Tag Archives: #1 This Week

#1 This Week In 1992

Saint Etienne’s first single, a cover of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart, topped the Billboard dance chart for two weeks in late February 1992. The song was Young’s first Top 40 hit as a solo artist, reaching #33 in 1970. The vocals on Saint Etienne’s version are by Moira Lambert of Faith Over Reason, current lead singer …

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#1 This Week In 1966

This week in 1966, Frank Sinatra’s daughter Nancy scored her only solo #1 hit when These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ spent one week at the top of Billboard’s pop chart. Songwriter Lee Hazelwood told Sinatra to sing the song as if she were a 16 year-old giving the kiss-off to a 40 year-old man. The song’s memorable bass line …

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#1 This Week In 1985

This week in 1985, Smalltown Boy, the debut single from UK gay dance trio Bronski Beat, hit #1 on the Billboard dance chart for its only week. The tortured lyrics, haunting melody and heartbreaking video (which depicts a gay bashing) made the song an immediate gay anthem worldwide and it remains a staple of gay nightclubs today. My roommate and …

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#1 This Week In 1977

This week in 1977, the Trammps, an 11-member disco/R&B band from Philadelphia, were in the middle of their six week run at the top of Billboard’s dance chart with Disco Inferno, a song that went on to be one of the famous and enduring singles of the entire disco era. Originally released in 1976, the single did not have much …

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#1 This Week In 1968

This week in 1968, Paul Mauriat’s instrumental cover of Greek singer Vicky Leandros’ Love Is Blue spent the last of its five weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart. Representing Luxembourg, Leandros finished 4th with her French version of the song at the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest. Leandros went on to win Eurovision for Luxembourg in 1972 with Apres …

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#1 This Week In 1986

This week in 1986, Grace Jones topped the Billboard dance chart for one week with Slave To The Rhythm. Producer Trevor Horn originally intended the record to be Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s follow-up single to Relax, but had Jones provide the vocals after he created an eight song concept album in which each cut was a completely different interpretation of …

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#1 This Week In 1972

Fifty years ago today, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash in rural Iowa. And this week in 1972, Don McLean’s tribute song to the three and to rock-n-roll in general, American Pie, spent the last of its four weeks at #1 on Billboard’s pop chart. Clocking in at more than eight and …

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#1 This Week In 1966

This week in February 1966, Loretta Lynn scored her first of eleven #1 songs on Billboard’s country chart with Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind). Her album of the same title went on to be the first by a female country artist to be certified gold. Although Lynn hit the country Top 40 almost fifty times in …

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#1 This Week In 1977

In January 1977 Rose Royce took their debut single Car Wash, the theme from the blaxploitation movie of the same name, to #1 on the pop chart for one week. The single was written and produced by Motown’s legendary Norman Whitfield, who took Rose Royce with him when he jumped ship for MCA Records. Rose Royce scored three more Top …

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# This Week In 1974

Ringo Starr’s cover of Johnny Burnette’s 1960 #8 hit, You’re Sixteen, hit #1 for one week in January 1974. It was Starr’s second of two #1’s as a solo artist, the other being 1973’s Photograph. Paul McCartney plays the kazoo, making You’re Sixteen the only #1 record in history to feature a kazoo solo. You should be able to identify …

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#1 This Week In 1982

In January 1982, Wordy Rappinghood and Genius Of Love, two tracks from the debut album of the Talking Heads’ side project, Tom Tom Club, shared the #1 slot on Billboard’s dance chart for one week. Comprised of Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Franz, Tom Tom Club has released six albums to date, the most recent a live …

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#1 This Week In 1970

This week in 1970, the first single by the Jackson 5, I Want You Back, topped the singles chart for one week. It was the only single released from their debut album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, although the group was actually brought to Motown by Gladys Knight after she saw them perform at Amateur Night At The Apollo …

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#1 This Week In 1971

In 1971 Knock Three Times was the first #1 single for Dawn, topping the chart for three weeks after the #3 success with their debut single in 1970, Candida. Comprised of Tony Orlando, Telma Hopkins, and Joyce Vincent Wilson, the group’s name later morphed to Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando and finally, Tony Orlando And Dawn. Hopkins and Wilson didn’t actually …

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#1 This Week In 1965

Two months after she took it to #2 in the UK, this week in 1965 Petula Clark topped the U.S. pop charts for two weeks with Downtown, becoming the first British woman to have a #1 single in America. The first of 15 consecutive U.S. top 40 hits for Clark, Downtown won the 1965 Grammy for Best Rock And Roll …

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#1 This Week In 1975

In 1975 Shirley Goodman and Jesus Alvarez teamed up to create Shirley And Company, taking their disco record Shame, Shame, Shame to #1 on the dance chart for four weeks. The single, which featured a cartoon of Shirley and Richard Nixon on the cover, peaked at #12 on the pop chart. You may know Shirley Goodman better from the early …

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#1 This Week In 1991

This week in 1991, Love Will Never Do (Without You), the seventh and final single from Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, topped the Billboard pop chart for one week. It was written and produced by the now legendary team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, both formerly of Prince’s opening act, The Time. The video was directed by famed fashion …

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#1 This Week In 1980

With the help of legendary disco diva Loleatta Holloway, in 1980 gay-but-closeted rocker Dan Hartman took Vertigo/Relight My Fire to the top of Billboard’s dance chart for six weeks. For the last three decades the tracks has remained a popular staple of gay dance clubs worldwide. Craig Peyton’s jazzy electric vibe solo on Vertigo is my favorite bit, but I …

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#1 This Week In 1969

In 1969, Marvin Gaye took his version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine to the top of the pop charts for seven weeks, far eclipsing the #2 position achieved by Gladys Knight & The Pips two years earlier. It was Gaye’s first #1 single and the biggest hit of his career, not to mention the biggest hit for Motown …

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#1 This Week In 1993

In 1992, producers David Cole and Robert Clivilles of C&C Music Factory hired Michelle Visage (the white chick in the freestyle girl group Seduction) to create the annoyingly punctuated group S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. Their rap/dance cover of Bill Wither’s 1976 hit Lovely Day spent two weeks at the top of Billboard’s dance chart in 1993 as It’s Gonna Be (A Lovely …

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#1 This Week In 1971

In 1971 George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord became the first single by an ex-Beatle to go to #1, staying there for three weeks. It’s the only #1 song in chart history with Hindi lyrics, as the background singers sing the traditional Hare Krishna prayer. Harrison provided lead vocals and engineered the recording, with frequent Beatles sideman Billy Preston playing all …

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