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Some (mildly) interesting trivia with No. 1 songs

P

Paige Turner

Guest
An oldies show I listen to on Saturday mornings is playing every song that hit No. 1 between 1955 and 1979 in chronological order. Here's a few tidbits I picked up on...

1963 had 2 No. 1 songs in a foreign language - "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto and "Dominique" by The Singing Nun. Both artists died tragically in the 1980's.

1973 had 2 No. 1 songs featuring the state of Georgia - "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" and "Midnight Train To Georgia."

1974 had 3 No. 1 songs which were previously songs by another artist - "You're Sixteen," "Hooked On A Feeling," and "The Loco-Motion." This trend continued into 1975 with "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "Please Mr. Postman," "You're No Good," and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)." Depending on your point of view, you could also include Barry Manilow's "Mandy," which was originally called "Brandy," a song by Scott English.

Speaking of 1974, 2 songs made it to No. 1 which featured a little stammering - "B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets" and "You Ain't Seen N-N-N-Nothing Yet." And within a one-month period, 3 different songs about "nothing" got to No. 1 - "Nothing From Nothing," "You Haven't Done Nothin'," and "You Ain't seen Nothing Yet."
 
Paige Turner said:
Speaking of 1974, 2 songs made it to No. 1 which featured a little stammering - "B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets" and "You Ain't Seen N-N-N-Nothing Yet." And within a one-month period, 3 different songs about "nothing" got to No. 1 - "Nothing From Nothing," "You Haven't Done Nothin'," and "You Ain't seen Nothing Yet."
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Those last two were also double negatives, but hey, there ain't nothing wrong with that!
 
What station is this on??

Also 1974 & 1975 had the most #1's of the mentioned time period.....35 #1's each year! Heavy turnover for sure, lots of one-weekers.
 
Another bit of trivia...in 1976, 5 different songs hit #1 just in January...In 2002, 7 different songs hit #1, for the "whole" year! Crazy, huh?
 
Sorry, everyone... I should have listed the station to begin with. WVLT in Vineland NJ. Bruce Sloan is the DJ and it's only on from 6 to 7:30 Saturday mornings (Eastern time).

http://www.wvlt.com/index1.html

He left off last week with '74 or '75, so it should still take him a while to finish up. As oldies76 mentioned, it's weird how so many songs made it to No. 1 in that mid-70s period. Another odd occurrence was how erratic the drop-offs were. I don't have the charts in front of me now, but didn't "Nothing From Nothing" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" drop all the way down to something like No. 15 the week after they were No. 1? "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" then fell down to the 30's before it climbed back up again. I wonder if Billboard changed its tabulation of sales and airplay to cause that because it only happened during that timeframe.
 
Paige Turner said:
Sorry, everyone... I should have listed the station to begin with. WVLT in Vineland NJ. Bruce Sloan is the DJ and it's only on from 6 to 7:30 Saturday mornings (Eastern time).

http://www.wvlt.com/index1.html

He left off last week with '74 or '75, so it should still take him a while to finish up. As oldies76 mentioned, it's weird how so many songs made it to No. 1 in that mid-70s period. Another odd occurrence was how erratic the drop-offs were. I don't have the charts in front of me now, but didn't "Nothing From Nothing" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" drop all the way down to something like No. 15 the week after they were No. 1? "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" then fell down to the 30's before it climbed back up again. I wonder if Billboard changed its tabulation of sales and airplay to cause that because it only happened during that timeframe.
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I think Billboard has changed their methods of tabulations a few times.
 
Paige Turner said:
Sorry, everyone... I should have listed the station to begin with. WVLT in Vineland NJ. Bruce Sloan is the DJ and it's only on from 6 to 7:30 Saturday mornings (Eastern time).

http://www.wvlt.com/index1.html
Click to expand...

Thanks Paige Turner, will check this out..only trouble is that I am 2 hours behind them, so 4am a little on the early side.

By the way, when did WVLT begin this? It would take many, many weeks, at 1.5 hours (once a week), starting at 1955.
 
Paige Turner said:
He left off last week with '74 or '75, so it should still take him a while to finish up. As oldies76 mentioned, it's weird how so many songs made it to No. 1 in that mid-70s period. Another odd occurrence was how erratic the drop-offs were. I don't have the charts in front of me now, but didn't "Nothing From Nothing" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" drop all the way down to something like No. 15 the week after they were No. 1? "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" then fell down to the 30's before it climbed back up again. I wonder if Billboard changed its tabulation of sales and airplay to cause that because it only happened during that timeframe.
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Biggest drop straight from #1 was "Then Came You" by the Spinners and Dionne Warwick. Dropped from #1 to #15 in just one week! "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" dropped from #1 to #12, but as you said, retreated back up the charts a couple of weeks after that. I have said all this from memory, so someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
firepoint525 said:
Paige Turner said:
He left off last week with '74 or '75, so it should still take him a while to finish up. As oldies76 mentioned, it's weird how so many songs made it to No. 1 in that mid-70s period. Another odd occurrence was how erratic the drop-offs were. I don't have the charts in front of me now, but didn't "Nothing From Nothing" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" drop all the way down to something like No. 15 the week after they were No. 1? "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" then fell down to the 30's before it climbed back up again. I wonder if Billboard changed its tabulation of sales and airplay to cause that because it only happened during that timeframe.
Click to expand...
Biggest drop straight from #1 was "Then Came You" by the Spinners and Dionne Warwick. Dropped from #1 to #15 in just one week! "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" dropped from #1 to #12, but as you said, retreated back up the charts a couple of weeks after that. I have said all this from memory, so someone correct me if I am wrong.
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What was the biggest one week rise on the chart?
 
radioman148 said:
What was the biggest one week rise on the chart?
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I believe it was Jeannie C. Riley with "Harper Valley PTA," which went from something like #81 to #7 in just one week, 74 points if that is correct.  Again, this is from memory.

