This is indeed interesting as my Billboard Top Pop Singles book lists Satisfaction as the top single of 1965, Independent Women for 2000 and All For You by Janet Jackson for 2001.
Joel Whitburn tends to rank hits on its peak position and number of weeks at that position. Billboard used to compile it's Year-end listing on the strength of the hit throughout the course of its run. So despite peaking at #2, "Wooly Bully" had a stronger run than the typical #1 hits in that year.
Here's my UK list... UK #1s 1957 The Crickets - That'll Be The Day 1958 The Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream 1959 Buddy Holly - It Doesn't Matter Anymore 1960 The Everly Brothers - Cathy's Clown Eddie Cochran - Three Steps To Heaven 1961 The Everly Brothers - Walk Right Back The Everly Brothers - Temptation 1964 The Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over Herman's Hermits - I'm Into Something Good 1966 Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be There 1967 The Monkees - I'm A Believer Bee Gees - Massachusetts 1968 Bee Gees - I've Gotta Get A Message To You 1969 The Archies - Sugar, Sugar 1970 Smokey Robinson And The Miracles - The Tears Of A Clown 1971 T. Rex - Hot Love T. Rex - Get It On Slade - Coz I Love You 1972 T. Rex - Telegram Sam T. Rex - Metal Guru Slade - Take Me Bak 'Ome Donny Osmond - Puppy Love Slade - Mama Weer All Crazee Now David Cassidy - How Can I Be Sure Chuck Berry - My Ding-A-Ling Little Jimmy Osmond - Long Haired Lover From Liverpool 1973 Sweet - Blockbuster Slade - Cum On Feel The Noize Donny Osmond - The Twelfth Of Never Suzi Quatro - Can The Can Slade Skweeze Me Pleeze Me Donny Osmond - Young Love David Cassidy - Daydreamer Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody 1974 Susi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive ABBA - Waterloo The Osmonds - Love Me For A Reason John Denver - Annie's Song 1975 Bay City Rollers - Bye Bye Baby Bay city Rollers - Give A Little Love Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody 1976 ABBA - Mamma Mia The Four seasons - December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) ABBA - Fernando ABBA -Dancing Queen 1977 ABBA - Knowing Me, Knowing You The Jacksons - Show You The Way To Go ABBA - The Name Of The Game 1978 ABBA - Take A Chance On Me Bee Gees - Night Fever 1979 Bee Gees - Tradgedy 1980 ABBA - The Winner Takes It All ABBA - Super Trouper 1981 Smokey Robinson - Being With You Michael Jackson - One Day In Your Life Queen And David Bowie - Under Pressure 1983 Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know 1984 Duran Duran - The Reflex 1987 Michael Jackson And Siedah Garrett - I Just Can't Stop Loving You Bee Gees - You Win Again 1989 New Kids On The Block - You Got It (The Right Stuff) 1990 New Kids On The Block - Hangin' Tough 1991 Queen - Innuendo Michael Jackson - Black Or White 1993 Freddie Mercury - Living On My Own 1995 Michael Jackson - You Are Not Alone Michael Jackson - Earth Song 1997 Michael Jackson - Blood On The Dance Floor Hanson - MMMBop 1999 Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way It's interesting how some songs were #1 on both sides of the pond, While some others were huge its on one side but not the other. Darryl
Next is a HUGE hit by Tommy Edwards, "It's All In The Game", #1 for 6 weeks.... September 29-November 9, 1958.
Fascinating that the melody of this song was written by Charles Dawes, Vice President under Calvin Coolidge. Carl Sigman wrote lyrics to Dawes' "Melody In A Major" in 1951. Dawes' original composition was written in 1911.
