Gary Lewis & the Playboys topped the Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 23, 1965, with ‘This Diamond Ring.’ It was the song’s second straight week at #1.
This was the band’s first single release, and their only one to reach #1. They were one of only two acts to reach the top ten with their first seven singles (the other was The Lovin’ Spoonful).
Throwing back to the week of February 22, 1955, we find the usual repeats in the top three spots before a newcomer at #4: Perry Como with ‘Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So).’
This was RCA Victor’s first rock record, and matching it with a white crooner like Como was, as one historian put it, an “industry effort to whitewash the racy, raunchy music of rhythm and blues before anyone’s daughter heard it.”
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2024
#6. My Old Ass
Every year lately seems to offer up one great coming-of-age movie about a young woman — a genre I refer to as my cinematic kryptonite. Two years ago it was Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret., preceded by Aftersun (2022) and CODA (2021).
Last year’s winner in the category was My Old Ass, writer/director Megan Park’s magical realist dramedy about a girl who meets her older self while tripping on mushrooms.
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2024
#7. Hit Man
Richard Linklater is among my favorite filmmakers for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that — when he isn’t riffing on his central thesis about the beauty in seemingly mundane human experiences — he can deliver an effortlessly charming high-concept crowd-pleaser like this.
Loosely based on a Texas Monthly article about a college professor who impersonated a contract killer to assist the Houston police, Hit Man is part crime thriller, part romcom, and part exploration of the meaning of identity. You know Linklater isn’t going to resist the urge to insert some armchair philosophizing.
Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…
Best Films of 2024
#8. The Beast
I had read that Bertrand Bonello’s romantic sci-fi epic was a tough watch — the sort of impenetrable art film that leaves you more confused than moved. So I was delighted when it turned out to be an ambitious but easily decipherable tale of a couple whose love affair spans centuries.
Based (very) loosely on the Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle, The Beast follows Gabrielle and Louis, played by Léa Seydoux and George MacKay, through three timelines: France in 1910, Los Angeles in 2014, and 2044 in an unnamed city ruled by artificial intelligence.
Meet Me In Montauk 