A month in, I’m really loving Throwback Weekends. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky with the song selection, but so far it seems like I’m unearthing plenty of gems.
Today we throw back 60 years to the week of May 11, 1963, when the Billboard Hot 100 was topped by 15-year-old Little Peggy March and her recording of ‘I Will Follow Him.’ The song spent 14 weeks on the Hot 100 and three in the top spot.
Today we throw back to the week of May 4, 2013, the most recent year I’ll cover in Throwback Weekends (at least until we hit 2024). Next week I’ll loop back around to 1963.
Pink’s ‘Just Give Me a Reason’ was the third single from The Truth About Love, one of the best albums of that year. The song was initially planned as a solo performance, with Nate Ruess of the band fun. as a co-songwriter, but Pink felt the track would work better as a conversation between two performers.
Today’s Throwback Weekend installment has us throwing back to the week of May 3, 2003, when 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’ occupied the top spot of Billboard’s Hot 100.
This song spent 17 weeks on the Hot 100 and nine weeks at #1. It was the first single on 50 Cent’s well-received debut studio album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
Today we throw back to the week of April 24, 1993, and the most popular white reggae song of all time — Snow’s ‘Informer.’
This borderline incomprehensible track was written by the Canadian artist (real name Darrin Kenneth O’Brien) after he was jailed on charges of attempted murder. The song is a diatribe against the titular snitches who put him behind bars, and seemingly promises violent retribution (Snow pantomimes firing a gun in the video while singing “I lick he boom-boom down”).
It’s week two of Throwback Weekends, and rather than go into all the parameters again I’ll just dive in to the music (you can read the guidelines for these weekends on last week’s post if you’d like).
Today we’re throwing back to the week of April 23, 1983, when English pop band Dexys Midnight Runners topped the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Come On Eileen.’ This is a classic one-hit wonder in the States, though the band had a decent number of hits in their home country.
