Homemade Birthday Gifts: How to Make a Chart Toppers CD

If you are searching to find the perfect gift for a music lover in your life, you don't have to waste your time buying compilation CDs or trying to figure out exactly what s/he wants. Instead, why not make your own gift, score some style points for being clever, and provide a truly unique, heartfelt, and fun gift, such as a Chart Toppers CD?

A couple of years ago, I wanted to make a homemade birthday gift for my husband. I searched the Internet for unique homemade birthday gift ideas and I stumbled upon the idea to create a Chart Toppers CD.

If you have an iTunes or Amazon music account, it is easy to create the Chart Toppers CD without a major investment of your hard-earned cash.

What is a Chart Toppers CD?

A Chart Toppers CD is a compilation of songs that have made it to #1 on the Billboard or other music chart on a given day over a set number of years.

How do I Make a Chart Toppers CD into a Birthday Gift?

To make a Chart Toppers CD for a birthday present, simply download all of the number one singles on the gift receiver's birthday for each year the person has been alive. Ok, that sentence makes it sound much more complicated than it actually is. Perhaps an example would help?!

So, I was born on May 23, 1983. If you were to make me a Chart Toppers CD for my birthday present, you would search for and download all of the number one singles on May 23 for each year from 1983 to the current year (2010).

How do I Find the Music?There are many websites available to help you locate all of the number one singles for your Chart Toppers birthday CD, but my favorite is "THE #1 SONG ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY" by Josh Hosler. His site is easy to use and lists songs back to the 1940s.

How much will this Gift Cost?

*Note: If you don't have a CD burner/writer on your computer and can't get access to one, you may want to avoid making this gift!

Blank CDs are cheap and you can find them at any local electronics or discount store. Music downloads are a little trickier, but not much if you have an account with iTunes, Amazon, or another site. Most MP3 downloads cost $0.99 to $1.29. The songs are relatively inexpensive; however, the total cost of the gift may largely depend on how old the gift recipient is.

If you are giving the Chart Toppers CD to someone turning 30, you will likely have to download 30 songs to make the CD (unless you happen to already own MP3s for a few of them). If your gift recipient is 10, you have fewer songs to download; add in the cost of blank CDs, and you could end up creating a cool gift for only $12. Also important to consider: If you are making a CD for someone whose life has only spanned a decade, the 10 or so songs will likely be similar to one another. This can be a good thing, because it may mean the person is more likely to know and enjoy the songs. If the person's life has spanned a few decades, you may end up downloading disco songs from the 70s not knowing that person suffers from a severe allergic reaction to "Stayin' Alive" (which became the #1 song on March 4, 1978).

However, that can be part of the fun with the gift if you don't mind spending a few bucks on songs you would otherwise never choose to own. It may even remind you of a few songs you do like but forgot about. My husband and I laughed especially hard when we heard "Jack and Diane" because our names are not only Jack and Jill, but my middle name also happens to be Diane. You can't make this stuff up.

If you have a good sense of humor about musical styles, you will probably get a kick out of how different the number one songs from each decade are. Additionally, many of these songs may hold memories for you and/or the gift recipient and/or your time together.

Materials

MP3s

Blank CD

CD Burner

Instructions

1. Visit the website to find all of the songs that were at the top of the charts for that day in each given year.
2. Download the songs.
3. Organize the songs in the CD design area by year in ascending or descending order.
4. Put in the blank CD.
5. Burn the CD.
6. Play the CD to make sure everything worked. If not, repeat previous steps as needed.
7. Put the CD in a case or some other holding device.
8. Wrap the gift.
9. Give the gift to the birthday guy or gal.
10. Watch as his or her eyes light up with joy. If they don't, proceed to go into an in-depth explanation of how clever your gift is, how unique it is, and how long it took to make.

Tips

- Don't waste your time on a gift like this if the recipient doesn't care much about music or has such a specific preference for one type of music that s/he would not appreciate the fun or humor in this gift.

- Have more than one blank CD available because something inevitably may go wrong.

- If you want the recipient to have the opportunity to erase your work, you can use a rewritable CD.

Any questions about this gift? Send me a message and I will be happy to provide more input!