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.”
Throwing back to the week of Nov. 2, 1954, we find a familiar trio hanging on at the top three of Billboard’s singles chart: Eddie Fisher’s ‘I Need You Now‘ and two Rosemary Clooney tracks, ‘Hey There‘ and ‘This Ole House.’
At #4 that week was Perry Como’s ‘Papa Loves Mambo,’ a tune that capitalized on a nationwide interest in the Cuban dance music style.
Throwing back to the week of April 10, 1954, we find Perry Como atop the Billboard singles chart with ‘Wanted,’ a song that would spend two months in the #1 spot and become the best-selling track of that year.
‘Wanted’ was the eighth of 11 #1 hits for Como between 1945 and 1958, and he had 36 other top ten releases during that span. I guess he was his era’s Drake.
Meet Me In Montauk 