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Some (mildly) interesting trivia with No. 1 songs

oldies76 said:
hornet61 said:
Longest song title to go to number #1...again Stars on 45:Venus, plus all the Beatles titles listed individually. Relaced BJ Thomas "Hey won't You play another...............Wrong Song
Click to expand...

Also, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" from 1960

Regarding short titles, if you include today's #1's, you've got "Low" by Flo Rida in early 2008 and "SOS" by Rhianna in '06.
Click to expand...

Yes that is correct "Low" and "SOS" tied that record.........just turned 63 , I don't usually don't think past 1975, LOL.



For everyone that guessed "Beauty School Dropout" as Avalons most requested song ,you are correct. He mentioned that at an appearance with Bobby Rydell and Fabian at the Sands in Vegas before they took It Down.


I do believe Stay was the shortest in length under 2 minutes to make it to Number 1.
 
"Stay" was the shortest #1 single, with a time of (according to the Billboard book I mentioned earlier) just 1:37. "The Letter" by the Box Tops was apparently the second shortest to reach #1, with a playing time of just 1:58. It would be interesting to know what was the shortest song ever commercially released as a single, regardless of its peak position on the charts. (Interesting side note, the longest radio commercial that I recall producing as a production director was also 1:37. Yeah, it was a client-voiced spot!)

I can see why "Beauty School Dropout" is Frankie's most requested song, because it is about the only one that any of us are old enough to remember! And I'm 45 now! That scene in Grease when Frankie sang it to Didi Conn (Frenchy) is also very memorable as well.

Hornet, do you have any information regarding who owned what with regards to all those minor labels that released early Beatles material? I'm not referring to what songs they owned (although you can address that, too, if you want). I'm wondering which labels owned each other, which label was a subsidiary of another, and which labels, if any, were completely independent of all the others. I believe there is a VeeJay/Tollie connection, but that is about all I know.
 
Vee Jay was a Gary Indiana label that evetually ended up in Chicago..Vivian Carter and James Bracken (husband and wife)were the owners........Vee Jay was a play on the first part of their names. Which was typical in the early days.

Gold Star Records - owners Gold and Stan R..oss
Philles Records ....Plil Spector and Les Sill
A&M Records ..........Alpert and Moss
etc.

45 yrs old my god a baby.........some of us are the opposite "Beauty School Dropout Is the last thing we remember.
Seriously " Beauty School Dropout" is what i call part of the "Travolta Phenom" He did Sat Night Fever and the world went Disco crazy....he did Urban Cowboy and the world went Country music crazy...he did Grease and along with Amer Graffitti revived oldies radio.


I remember some of the major label subsidiaries and some of the Indy Labels...but i would have to research and get back to you ..that is an interesting question....especially in tracking the payola schemes that were associated with the labels Gee, End and Gone all owned by the same man. Originally subsidary labels were created by major labels were created to release(in reality hiding) the Black artists and eventaully it seved a better purpose to hide payola and disguise the fact that a DJ was playing too much of one label....Motowns probably had more sudsidiary labels than any oe
 
I was Timed out continuing with my last post:

Motown had more subsidary labels than anyone

Motown
Gordy
Anna
Soul
Tamla
Mowest
V.I.P.
Rare Earth
Monacco
Black Forum
Chisa
Miracle
Natural Resources
Divinity
Ecology 1000
Gaee
Gull
Manticore
Jazz workshop
Melody

literally need a scorecard to keep up with thses guys.
 
Wow, you are a fountain of information there, Hornet! Some of those Motown subsids I had never heard of! Isn't it true that some companies used different color labels to distinguish their pop records from their R&B releases? When you finish your research on those smaller labels that released Beatles material, let me know what you find out. (I think "Tollie" was someone's middle name or nickname.) I was thinking that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons were on VeeJay for a while as well.

