Billboard's #1 Pop Singles

[Max]

Alphanguy, that was an awsome video that you posted. I feel that "Poetry in Motion," "Love You So," and "Chain Gang" all deserved to go to #1.

Carl, thank you for sharing your favorite Shirelles tunes. My personal favorites are "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "Tonight's the Night," with an honorable mention given to "Dedicated to the One I Love."

This is an excellent observation, Qfan.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" was succeeded at #1 by "Calcutta" by Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra, which held the peak position for two weeks: the weeks ended 2/13/61 & 2/20/61.

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The legendary Lawrence Welk was born in Strasburg, ND on March 11, 1903. His parents--Ludwig and Christina--were poor German immigrants. Lawrence was the sixth of eight children, and he fulfilled his promise to help out on the family farm until he was 21 years-old (in exchange for a $400 accordion his parents purchased for him).

Though he first ventured to South Dakota, Welk ended up living in Southern California. It was there (in Los Angeles) that he taped the long-running "The Lawrence Welk Show." This classic TV show debuted in 1951, and was aired locally on KTLA for four years. From 1955-71, ABC aired the show to a nationwide audience. After the newtork cancelled the show (which had strong ratings but poor demos), it found a home in first-run syndication until 1982.

Welk's television show was arguably what he was most famous for. However, he made a big mark in music as well: his style became known as "champagne music" because somebody once told him that it had a "bubbly, frothy quality." During the rock era, Welk scored a total of three top 40 hits (the second most popular of which was 1956's "Tonight You Belong to Me," which peaked at #16). Though the lively "Calcutta" was his biggest hit, Welk really did not want to record it; he only chose to do so because George Cates (his musical director) was planning to record it instead. (Lawrence once stated "Well, if it's good enough for you, George, I guess it's good enough for me.")

Welk was 89 years-old when he died of pneumonia on May 17, 1992.

[quartermainefan]

"Dedicated To The One I Love" I think was an ok song, but it took The Mamas and The Papas to make it great.

[alphanguy74]

Lawrence Welk, the king of cheese. I still run past his show on PBS around here on Sunday afternoons, all the old ladies with horn-rimmed glasses and HUGE pocketbooks dancing around. I always hated his show because all of his cast seemed to have this "stepford" personality, with these insincere grins slapped across thier faces. I have an episode of "Rolling On The River" from 1972 where Kenny Rogers and the First Edition makes fun of the Lawrence Welk show, it's a riot, I wish it was on youtube. Kenny is playing Welk, and Terry Williams sings Blood Sweat and Tears' "Spinning Wheel" dressed in Lederhosen, among other things. Welk did have his own record company, Ranwood Records, and did one thing that I loved.... and that was release an insturmental song from "Dark Shadows", reaching #13 on the charts, performed by Charles Randolph Greane and his orchestra

Now, as much as I dump on Lawrence Welk... I DO enjoy watching JoAnn Castle, that woman has got some LIGHTNING fingers, it just always irked me that they stuck her behind this stupid upright bar room piano. A woman of her talents deserves a full concert grand, and the sound on the show would have been far more impressive had they given her one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3UPceksL4&feature=related

[DRW50]

I love that Welk song. I never could remember the title. The best part is the hand claps, which is why it went to #1, IMO.

I haven't seen the Lawrence Welk Show in recent years but used to see it on PBS every weekend. I always got a kick out of it, especially when they would try to be "hip" and do things like Beatles night (their version of Fool on the Hill was pretty good - it helps that I hate the original). Ana Cani, and as mentioned above, Jo Ann Castle, were some of their best stars.

It's impossible for me to understate just how much the Welk family dominated the type of press that is today taken up by Us Weekly/In Touch Weekly/People/etc. If you go look for magazines from the 50's and the 60's, up to the early 70's, you will see cover after cover on:

- The Lennon Sisters

- Lawrence Welk

- Bobby Burgess

- Jo Ann Castle

Some of these stories were tragic (most of Castle's coverage focused on her marriage breakups and her children having bad health problems), others were more lighthearted. Others were...of the era (LAWRENCE WELK FIGHTS AMERICA'S ENEMIES!)

The Lennon Sisters were probably close to iconic in those years, with some - even today, there's a Facebook page trying to get them as hosts of SNL.

