July 1960

Hit Parader was first published in 1942 during World War II out of Derby, Connecticut and became one of the longest-running U.S. music magazines.

The publication pre-dated the music charts by a few years.  Initially the
magazine would provide the lyrics to the popular songs of the day, a practice
which came to an end in the ’70’s.

The magazine came into the spirit of pop and rock with the arrival of first,
The Beach Boys and then especially with the explosion on the scene by
The Beatles.  At that point in time it took on a whole new look and feel,
often mimicked by many other ‘teen’ magazines which began to ‘pop’ up.

Hit Parader migrated through the various genre’s during the 1970’s – moving
on to hard rock, metal and the like up into the mid 1980’s.  The magazine
went through some troubled times in the 1990’s shutting down for a time
and finally called it quits after putting out it’s final issue in December of
2008.

December, 1943

March, 1958

January, 1959

December, 1969