EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    I’ll confess I only know the Information Society’s first (of two) big hits: their other songs may be mopey.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2021
  2. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I have an album for you, if you're not already familiar with all these songs.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Kokomo

    Yeah, I like it. I hated the movie “Cocktail” but I liked “Kokomo” quite a bit and was glad to see The Beach Boys back on top after two decades.
     
  4. Grant

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

    A sad part of the digital audio revolution is that the labels quit caring about logos and label designs until the mid-90s. Most treated them like they were an annoyance.
     
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  5. SomeCallMeTim

    SomeCallMeTim Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rockville, CT
    When "Kokomo" was popular, we were having a cold fall in Hartford. I lived in a bad neighborhood where it wasn't advisable to sit in your car waiting for it to warm up; I have fond memories of listening to this on my pull-out car stereo (with cassette!) while riding up the street, shivering, and smearing condensation off the windshield until the defroster kicked on. I think that may have been part of its appeal to many - a song about an escape to tropical climes (though until that point I'd always believed Kokomo to be a city in Indiana, an old Perry Como song, and nothing else) sung by a legacy act whose very name screams "summer."
     
  6. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Sad but true. And the UPC's on the label were another nail in that coffin.

    The flush left type looks almost like 300 dpi computer type to me.
     
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  7. DesertHermit

    DesertHermit Now an UrbanHermit

    Playing a bit of catch up here.

    Red Red Wine
    I quite liked this and UB40 generally. Yes it is a bit “reggae-lite” but I like Campbell’s vocal and, although I never bought it, if it came on the radio or TV, I wouldn’t change stations.

    Groovy Kind Of Love
    I love Phil’s take on this! I didn’t however like the Buster movie as much, although it was not quite as bad as many made it out to be. I was never a huge fan of Phil Collins and pretty much made do with his first greatest hits when it was released. However, a few years ago I picked up the boxset of his solo albums on CD for practically nothing and have really enjoyed getting to know his solo work. His version of GKOL for me is quite emotional and affecting and I still enjoy it very much. It was also a stroke of marketing genius, much like the next number one, as it played right into the ears of people my parents’ age in 1988 (late 30s) and therefore appealed to young music listeners and their parents.

    Kokomo
    I was never a fan of the Beach Boys and this one never connected with me. My Dad loved it but it bored the hell out of me! The movie Cocktail was very ordinary too…although I like the other hit that Georgia Satellites contributed. These days I don’t mind ‘Kokomo’ if I hear it, the harmonies are wonderful, but I would never actively seek it out.
     
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  8. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Exactly! :laugh:

    That's the best explanation of what makes Tom Cruise so damn annoying that I've ever heard.

    I literally can't watch him in movies anymore. He's not a good enough actor to distract from the disturbing vibe emanating from him.
     
  9. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    I pretty much despise most Tom Cruise movies, but he was pretty hilarious in “Tropic Thunder”

     
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  10. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Kokomo - I've said several times that the latest #1 may have been the last one I ever bought (at least on the original 45). Here's another entry, although this time I remember there's another one coming up shortly that I also bought. In any event, it was one of the last. My version (which I still have) is on the red and black label. And I was sick and tired of it by the time it finished its chart run and probably haven't listened to it by choice since then, but I will say I'm really glad they got one last #1 hit. It's pretty bad, but still better than most of what was in the top 40 around this time. I never have seen Cocktail.
     
