EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    In Australia only the first couple of minutes was on the single and the B side was an album track. If you wanted the whole thing you had to buy the LP.

    Ian 'Molly' Meldrum (Australian rock guru) said the album was a lot of filler and United Artists should be ashamed of themselves for not putting the whole AP on the single.

    In reality the album is full of classic songs like Vincent and Castles in the Air and is probably one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the early 70s (if not all time)
     
  2. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Don't get me started. :wantsome:
     
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  3. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    And It appears that this is the longest song to ever hit #1, clocking in at 8:32. As the 70's roll on, conventions of the past are quickly falling away.... although I think Richard Harris' "Macarthur Park" kind of broke the ice of that old concept that a song over 3 1/2 minutes would not have a chance of being a hit.
     
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  4. ronm

    ronm audiofreak

    Location:
    southern colo.
    These are the memories of ten year old at this time frame.I heard this everywhere at the time.It was ok then.Now I could take it or leave it.Not something you hear on the radio anymore.Although around these parts classic rock radio does not play this kind of music.There is no oldies station around here anymore.
     
    Grant likes this.
  5. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    When I was in college (early 90s), the jukebox at the pub we all frequented (because they were loose about checking IDs!) had the original US 45 with the song evenly split between the two sides. Many was the time we'd all be gathered around the jukebox singing our hearts out (which says a lot to begin with, since we're talking about a song that was a hit around the time we were all born), and head lustily into the next verse only to have the song fade away on us...then we'd just stand there patiently until the other side was cued up.

    If there's a last gasp of the sixties musically speaking, I think this is it. It really does sum up everything remarkably well at just about exactly the time the screw was finally turning. Of course McLean couldn't have known the big fifties nostalgia kick was right around the corner with American Graffiti and Happy Days, but it was the perfect time for a tribute to Buddy Holly (I do often wonder what the Woodstock crowd thought of their older brothers' and sisters' records) and a reminder that those early days of rock and roll really weren't that far in the past and the influence still lingered. A truly unique song, and one of the relatively few to get to #1, too.
     
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  6. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Elton John heard it and immediately wrote Crocodile Rock.
     
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  7. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Wow. I have 3 stations in my range that play this regularly.
     
  8. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    If I question whether I actually recall some of the other recent #1's from precisely the time they topped the charts - I didn't turn three until late August of '71 - there's no doubt I remember this one from its time of release, since I was almost halfway to four by the time it began descending the charts and it was a total radio monster. My uncle had the 45 as well, which I often played growing up. In the early '80s, when I became somewhat obsessed with this general era for whatever reason, this hit was probably the biggest touchstone of the period for me after the theme from Shaft, "It's Too Late / I Feel The Earth Move" and "Smiling Faces, Sometimes".

    And that was astute for a 12 year old, because it's incredibly evocative of the times - a perfect example of folk-tinged singer/songwriter material, backward looking and melancholy, lamenting lost innocence. Perfectly captured the post-Altamont, deteriorating Vietnam War national malaise, which would continue to one degree or another thru the end of the decade and to some degree even beyond (in cuts like Billy Joel's "Allentown" or many of Springsteen's hits).

    Although the cut seems hermetically sealed in 1972, Madonna managed to have a massive hit with an abridged cover of it in 2000, released as part of the soundtrack to her The Next Best Thing film with Rupert Everett. Not released as a single in the US, it still managed to climb into the Top 30 just off radio play in the states, but was #1 across most of Europe. Although it's pushing 20 years old itself now, the video seems like a remarkably prescient overview of 21st century America.

     
  9. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    I really do not like this song, it's just bad to me, even Madonna didn't make me like it and I like everything she does.
     
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  10. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    I never understood the fifth verse... "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick... jack flash sat on a candlestick, cause fire is the devil's only friend. And as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fits of rage, no angel born in hell could break that satan's spell".. That's always been a head scratcher for me.
     
  11. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    McLean recorded a version for his Tapestry album but it dragged on and on. Later on, the guy on piano started playing what's on the record and Don sang some of the verses like he was Nino Tempo and the whole thing came together.
     
  12. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    I believe it refers to Altamont.
     
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  13. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    And I was going to note (others got there first) that this song may well have been responsible for popularizing the '50s/'60s rock revival that brought us things like American Graffiti and Happy Days. That probably would have happened anyway to some degree or another, but a monster #1 record like this certainly would have attracted label - and even Hollywood's - attention. It let it be known to commercial interests that this kind of nostalgia had a huge market and could be profitable.
     
  14. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    The Rolling Stones at Altamont
     
  15. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    That makes sense now that you mention it.
     
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  16. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    The girl who sang the blues in verse six is Janis Joplin, the sacred store is the Fillmore.
     
  17. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    The king is Elvis, the jester is Dylan.
     
  18. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    According to that song's Wikipedia page, it was "Eagle Rock" by Daddy Cool that inspired "Crocodile Rock" (which would at least explain Elton and Bernie's choice of reptile in the lyrics).
     
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  19. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    True.... This did seem to open the floodgates didn't it? Not just 50's, but other decades were in it as well, besides Happy Days, American Graffiti, Grease, and Shanana, there were ragtime influences, and big band as well... with this coming in at #8 at the end of the year, and even more to come in 1973, as we'll discuss later.
     
  20. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Eagle Rock is a better song. #1 for ten weeks in Australia(and it would have been longer but it broke later in Sydney than the other capital cities)
     
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  21. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Oh god, you've just opened the door to page after page of dissecting the lyrics of this song. I'm off to work now so I'll be back in the new year to weigh in. Happy New Year to all!
     
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  22. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Richard Nader's rock revival shows were going on at the time so American Pie was at the right place at the right time. Rick Nelson's Garden Party is the anti American Pie.
     
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  23. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Actually, I'd say that older styles - like Tin Pan Alley and even earlier influences - came in with the hippies and The Mamas And The Papas and those tacked pianos on cuts like "Words Of Love" or Cass covering "Dream A Little Dream Of Me". See also hits like "Those Were The Days" by Mary Hopkins, or heck Melanie's "Brand New Key" for that matter. I think American Pie simply kicked down the door for '50s and early '60s influences to also come roaring onto the charts.
     
  24. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    When the White Album came out half the musicians were influenced by Helter Skelter the other half were influenced by Honey Pie.
     
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  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Not really. The 45 ish of "American Pie" (United Artists single #50856) was broken up into two parts (at 4:11 and 4:31). Some stations didn't even play the second part at the time. But I do have the original LP with the full version, plus a Mobile Fidelity "remastered" CD.

    I like The Worst Rock & Roll Records Of All Time book's take on that section (they placed this song at #9 among the 50 worst rock and roll songs of all time as they saw it) - "When he sang about Satan standing on the stage, was he referring to Mick Jagger? Jim Morrison? Neil Diamond? Who knows? Who cares?"
     

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