Throwing back to the week of January 29, 1994, the Billboard Hot 100 was topped by the unlikely team of Bryan Adams, Sting, and Rod Stewart on the song ‘All for Love’ from the soundtrack of the 1993 film The Three Musketeers.
I vaguely remember that movie, which starred Keifer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and Oliver Platt as the titular trio, but I don’t remember this song at all. That’s despite it staying in the #1 spot for three straight weeks.
The week of January 28, 1984, saw Yes on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart,’ a song I’ve already featured on the blog.
At #2 was a song I’m surprised I haven’t featured yet, Culture Club’s ‘Karma Chameleon.’ This song would reach #1 the following week and spend three weeks atop the chart. It was Culture Club’s only #1 hit in the U.S., though two others hit #2 (bonus points if you can name them in the comments).
Throwing back to the week of January 26, 1974, we find Ringo Starr on the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 with ‘You’re Sixteen’, a cover of a 1960 hit by Johnny Burnette.
You can file this track under “songs you couldn’t get away with today,” and indeed Starr has said in concert that he doesn’t sing this one anymore. But in early 1974, nobody was creeped out by a 33-year-old man singing about his romance with an underage girl.
Throwing back to the week of January 18, 1964, we find one of history’s greatest rock-n-roll songs tucked away at #2 behind Bobby Vinton’s ‘There! I’ve Said it Again..’
The Kingsmen’s ‘Louie Louie’ never made it to #1 but it is one of the best-known rock songs of all time, one of the most covered, and one of the most misunderstood. It’s an unintelligible three-chord masterpiece.
Throwing back to the week of January 16, 1954, we find Eddie Fisher’s ‘Oh My Papa’ with a stranglehold on Billboard’s Weekly Singles chart. The song, which I featured a few weeks back, clung to #1 from the beginning of the year through mid-February.
For a few of those weeks, including this one, it prevented a much better song from reaching #1. Dean Martin’s classic charmer ‘That’s Amore’ peaked at #2.
Meet Me In Montauk 