Category Archives: throwback weekends

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Song of the Day #6,153: ‘One Night in Bangkok’ – Murray Head

The top four of the Hot 100 was pretty locked in the week of May 11, 1985. I’ve featured all four already: Madonna’s ‘Crazy For You,’ ‘We Are the World,’ Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me),’ and DeBarge’s ‘Rhythm of the Night.’

That brings us to #5, where the unlikely New Wave/hip-hop hit ‘One Night in Bangkok’ sat, on its way to peaking at #3. This was a single from the concept album Chess, released by Broadway songwriter Tim Rice and ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The album was later turned into a hit musical in both England and the United States.

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Song of the Day #6,153: ‘He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)’ – Tony Orlando & Dawn

Throwing back to the week of May 10, 1975, we find Tony Orlando & Dawn atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You),’ a cover of the Jerry Butler song ‘He Will Break Your Heart.’

Butler’s version was also a hit, making it to #7 on this chart in 1960. The song was covered by more than a dozen artist in the 60s and early 70s, but Orlando’s 1975 version was the most successful.

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Song of the Day #6,147: ‘Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter’ – Herman’s Hermits

The #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of May 4, 1965, was a novelty track by Herman’s Hermits titled ‘Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter.’

When I first saw this title, I was reminded of daily commenter Dana’s question just last week: If you removed the parenthetical opening phrase of B.J. Thomas’ ‘(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,’ would it still have the longest title of a #1 song?

Well, the answer is no… today’s SOTD has a seven-word title with no parentheses, topping the six non-parenthetical words in Thomas’ track. So that mystery didn’t take long to solve.

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Song of the Day #6,146: ‘Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower)’ – Georgia Gibbs

Throwing back to the week of May 3, 1955, we find two repeats atop the Billboard singles chart: Perez Prado’s ‘Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)’ at #1 and Bill Hayes’ ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett’ at #2.

In the third spot was a song I mentioned a few weeks back in another Throwback Weekend post. The featured song was Georgia Gibbs’ ‘Tweedle Dee,’ and I noted that it was one of two tracks Gibbs had in the top ten at the time. The other was ‘Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower).’

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Song of the Day #6,140: ‘Rhythm of the Night’ – DeBarge

The week of April 27, 1985, found charity single ‘We Are the World‘ holding on to its #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, with Madonna’s ‘Crazy For You’ right on its heels at #2.

In the third spot was R&B group DeBarge with their most successful song, ‘Rhythm of the Night.’ It peaked in that position, unable to overtake the formidable duo above it.

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