Category Archives: throwback weekends

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Song of the Day #5,475: ‘Weak’ – SWV

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.

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Song of the Day #5,474: ‘Time (Clock of the Heart)’ – Culture Club

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.

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Song of the Day #5,468: ‘Playground in My Mind’ – Clint Holmes

Throwing back to the week of June 23, 1973, we find Paul McCartney & Wings holding on to the top spot with ‘My Love,’ featured here earlier this month.

Right behind is a one-hit wonder that spent 23 weeks on this chart but never made it higher than #2. ‘Playground in My Mind’ was recorded by Clint Holmes, an English-born entertainer who was raised in the States and has been a Las Vegas entertainer for most of his five-decade career.

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Song of the Day #5,467: ‘Sukiyaki’ – Kyu Sakamoto

Today’s Throwback Weekend selection brings us to the week of June 22, 1963, when the Billboard Hot 100 was topped by Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto’s song ‘Sukiyaki.’

This was the first song by an Asian artist to reach #1 on this chart and remained the only one for nearly six decades, until BTS did it with ‘Dynamite’ in 2020. It is one of only nine songs not in English to top the chart, and the only one in Japanese. Extra credit to anyone who can name three or more of the others (and more on that next week).

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Song of the Day #5,461: ‘Cruise’ – Florida Georgia Line feat. Nelly

The week of June 15, 2013, is putting Throwback Weekends to the test. Not only has the #1 song already appeared on the blog, but so have numbers two through four. No worries, though… it’s called the Hot 100, after all.

Topping the charts that week was ‘Can’t Hold Us‘ by Macklemore — Ryan Lewis, still hanging on from three weeks ago. In second place was Justin Timberlake’s ‘Mirrors,’ which I wrote about nine years ago. At #3 was Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky,’ which I featured on the blog a decade ago in a post that makes me sounds like an old man shouting at a cloud. Finally, the fourth spot is occupied by Pink and Nate Ruess, whose ‘Just Give Me a Reason‘ featured on a recent edition of Throwback Weekends.

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