I find it kind of interesting that Breaking Up is Hard to Do made it to number 1 in '62 and again in '75, I believe. Then the next number 1 from '62, The Locomotion, also made it to number 1 twice, this time in '74. I'm sure someone here knows how many number one songs made it to number one twice.
I roomed with two other guys off campus in college; they both hated GFR. I thought they, GFR, were a little mundane, personally, and not holding a candle to some other groups of the late Sixties and early Seventies. Ergo, there weren't no GFR records in the place. I think it is fair to say that Deep Purple's earliest albums, some Iron Butterfly, and the mighty Led Zeppelin got played most often; and there was Mason Profit whom we came to adore when they played our school. Oh yeah, and the girls that came to our apartment for the parties loved Santana. I managed one of those mall-type record stores while in college, but I confess to seeing only a very few GFR records coming into the store... mostly Three Dog Night, James Taylor and the biggest seller for Christmas one year, Tapestry. That thing went flying out the door as soon as we unboxed it. The company had a warehouse ~ 125 miles away in St. Louis, so I phoned in an order that I drove down to pick up, 200 more copies of the album along with my store's usual weekly replacements of everything else. We didn't have an unsold copy when the store closed at 6:00 Christmas Eve.
My older sister had that LP; I remember it got a lot of airplay, back in the day ('71-'72) . To me, it was when Carole King stopped being in the "background", writing songs for other group, and came into her own.
Grand Funk Railroad were popular in Hawaii and I worshipped Closer To Home (if you don't know it, youtube it stat!) and Footstompin' Music. I initially hated their cover of The Locomotion, considered it a travesty but eventually came around to it's weird pleasures. You can thank producer Todd Rundgren for this. By the by, Goffin/King wrote two hits that charted at #1 by different artists - The Locomotion and Go Away Little Girl. Can another writer claim that?
"The Loco-Motion" is one of the great pop singles of the '60s and is still well-remembered to this day. Definitely helped establish what pop music was gonna sound like for much of the decade.
Carole's way with the big Chiffons hit, "One Fine Day," is terrific here. If you are not familiar with this album, it really is a must have for CK fans.
Amen to this! "63 contains some of my most favorite singles of the 60s but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I know of at least three others on the Hot 100 - Please Mr. Postman (Marvellettes 1961 and Carpenters 1975) You Keep Me Hangin' On (Supremes 1966 and Kim Wilde 1987) Lean On Me (Bill Withers 1972 and Club Nouveau 1987) Breaking Up Is Hard to Do did not reach #1 twice - it did not go to #1 in the '70s (at least on the Hot 100). Neil Sedaka's remade version went went Top 10 in 1976. I'm talking Hot 100 charts here only -- I don't know if the 1970s version of Breaking Up is Hard to Do went #1 on some sort of adult contemporary chart.
Along with the examples tmoore cited: Go Away Little girl - Steve Lawrence and Donny Osmond When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge and Michael Boltin Venus - Shocking Blue and Bananarama I'll Be There - Jackson 5 and Mariah Carey Lady Marmalade - Labelle and Aguilera, L'il Kim, Mya & Pink Apparently, no song has managed a triple at #1. Not yet anyways.
Somebody should remake "Venus" again. I'll bet that one could climb to #1 one more time. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "When A Man Loves A Woman" might be up for another trip to the top as well...
The year I met my future wife. It IS strange that I never heard that song then, as I was doing a lot of driving all over Tennessee and Arkansas to medical and nursing schools. Of course, the car's CB was on a lot then, and I was listening for the twenties of those Kodak bears and local yokels taking pictures.
FWIW, Little Eva wasn't "just" Carole King's babysitter when she recorded "The Loco-Motion." She was a secretary at the fledgling Dimension (formerly Companion) Records, and had already contributed backing vocals on a number of Brill Building demos. She was also available to babysit for her boss, but that was far from her primary source of income when she was tapped to record what would become an enormous hit, the second single released on Goffin and King's new Dimension label (after King's first hit, "It Might as Well Rain Until September").
Thanks for prodding my memory banks... I do remember that info, but it was an "Oh yeah, now I remember" moment for me. Didn't somebody else do this very first CK hit, too? No, I guess I'm thinking of something else... maybe "See You In September." It seems to me as if she wasn't back into the charts until the advent of "Tapestry" and I do remember that Ode resurrected an earlier album of hers called, Writer as well. As things happened for Little Eva, I remember a song called, "Turkey Trot," but I don't think I've ever had a copy of it. Eva will disappear in the next year or so despite the immense popularity of Girl Groups — The Ronnettes, The Chiffons, The Orlons and a host of others, just to name a few. Girl Groups are what make 1963 my favorite year for Top 40 music.
To follow up regarding Carole King's recording of "It Might As Well Rain Until September", the song was originally written for Bobby Vee. However, his producer did not want to release it while his recording of another Goffin/King song (Sharing You) was still on the charts. The song has a summer theme, and thus was thought to be not feasible as a single for Bobby if it had to wait. His version, also recorded in 1962, was released on an album in 1963.
Yeah, I'm familiar with both records. I just failed to specify that his 70s redo made it to number one on the AC chart, not the Hot 100.
...and also the year I met my future husband! Two years later we were married. How long did it take you? CB you say....I remember when everyone wanted CB radios and base stations back then. Breaker breaker 1-9. And the #1 at the end of '75 into '76 was Convoy! My future m-i-l had a CB because she was driving a lot at the time herself.
Seems like a retro sound (Peggy Sue) but I suppose many people who dug this in 1963 wouldn't have personal memories if Buddy Holly. I know I didn't. I also like Everybody by Tommy Roe, and ended up having a 45 of it. Long Gone
Very retro for 1962. Decent track - I recall hearing it when I was a kid - but always assumed it was from the '50s...
I always liked Sheila. When it was out I had never heard Peggy Sue, so when I finally heard the latter I assumed it was the cover, and not as good. I still prefer Sheila, but I can't knock Buddy Holly. I'm not really fond of Tommy Roe overall. I think his songs tend toward the puerile and don't really have the '60s sound; they almost sound more '70s (which does not make them "ahead of their time"). I'm favourable to Everybody and Hooray for Hazel, and can tolerate a couple of others, but I hate Dizzy. Jam Up and Jelly Tight, while not the worst song I've ever heard musically, isn't nearly as good as (in the same vein) Jelly Jungle by the Lemon Pipers.
