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The titanic #1 hits of 1912

It’s A Wonderful Life

Among the titanic #1 hits of 1912 are tunes I have actually sung.

Before that, A Century of Pop Music by Joel Whitburn notes that in July of 1912, “Columbia stopped all production of [wax] cylinders.” This left “Edison as the only major company still producing the recording format that had ruled the industry only decade earlier.” All of these songs were on the Victor label, except the Burr/Campbell track on Columbia.

Moonlight Bay – American Quartet, 8 weeks at #1. Billy Murray, John Bieling, Steve Porter, and William F. Hooley. Those of you who own The Beatles Anthology 1 will recognize the song, performed on the British TV series Two of a Kind by the band and the show’s hosts, comedy duo Morecambe and Wise.

Down By the Old Mill Stream – Harry MacDonough, 7 weeks at #1. “Not the new, but the old.” It is so embedded in the culture, it’s been used by the Marx Brothers, the Chipmunks, and All In The Family. I feel I’ve always known the song.

Ragtime Cowboy Joe – Bob Roberts, 6 weeks at #1
Waiting For The Robert E. Lee – Heidelberg Quintet, 6 weeks at #1. Apparently, this was actually Billy Murray and the American Quartet, supplemented by countertenor Will Oakland. When I was growing up in Binghamton in the 1960s, we had this ancient songbook at the school, probably from the 1930s. That song must have been in the text because I remember the lyrics, specifically “There’s Ephraim and Sammy.”

Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee – Ada Jones and Billy Murray, 5 weeks at #1
Ragging My Baby To Sleep – Al Jolson, 5 weeks at #1, gold record

When I Was Twenty-One and You Were Sweet Sixteen – Henry Burr and Albert Campbell, 4 weeks at #1

My star turn

Love Is Mine – Enrico Caruso, 3 weeks at #1

That Haunting Melody -Al Jolson, 2 weeks at #1. I couldn’t find this on YouTube. So I used the Discography of American Historical Recordings, which I described here
I Love You Truly – Elsie Baker, 2 weeks at #1. When I was a boy soprano at Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton, I sang this song at weddings at least twice. The song appeared on various TV shows and movies. Notably, Bert and Ernie serenaded George and Mary Bailey on their wedding night in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). The song was recorded several times after its initial release.

Everybody Two-Step – American Quartet
Oh, You Beautiful Doll – Billy Murray and the American Quartet. I know this song quite well, and it’s not from its various usages in movies and even cartoons. Did my mom sing this around the house?

1971 #1s: my first year in college

overly Osmond

The year 1971 was hugely significant in my musical listening development. For one thing, it was my first year in college, my initial time away from home, meeting new people my age and a little older.

There is a book entitled Never A Dull Moment about that year in music, and I wrote at least ten posts about that tome. Some of these songs are great! And then…

Joy To The World – Three Dog Night. #1 for six weeks, gold record. Was Jeremiah REALLY a bullfrog?

Maggie May Maggie May – Rod Stewart. #1 for five weeks., gold record. From the popular album, Every Picture Tells A Story.
It’s Too Late – Carole King. #1 for five weeks, gold record. From the absurdly popular Tapestry album. If you didn’t own this, then your roommate had to.
One Bad Apple – the Osmonds. #1 for five weeks, gold record. Trying to sound like the Jackson Five.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart – the BeeGees. #1 for four weeks, gold record. Part of that brief resurgence, along with Lonely Days, before falling on commercial hard times. They’d be back.

Knock Three Times – Dawn. #1 for three weeks. Not the dishwashing detergent but the trio fronted by Tony Orlando.
Brand New Key – Melanie. #1 for three weeks, gold record. “Don’t go too fast, but I go pretty far.”
Go Away, Little Girl – Donny Osmond. #1 for three weeks, gold record. Steve Lawrence went to #1 with this in 1963.
Family Affair – Sly and the Family Stone. #1 for three weeks, gold record. I feel stoned every time I hear this.

The #1s for two weeks

Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves – Cher. Gold record. Would the first word now be Roma or the Romani?
Just My Imagination – the Temptations. The third #1 for the group, as Eddie Kendrick is going out the door.
Theme from Shaft – Isaac Hayes. Gold record. We can dig it.
Me and Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin. The second posthumous #1 pop song.
Brown Sugar – the Rolling Stones. I bought Sticky Fingers and Tapestry on the same day in July 1971. The zipper really worked!

