Jerry Butler might be remembered as a singer with The Impressions, a vocal group inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Butler and Curtis Mayfield shared lead vocals in the band’s early years before Butler left the group to embark on a solo career.
More likely, The Impressions are only slightly more remembered than Butler himself, who comes in third on the ranked list of most forgotten artists.
The next most forgotten artist is Bobby Rydell, a teen pop idol who landed 17 hits in the Top 40 between 1959 and 1964 before fading into obscurity.
Rydell was born Robert Louis Ridarelli in Philadelphia, and found fame there after winning a talent contest on a nationally televised show. He joined a band at 14 and signed a recording contract before his 18th birthday. Then came a string of hits, including ‘Wild One,’ which peaked at #2, and a cover of ‘Volare,’ which reached #4.
I recently stumbled across a Substack called Can’t Get Much Higher, billed as “the intersection of music and data.” Now that sounds right up my alley, and I’m looking forward to receiving the weekly posts.
The one I discovered was an analysis of musical artists who’ve been forgotten over time. To come up with the ranked list, writer Chris Dalla Riva looked at the Spotify popularity score of artists with at least 10 Top 40 hits. The lower the popularity score, the more forgotten.
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).
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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