1979 was pretty good, right?
Oct. 16th, 2009 07:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotTom lists the potential best ever run of UK #1 singles (up to mid '80s, I assume). Curious about Tom's methodology, which I'm guessing is eyeball; but is it "10 in a row without any stinkers" or "10 in a row with the highest average"?
Anyhow, the United States, for the same period, gives us 13 songs: Chic "Le Freak," Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," Bee Gees "Too Much Heaven," Rod Stewart "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive," Bee Gees "Tragedy," The Doobie Brothers "What A Fool Believes" [I don't remember this one from its title alone], Amii Stewart "Knock On Wood," Blondie "Heart Of Glass," Peaches & Herb "Reunited," Donna Summer "Hot Stuff," Bee Gees "Love You Inside Out" [don't remember this from its title alone, either], Anita Ward "Ring My Bell." (If we want to jigger this to get rid of "Flowers" and "Heaven" and start with "Le Freak" we can, since the latter recurred.) My guess is that I'll slightly prefer Britain's to ours [can't recall "Sunday Girl" or "Are 'Friends' Electric" offhand], though, assuming that "Love You Inside Out" is viable and the Doobies aren't, we can almost make it to ten with no stinkers by adding "Bad Girls," "Good Times," and "My Sharona." But then, unfortunately, as our number ten we get Robert John's "Sad Eyes" (which isn't unredeemable, but isn't scintillating either). If only "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" had hit a week earlier.
Was a fairly astonishing year for non–number ones as well, as I recall.
Off the top of my head, I'd say my vote for best run would be this amazing string of eighteen on the U.S. chart:
April 9 "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" The Righteous Brothers
April 30 "Good Lovin'" The Young Rascals
May 7 "Monday, Monday" The Mamas & the Papas
May 28 "When a Man Loves a Woman" Percy Sledge
June 11 "Paint It, Black" The Rolling Stones
June 25 "Paperback Writer" The Beatles
July 2 "Strangers in the Night" Frank Sinatra
July 16 "Hanky Panky" Tommy James and the Shondells
July 30 "Wild Thing" The Troggs
August 13 "Summer in the City" The Lovin' Spoonful
September 3 "Sunshine Superman" Donovan
September 10 "You Can't Hurry Love" The Supremes
September 24 "Cherish" The Association
October 15 "Reach Out I'll Be There" The Four Tops
October 29 "96 Tears" ? & the Mysterians
November 5 "Last Train to Clarksville" The Monkees
November 12 "Poor Side of Town" Johnny Rivers
November 19 "You Keep Me Hangin' On" The Supremes
"Cherish" is the only weak link, and I remember it fondly anyway. And if we got rid of "My Love" (Petula Clark), "Ballad Of The Green Berets," and "Winchester Cathedral," we've got a string starting November '65 that goes "Get Off of My Cloud" The Rolling Stones, "I Hear a Symphony" The Supremes, "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" The Byrds, "Over and Over" The Dave Clark Five, "The Sounds of Silence" Simon & Garfunkel, "We Can Work It Out" The Beatles, "Lightnin' Strikes" Lou Christie, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" Nancy Sinatra at the beginning, and "Good Vibrations" The Beach Boys, "I'm a Believer" The Monkees, "Kind of a Drag" The Buckinghams, "Ruby Tuesday" The Rolling Stones, "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" The Supremes, "Penny Lane" The Beatles, "Happy Together" The Turtles, until "Somethin' Stupid" comes along to muck things up on April 15, 2007. And if you can tolerate Freddie and the Dreamers and Herman's Hermits and Barry McGuire and "Yesterday," and excise "Somethin' Stupid" and the "My Love"-Green Berets"-"Winchester" atrocities, you've got a solid string from the beginning of '65 to the end of '67. I don't mean to be facile, but new genres causing turmoil and leaping to the fore - rock and soul in the mid '60s, disco (and new wave in Britain) in the late '70s - do seem to inspire creativity. I suppose two examples don't constitute a general rule, even if I'm making one, and there is always a bit of good or bad luck as to which constituencies push which records to number one (and I'll bet some of you would have trouble getting past the dinky sound of this era). Britain in that same period is probably just as amazing to live through, but top of the charts doesn't reflect this as well, with soul not dominating and the wrong Troggs song hitting, etc.
Other competitive time periods? For me early '80s New York was brilliant on the dance stations, with hip-hop bubbling up underneath, but the Top 40 didn't endorse this. Late '90s–early '00s in hip-hop and r&b and U.S. Swedepop... great period, even if those don't really count as new genres leaping to the fore, but the top of the chart has Santana and Matchbox 20 and Creed undoing any runs of greatness...
