Throwing back to the week of June 2, 1973, we find Paul McCartney and Wings at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with their song ‘My Love.’ The track would spend four weeks at #1 and 18 weeks in total on the chart. This was the first of six #1 tracks McCartney recorded with Wings.
This song sounds like it took McCartney about ten minutes to write, and not in the “genius strikes” sort of way. It’s a simple love ballad with an uninspired melody and pedestrian lyrics.
Yesterday I noted that Stevie Wonder was the youngest person ever to have a #1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100. Today we throw back to the week of May 12, 1973, to feature Wonder’s third #1 hit, released a decade after that first one.
‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’ was actually at #2 during the week in question, but it ascended to the top spot the following week. I’m highlighting it today because the song at #1 — ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree’ by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando — was in the same position a month ago when I kicked off Throwback Weekends.
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.
