Throwing back to the week of Jan. 11, 1955, we find three repeats atop the Billboard singles chart: ‘Mister Sandman‘ by The Chordettes, ‘Let Me Go, Lover‘ by Joan Weber, and ‘The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane‘ by the Ames Brothers.

I’m sure there’s a good reason for the sticking power of hit songs in the 50s (payola? not as many new songs as later decades?). It certainly seems like the same dozen or so tunes kicked around the top 10 for the better part of a year. I suspect things might be shaken up a bit as we enter the rock-n-roll era.

At #4 this week was ‘Hearts of Stone’ by The Fontane Sisters. This is one of several versions of the song to hit airwaves in the mid 50s, and the one that performed the best, eventually reaching #1. The original was written and performed by R&B group The Jewels.

That’s another interesting aspect of the 50s musical landscape — how often a song would be recorded by multiple acts, seemingly in a race to see who could make it a hit first.