The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play and Hot Dance Club Play among others) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by Billboard magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the United States.
History
The Dance Club Songs chart underwent several incarnations since its inception in 1974. Originally a top-10 list of tracks that garnered the largest audience response in New York City discothèques, the chart began on October 26, 1974, under the title Disco Action. The chart went on to feature playlists from various cities around the country from week to week. Billboard continued to run regional and city-specific charts throughout 1975 and 1976 until the issue dated August 28, 1976, when a 30-position National Disco Action Top 30 premiered. The first number-one song on the chart for the issue dated August 28, 1976, was "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees, spending five weeks atop the chart and the group's only number-one song on the chart.
The chart would continue to be published continuously for over 40 years, but with changes in the number of chart positions and in the chart title, with disco, dance and/or club in the chart name.