Their father was assassinated around the same time as the Sharon Tate murders, which, needless to say, was a press frenzy. It's fascinating to read the change in tone in those magazines starting around 1967, 1968, as America began going to hell.

[alphanguy74]

I agree with you about "Fool On The Hill"... the original version kind of stinks. the two best versions of that song are done by Sergio Mendez and Brasil 66, and Petula Clark. But yes... the Welk singers trying to sing modern pop music was HILARIOUS, and looked so out of place,almost as bad as that Beatles medley that Kate Smith sang with Tina Turner and Cher in 1975. Apparently, JoAnn Castle left the show because when she gave birth to her third child, the baby had severe Cerebal Palsy, I think the child only lived to be about 8 years old.

[DRW50]

That's sad - by then Castle was rarely in those magazines (or they had moved on - the Welks were pretty much a back number by that time). The mid/late 60's always had stories in those magazines about how her husband had to go, or she prayed for her child's health, etc. She sounds like a very brave woman.

I'd never heard Petula's version. I love the Sergio version. To me it is the ideal. I love the Beatles too but their original version is just this self-indulgent and miserable angst which doesn't do anything for me.

[DRW50]

Oh - Lynn Anderson also got her start on the Lawrence Welk Show, and probably some of her first magazine covers (several back then ran stories about Welk's out of control women and how he had to tame them - Lynn was included. I think poor Lynn needed his "taming" in recent years more than she did at the time!)

That gives me an excuse to post this again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKwgY7BUUPo

[Max]

Alphanguy and Carl, thanks for telling me so many fascinating facts regarding "The Lawrence Welk Show."

Chubby Checker's other number one single--"Pony Time"--was also about a dance (in this case, "the pony"). "Pony Time" spent three weeks at the top spot: the weeks ended 2/27/61, 3/6/61, & 3/13/61.

(Sorry for the confusion, but I originally posted a "faux" version of "Pony Time," which has since been removed. Thankfully, Alphanguy provided us with the original version, as you can see in the next post.)

Like "The Twist," Chubby Checker's version of "Pony Time" was not the original. Rather, the song was first recorded by Don Covay & the Goodtimers, whose version only reached #60. (Covay co-wrote the song as well.) Also, it should be stated that an R&B vocal group called the Dreamlovers (named after the Bobby Darin song) performed (uncredited) back-up on "The Twist," "Pony Time," and several other Checker recordings. This group--who, IMO, added a lot to Chubby's songs--scored one top 40 hit of their own with "When We Get Married," which peaked at #10 in the latter half of 1961.

Aside from Checker's two chart-toppers, he accumulated the following top ten hits:

"Let's Twist Again" (#8, 1961)

"The Fly" (#7, 1961)

"Slow Twistin'" (#3, 1962) [This song was a duet with Dee Dee Sharp.]

"Limbo Rock" (#2, 1962)

"Popeye (The Hitchhiker)" (#10, 1962)

After a 23 year absence from the top 40, Chubby collaborated with the Fat Boys and had a #16 hit with 1988's "The Twist (Yo, Twist!)."

Mr. Checker is currently 70 years-old. As mentioned previously, he has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[alphanguy74]

Max... i'm afraid the version you posted isn't the original version. It is one of those re-recordings that some artists do for compilation collections. On the one you posted, Chubby did an EXCELLENT job recreating the original vocal, nailed it pretty much, it's very good as re-recordings go...sound very much like the original, except the drums give it away, and although the difference is subtle, the lead guitars are played by different brands of guitar in each version. This is the original version, and it IS very close, so it's totally understandable that you would mistake one for the other... :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTtCwm3t-8

As happens alot, my favorite of Chubby's never reached number one... but number two.... and that was "Limbo Rock" that came in the fall of 1962.

[DRW50]

My main memory of that song is from the very underrated Troop Beverly Hills (it's a fun little movie, with one of Shelley Long's better performances, and great supporting work from such talents as Stephanie Beacham and Craig T. Nelson), when Shelley was teaching the girl scouts how to do various classic dances. One of them was The Pony.

[Max]

Carl, that was a very cute clip that you shared.

Alphanguy, thank you so much for correcting me on this and for posting the original version of "Pony Time." (I have since removed the "faux" version of the song.) Though I spent a lot of time on YouTube listening to different versions of the song, all those I could find felt a little "off."

