The week of January 12, 1965, saw The Supremes and The Beatles atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Come See About Me‘ and ‘I Feel Fine,’ respectively.
At #3 was The Searchers with ‘Love Potion No. 9,’ their take on a song first released by The Clovers in 1959. This is an example, one of many, of a white group finding more success than a Black group with the same song.
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.
The week of January 5, 1985, saw two repeats atop the Billboard Hot 100: Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin‘ and Duran Duran’s ‘The Wild Boys.’
At #3 was a song decidedly less emblematic of the 1980s: The Honeydrippers’ cover of the 1959 hit ‘Sea of Love.’
The Honeydrippers was the brainchild of Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant, who formed the group in 1981 to play some of his best-loved songs from the 50s. Band members rotated in and out, and included Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
Throwing back to the week of January 4, 1974, we find Elton John atop the Billboard Hot 100 with a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’
John held the top spot for two weeks with the psychedelic classic, which is two more than the original version spent at #1 — it was never released as a single.
When The Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ showed up as the #1 song the week of December 29, 1964, I assumed I had featured it on the blog already. After all, I posted 80 Beatles songs as part of ‘Beatles Weekends‘ alone back in 2009.
But somehow I never got around to this one, The Beatles’ sixth #1 in 1964 (a record for a single calendar year). The Beatles would nearly repeat that feat the following year, scoring five #1s in 1965. I look forward to encountering those in coming installments of Throwback Weekends.
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