Timeline of Billboard number-one dance songs

Billboard magazine has published charts ranking the top-performing dance music songs in the United States since 1974. Originally a top-ten 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.^[1] The first number-one song on the chart for the issue dated August 28, 1976, was "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees.

The Dance/Disco chart was split into the 12-inch Singles Sales chart and the Club Play chart on the issue dated March 16. The first number one on the dance sales chart was "New Attitude"/"Axel F", a split single by Patti LaBelle and Harold Faltermeyer from Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. On March 1, 2003. Billboard launched the 40-position Hot Dance Radio Airplay chart online August 16, 2003, ranking the songs on stations playing mainly dance music. The first dance airplay number one was Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love". On the issue dated January 26, 2013, Billboard launched the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, tracking top 50 dance songs based on digital downloads, radio airplay, streaming, and club play. Billboard split the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart on January 18, 2025 to create the Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart, which focuses on songs with "dance-centric vocals, melody, and hooks by artists not rooted in the dance genre". Since then, the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart compiles songs primarily recorded by DJs or producers, with an emphasis on electronic-based production.

Madonna is the most successful dance music artist of all time, with a total of 50 number ones on the Dance Club Songs chart and 33 number ones on the Dance Singles Sales chart. She remains the artist with the most number ones on any single Billboard chart. Her dance hits span five different decades from "Holiday"/"Lucky Star" in 1983 to "I Don't Search I Find" in 2020. David Guetta is the artist with the most number ones on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, with a total of 17 songs from "The World Is Mine" in 2004 to "Forever Young" in 2025. The Chainsmokers is the act with the most number ones on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, with a total of six songs from "#Selfie" in 2014 to "Something Just Like This" in 2017.