Billboard's #1 Pop Singles

[alphanguy74]

I always liked "Walk Right In". I've never LOVED folk music, but always enjoyed it's rustic simplicity. I think this song is pretty catchy, and it really sticks in your mind. I woudln't have pegged it for a number one, but certainly a top 10. Here they ar esinging it live on the ABC television show "Hootenanny" in 1963:

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[Max]

While "Walk Right In" certainly did not deserve to go to #1, I don't think it is a horrendous song. The same cannot be said for some other tunes that will top the chart later in the year.

There were three #1 hits by male-female duos in 1963. The first and most popular of these records was the romantic "Hey Paula" by Paul & Paula, which spent three weeks at the peak position: the weeks ended 2/9/63, 2/16/63, & 2/23/63.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/edQW6RYQklo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

After listening to Annette Funicello's "Tall Paul," Ray Hildebrand was inspired to write a tune called "Paul and Paula." Hildebrand received a basketball scholarship to attend Howard Payne College in Brownwood, TX, and resided in a boarding house during the school year. Ray met the boarding house's owner's niece, Jill Jackson, and the two of them first performed together at a benefit for the American Cancer Society.

At six minutes in length, "Paul and Paula" was considered much too long for commercial release; over half of the song was cut (much of it used for the duo's follow-up, "Young Lovers") and the shortened record was renamed "Hey Paula." At about the same time, producer Major Bill Smith felt that the sales for "Hey Paula" would be much stronger if Jill & Ray (as the duo originally called themselves) changed their names to Paul & Paula.

Despite the monster hit that "Hey Paula" became, Paul & Paula only had two additional top 40 hits: "Young Lovers" peaked at #6, and "First Quarrel" fizzled at #27 in the summer of 1963. Paul & Paula may have had more success as a duo was it not for the fact that Ray decided to leave show business in 1965.

[DRW50]

Paul and Paula are the epitome of a one hit wonder, as it's just impossible to imagine them doing any other song, due to their name and just the atmosphere of the song. It seems like real (if treacly) people singing to each other.

I love the song. This song also got another lease on life through Animal House.

1963 so far has continued the hurtling backwards popular music took after the deaths of the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, and the various career and personal crises for Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, etc. Everything is so quiet and so quaint. You can see why the Beatles were such a huge success and why people so eagerly embraced them.

[alphanguy74]

I think "Hey Paula" is a sweet song, and I've always liked it. It is romantic, and very innocent. their voices play off of each other so nicely, and Ray has got a BEAUTIFUL voice, he should have gotten more hits, and could have easily been a solo star in my eyes. Ray lives about 40 miles from me, in Kansas City... and him and Jill still perform. They are performing at an oldies concert in Kansas City the first week of May, as a matter of fact. My niece went to Howard Payne University.

[alphanguy74]

I do like Male/Female duets... if they are done right... even if they are sappy, i'm still good with that, I like sappy, sentimental songs. It was never number one, but I wanted to make mention of my favorite duet in music history... this went to number 8 in 1967:

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[DRW50]

My favorite male/female duets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3TJo567F24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTUG1odiRXo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0gAUEWJjP0

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f48fpoSEPU

[quartermainefan]

Hey Paula is a one of the best songs in this thread. Their voices are just so perfect, and when she first chimes in with "Hey Paul" it is impossible to dislike this record. I can't even think which two singing stars today could pull off a remake of this.

[alphanguy74]

Those are nice, Carl... Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood are duet partners I've always liked. Country artists were duet FREAKS... through the 60's and 70's, there were so many country stars that made duet albums together... they seemed to mix and match everybody they could.

[alphanguy74]

I don't there is any stars today that could pull off this today.

[DRW50]

The intro to Hey Hey Paula is what sucks you in. That song is just part of an innocence of that era, and of music. Today you'd have dubbing, echoing, autone, some type of awkward attempt at a hip-hop break, and random sexual innuendo.