#1s for a single week

Indian Reservation – the Raiders. Platinum record. A very earnest record by the artists formerly known as Paul Revere and…
The Want Ads – the Honey Cone. Gold record. “Extra, extra!”
You’ve Got a Friend – James Taylor. Gold record. Of course, a Carole King song.
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey – Paul and Linda McCartney. Gold record. From the Ram album. With the Beatles gone, I was always happy to see the solo artist chart.

Parade magazine’s best songs of 1971.

1961 looks the same flipped (I96I)

two instrumentals

One of the more arcane things I remember growing up is that 1961 looked the same flipped over or right-side-up if you used the correct font. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs for the Yankees in ’61.

I was watching that Hemingway series on PBS by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The disastrous Bay of Pigs incursion meant that the author would never be able to return to his beloved home in Cuba. He died that very year.

By 1961, we’re up to the #1 songs I mostly can recall.

Tossin’ and Turnin’ – Bobby Lewis, seven weeks at #1. It’s one of those songs on every other compilation of songs of the late Fifties and early Sixties.

Big Bad John – Jimmy Dean, five weeks at #1, gold record. I loved this song as a kid, more a spoken word recording. But is anyone weirded out by him still plugging his sausages on television commercials when he died in 2010?

Runaway – Del Shannon, four weeks at #1, gold record. Bonnie Raitt did a great cover version.

Wonderland by Night – Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra, three weeks at #1, gold record. Instrumental.
Pony Time – Chubby Checker, three weeks at #1. His previous #1 was The Twist in 1960. His subsequent #1 was The Twist in 1962.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight – The Tokens, three weeks at #1, gold record. A song with a complicated history.
Blue Moon – the Marcels, three weeks at #1. Probably my favorite song from that year, written in the 1930s by Rodgers and Hart.
Take Good Care Of My Baby – Bobby Vee, three weeks at #1. I KNOW this song, but not from this version, or Bobby Vinton’s. (For a while I thought Bobby Vee and Bobby Vinton were the same person.) Or the Beatles’. Hmm.

Two Weeks at #1

Calcutta – Lawrence Welk and his orchestra, gold record. Instrumental. I watched Welk a LOT growing up.
Runaround Sue – Dion, gold record. Dion seemed somehow cooler than the other ’59-’62 artists.
Michael – the Highwaymen, gold record. This a song – “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” – that my father used to sing, then my sister Leslie and I would sing with him in concert. BTW, the singers were the 1960s “collegiate folk” group, not the ’80s supergroup of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.

Travelin’ Man – Ricky Nelson. I wonder if he performed this on the TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966)?
Quarter To Three – Gary U.S. Bonds, gold record. I love this song.
Hit the Road, Jack – Ray Charles. One of the great call-and-response songs ever.
Surrender– Elvis Presley, platinum record. I hear the intro and think of some spy movie.
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – the Shirelles. My favorite song, as performed by Carole King.

A single week at #1

Mother-in-Law – Ernie K-Doe. I first heard this song on a Herman’s Hermits album; this is much better. I should note I love my MIL.
Please Mr. Postman – The Marvelettes, gold record. I heard this first by The Beatles. I’m fond of both.
Wooden Heart – Joe Dowell. I remember this song, but I couldn’t have named the artist. In fact, ask me in six months, and I probably still couldn’t.
Moody River – Pat Boone. No recollection of this song, thank goodness.
Running Scared – Roy Orbison. I appreciated him more in retrospect.

1990 music: LOTS of #1s

Mariah Carey There were 25 #1 pop hits on Billboard’s pop charts in 1990. Nearly half of them topped the charts for a week apiece.

Vogue went double platinum, while Nothing Can Compare 2 U, Step by Step, Blaze of Glory, and Ice Ice Baby went platinum. Everything else went gold, except the Bolton, Ingram, Sweet Sensation, and George Michael hits.

Because I Love You (The Postman Song) – Stevie B. #1 for four weeks. I do not recognize the song or the artist.
Nothing Can Compare 2 U– Sinead O’Connor. #1 for four weeks. I LOVE this Prince song.
Visions of Love– Mariah Carey. #1 for four weeks. #1 for two weeks RB.

Vogue – Madonna. #1 for three weeks. #16 RB. Possibly my favorite Ciccone song.
Escapade – Janet Jackson. #1 for three weeks. #1 RB. I saw her perform in 2018.
Love Takes Time – Mariah Carey. #1 for three weeks. #1 RB.

