The week of May 10, 1986, found Pet Shop Boys and Robert Palmer atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘West End Girls‘ and ‘Addicted to Love,’ respectively.
At #3, a week away from its own three-week stint at #1, was Whitney Houston’s ‘Greatest Love of All.’ This was Houston’s third straight chart-topping hit from her self-titled debut, making her the first woman to have three #1s on the same album.
Throwing back to the week of May 9, 1976, we find family R&B band The Sylvers atop the Hot 100 with ‘Boogie Fever.’ This song, which spent one week at #1, was the group’s only chart-topping hit.
Nine Sylvers siblings perform on this track. A 10th, Christopher, never performed with the band, depriving them of the chance to say they were twice as good as the Jackson 5.
The Mamas and the Papas held the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 the week of May 3, 1966, with ‘Monday, Monday,’ a song I featured on the blog during a post about my favorite movies of the 2010s (it appeared in the great documentary Tower).
At #2 that week, dropping from its chart-topping position a week prior, was The Young Rascals’ ‘Good Lovin’.’ This was the second single from the band’s eponymous debut album and their first of three #1 hits (1967’s ‘Groovin” and 1968’s ‘People Got to Be Free’ would follow).
Throwing back to the week of May 2, 1956, we find Elvis Presley holding on to the top spot with ‘Heartbreak Hotel‘ with Perry Como’s ‘Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)‘ and Les Baxter’s ‘The Poor People of Paris‘ in the second and third spots.
At #4 was a song many associate with Presley but one that was written and recorded by Carl Perkins first: ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ Presley’s version was recorded around the same time as Perkins’ but wasn’t released as a single until later in 1956 out of respect for the original (at the time, it was very common for multiple versions of a song to be released simultaneously).
The week of April 26, 1986, offered up a bonanza of 80s musical goodness atop the Billboard Hot 100.
In the top spot for the second straight week was Prince’s ‘Kiss,’ followed by Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’ and Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls.’ Now there’s a trio of songs that simultaneously take you back several decades but still work like gangbusters today.
Meet Me In Montauk 