Throwing back to the week of February 18, 1984, we find Culture Club atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Karma Chameleon.’
At #2, and on its way to a five-week stint at #1, was Van Halen’s ‘Jump.’ This was the rock band’s only #1 single, and the only top ten single of the David Lee Roth era. The Sammy Hagar incarnation would reach the top five twice over the next several years.
Throwing back to the week of February 16, 1974, we find Barbra Streisand atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘The Way We Were,’ the theme song from her movie of the same name.
In addition to topping the charts for three non-consecutive weeks that year, ‘The Way We Were’ took home an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and the Grammy for Song of the Year. Streisand was also nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Actress, the last time the Best Song winner was performed by a nominated actress until Lady Gaga repeated the feat with 2018’s A Star is Born.
Throwing back to the week of February 8, 1964, we find a charming young quartet known as The Beatles reaching Billboard’s top spot for the first time with ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand.’
This song launched Beatlemania in the U.S., selling millions of copies and hanging on to #1 on the Hot 100 for seven weeks. It was eventually replaced by the band’s ‘She Loves You,’ which was already a hit in the UK.
Throwing back to the week of February 6, 1954, we find that songs clung to the top spot of Billboard’s charts right from the beginning.
At #1 that week was Eddie Fisher’s ‘Oh! My Pa-Pa,’ just as it had been every week of that year. In the second spot was Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore,’ another repeat.
At #3 was a song that had been moving up the chart for weeks on it’s way to an eventual #1 berth: Doris Day’s ‘Secret Love.’
Today we throw back to the week of January 31, 2004, when Outkast continued to have a stranglehold on the top two spots of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Hey Ya!‘ and ‘The Way You Move.’ At #3 was another holdover, Alicia Keys’ ‘You Don’t Know My Name.’
In the #4 spot that week was ‘Slow Jamz,’ a collaboration between rapper Twista, actor/singer Jamie Foxx, and a relative newcomer named Kanye West. West produced the track and co-wrote it with Twista, with songwriting credit also going to Hal David and Burt Bacharach due to its use of a sample of Dionne Warwick singing ‘A House is Not a Home.’
Meet Me In Montauk 