranking points in the year

Artists of the Year   The top three artists based on all charted songs that spent most of their chart runs in the year

1. Bing Crosby
2. Les Brown & His Orchestra
3. Johnny Mercer

Artist with Most Charting Songs   Artist(s) with the most charting songs during the year (song count in parentheses)

• Bing Crosby (14)

Average #1 Artist Age   The average of how old artists who scored #1 hits during the year were when their songs first reached #1

• 34.2

#1 Songs   List of #1 songs that earned the majority of their chart ranking points in the year, and (in parentheses), the month the song first hit #1 and the total number of weeks it was #1

1. Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters – Don’t Fence Me In (December ’44, 13 wks)
2. The Andrews Sisters – Rum and Coca-Cola (February, 8 wks)
3. Les Brown & His Orchestra, vocal Doris Day – My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time (April, 7 wks)
4. Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford & The Pied Pipers – Candy (May, 1 wk)
5. Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra, vocal Vaughn Monroe & Norton Sisters – There! I’ve Said it Again (May, 3 wks)
6. Les Brown & His Orchestra, vocal Doris Day – Sentimental Journey (June, 6 wks)
7. Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers – On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (July, 7 wks)
8. Perry Como – Till the End of Time (September, 10 wks)
9. Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye, vocal Nancy Norman & Billy Williams – Chickery Chick (November, 5 wks)
10. Bing Crosby with Les Paul & His Trio – It’s Been a Long, Long Time (December, 1 wk)
11. Harry James & His Orchestra, vocal Kitty Kallen – It’s Been a Long, Long Time (December, 2 wks)