Anyhow, the United States, for the same period, gives us 13 songs: Chic "Le Freak," Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," Bee Gees "Too Much Heaven," Rod Stewart "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive," Bee Gees "Tragedy," The Doobie Brothers "What A Fool Believes" [I don't remember this one from its title alone], Amii Stewart "Knock On Wood," Blondie "Heart Of Glass," Peaches & Herb "Reunited," Donna Summer "Hot Stuff," Bee Gees "Love You Inside Out" [don't remember this from its title alone, either], Anita Ward "Ring My Bell." (If we want to jigger this to get rid of "Flowers" and "Heaven" and start with "Le Freak" we can, since the latter recurred.) My guess is that I'll slightly prefer Britain's to ours [can't recall "Sunday Girl" or "Are 'Friends' Electric" offhand], though, assuming that "Love You Inside Out" is viable and the Doobies aren't, we can almost make it to ten with no stinkers by adding "Bad Girls," "Good Times," and "My Sharona." But then, unfortunately, as our number ten we get Robert John's "Sad Eyes" (which isn't unredeemable, but isn't scintillating either). If only "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" had hit a week earlier.
Was a fairly astonishing year for non–number ones as well, as I recall.
Off the top of my head, I'd say my vote for best run would be this amazing string of eighteen on the U.S. chart:
April 9 "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" The Righteous Brothers
April 30 "Good Lovin'" The Young Rascals
May 7 "Monday, Monday" The Mamas & the Papas
May 28 "When a Man Loves a Woman" Percy Sledge
June 11 "Paint It, Black" The Rolling Stones
June 25 "Paperback Writer" The Beatles
July 2 "Strangers in the Night" Frank Sinatra
July 16 "Hanky Panky" Tommy James and the Shondells
July 30 "Wild Thing" The Troggs
August 13 "Summer in the City" The Lovin' Spoonful
September 3 "Sunshine Superman" Donovan
September 10 "You Can't Hurry Love" The Supremes
September 24 "Cherish" The Association
October 15 "Reach Out I'll Be There" The Four Tops
October 29 "96 Tears" ? & the Mysterians
November 5 "Last Train to Clarksville" The Monkees
November 12 "Poor Side of Town" Johnny Rivers
November 19 "You Keep Me Hangin' On" The Supremes
"Cherish" is the only weak link, and I remember it fondly anyway. And if we got rid of "My Love" (Petula Clark), "Ballad Of The Green Berets," and "Winchester Cathedral," we've got a string starting November '65 that goes "Get Off of My Cloud" The Rolling Stones, "I Hear a Symphony" The Supremes, "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" The Byrds, "Over and Over" The Dave Clark Five, "The Sounds of Silence" Simon & Garfunkel, "We Can Work It Out" The Beatles, "Lightnin' Strikes" Lou Christie, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" Nancy Sinatra at the beginning, and "Good Vibrations" The Beach Boys, "I'm a Believer" The Monkees, "Kind of a Drag" The Buckinghams, "Ruby Tuesday" The Rolling Stones, "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" The Supremes, "Penny Lane" The Beatles, "Happy Together" The Turtles, until "Somethin' Stupid" comes along to muck things up on April 15, 2007. And if you can tolerate Freddie and the Dreamers and Herman's Hermits and Barry McGuire and "Yesterday," and excise "Somethin' Stupid" and the "My Love"-Green Berets"-"Winchester" atrocities, you've got a solid string from the beginning of '65 to the end of '67. I don't mean to be facile, but new genres causing turmoil and leaping to the fore - rock and soul in the mid '60s, disco (and new wave in Britain) in the late '70s - do seem to inspire creativity. I suppose two examples don't constitute a general rule, even if I'm making one, and there is always a bit of good or bad luck as to which constituencies push which records to number one (and I'll bet some of you would have trouble getting past the dinky sound of this era). Britain in that same period is probably just as amazing to live through, but top of the charts doesn't reflect this as well, with soul not dominating and the wrong Troggs song hitting, etc.
Other competitive time periods? For me early '80s New York was brilliant on the dance stations, with hip-hop bubbling up underneath, but the Top 40 didn't endorse this. Late '90s–early '00s in hip-hop and r&b and U.S. Swedepop... great period, even if those don't really count as new genres leaping to the fore, but the top of the chart has Santana and Matchbox 20 and Creed undoing any runs of greatness...
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 07:58 pm (UTC)(I may have lower standards than most when it comes to that particular era)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 10:03 pm (UTC)Curious what you would think the weak links would be from late '66 to mid '68 -- say, from "Good Vibrations" through "Mrs. Robinson." I don't see many, unless some of the Beatles songs count (they often do for me, but I figure I have a blind spot when it comes to late Beatles anyway.) I guess arguments could be made against "Winchester Cathedral" or "Something Stupid" or "Green Tambourine" or "Honey," though probably not against all of them (and I'm not sure I'd want to be the one making them.)
Most of 1971 looks good to me too, though I guess "Joy To The World" and "You've Got A Friend" and "Go Away Little Girl" and maybe "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" are potential roadblocks. (The Donny Osmond one for sure, though "One Bad Apple" is one of my favorite records ever.)
And oh yeah, "Sunday Girl" and "Are Friends Electric" are both excellent or close to it, to my ears.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 02:09 am (UTC)But my favorite thing I've learned so far, looking down the #1 lists, is that between mid October and early November 1974, three of the four #1s had the word "Nothing" in their title!: "Nothing From Nothing", "You Haven't Done Nothing," "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." Only "Then Came You" by Dionne Warwick and the Spinners mars the streak of nothingness.