Eddie and the Cruiser’s ‘On the Dark Side’ is the first single by a fictional band I remember hearing as a kid. And I assumed the band playing it was real.
I’m not sure I ever saw the entirety of the 1983 film that shares the band’s name, but I feel like it was playing on HBO in our house quite a bit. That’s how the movie found an audience a year after it flopped in theaters, and that’s how this song became a top ten hit.
Before Taylor Swift took over the charts with The Life of a Showgirl, the #1 song in the land was a K-pop tune called ‘Golden’ by fictional band HUNTR/X, featured in the animated film KPop Demon Hunters.
That’s not the first time a fictional band held the top spot. In fact, it’s happened four other times. In order: The Chipmunks’ ‘The Chipmunk Song’ (1959); The Archies’ ‘Sugar Sugar’ (1969); The Partridge Family’s ‘I Think I Love You’ (1970); and The Heights’ ‘How Do You Talk to an Angel‘ (1992).
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 the week of November 2, 1965, was The Rolling Stones’ second #1 single, ‘Get Off of My Cloud.’ Their first U.S. #1 came a few months earlier with ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.’
‘Get Off of My Cloud’ hadn’t even been written when ‘Satisfaction’ reached #1 in June. In fact, this song was a reaction to the success of the earlier track and to the parade of record execs banging down the band’s door asking for another hit.
Throwing back to the week of November 1, 1955, we have a quintet of repeat offenders atop the Billboard chart. At #6, jumping up from #12 the previous week and on its way to a peak at #2, is Gale Storm’s recording of ‘I Hear You Knocking.’
Storm was an actress and singer who had success performing on film, television, and radio in addition to her music career. She is one of 30 artists with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (hers are for television, radio, and music).
For the past couple of years I’ve dedicated a week or two in October to write about my new appreciation for horror films. After a lifetime of mostly avoiding scary movies, taking the plunge has been one of my most rewarding experiences as a cinephile.
This year my movie-watching project has focused on the work of Vincente Minnelli (covered here) and Judy Garland (still to come), so I haven’t had the time to do another horror deep dive. I’m sure some of my regular readers are just fine with that!
But on this Halloween day, I did want to shout out what has been a solid year for horror on the big screen. In fact, 25% of the new 2025 releases I’ve seen so far have been horror movies.
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