Billboard's #1 Pop Singles

[MissLlanviewPA]

I COMPLETELY forgot about The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. Lorne Greene also had a number one song during Bonanza called "Ringo."

[alphanguy74]

Since we are getting ready to come into 1965 now.... here's the year end review of the hits of 1964... #1 and otherwise:

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[DRW50]

I'll have to listen to that later...can't wait! Thanks.

It's interesting to think about how old-fashioned Mr. Lonely sounds compared to a lot of 1964 hits, like House of the Rising Sun.

[alphanguy74]

Well.. "House Of the Rising Sun" was pretty cutting edge, if you really think about it. Another #2 mention I'd like to give is Millie Smalls hit "My Boy Lollipop". Millie was from Jamaica, and the daughter of an overseer on a sugar plantation. An unusual person to become a hit recording star around the world, she hit #2 in the UK, #1 in Ireland... and in December of 1964, landed her own TV special in Finland. (this performance is from that)

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I think she was just 15 when this song was hitting, another performance from 1973, and WOW did she turn out to be gorgeous!

[DRW50]

I never knew she had her own TV special in Finland! That was very groundbreaking at the time.

I remember reading that this song was the first ska hit in the US, and very influential.

[alphanguy74]

It WAS the first Ska hit... 1964 seemed to have alot of great songs that fell short of #1.. but I guess every year does. I think Gerry and the Pacemakers' "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" was one that also deserved #1 status. that song certainly is better than anything the Beatles put out that year.

[DRW50]

Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying is perfection. It's almost too perfect. I love it.

[Max]

"My Boy Lollipop" is an OK song, but I certainly don't believe it deserved to peak at #2.

Below are some songs from 1964 that I think should have gone to #1:

Baby I Need Your Loving - The Four Tops (#11)

Because - The Dave Clark Five (#3)

I Only Want to Be With You - Dusty Springfield (#12)

(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet - The Reflections (#6)

Maybe I Know - Lesley Gore (#14)

Needles and Pins - The Searchers (#13)

The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss) - Betty Everett (#6)

The Way You Do the Things You Do - The Temptations (#11)

The Supremes' third chart-topper was the magnificent "Come See About Me," which spent two non-consecutive weeks at number one: the weeks ended 12/19/64 & 1/16/65.

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When "Come See About Me" reached the chart apex, the Supremes scored #1 singles with three consecutive releases, duplicating a feat first achieved by the Four Seasons (with "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," and "Walk Like a Man"). In contrast to the boys from Jersey, however, the girls from Detroit managed to pull all three chart-toppers from the same album. (The album was titled "Where Did Our Love Go.")

"Come See About Me" was released even before "Baby Love" soared to the top of the Hot 100. The reason why this date was pushed up was because Berry Gordy learned about a cover version that was being cut by Nella Dodds. As it turned out, he needn't have worried about the competition, given that Dodds' version stalled at #74. Furthermore, after "Come See About Me" fell from #1 (for the second time), the Supremes would find themselves back at the peak position in a short while.

During the unusually long three week gap in-between the record's first and second weeks at #1 (i.e., the weeks ended 12/26/64, 1/2/65, & 1/9/65), "Come See About Me" occupied the #2 position on the chart. It was during this time--on December 27, 1964--that Diana, Mary, and Florence first appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

[DRW50]

Come See About Me is a nice song but always seems a little by the numbers to me.

The Way You Do The Things You Do is one of those songs I've heard in too many commercials.

[alphanguy74]

Come See About Me was a much better song than the previous two. the "hey hey hey's" in the background really give it a nice groove. Nella Dodds, IMO, is not ANY kind of singer, and I'm surprised her version even made it into the hot 100:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul_nCuTFd9A

[DRW50]

Nella has a very odd voice, as sometimes it sounds sultry and other times it just sounds like a bad speech impediment. Not the best song for her. The cheap production doesn't help.

[alphanguy74]

Cheap production and weak, puny background vocals as well. Here's that first Ed Sullivan appearance... the first of THIRTEEN, with the final one being Jean, Mary, and Cindy in February 1970

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[Max]

I wonder if this is a record for most appearances (by a musical artist) on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

The most #1 hits an artist had in a single year was six, when the Beatles accomplished this feat in 1964. The Fab Four performed the year's final chart-topper, "I Feel Fine," which managed to occupy the peak position for three weeks: the weeks ended 12/26/64, 1/2/65, & 1/9/65.

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While "I Feel Fine" is one of the most obscure of the Beatles' chart-toppers, it also is an important breakthrough because it represented a much more harder-rocking sound for the band. The tune was written by John Lennon (though it, of course, was credited to both Lennon and McCartney), and is the first known song to use a single note of guitar feedback (that is found during the record's intro).

The B-side of "I Feel Fine"--"She's a Woman"--charted on its own and peaked at #4. Aside from "A Hard Day's Night" and "I Feel Fine"/"She's a Woman," the lads from Liverpool scored the following top forty hits in the second-half of 1964:

"Ain't She Sweet" (#19)

"And I Love Her" (#12)

"I'll Cry Instead" (#25)

"Matchbox" (#17) [A cover of a Carl Perkins record]

"Slow Down" (#25)

[DRW50]

Not a huge fan of I Feel Fine.

[Max]

The first of twenty-five "new" chart-toppers in 1965 was Petula Clark's signature song, "Downtown." This timeless recording spent two weeks at number one: the weeks ended 1/23/65 & 1/30/65.

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Petula Sally Olwen Clark was born on November 15, 1932 in Epsom, Surrey, England. She began publicly singing (in church) at age three, and--when she was nine--actually performed "It's All Yours" on a BBC Radio program. Though "Downtown" was Petula's first record to make the American charts, she had already been a superstar in Europe, Canada, and Australia for quite some time. Included among her big international hits were "The Little Shoemaker" (1954), "Majorca" (1955), "Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955), and "With All My Heart" (1956).

"Downtown"--the song that would make Clark the second British female solo artist to have a #1 hit in America (the first was Vera Lynn, who accomplished the feat in 1952 with "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart")--was written and produced by Tony Hatch. (Interestingly enough, "Downtown" only reached #2 in the U.K.) According to Hatch, the idea for the tune came about as follows: "I was staying at a hotel on Central Park and I wandered down to Broadway and to Times Square and, naively, I thought I was downtown. Forgetting that in New York especially downtown is a lot further downtown getting on towards Battery Park. I loved the whole atmosphere there and the [music] came to me very, very quickly."

Petula followed up "Downtown" with "I Know a Place," which peaked at #3. (It was not until 1984 when another female solo artist--Cyndi Lauper--managed to make the top three with her first two chart entires, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time.") Then, she had two modest top 40 hits ("You'd Better Come Home" and "Round Every Corner," which reached #22 & #21, respectively) before returning to the #1 spot in February 1966.