I remember an old Sonic commercial, probably from the '70s or '80s in which a teenaged girl asks Frankie Avalon (who was a celebrity spokesman for Sonic at the time) for his autograph. He is all impressed, and feeling really good about himself, until she tells him, "oh, it's for my mom!" I wish Sonic would bring commercials like that back. Those were better than the stupid spots that Sonic is running now!
 
the thing about the Motown labels was everything after the four majors
Motown
Tamla
Gordy
Anna

were specialty labels like the Jazz Workshop was obviously Jazz.........the others were more re-issue labels.....except in the case or Rare Earth, which was for their white artists...what irony that the biggest Black owned label had a label for white artists, much like the main stream labels that had susids for black groups. The Irony here is huge.

Example: Columbia maybe the biggest Label of It's day had Mitch Miller as head of A&R in the 50's...he fought against signing Rock N' Roll Acts, much less...Black artists...so Columbia used its sudsid OKEH records which was puchsed specifically for "Race Records", or "R&B" or "Blues Shouters" as they were referred to in those days. Okeh was puchased form Otto Hienemann in 1920,and scored with Black Jazz Artist Mamie Smith, at that time it was part of the Odeon (still in existence today, primarily as a re-issue label, for Polygram) Empire back then. Eventually all the Majors had susids for their black rosters...and then the Indys started popping up Liberty, Specialty, Imperial, Modern.....all Los Angeles Labels and they were signing black and white artists, and that turned out to be the end of sudsids by the big labels(Capitol, Decca, Columbia, RCA, etc) as they had to follow trend.

yes the Four Seasons started on VJ and early Four Season Lps which featured cross promotion with the Beatles, are today, among the most sought after as Beatles Collectibles. There is an EP I believe called Four By Four 4 cuts by the Beatles and 4 cuts Four Seasons that is Huge in the Collectors world. The LP "Intoroducing The Beatles" that was issued with 3-4 variances of the Back cover is the second most sought after Beatles Lp second only to the "Butcher Cover" LP, is due in part to the Four Seasons LPs featured on of one the variance issues. "Introducing The Beatles" on VJ is also the most couterfeited LP In history, so you have to be careful when you are buying one. The Four Seasons eventually went to Phillips , which If I am not mistaken was a sudsid of Mercury Records, actually it was the other was around Phillips bought Mercury records.
 
Move over Beatles and Elvis here comes the "King Of Country" GEORGE STRAIT
Most #1's 50 and countings
32 Platnium Lps and counting
over 50 industry Awards and counting
four Lp's debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 POP charts (amazing for a country artist)

You could start a classic country station on his discogragphy alone. Why is George Strait the most popular of all time ???? one word"tradition"...... he is a Texas boy and he was raised on Honky Tonk. Thar ain't no better dance music than Honky Tonk. Listeners what to hear good music...not "My pick-up died and my girl left me" God If I ever hear another depressing Judds song again "I really will kill myself". I understand the large amount of suicide music that charted , but I don't want to hear so many in a row. And classic country DJ's seem to be the worst at nonsense chatter......... talk about the music , stories about the artist, the charts, there are 1,000,000 facts related to the genre....I really don't care about the worlds tallest man, I routinely hear nonsense chatter for 3-4 minutes and once for 20 minutes(It took me that long to get to work every morning, so I know) and NO MUSIC. And what is it about diet chatter, weight chatter, Its just aggravating. Call me KRZY, butt that's my opinion.
 
hornet61 said:
oldies76 said:
hornet61 said:
Longest song title to go to number #1...again Stars on 45:Venus, plus all the Beatles titles listed individually. Relaced BJ Thomas "Hey won't You play another...............Wrong Song
Click to expand...

Also, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" from 1960

Regarding short titles, if you include today's #1's, you've got "Low" by Flo Rida in early 2008 and "SOS" by Rhianna in '06.
Click to expand...

Yes that is correct "Low" and "SOS" tied that record.........just turned 63 , I don't usually don't think past 1975, LOL.

For everyone that guessed "Beauty School Dropout" as Avalons most requested song ,you are correct. He mentioned that at an appearance with Bobby Rydell and Fabian at the Sands in Vegas before they took It Down.
I do believe Stay was the shortest in length under 2 minutes to make it to Number 1.
Click to expand...
The song "3" by B. Spears, is now the shortest song title to go #1 (Oct. 2009)
 
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