Yoko Ono Scores Third #1 Dance Hit

A month shy of her 75th birthday, a remix of Yoko Ono’s 1981 single No, No, No has hit #1 on the Billboard dance chart. It’s Yoko’s third #1 dance hit and her 11th appearance on the dance chart, beginning with her 1981 #13 hit, Walking On Thin Ice, a remix of which hit #1 in 2003. Several months ago, Yoko hit #2 on the dance chart with You’re The One, featuring a remix by my pal (and Blowoff DJ), Rich Morel. (Morel has had four of his remixes hit #1.)

Yoko Ono is by far the oldest person ever to achieve a #1 dance hit. And since this week’s #1 is credited merely to “Ono” (on the charts, but not, curiously, on the artwork shown), the artist and song title combo (Ono – No, No, No) may be the first palindrome to #1 hit on any chart. I can’t think of any others, at least.

RELATED: In 1980, John Lennon died clutching the final mix of Walking On Thin Ice in his hands, having just returned from completing his guitar solo on the song. The eerily prescient lyrics about the unpredictability of death were a real shocker for everybody when the single was released the next year. Walking On Thin Ice remains in my lifetime all-time Top Ten. “I may cry someday. But the tears will dry whichever way. And when our hearts return to ashes, it’ll just be a story… ” Her loneliness in the video is heartwrenching.