EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by alphanguy, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Scrambled Eggs... Oh my baby, how I love your legs...

    It's hard to know how to approach Yesterday, the most covered song in recording history. The above excerpt shows the placeholder lyrics Paul McCartney used to remember the tune after he first composed it. Paul rolled out of bed one morning with the tune humming through his head. He sat at the piano, picked out the chords, and ... well, he couldn't believe he had written it. It had come too easily. He spent the next several months driving his friends crazy playing it, asking them what song it actually was. No one could identify it. Paul had written it in his sleep, a literal gift from the muses.

    The song was released as a single in the States, but not in the UK. Paul felt the home country would not appreciate the Beatles releasing a ballad as a single. He had no control over what Capitol did in the US, so they released it and it became massive.

    In some ways, I consider Yesterday to be the very first crack in the Beatles' group unity. It wasn't as divisive as Yoko Ono or Allen Klein, but it had its own small effect. Here's my theory. Up until this point, John Lennon had been the leader of the group. Yes, Paul was incredibly important, but John had started the group, he had composed many of their great hits, and he was generally viewed as the top dog. Then, Paul writes a song which turns into a juggernaut. The first few times they performed it, Paul went solo on stage, no other Beatles. Paul was the only Beatle on the recording. The powers that be even considered releasing it as a Paul solo number, although it was eventually credited to Lennon-McCartney (John had nothing to do with it).

    Did it bug John? You bet it did. Even after the Beatles broke up, Lennon still talked about that song. In his scathing attack on Paul, How Do You Sleep (from 1971), John throws in this wicked barb, comparing Yesterday with a more recent (and in most eyes less successful) 'Day' song:

    The only thing you done was Yesterday,
    And since you've gone you're just Another Day...

    On a talk show, John imagined being dragged on stage at 60 and being given an award for Yesterday, when he didn't even write it. He also told a story once about being in a restaurant with Yoko when a violinist came to their table and performed Yesterday. It was awkward, he said, but he understood it; after all, the guy couldn't very well have played I Am the Walrus, right?

    The song was so popular that the Beatles even succumbed and added it to their setlist in 1966, in an electric arrangement. If they had kept touring, it would have been interesting to see how many of their other 'unplayable' hits from Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, et. al., they might have tried to reproduce on stage like this.



    By the way, I love the song. Beautiful, haunting, and endlessly open to reinterpretation. One of their many all time greats.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2017
  2. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Jan & Dean's most successful year was 1964 and Dean Torrence once said they didn't resent The Beatles' success at all -- it seemed to 'lift all boats' he said.
     
  3. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    I got burnt out on Yesterday a very, very long time ago. It's nice, but for my money Lennon bettered it a bit later with In My Life. I still listen to McGuire's Eve Of Destruction LP now and then -- the mono press. I really like it. Yes, Eve Of Destruction is a protest song (written by a 19 year old P.F. Sloan in late 1964), but I really like McGuire's gruff, gravely voice on Sloan's protest tunes of which there are several on the Lp. You can hear the frustration.
     
  4. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    But it's not unheard of, either.
     
  5. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    "Thank you, Ringo, that was wonderful." LOL.

    I love how the fans want to scream so badly, but they can't do it. Even they can't interrupt this amazing song like that (not to mention it is NOT a song that lends itself to craziness).
     
  6. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Yesterday is most likely the song that softened the hearts of older Beatles naysayers who looked down their collective noses at the boys in that first year or so of their dominance. Sure, they had other ballads like And I Love Her and If I Fell but that stark string accompaniment coupled with McCartney's plaintive vocal really seemed to touch the general public in a way the group hadn't managed and gave them "serious" cred. Shockingly, it was never released as a single in their homeland until the 70s. These days, though I regard it well enough, it's not a go to Beatles song for me.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  7. ronm

    ronm audiofreak

    Location:
    southern colo.
    Yesterday was never a Beatle fav of mine.
     
