Sneak peek: Love her or hate her (and trust us, it’s usually a polarizing reaction), Lana Del Rey covers our Best Bets 2012 issue. Full cover story hits Billboard.com tomorrow.

Vintage Billboard: Randy Newman/Reprise Records ad, 1969.

Oh Randy. If only you knew what was coming.

Vintage ad from the Billboard archives.

45 years later, we still have Tony Bennett. Except this time, he’s dueting standards with Gaga. The times change, but only so much.

Billboard’s first cover, ever, in honor of our 117th birthday today!

We’ve come a long, long way since 1894, when a yearly subscription to Billboard cost 99 cents. We used to cover advertising, then the “amusement business” (carnivals and circuses), then motion pictures, and finally, with the advent of the jukebox, the music industry. It wasn’t until 1940 that we launched our first chart, the 10-position “National List of Best Selling Retail Records.” Think we found our niche.