Tag: Billboard

More Billboard Christmas Charts

Cheech & Chong

Here are more Billboard Christmas Charts, the songs that did very well in the limited seasonal charts. They were calculated from 1963 through 1972 and 1983 through 1985.

The majority of these songs I do not know; I’ll note the ones that I do.

Here are the songs that reached #2

Merry Christmas, Baby – Charles Brown (1968). I know the song, but it is not from that time period.

Little Drummer Boy – Lou Rawls (1967). Another song I first heard much later. 

Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy–  Buck Owens (1965). Co-written by Owens. 

If Every Day Was Like Christmas – Elvis Presley (1966). If every day WAS like Christmas, would it really be a wonderful world? (Asking for my id.)

Do You Hear What I See – Bing Crosby (1963). I have a whole album of Bing, plus some songs on an Andrews Sisters collection.

Little Becky’s Christmas Wish – Becky Lamb (1967). “Probably the most well-known (and most commercially successful) of the 60s child spoken-word records, the song (Warner Bros. Records # 7154) by the 6-year-old girl took the form of a letter to Santa Claus asking him to bring her big brother Tommy home for Christmas. However, he died in Vietnam.” I never even heard of this.  Oh, my.

Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas – The Staple Singers (1973). This shows in a STAX/Volt box set. Besides the vocals, it’s a bit melancholy, which is why I like it.   

We’re #3

These songs reached #3 on the Xmas charts

Santa Claus and His Old Lady – Cheech & Chong (1972). Stoned talk.

The Man With All The Toys – The Beach Boys (1964). This I have.

Silver Bells – Earl Grant (1969). This needs more airplay.

Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys (1963). I also have this

You’re All I Want For Christmas – Brook Benton (1963)

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer – The Temptations (1971). Several Motown artists released Christmas albums: Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, as well as the Tempts.  They appeared on a couple of compilations, one of which I own on vinyl.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon (1971). Of COURSE, I have this song.  

No 1964 Billboard Soul charts

Sam Cooke, the Impressions, Dionne Warwick

There were no 1964 Billboard Soul charts. Why is that? Per Joel Whitburn’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles, the magazine didn’t publish a chart from November 30, 1963, through January 23, 1965, because the magazine thought there was so much crossover between the pop and RB charts to create.

For the book, Top 50 In R&B Locations published by Cash Box, a national music trade magazine was used,

Three titles crossed over, hitting #1 on both charts. Unsurprisingly, all were from Motown. My Guy by Mary Wells  (seven weeks RB, two weeks pop), Baby Love by the Supremes (four weeks pop, three weeks RB), and the group’s previous hit, Where Did Our Love Go (two weeks each).

Funny – Joe Hinton, four weeks at #1 RB. I always knew this Willie Nelson song as Funny How Time Slips Away. #13 pop. 

What Kind Of Fool (Do You Think I Am) – The Tams, three weeks at #1 RB. #9 pop. From Atlanta.

The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss) – Betty Everett, three weeks at #1. #6 pop.

Walk On By – Dionne Warwick, three weeks at #1 RB. #6 pop. I watched Finding Your Roots. They misspelled her name on an earlier record. It should have been Warrick. She was initially furious, but her grandfather suggested that Warwick could be her stage name, and it was so.

Let It Be Me – Betty Everett and Jerry Butler, three weeks at #1 RB. #5 pop.

Let the people say…

Amen – The Impressions, three weeks at #1 RB, #7 pop. Featuring Curtis Mayfield

Hi-Heel Sneakers – Tommy Tucker, three weeks at #1 RB, #11 pop

Under The Boardwalk – The Drifters, three weeks at #1 RB, #4 pop

Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um – Major Lance, two weeks at #1 RB, #5 pop

Good Times – Sam Cooke, two weeks at #1 RB, #11 pop

Keep On Pushing – The Impressions, two weeks at #1 RB, #10 pop

Mercy, Mercy – Don Covay & The Goodtimers, two weeks at #1 RB, #35 pop. Co-written by Covay. 