Elvis Presley's 15th chart-topper was "Surrender," which spent two weeks at number one: the weeks ended 3/20/61 & 3/27/61.

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"Surrender" was a non-rock ballad performed in the tradition of "It's Now or Never." Like "It's Now or Never," "Surrender" was of Italian origin: the song dated back to 1911 and was first titled "Torna a Sorrento" ("Come Back to Sorrento"). In the early-60s, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote English lyrics for the tune and gave it to Elvis to sing.

The phenomenal success that Presley enjoyed in 1960 was not replicated in 1961. He did, however, score three additional top ten hits that year: "I Feel So Bad" (#5), "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" (#4), and "Little Sister" (#5). In February 1962, Elvis had a #2 hit with the timeless "Can't Help Falling in Love" (which was finally taken to #1 by UB40 in 1993); this tune is arguably the King's most famous recording that didn't reach the peak position. Two months later, Presley returned to the top of the Hot 100.

[alphanguy74]

Don't feel bad, Max... It took me a while to find the original version, too. I think I listened to 8 or 9 before I found that one. Ironically, the only comment on the video I posted was someone saying "Finally! someone posted the original version!" LOL I think "Surrender" is pretty good. short, yet dramatic. It's very easy for me to get Elvis overload considering my liking of him is spotty, but Surrender is one I always like to listen to. BTW... Carl, that clip is great from Troop Beverly Hills, I always liked that movie. "The Freddy" was always the stupidest dance I had ever seen. Martha Reeves appeared with Freddy and The Dreamers on an episode of Hullaballoo, and the final song of the hits medley is "the Freddy", and everyone onstage was supposed to do it, Martha told me that NO WAY was she gonna do that stupid dance, especially with the pencil skirt she was wearing, so she said she ran for the back of the pack and hid behind the Sir Douglas Quintet and just moved her arms a little bit.

[Max]

Alphanguy, that is such a funny story about Marth Reeves' hatred of "the Freddy." Thanks again for telling me that I did not post the original version of "Pony Time," and please let me know if I ever post a "faux" version of a song in the future.

It is always a tough call to say what one's favorite song of all-time is, but certainly the magnificent "Blue Moon" by The Marcels ranks right up there. "Blue Moon" was number one for three weeks: the weeks ended 4/3/61, 4/10/61, & 4/17/61.

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The Marcels--named after a hair style--were a bi-racial doo-wop group from Pittsburgh, led by Cornelius Harp. (The group's white members would later leave and be replaced by black ones, however.) One night, the quintet was working late in the recording studio, and needed one more song to perform. Producer Stu Phillips gave the young men a choice between two standards: "Heart and Soul" and "Blue Moon." Since the group wasn't at all familiar with the former tune, the latter song was chosen. (Interestingly, another doo-wop group--the Cleftones--took "Heart and Soul" to #18 later in 1961.)

Back when Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote "Blue Moon," it most definately was not a rock and roll tune; in fact, it wasn't even an uptempo song! Though Rodgers and Hart were Broadway songwriting legends, "Blue Moon" was first sung--with different lyrics--in a 1934 movie titled "Manhattan Melodrama." Before the Marcels immortalized the record, "Blue Moon" was also recorded by Mel Torme and Elvis Presley. However, after listening to a doo-wop song called "Zoom Zoom Zoom" by the Collegians, the Marcels' got the idea for "Blue Moon's" famous "bomp-baba-bomp...dang-a-dang-dang" intro, and the rest was history.

"Blue Moon" not only went to #1 in the United States, but topped the chart in the United Kingdom as well. Despite scoring one of the biggest doo-wop hits of all time, the Marcels only made the top 40 once more with "Heartaches" (which peaked at #7 later in the year), a song that sounded much too similar to their version of "Blue Moon." Nevertheless, "Blue Moon" was responsible for a doo-wop renaissance in 1961, as some two dozen songs from the genre made the top 20 that year. It is certainly not hard to see why this record appealed to so many people; the first time I heard the Marcels' version, it felt like a jolt of electricity.

[DRW50]

For some reason when i hear that song I always remember that version Tiffani Amber Thiessen did on Saved by the Bell.

[I Am A Swede]

Trivia: the song "Blue Moon" is also regarded as the anthem for Manchester City Football Club.