I guess they still do all kinds of country duets but the 60's and 70's were the best. I always think back to what Loretta Lynn told Conway Twitty in his last days, joking about how she'd been having an affair with him for years because of all the dirty things she had to say to him in duets.

[alphanguy74]

Now that we are getting ready to roll into March, I'm going to post my special "#2" feature. "The End Of The World" by Skeeter Davis peaked at #2 in March of 1963, but sold more copies, and was a bigger hit than the majority of the #1's this year, placing at #3 on the billboard year end chart of the year's biggest hits. This song also holds a chart record that stands to this day. It is the only song to be in the top 10 of ALL FOUR major charts simultaneously..... Hot 100, R&B, Country, and Adult Contemporary. The song also went to number one in 17 countries, causing many music historians to consider this song to be the biggest worldwide hit of the year (Although this has never been verified)

Skeeter Davis was born in Dry ridge, Kentucky as Maryfrances Penick, and first gained fame singing with her high school best friend, Betty Jack Davis, as "The Davis Sisters", "Skeeter" was a nickname given to her by her grandfather as a child, and she chose to take Betty Jack's last name as her stage name. They were signed to RCA, and released an enormous hit, "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know". Topping the country charts for 9 weeks in 1953, it became the biggest country hit of the year. But when the song was peaking in popularity, tragedy struck.

On the night of August 1, 1953, Skeeter and Betty Jack were performing at the Wheeling, West Virginia Jamboree, and decided to drive all night back home to northern Kentucky. Shortly before dawn, a G.I. who fell asleep at the wheel crossed the center line and hit them head on, killing Betty Jack and seriously injuring Skeeter. After months of recovery, Betty Jack's mother guilted Skeeter into continuing on with Betty Jack's sister Georgia, but their few recordings weren't hits, and Skeeter's heart wasn't in it. She decided to retire and Marry in 1956. After two years, she finally was ready to sing again, and decided that the only way she would want to, was to go it alone. She recorded several songs and hits, and became the first female country artist to be nominated for a Grammy in 1959. She ended up placing a total of 36 songs on the country chart through her career, and gained some notoriety for her eccentric "hippy girl" nature, her pet Oscelot, and her claims that she raised a calf from the dead at her fourth of July picnic.

"The End Of the World" has a convoluted and fascinating history. the lyrics were originally written in 1928 by 14 year old Sylvia Dee the night her father died. the lyrics lay dormant for 33 years until she gave them to her writing partner, Arthur Kent, to write the music. Producer Chet Atkins had been told by RCA's field men that pop stations would play his records if he replaced some of the steel guitar with strings on his records, "The End Of the World" was his first try at this, and the crossover success was stunning. This song remains my favorite song of the 60's, one of the most beautiful melodies ever written, and the simple vulnerability of Skeeter's delivery make it a standard to this day:

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[DRW50]

It's such a pure song. I never knew the origins.

Here are two of her other songs I enjoy.

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I think there may have been another version of this song? I don't remember the "shoobee doo" at the start.

[alphanguy74]

No Carl... the "Shoo-Bee-Doo" has always been there, many times the DJ on the radio would talk over it, however! LOL

Skeeter also has the distinction of having my favorite album cover of all time... her 1969 album "Maryfrances"

[DRW50]

I wonder if somebody who wrote for Knots Landing was a fan of that album too...

What I like about country music is when they let you see the offbeat ladies who can't fit in anywhere and just seem to perform with their soul. That's what Skeeter was. She never let Nashville tell her what to do. She was even suspended from the Grand Ole Opry for a year because she protested the treatment of Jesus freaks.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19740224&id=PahSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TX8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6585,3460670

[alphanguy74]

Yeah, she herself was a Jesus freak... however, she didn't sit well with many of the staunch conservative owners of the opry, because she was a very open minded, free spirited, accepting personality. She never smoked or drank, but unfortunatley lost a 16 year battle with cancer in 2004 at the age of 72,