Our second Throwback Weekend song comes from the week of April 21, 1973, when Dawn and Tony Orlando reached the top spot of the Hot 100 with ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree.’
Released the month before the U.S. pulled its last troops out of Vietnam, this song hit a nerve not just in America but all over the world. It topped the charts in eight countries, selling millions of copies worldwide. In the states it was the top-charting single not just of this week but for all of 1973.
Welcome to the inaugural installment of Throwback Weekends! As a reminder, here’s how weekend posts will work going forward…
On the first Saturday (today), I will feature the song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 on the same week 60 years ago. On the first Sunday (tomorrow), I’ll feature the #1 song from the same week 50 years ago. The following weekend, I’ll cover that week’s 40- and 30-year old hits, then 20 and 10 years back on the weekend after that. Then it’s back to 60, rinse and repeat.
‘Creepin’,’ from Metro Boomin’s 2022 album Heroes & Villains, sits at #5 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, down from its peak at #3. This is the song’s 17th week on the chart.
‘Creepin” features The Weeknd on lead vocals and a rap break by 21 Savage. This is a remake of the 2004 song ‘I Don’t Wanna Know‘ by Mario Winans, which featured P. Diddy. Winans shows up on the bridge of this version and Diddy performs on a recent remix, so it’s nice to see Metro Boomin giving some love to the song’s originators.
SZA occupies the #4 slot on this week’s Hot 100 with ‘Kill Bill,’ the fifth and most successful single from her album SOS.
This is a dark revenge fantasy with a distinctly melancholy air, jealous anger expressed in beautifully mournful vocals over hypnotic mid-tempo beats. It’s a great song that has me eager to hear the rest of this album, one I’ve had on my radar for awhile.
Morgan Wallen is having a hell of a year. The country star released his third studio album, One Thing at a Time, in March and saw all 36(!) of its tracks reach the Billboard Hot 100.
That gave him the record for most songs on the list at one time (sorry, Drake). Of course, if any major artist decides to release a 37-track album that record will easily fall. Taylor Swift, Rihanna… get on it. Perhaps more impressive, Wallen also occupied five of the top ten slots for a period.
Meet Me In Montauk 