Reach Out For Me – Dionne Warwick – two weeks at #1 RB, #20 pop

Good News – Sam Cooke, one week at #1 RB, #11 pop. Composed by Cooke.

The Way You Do The Things You Do – The Temptations, one week at #1 RB, #11 pop

Hot Country Singles of 1964

Roger Miller

Billboard dropped the W designation, as in Western, from its charts in late 1962. So it was the Hot Country Singles of 1964. These topped the charts but did not cross over to lead the pop, RB, or nascent adult contemporary charts.

Once A Day – Connie Smith, eight weeks at #1. Her name is the only one I don’t recognize from the list.

I Guess I’m Crazy – Jim Reeves, seven weeks at #1

My Heart Skips A Beat – Buck Owens, seven weeks at #1. I never owned any of his music, but I knew he was on Capitol Records because the inner sleeves of my Beatles albums featured him, Nat Cole, Al Martino, and several others.

Understand Your Man – Johnny Cash,  six weeks at #1. I didn’t own this at the time, only in the late 1990s, when I was getting his American Recordings did I purchase the greatest hits of his Columbia recordings.

“Sugar is sweet and so is maple syrple”

Dang Me – Roger Miller, six weeks at #1. When I was a member of the Capitol Record Club, c. 1966, I failed to return the negative option card in time. I received his Golden Hits on Smash Records. It included the 1965 crossover hit King of the Road, but also a bunch of other songs I grew to love. I think it was the Roger thing. BTW, the first two videos I found were versions he rerecorded for stereo; it’s not as good.

I Don’t Care (Just As Long as You Love Me) – Buck Owens, six weeks at #1. Owens was considered one of the most successful artists of the Bakersfield sound, “defined by its influences of rock and roll and honky-tonk style country, and its heavy use of electric instrumentation and backbeat. It was also a reaction against the slickly produced, orchestra-laden Nashville sound, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s.”  

Saginaw, Michigan – Lefty Frizzell, four weeks at #1

Begging To You – Marty Robbins, three weeks at #1. I got a Robbins greatest hits CD from my late FIL’s CD collection.

Together Again – Buck Owens, two weeks at #1. The only time I regularly watched the country-laden variety show Hee Haw, which he co-hosted with Roy Clark from 1969 to 1986, was in the spring of 1975 when I was shivering in my grandmother’s old house and had only one channel, WNBF, Channel 12 on the VHF dial.

B.J. the D.J. – Stonewall Jackson, one week at #1

Most awarded songs #10

mondegreen of long duration

Sam Cooke

More fun with tunes that are among the most awarded songs #10. I own every one of them in some form. Here are some of your Grammy and Oscar winners. They’ve been touted by Rolling Stone magazine, RIAA, ASCAP, CMA, NPR, and others.

60. A Change Is Going To Come – Sam Cooke. If you saw the biopic One Night in Miami, you get a sense of the importance of this song on society at that point. He was inspired by Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind. Cooke chose to share feelings he had from dealing with discrimination, at hotels, e.g., that he experienced. Unfortunately, he was killed on December 12, 1964, two weeks before the song was released as a single.

59. I Only Have Eyes For You – The Flamingoes. Quoting me: “I hear those first three or four chords and I am always surprised how it leads to such a lush tune. My first favorite song, probably for 30 years.”

58.  Layla – Derek and the Dominoes. I loved this song when I was in college. My neighbors Howie and Debi had a cat named Layla, who was a sister to our cat Doris. It is, of course, about Clapton’s longing for his friend George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Rita Coolidge has claimed credit for co-creating the piano part, a segment that her then-boyfriend Jim Gordon was playing the tune during the album sessions.

57. Losing My Religion – R.E.M. I could always relate to this song.

56. Imagine – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. I’m on record of having overdosed on this recording and especially all of the covers. Still, I’m glad that John had a signature song by which he’ll be remembered. His son Julian sang it to support the Ukrainians recently.