Yes, here's how Time magazine described it in the December 17, 1951 issue: “In the welter of pop music last week, a song called It's All in the Game was beginning to get attention. The credit line on its record label read simply "Sigman-Dawes." Lyricist Carl Sigman's sentimental lines were the standard drippy stuff, but the lilting waltz tune had an unusually fresh, clean sound. Its composer: the late Charles G. ("Hell 'n Maria") Dawes, Chicago banker, amateur musician, and Vice President of the U.S. in the Coolidge Administration. Charlie Dawes never studied composition ("My parents were afraid I might become a musician"), but he managed to work up one piece for violin called Melody in A Major, which Fritz Kreisler started playing, made into a concert hit in the early 1900s. In the '40s, Dawes' Melody, as the trade called it, was picked up and recorded, swing-style, by Tommy Dorsey and a few other bandleaders. But like most pop recordings, it soon lost its hold, and finally disappeared from the record catalogues. Last summer Carl Sigman gave it the new setting. In recordings by Dinah Shore, Sammy Kaye, Carmen Cavallero and Tommy Edwards, Dawes' Melody is now waltzing around the popularity lists in Variety and Billboard.” Tommy Edwards’ 1951 recording of It’s All In The Game became the biggest hit among the above group of covers: By 1958, after years of declining record sales, Tommy’s record label (MGM) asked him to re-record several of his earlier hits, including It’s All In The Game, in stereo for inclusion on an album before his contract expired. In the process of re-recording the song, the 1951 arrangement was updated. MGM liked the new version of It's All In The Game well enough to release it as a single. The 1958 re-recording of It's All In The Game revived Tommy's career, as he recounted in the November 17, 1958 issue of Billboard:
With the 1958 version of It’s All In The Game we have the first case (in this thread) of a song with dedicated mono and stereo mixes (there are many more of these instances to come). As I mentioned above, the impetus for the 1958 re-recording of It’s All In The Game was the desire to create a stereo version of the song. However, a mono mix of the updated song was also made for the commercial single release (this version also appears on the mono It’s All In The Game LP). The stereo mix has more reverb than the mono mix. One of the first digital appearances of the stereo version was on Dennis Drake’s excellent 45s on CD Volume 1 (an unfortunate title!) and it has appeared on countless CDs since: The mono mix (as heard in the video in alphanguy's post) is drier and, in my opinion, it has better balance than the stereo mix. The mono version is less common in digital but I’ve found it on CDs released by Time-Life, Rhino, Readers Digest, and Ace among others. Alternatively, one can look for the original commercial 45 (MGM K 12688).
Another lovely song from that era and an improvement all around over the original recording. Too bad he couldn't manage to continue his success with the dozen or so tunes he charted with after that mega-hit.
"It's All In The Game" is one of those songs that hit several times in music history with various artists. After this version... Cliff Richard had one go top 5 in the UK, and made it to # 25 in the US in late 1962:
The Four Tops then scored a top 5 hit in the UK and #24 in the US in 1970. Also unusual for the featured lead parts by Renaldo Benson:
It's very possible that "Bird Dog" hit #1 on the Best Sellers chart because on that chart, it was a double-sided hit with "Devoted to You." They were listed separately on the Hot 100, and both sides made the top 10.
Next up is "It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty, #1 for 2 non-consecutive weeks... November 10-16, and again November 24-30, 1958.
This is another great rock/country ballad by a man who I believe doesn't get the notice he deserves. Sure, he went on to record some corny country tunes after starting out as an Elvis clone but even those records have a charm all their own and his vocals only got better as time went on. By the way, Glen Campbell took his own version to the top ten in 1970 and I love that one, too.
"It's Only Make Believe" was one of two records ("You Don't Know Me" by Ray Charles was the other) that got me through the worst case of unrequited love I ever endured. It still has a special place in my heart for that reason. It never gets old for me.
Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe gave the MGM label its second consecutive #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was recorded in Nashville with several members of the A-Team and The Jordanaires in May 1958, and released in July. The tune did not initially appear to have the makings of a hit until Columbus, Ohio disc jockey Doctor Bopp started playing the song heavily on WCOL and it became a local smash. The song then spread to other radio markets and by September 1958 it was receiving enough national airplay to chart in Billboard.
It’s Only Make Believe was initially released in mono (MGM K12677) in July 1958. A stereo 45 (MGM SK50107) was issued a few months later in November (disregard the erroneous 45 label in the video below): The stereo version is the one I’ve found on all CDs in my collection. Does anyone know whether the mono version of It’s Only Make Believe has appeared on a legitimate release in digital?
Footage of Conway Twitty “performing” It’s Only Make Believe on the Dick Clark Beech-Nut Show, January 17, 1959:
I love "It's Only Make Believe." Conway Twitty would have several more similar hits, including "Danny Boy" and "Lonely Blue Boy," in that sort-of Elvis-like voice that served as a reasonable facsimile until the King returned from his Army stint. But then he faded from view for a few years before becoming, in country music circles, "the best friend a song ever had." His song "Hello Darlin'," a #1 country hit in 1970, is usually ranked among the greatest country songs of all time, in the same rarefied air as "He Stopped Loving Her Today," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "There Goes My Everything," etc. He even recorded a version in Russian that was presented to Soviet Union cosmonauts during the joint Apollo-Soyuz space mission in 1975. Once he started doing country full time, Conway had a ton of hits and was still a viable hit maker when he died in 1993. Unlike some Nashville hitmakers, he wrote a good percentage of his hits. The only one to make significant inroads on the pop charts was his 1973 #1 country hit "You've Never Been This Far Before"; that song, and a few others, gave rise to the theory that Twitty was singing "country porn," believe it or not. Country romance novels, perhaps, but definitely not porn.
Left to right, guitarist Joe Lewis, Conway Twitty, bassist Blackie Preston, and, indistinct, longtime Twitty drummer Jack Nance, in 1958.