    Hey Vinyl Man likes this.
  8. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Now i'm getting off the main topic, but I suggest you listen to the "The In Crowd" album. It's excellent! Chess was a strange label. The album was issued under the Chess and Argo labels.



    Sorry people! Back to the top 10 singles.
     
  9. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I have no memory of hearing the song in the 60s. It wasn't until 1981 when I finally heard it. Very nice song, but i'm sick of hearing it.

    Like you, the song came into focus when I finally heard the proper mono mix. The stereo guys, and those who concentrate on lyrics and performance, don't understand how hearing the mono mix makes a difference, but it does.
     
  10. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Never was more than lukewarm on "Yesterday". Brilliant, but awfully depressing.
    That Brian Epstein was able to ensure that it was not released as a Paul McCartney solo single is quite possibly the best example of what a great manager he was. That could easily have led to the group splintering years earlier than it did.
     
    sunspot42, Grant and sgb like this.
  11. sgb

    sgb Senior Member

    Location:
    Baton Rouge
    I wonder how many covers of the song are out there. I remember hearing a female pop singer doing "Something" but I don't recollect the same sort of MOR treatment given to "Yesterday" by the likes of Dinah Shore or the Captain & Tenille.
     
  12. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    I didn't care too much for Yesterday at the time, and I find cover versions on too many other records, but I'm more sentimental now.

    Since You Tube won't play the records, have to get out HELP! and give it a listen today!
     
  13. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    In response to the comments about "Fingertips - Part Two," I've noticed there is a slight bias in this thread towards heavily-orchestrated pop productions.

    I love "Fingertips - Part Two" because it it Is NOT a pop production. It's a loose live performance recorded in an old vaudeville house on the South Side of Chicago. When Little Stevie Wonder asks the crowd to say yeah, they sound like they're going to tear the damn building down. Then there's that sloppy false ending where Stevie doesn't quite get that it's over, even after the closing theme. So the band starts playing it AGAIN. And did I mention that it rocks? In an era of precious girl groups and the Four Seasons, a raw blast of R&B like this shoots like a cannonball. Not hating on this 'cause there's nothing TO hate. Rock on, Stevie!
     
    troggy and moj like this.
  14. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Oh, I dunno. I agree with you on the rawness of the song, even if some reverb or echo was added to it. If you listen to some of the remixes that were done about fifteen years ago, you would hear that the song was recorded dry.

    I always saw that this forum skews toward minimalist pop/rock, not heavily orchestrated music. But, indeed, it does favor rock over all else, which is a shame, but it's gettin' better all the time. Can't get no worse! Right now, we have a Jackson 5/Jacksons thread, a Janet Jackson thread, two hip-hop/rap threads, and one devoted to soul/R&B/funk. That has never happened on this forum before, having that much all at the same time! And there have been no threadcraps on them. The Madonna thread started out rocky, but it's smooth as silk now.

    I suspect that, like me, you grew up on R&B/soul music. Where have you been all my life, man? :D I don't meet many fans of our music anymore.

    Anyway, this is off topic. We will be talking about more soul music in 1969, and especially starting in late 1972. So, stay tuned. What I do wonder about is how much the participation will drop once we get into the 70s. Again, i'm thinking that a lot of people thought this thread would turn to rock once The Beatles and Rolling Stones (anyone remember them?) started charting #1 hits. But, we are going to see more great pop songs. That's great for me. I grew up on pop music as well.
     
  15. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    Interesting. Gene Chandler's "Rainbow '65" was recorded at the same place and has echo for days. I assumed the Regal (Chicago's answer to the Apollo) was just naturally cavernous...but then again B.B. King also recorded a live album there, too, and it sounds relatively "dry," as you say.

    Oh, I didn't mean the forum as a whole. I'm talking about this specific thread. I've noticed the early Beatles tracks, to name a specific example, are damned with faint praise, but the minute they start showing some kind of sophistication, then people start raving. Or how a Petula Clark song gets accolades, but the McCoys are viewed as "well, whatever." Not complaining, just commenting.