“Picket lines and picket signs”

55. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye.  Berry Gordy famously wasn’t a fan at first.

54. You Send Me – Sam Cooke. Cooke took a lot of grief for abandoning the gospel music with the Soul Stirrers. Still, this song is pretty tame for such outrage.

53. I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash. as his first big hit – #1 country, #17 pop in 1957 – it is the song I most associate with him. A biopic about him and June Carter was titled Walk The Line.

52. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison. Apparently, because of signing a bad contract with Bang Records, Morrison never made a cent on his first, and signature hit.

51. California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and The Papas. They were listed as The Mama’s and the Papa’s on their first big single. Here is was one of the mondegreens I lived with for the longest time:
Stopped into a church
I passed along the way
Well, I got down on my knees (got down on my knees)
And I pretend to pray (I pretend to pray)
but I heard
And I began to pray
Moreover, I’ve heard a number of cover versions that made the same mistake.

Soul music or rhythm and blues?

Harlem Hit Parade

I was asked to describe the difference between soul music and rhythm and blues. Paraphrasing Potter Stewart, I know it when I hear it. But I indeed could not define it.

The site Music Fans indicates: “R&B (rhythm and blues) was a term popularized by the music charts coining as a way of describing Black-oriented radio hits without specifically referencing race. Over the course of the 80 years, the term has been in use, it has described many very different types of music. Its primary use has always been the contemporary music popular among black Americans.

“Starting in the 80s, hip-hop became the dominant musical genre in the Black American community, leading R&B to be redefined as the contemporary black music that was NOT hip-hop. In the 90s, that sound was heavily influenced by ‘neo-soul,’ a revival of the soul sound, but with modern influences.”

Conversely, Masterclass suggests that “various genres of popular Black-pioneered music—gospel, blues, R&B, and forms of jazz—are often grouped together in a category known as soul music.”

So is soul a subset of rhythm and blues or vice versa? I dunno.  Sweet Soul Music – Arthur Conley (1967) from Atlantic Rhythm and Blues, 1947-1974, a collection I recommend.

By the book

I have the book edited by the late, great Joel Whitburn called Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles. It notes the synopsis of Billboard’s R&B Singles Charts. From 1942 to 1945, it was the Harlem Hit Parade. 1945 introduced the term Race Records with multiple charts for Juke Box and Best Sellers; this was also true for pop songs.

By 1949, the term was Rhythm & Blues. From 1952 to 1956, it used no designation at all, but it was understood. By 1956, R&B was the nomenclature, with multiple charts ending on 13 October 1958.

From 11/30/63 to 1/23/65, there was no Billboard chart in this category. It is thought that the magazine believed the R&B and pop charts were too similar.

I perused another Joel Whitburn book, Across the Charts: The 1960s. The Supremes dominated both the Billboard pop charts and the Cash Box R&B charts, which he used instead of Billboard.

But the Beatles never had a soul hit in the sixties. And some of the black artists of 1964, such as Solomon Burke, Jerry Butler, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and even the Temptations, had songs that did considerably better on the R&B charts than the pop charts.

When Billboard returned to precisely charting the category, they used Rhythm and Blues or R&B from 1965 to August 1969, when they chose Soul. In June 1982, it became Black, then in October 1900, R&B again. Finally, in December 1999, the category was R&B/Hip-Hop.

We want the funk

The conversation was initiated when I played the album Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock this month. I described how musically eclectic Hancock was and noted the funk elements of, e.g., Chameleon.

So what’s funk? I think, “Can’t you feel that bottom?” But okay, a definition: “a style of popular dance music of African American origin, based on elements of blues and soul and having a strong rhythm that typically accentuates the first beat in the bar.”

And rock and roll was built on country music and R&B. This is why I organize my music by artist, not the category. I won’t even get into jazz…

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