The week of December 7, 1985, found Phoenix-based band Mr. Mister having a moment. ‘Broken Wings,’ the first single from their sophomore album Welcome to the Real World, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.
The album’s next single, ‘Kyrie,’ would have its own two-week stint atop the chart the following March. And third single ‘Is It Love’ would reach the top ten in the summer of 1986. That trio of songs is pretty much the extent of most people’s knowledge of the quartet.
Throwing back to the week of December 6, 1975, we find German disco trio Silver Convention atop the Billboard Hot 100 with their biggest hit, ‘Fly, Robin, Fly.’
This song held the #1 spot for three weeks, and was both preceded and followed by KC & the Sunshine Band’s ‘That’s the Way (I Like It).’ It was a good time to be a disco fan.
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 the week of Nov. 30, 1965, was The Byrds’ folk rock reimagining of Pete Seeger’s ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ Seeger took almost the entirety of the lyric from the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes. He did add the “turn turn turn” part, and for that claimed 5% of the royalties.
He earned another 50% for writing the musical arrangement, and donated the remaining 45% to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, a group “dedicated to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and achieving a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” Pete Seeger was a woke king.
Throwing back to the week of November 29, 1955, we find a quintet of repeat offenders atop the Billboard chart. But none of those songs is as enduring a classic as the song at #6 that week, ‘Only You (And You Alone)’ by The Platters.
Amazingly, this doo-wop gem never made it higher than #5, but I’m confident it’s recognizable today to people from all generations thanks to its use in movies, TV shows, and commercials.
It’s hard to believe that 17 years and 6,348 songs into my daily blogging enterprise I had yet to feature the recording often called the worst song of all time.
Well, that oversight is remedied today, as Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ was the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of December 23, 1985. Yes, today we’re throwing back to a time when ‘We Built This City’ was an unironic hit.
Meet Me In Montauk 