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Song of the Day #6,188: ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ – The Byrds

The week of June 15, 1965, found The Four Tops at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).’ It was the first of two #1s for the group, followed by ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ a year later.

In the #2 spot that week was The Byrds’ recording of Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ the first single from the band’s album of the same name. The Byrds were so keen to tackle the song that their version was recorded before Dylan’s was even released (they had heard an early take).

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Song of the Day #6,187: ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett’ – Fess Parker

Throwing back to the week of May 14, 1955, we find the country in the throes of Davy Crockett mania. That week, not one but two versions of ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett’ made it to the top five.

Slots one through three were taken by songs familiar by now to anyone reading this blog: Perez Pablo’s ‘Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White,‘ Georgia Gibbs’ ‘Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower),’ and Les Baxter’s ‘Unchained Melody.’ And in the fourth spot was the most popular version of ‘The Ballad of Davy Crocket,’ recorded by Bill Hayes.

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Song of the Day #6,186: ‘Lollipop’ – Lil Wayne feat. Static Major

The seventh and eighth songs to reach #1 posthumously were both rap features.

In 2004, Soulja Slim appeared on a Juvenile song called ‘Slow Motion,‘ released several months after Soulja’s shooting death the previous November. He also co-wrote the track.

That makes three shootings in a row (following John Lennon and The Notorious B.I.G.) for these posthumous hitmakers, after two plane crashes (Otis Redding, Jim Croce) and a drug overdose (Janis Joplin). Ah, the life of a rock star.

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Song of the Day #6,185: ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ – The Notorious B.I.G.

It took 17 years for another posthumous single to reach #1 after John Lennon in 1980, and then it happened twice to the same artist.

Rapper The Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death in his car in March of 1997 following a Soul Train Awards after-party. Two weeks later, his sophomore studio album — eerily titled Life After Death — was released and became an instant smash.

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Song of the Day #6,184: ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ – John Lennon

As mentioned earlier this week, Jim Croce’s ‘Time in a Bottle’ was the third posthumous #1 hit, released in late 1973 a couple of months after the singer-songwriter’s plane crash death.

The fourth posthumous #1 belongs to John Lennon. ‘(Just Like) Starting Over,’ the lead single of his Double Fantasy album, made it to #3 the week before his shooting death on December 8, 1980. By the end of December it was in the top spot, where it remained for five weeks, giving Lennon his top-performing solo single.

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