Throwing back to the week of October 11, 1975, we find Neil Sedaka atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Bad Blood,’ a song I’m certain I’ve never heard before.
This was Sedaka’s third #1 hit, following 1962’s ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ and 1974’s ‘Laughter in the Rain.’ This song remained at #1 for three weeks, becoming the biggest hit of the singer-songwriter’s career.
If the backing vocals sound familiar, that’s because they were recorded by an uncredited Elton John. Sedaka signed with John’s Rocket Record Company label when he was interested in reaching an audience in America. Coincidentally, the song that knocked ‘Bad Blood’ from the top of the Hot 100 was John’s ‘Island Girl.’
This is a very different ‘Bad Blood’ than the one Taylor Swift sent to the top of the charts in 2015. That got me wondering how many #1 songs have had the same title as a previous #1 (without being a cover of the same song). I don’t have the answer just yet but I’ll keep you posted.
But it was you
Who went and bit off
A little bit more
Than he could chew
You said that you had it made
But you been had
The woman no good
No how
Thinking maybe the blood is bad
Bad (bad) blood (blood)
The woman was born to lie
Makes promises she can’t keep
With the wink of an eye
Bad (bad) blood (blood)
Brother, you’ve been deceived
It’s bound to change your mind
About all you believe
From where I stand
It looks mighty strange
How you let a woman like that
Treat you like small change
I don’t understand
What you’re lookin’ to find
The only thing bad blood do
Is mess up a good man’s mind
Hear me talkin’ now
Bad (bad) blood (blood)
The bitch is in her smile
The lie is on her lips
Such an evil child
Bad (bad) blood (blood)
Is takin’ you for a ride
The only thing good about bad blood
Is lettin’ it slide
Doo-ron, doo-ron, di di
Dit, dit, do-ron-ron
Doo-ron, doo-ron, di di
Dit, dit, do-ron-ron
Doo-ron, doo-ron, di di
Dit, dit, do-ron-ron
Bad blood, talking ’bout bad blood
Doo-ron, doo-ron, di di
Dit, dit, do-ron-ron
Doo-ron, doo-ron, di di
Dit, dit, do-ron-ron
Doo-ron, doo-ron, di di
Dit, dit, do-ron-ron
Bad blood, here we go
Bad (bad) blood (blood)
The bitch is in her smile
The lie is on her lips
Such an evil child
Bad (bad) blood (blood)
Is takin’ you for a ride
The only thing good about bad blood
Is lettin’ it slide
The only thing good about bad blood
Is letting it slide
Meet Me In Montauk 
This must be where my being 5 years older than you makes a difference as I remember this song when it was on the radio in 1975.
We may have to put chat GPT to work to find the same named number one songs.😉
So, with the help of ChatGPT, I found some examples:
1. “Venus”
• By Shocking Blue (1970)
• By Bananarama (1986)
2. “The Power of Love”
• By Huey Lewis and the News (1985)
• By Celine Dion (1994)
3. “Hello”
• By Lionel Richie (1984)
• By Adele (2015)
4. “Stay”
• By Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (1960)
• By The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber (2021)
There may be others because chatGPT didn’t list “Bad Blood” until I pointed it out😉
‘Venus’ doesn’t count because that’s a cover, but the rest are good examples.
Yeah, I asked Chat GPT to exclude covers, so I thought perhaps the earlier “Venus” was a different song. However, it also tried to include “Lady Marmalade” and “Lean on Me” among others.
Perfect example of why I never trust ChatGPT!
I recall seeing Neil Sedaka in concert back in the early ’70s. He put on a very good show. Had a lot of hits back in the day.