    Yes, I did grow up with soul music, and still have a string love for it up through 1976. My first record was a Jackson Five LP, and I didn't start listening to much white music until I was nine years old, thanks to the oldies stations and reruns of the Monkees' TV series.

    I'm guessing we might get a brand new crew when the styles start changing for good...
     
  16. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I attribute that to the engineer's style. At RCA in Los Angeles, Dave Hassinger had a reverberant sound, such as the songs he cut with The Rolling Stones, The Electric Prunes, and The Jefferson Airplane.

    I dunno. Everyone here has different tastes. That's what makes threads like this fun. No one really likes threads where every post is similar. Some of the panning may simply be due to familiarity breeding contempt. How many times have we heard "Hang On Sloopy", "Yesterday", or, even Petula Clark's "Downtown"? In addition to growing up when they were in constant rotation on hit radio, we had to endure them on oldies radio, too.

    I heard my first "white" music when we moved out here to Arizona in 1965. After that, the only way we heard soul music was from records we bought at the PX, and at house parties. I just don't remember radio out here playing soul music until 1973. I'm sure someone could dig up and post an online KIKX playlist from 1966 and prove me wrong. But, I didn't hear it! I heard tons of pop/rock, though. When we watched American Bandstand, I heard a lot of pop music.

    The first records I ever owned were pop records from 1967. Classic ones, too! One of them was a duplicate 45 of "Respect" by Aretha FRanklin that my sister had. My second album was a Jackson 5 album. But, the first was The Archies.

    Man, we are hijacking this thread. I'd like to keep it about #1 Hot 100 records. But, a few months ago, someone started a similar thread for #1 Billboard R&B/Black/Soul records. The OP started it way back in the 40s and it got little enthusiasm because he started so early. The OP eventually got tied up with other things when we got to the early 60s. I would love to revive and take over the thread, but can't seem to find it with this lousy search engine. It would be the place to talk about the stuff that doesn't fit here. If there is someone who can locate that thread for us, i'd appreciate it!
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2017
    pickwick33 likes this.
  17. Damiano54

    Damiano54 Senior Member

    I think this is it

    thread title :
    EVERY Billboard #1 rhythm & blues hit discussion thread
     
  18. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    My man! Slap me five my brother!
     
  19. Damiano54

    Damiano54 Senior Member

    :cheers:

    Hey, where's the emoticon for a true high-five ?
     
  20. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    To continue the convo since no one has been weighing in on the latest #1 song Yesterday since the beginning of this page, I grew up in Hawaii from the mid 50s and luckily for me, the few radio stations we had did a marvelous job of integrating their playlists. Virtually everything we've discussed since the start of this thread I heard on the airwaves at that time. Teen-pop, MOR, Soul, Rock & Roll, you name it I heard it. I'm quite amazed when people who grew up during this period say they have no memory of hearing a particular song until years later or they actually moved to another state. Soul was huge in the islands so early Motown, Shirelles, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, The Platters, Ruby & The Romantics, the various Cameo/Parkway acts and on and on were all over the radio. It was a great time for anyone who was into popular music and all it's permutations. Okay, carry on.
     
    MaggieMac likes this.
  21. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    It's been lost to the last few generations. I try that today and just get blank stares.
     
  22. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Gotta remember that not all areas of the U.S. were alike. A lot of places weren't very diverse in terms of population.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  23. Finchingfield

    Finchingfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Henrico, Va
    FYI:

    "Yesterday" was a hit single in the UK [#6 on the NME chart]

    in Oct / Nov 1965

    on the Parlophone label

    accompaniment directed by George Martin

    by Matt Monro
     
  24. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Interesting to hear about all the songwriters' various methods, and how songs come to them. Barry Gibb said years ago he learned to carry a mini tape recorder with him EVERYWHERE he went, and have one on the nightstand, too... as he said that many times songs would come to him in his sleep.
     
  25. Dougd

    Dougd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fla.
    Surf Route 101... by Jan & Dean... 1963
     

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