The week of August 1, 1964, found The Beatles atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ This was the fifth of seven #1s the Fab Four would have in a one-year period.
The runner-up that week was a song that was in the top spot the previous week, looking down at The Beatles at #2. The Four Seasons’ ‘Rag Doll,’ a pop/doo-wop classic, gave the band their fourth chart-topper.
Throwing back to the week of July 31, 1954, we find a classic doo-wop song topping Billboard’s singles chart. ‘Sh-Boom,’ or ‘Life Could Be a Dream’ as it is sometimes titled, is so good it showed up twice in the top ten simultaneously by two different artists.
The track was first recorded by New York R&B group The Chords. That version eventually made it to #2 on the R&B charts and #9 on the pop chart. It was also recorded by Canadian doo-wop group The Crew Cuts, and their version made it to #1, where it stayed for seven straight weeks. No surprise that the white guys had the bigger hit with the Black guys’ song.
The week of July 24, 2004, saw Usher still atop the charts with ‘Confessions Part II.’ That was certainly his summer.
In second place was the rap song ‘Slow Motion’ by Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim. This track eventually made it to #1, becoming the seventh chart-topper released posthumously (Soulja Slim was shot and killed outside his mother’s home in New Orleans the previous November).
Throwing back to the week of July 27, 1994, we find All-4-One’s ‘I Swear’ nearing the end of its historic run at #1.
Just behind it is Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay (I Missed You),’ her debut single, which was featured in the movie Reality Bites. This indie pop classic would dethrone All-4-One the following week. I had a healthy crush on Loeb in 1994.
I recently wrote about the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of July 21, 1984, today’s Throwback Weekend focus.
This was one of the weeks that Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry‘ topped the chart, relegating Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark‘ to #2 and depriving The Boss of what would have been his only #1 hit.