The Beatles had the highest ever debut on the entire Hot 100 when "Let It Be" debuted at #6!

Also, "Can't Buy Me Love" had the longest jump to #1, from #27 the previous week!

But in the Soundscan era, both Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey entered the entire Hot 100 at #1!  (Both in 1995, I think.)  So I believe that would be the record right there.

I have heard that another recent artist, I believe it was one of the American Idol winners, Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson, who also had a very impressive one-week rise recently.  I seem to recall hearing that in the news.  Maybe someone can fill me in on that.
 
firepoint525 said:
radioman148 said:
What was the biggest one week rise on the chart?
Click to expand...
I believe it was Jeannie C. Riley with "Harper Valley PTA," which went from something like #81 to #7 in just one week, 74 points if that is correct. Again, this is from memory.

The Beatles had the highest ever debut on the entire Hot 100 when "Let It Be" debuted at #6!

Also, "Can't Buy Me Love" had the longest jump to #1, from #27 the previous week!

But in the Soundscan era, both Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey entered the entire Hot 100 at #1! (Both in 1995, I think.) So I believe that would be the record right there.

I have heard that another recent artist, I believe it was one of the American Idol winners, Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson, who also had a very impressive one-week rise recently. I seem to recall hearing that in the news. Maybe someone can fill me in on that.
Click to expand...

Regarding The Beatles, I think "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or "She Loves You" moved to #1 in 3 weeks, but I'm not sure.
 
Once Billboard went exclusively with sales only(Sound Scan)...I believe that several songs have debuted at number 1...I don't know the titles, Its a good one to research.
 
hornet61 said:
Once Billboard went exclusively with sales only(Sound Scan)...I believe that several songs have debuted at number 1...I don't know the titles, Its a good one to research.
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I believe your right Hornet. Wasn't that sometime in the 90s? I may be mistaken.
 
radioman148 said:
hornet61 said:
Once Billboard went exclusively with sales only(Sound Scan)...I believe that several songs have debuted at number 1...I don't know the titles, Its a good one to research.
Click to expand...

I believe your right Hornet. Wasn't that sometime in the 90s? I may be mistaken.
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Oooops looks like someone answered the question while we were replying. Since sound scan all records have been broken such as most weeks at #1, most #1's ,etc...like baseball, they should have an asterisk... 50's - 80's artists required data from 3-4 charts to compile the stats. Call me crazy but they are obscured by sales only. It's not apples to apples, or, maybe like they say, all records are meant to be broken.
 
hornet61 said:
radioman148 said:
hornet61 said:
Once Billboard went exclusively with sales only(Sound Scan)...I believe that several songs have debuted at number 1...I don't know the titles, Its a good one to research.
Click to expand...

I believe your right Hornet. Wasn't that sometime in the 90s? I may be mistaken.
Click to expand...
Oooops looks like someone answered the question while we were replying. Since sound scan all records have been broken such as most weeks at #1, most #1's ,etc...like baseball, they should have an asterisk... 50's - 80's artists required data from 3-4 charts to compile the stats. Call me crazy but they are obscured by sales only. It's not apples to apples, or, maybe like they say, all records are meant to be broken.
Click to expand...

Should be listed as two totally separate items. Kind of like baseball stats before and after the steroid era.
 
I heard on an AT40 from 1979 about a song that was number 1 on the charts and then fell off completly. It was Gene Atury's Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer that was Number 1 on December 25th, then completly vanished off the charts the next day. Still trying to figure out why that would have happened. ;)
 
hornet61 said:
Once Billboard went exclusively with sales only(Sound Scan)...I believe that several songs have debuted at number 1...I don't know the titles, Its a good one to research.
Click to expand...

In the UK they've been using that kind of tabulation since at least the 80s. Many records would debut on the chart at number 1.
 
Paige Turner said:
As oldies76 mentioned, it's weird how so many songs made it to No. 1 in that mid-70s period. Another odd occurrence was how erratic the drop-offs were.
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This also happened in the late 80's, 30+ #1's each year. Staggering!
 
radioman148 said:
Regarding The Beatles, I think "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or "She Loves You" moved to #1 in 3 weeks, but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
I don't have any specific stats on that, but here is what I know:

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was to have been issued in the U.S. on January 13, 1964, but because of the buzz that the Beatles were finally starting to generate in the states (after a year of not being able to do anything!), the single was rush-released on December 26, 1963. Highly unusual for a new single to be released the week between Christmas and New Year's, from what I understand.

"Hand" then entered the top 40 for the week of January 25, 1964, and was then number one the following week. "She Loves You" entered the top 40 the same week that "Hand" went to #1 (February 1, 1964), and eventually succeeded "Hand" at #1 on March 21, 1964, seven weeks later. The second week that "She Loves You" was #1 (March 28, 1964), "Can't Buy Me Love" entered the entire Hot 100 at #27, and then "pole-vaulted" (as the Billboard Book of #1 Hits puts it) to #1 the following week. I don't have any stats for what, if anything, "Hold Your Hand" did in the Hot 100 from the time it was released until it cracked the top 40, but with nearly a month in there, I'm sure it had time to do something! "She Loves You" was reactivated by the Swan label (which owned the rights to it at the time) in the wake of the success of "Hold Your Hand," but since Swan was such a much smaller label, they were not able to promote the Beatles in the way that Capitol records was able to. So "She Loves You" was at a disadvantage when competing with all the Beatles' singles on Capitol.

Some of the other early Beatles hits on smaller labels included "Twist and Shout," "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" and "Love Me Do." "Love Me Do" was able to grab a week at #1 during a time of less competition with other Beatles singles.
 
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