Opposites Attract – Paula Abdul with the Wild Pair. #1 for three weeks. #3 for two weeks RB. So THAT’S how relationships work!
Step by Step – New Kids on the Block. #1 for three weeks. #48 RB.
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You – Michael Bolton. #1 for three weeks.

It Must Have Been Love – Roxette. #1 for two weeks.
Black Velvet – Alannah Myles. #1 for two weeks. I had forgotten this song. I like her voice.
Release Me – Wilson Phillips. #1 for two weeks.
She Ain’t Worth It – Glenn Medeiros/Bobby Brown. #1 for two weeks. #43 RB.

Just one week at #1 pop

Hold On – Wilson Phillips.
Blaze of Glory – Jon Bon Jovi.
I’m Your Baby Tonight – Whitney Houston. #1 for two weeks RB.

Close To You– Maxi Priest.
I Don’t Have the Heart– James Ingram. #53 RB.
Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice. #6 RB. A lawsuit that was just begging to happen.

(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection– Nelson. Oh, THOSE guys.
If Wishes Came True – Sweet Sensation.
Love Will Lead You Back– Taylor Dayne.

Praying For Time– George Michael.
I’ll Be Your Everything– Tommy Page.
Black Cat– Janet Jackson. This song rocks. #10 RB.

I’ll admit to being less than familiar with many of the songs. Yeah, I know Paula, Mariah, Whitney, Madonna, Sinead. I’ve certainly heard NKotB, Bon Jovi, George Michael, Bobby Brown. And yes, even Vanilla Ice and Michael Bolton.

When I was testing for JEOPARDY! back in 1998, there was a clue that was something like this, in the category Before And After. “This World War I President is a singing trio that can “Hold On” to the Beach Boys and the Mamas and the Papas.” The correct response: Who is Woodrow Wilson Phillips?

Those wartime #1 hits of 1940

Glenn Miller The United States Census of 1940 determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 122,775,046 people.

Europe and Asia were embroiled in World War II by 1940. The United States was allegedly staying out of it. But as my daughter’s European history class reminded me, the US was providing significant military supplies and other assistance to the Allies by September 1940. The Germans had taken Paris and were bombing London.

“On September 2, 1940, President Roosevelt signed a ‘Destroyers for Bases’ agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the United States gave the British more than 50 obsolete destroyers, in exchange for 99-year leases to territory in Newfoundland and the Caribbean, which would be used as U.S. air and naval bases.”

America needed music

In the Mood – Glenn Miller, 13 weeks at #1 and a gold record. It was re-released in 1943 and went to #20.
Frenesi – Artie Shaw, 13 weeks at #1. Both Woody Herman and Glenn Miller recorded the song in 1941 and got to #16.
I’ll Never Smile Again – Tommy Dorsey, featuring Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers, 12 weeks at #1. The Glenn Miller cover went to #16 in the same year.

Only Forever – Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, 9 weeks at #1. Tommy Dorsey’s version reached #7 the same year.
Tuxedo Junction – Glenn Miller and his orchestra, 9 weeks at #1 and a gold record
Scatter-Brain – Frankie Masters, 6 weeks at #1. Benny Goodman and Freddy Martin also recorded this.

The Woodpecker Song – Glenn Miller, featuring Marion Hutton, 5 weeks at #1. Andrews Sisters and Kate Smith were among the artists recording this. It’s based on Reginella Campagnola.
South of the Border (Down in Mexico Way) – Shep Fields, featuring Hal Derwin, 5 weeks at #1. Guy Lombardo and Frank Sinatra (#18 in 1953) had hits with this tune.
Sierra Sue – Bing Crosby, with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, 4 weeks at #1

Make-Believe Island – Mitchell Ayres, featuring Mary Ann Mercer, 2 weeks at #1 . At least four other recordings charted that year.
Where Was I? – Charlie Barnet, featuring Mary Ann McCall, 2 weeks at #1
The Breeze and I – Jimmy Dorsey, featuring Bob Eberle, 1 week at #1. That year Jimmy Dorsey celebrated his ninth birthday. He was born on February 29, 1904. In 1954, Vic Damone got to #21 with the song.

There were relatively few major record labels in those days. Of the songs above, Shaw and Tommy Dorsey were on Victor, Crosby and Jimmy Dorsey were on Decca, and Masters was on Vocalion. The others were on Bluebird. Columbia was the only other label with songs that got into the Top 4.