"What the people need
Is a way to make them smile
Ain't too hard to do
If you know how"
-- The Doobie Brothers
I have quite a few things I'd like to write, but they will all take a bit of time to jot out, so I'll procrastinate with some Top 40 trivia. (I had commented to Ziggy that I enjoyed and missed the various bits of trivia that appear in the journals from time to time.)
- The Beatles first appeared on Billboard's Top 40 pop chart on 25 January 1964 with I Want To Hold Your Hand and its B side, I Saw Her Standing There. How many Beatles singles appeared on the Top 40 pop chart after they announced their dissolution on 10 April 1970?
- What was the first post-Beatles year in which none of the Fab Four had a song reach the Top 40?
- Elvis Presley (8 January 1935 - 16 August 1977) first appeared on Billboard's Top 40 pop chart on 10 March 1956 with Heartbreak Hotel. What was the next year that did not find Elvis's name on the pop charts?
- When it comes to #1, Elvis is #1 with 80 weeks (with 18 different songs) in the top spot. The Beatles are third, with a mere 59 weeks (with 20 different songs). Who's second?
- Of course, for a song to stay #1, it must either be really, really good, or everything else must be really, really bad. The 50's and 90's weren't exactly powerfully musical decades, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the top 12, and 15 of the top 17, singles that stayed atop the longest were from those two decades. What three songs managed to hang on longest for each of the decades in between?
Answers
Whammo on 2003-03-20T02:35:30
- Six. (The Long And Winding Road, Got To Get You Into My Life, The Beatles' Movie Medley, Twist And Shout, Free As A Bird, Real Love)
- 1990.
- 1978.
- Mariah Carey.
- Hey, Jude, The Beatles; You Light Up My Life, Debby Boone; Physical, Olivia Newton-John.
