Yesterday, I looked back at the past 23 years that I have spent at my place of business.
Today, we are going to go even further back in time--50 years--to look at the most popular music of the time, the music we listened to on our transistor radios, music that made up the top hits on Billboard's Hot 100 music chart.
Yes, FM radio was alive and well, and even playing some of these tunes, but generally, this was AM radio fare, and when we heard these songs on the radio, we would go out to our favorite record stores and buy these disks.
Things are so different today, but don't we all kind of yearn for these past times?
Based on the fare that is called music today, I know that I sure do.
Anyway, here are the top 10 singles for the week of March 29, 1969, or exactly 50 years ago to the day.
Topping the chart was "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe, an artist that had been around for years but who adapted his music to the then-hot bubblegum sound. This was his biggest hit of many that he had, and the song still sounds as good today as it did all those years ago. It would top the chart for four weeks. One bit of trivia is that the song was written by Roe and Freddie Weller, who at the time was with Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Coming in at the No. 2 position was "Traces" by the Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost. The act had only four really big hits, but each one of them was huge, and something of what you would call easy listening standards for the time.
The third most popular song on the Hot 100 for this week was "Time of the Season" by the Zombies, an act that didn't even exist anymore when this song came out. After a few years together, the British band had broken up, but to milk the last breath from the band, their record label--Date--released this single, and it unwittingly became a smash. To support the record, Rod Argent formed Argent, a successful act in its own right.
"Hair" was the hottest Broadway musical of the era, and it spawned several hit singles, cover versions from already established acts, and "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" was the biggest of the bunch. Performed by one of the country's favorite pop acts, the 5th Dimension, the song would, in two weeks' time, overtake "Dizzy" as the No. 1 song in the country, and stay in that spot for six weeks, making it one of the biggest hits not only of the 1960s, but of the rock era.
Rounding out the top five was Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary," a song that typified what I said on the outset here, a tune that was a staple on FM radio that crossed over to the AM side of the dial. This song became one of the West Coast act's biggest hits.
Motown was ubiquitous on the Hot 100 during this period, and was well represented by the No. 6 song on the chart, the Temptations' "Run Away Child, Running Wild," among the handful of psychedelic soul tunes that the act produced at the time.
"Dizzy" topped the chart, and bubblegum was hot as could be at this time, and coming in at No. 7 was the 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s "Indian Giver," which I always thought was a big jump from their earlier hits, musically and lyrically. It would be the phantom act's last big hit.
Another Jimmy Webb hit for Glen Campbell came in at No. 8, with "Galveston" continuing a string of several hits that they young songwriter wrote for the pop/rock/country giant, whose TV show was also becoming a big hit at the time.
The second Motown gem on this chart, "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" was the ninth most popular song at the time. The story goes that the David Ruffin tune was supposed to be a Temptations single, but when Ruffin left the act, he took the song with him, and it helped to establish him as a formidable solo act, albeit for a very brief time.
Rounding out the Top 10 was one of the biggest hits of soul singer Jerry Butler's career, "Only the Strong Survive," another one of those songs that sound as good today as it did when it was new 50 years ago.
The "Chairman of the Board" had the highest debut single on the chart 50 years ago this week, as Frank Sinatra's "My Way" came onto the chart at No. 69. It would rise as high as No. 27, and this French song--with English lyrics by Canadian Paul Anka--would be covered by many artists, including Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious.
The Biggest Mover of the Week, the song that moved up the most places on the chart from the previous week to this week, was another song from the Broadway musical "Hair," and it was the title song from this show as done by the family act the Cowsills. It jumped from No. 70 to No. 35 in one week, and would eventually rise as high as No. 2 later in the year.
So there you have it, the top singles for this week 50 years ago. Bubblegum was hot, "Hair" was growing, and I was a month away from being 12 years of age.
You really can't get better than that, can you?
Speak to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.
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