Throwing back to the week of July 13, 1963, we find the doo-wop group The Essex topping the Billboard Hot 100 with their song ‘Easier Said Than Done.’ I’ve never heard this particular song, but I’ve heard plenty like it, and it’s a sound I love.
The Essex is an interesting group, founded by two Marines while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. They recruited three other Marines back in the States, including lead singer Anita Humes, before dropping a member and performing as a quartet.
Audiences were in a frisky mood during today’s Throwback Weekend week of July 6, 2013. Topping the Billboard Hot 100 that week were Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ and Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky.’ Both songs have been featured on the blog, so that brings me to the week’s #3 song.
Imagine Dragons have never had a #1 hit, but the’ve had five songs reach the top ten (with four of those making the top five). ‘Radioactive’ performed the best of all, peaking at #3 but setting some impressive records in the meantime. For nearly a decade, this song was the track with the most consecutive weeks in the Hot 100 (87) before it was topped by The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ and later Glass Animals’ ‘Heat Waves.’
Throwing back to the week of July 5, 2003, we find American Idol second-place contestant Clay Aiken’s debut single, ‘This is the Night.’ This slice of cheese debuted at #1, becoming only the 11th song in history to accomplish that feat.
‘This is the Night’ was released simultaneously with ‘Flying Without Wings,’ debut single by Ruben Studdard, the man who won that season of Idol. Studdard’s song made it to #2, suggesting the musical marketplace saw things differently than American Idol voters. Both men would go on to have two other top ten hits in their careers (including a shared credit on an Idol finalists version of ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’
This is the second time I’ve had to bypass the #1 hit in the summer of 1993 because Janet Jackson had a stranglehold on the position with ‘That’s the Way Love Goes.’ I don’t remember that song having such a stranglehold on the pop music landscape, but I guess I wasn’t listening to much radio in 1993.
That theory is certainly borne out by the fact that I have zero familiarity with the song at #2, ‘Weak’ by R&B trio SWV. In fact, I’d never heard of SWV before today, despite the fact that the group had three top ten songs in the early 90s in addition to this, their only #1 hit.
Throwing back to the week of June 25, 1983, gives us a repeat at the top spot of Billboard’s Hot 100 as Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling’ continued its six-week run at #1.
That brings us to the week’s #2 song, ‘Time (Clock of the Heart)’ by Culture Club. This single, the second from the band’s debut album Kissing to Be Clever, spent two weeks at #2 but couldn’t crack the top spot (thanks, Irene Cara!). It matched the performance of previous single ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,’ which also fell one slot short of #1.
Meet Me In Montauk 