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  11. souldeep69

    souldeep69 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maryland
    Kokomo - The song was good, not great. The performance was perfect. Any time Carl Wilson's voice got to do a solo part, it made people's ears happy. I always felt that he was straining just a little bit to hit that that highest note, "That's where we wanna go", whereas a few years earlier he could have hit it with no problem. But that seemed to make it even more endearing.
    I recall the time well, and my feeling is that the song didn't get to #1 purely on the strength of the song itself, or the performance.
    It really had people talking. "Wow, the Beach Boys are back and they really sound good." It was nostalgia and the embracing of the Beach Boys as an American treasure, it was something people could sing along with easily (together or alone) and smile about, it didn't take any thought. It was harmless, non-offensive, catchy and sweet. For many, it was also a lingering touch of the warmth of summer as winter was closing in. And it was a song about slipping away to a happy place for a while.
    Some have remarked that it wasn't John Phillips' best work, but that's a matter of how you look at songwriting. If you write something that's right on the pulse of the current times, if you're providing some joy when people need it, in the way that they need it, if you can write something that evokes an earlier, happier time without sounding dated, I'd say you're at the top of your game. Let's not forget co-writers Mike Love and Terry Melcher, both with a ton '60s hits of the highest order behind them, and Scott McKenzie who'd written a gem or two himself.
    Although I didn't see it, I'm sure the movie helped, too.
    So "Kokomo" was as much a phenomenon as it was a song. Sometimes this happens. I'm quite sure this wasn't the only time a song was helped to #1 by social ripples and good timing.
    "Kokomo" brought everybody together for awhile. Adults mostly liked it. Kids mostly liked it. The target single-buying audience of 13-year-old-girls, well, if they didn't like it, they might buy a copy anyway for Mom or Dad, one of whom at least certainly liked it.
    And when it did make #1, it gave people something else to talk about and smile about. Who didn't hear about the new record set by that new record? "The longest time in history between #1 hits - 20 years! The Beach Boys!"
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2021
  12. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    The fact is the Beach Boys did not release much in the 80s and what they did was generally not that good. This song was one of the better ones, for sure. And though it’s not that good it really does sound better than a good deal of these number ones.

    But God did I get sick of it in the day.

    I didn’t really became a Beach Boys fan until around 2007 (and it wasn’t for this song) but even then whenever this song came on I cringed.

    Sometimes a hit can be bad for a career. But hey those guys are still going at eighty albeit in two different bands so more power to them.
     
  13. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Lifelong BB fan and I look at 'Kokomo' from two points of view. It's massive success led to a renewed interest in the band at the exact time the CD market was expanding to the point where catalog releases were being issued with bonus tracks from the vault and in less than a year & a half, Capitol began doing exactly that with The Beach Boys. It continues to this day with the massively successful Feel Flows box set released this summer.

    On the other hand, for reasons not entirely within his control, Brian Wilson is not included anywhere on this recording (he DOES appear on the Spanish version) and that in and of itself has always fel like a slap in the face. As @Lance LaSalle said earlier, in a perfect world, Brian's 1988 solo album would have contained this as well as much needed BB vocals on what was largely an excellent collection of Wilson originals. We don't live in that world, but I have seen one or the other (or in 2012, both at the same time) about 30 times since 1990 and I can't guarantee that happens without the boost afforded by 'Kokomo'.
     
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  14. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    In a parallel universe, his solo "signature tune" would have been within the Top 10 and not merely a rock critics' darling, ditto for his S/T solo album.
     
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  15. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    On a side note, is there some sort of "index" to this thread? I started reading it when we were in late 86/early 87, but I'd like to look at the thoughts on older songs without having to navigate through 1693 pages.
     
  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Just use the "search" function.
     
  17. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    The album suffers greatly from having Brian as the sole lead singer. He was the weakest of the lot vocally by then. Shrill, harsh and shouty.

    Imagine “Melt Away” with a beautiful flowing Carl lead vocal! Imagine Mike and Al duetting on I Walk the Line or the group trading off on Rio Grande. Etc. The whole album sounds like it was written for them, and Landy is the only reason it wasn’t. Landy is by far much more a villain than Mike Love who simply was a typical band member looking out somewhat selfishly for his own interests, as they all were to some extent. Landy and Murry, earlier, were far more evil in my opinion. A Brian Wilson with “Kokomo”, “Island Girl” and “Somewhere Near Japan” added would have been better and way, way, way better than the terrible Still Cruisin’

    The band was bankrolling Landy in hopes that he would heal Brian instead he ****ed him up even worse.
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2021
  18. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    They certainly had a track record of judgment in others, didn't they? (For obvious reasons I'm not specifying further.)
     
  19. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I think the problem with Brian in 1988 is that he was still heavily under Landy's control to where it took him about ten years before his solo career would truly get underway but a 46 year old in 60s-obsessed 1988 and a 56 year old in teen pop and hip hop 1998 were entirely different things
     
  20. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    I’m not sure who you are referring to. Landy and Murry? I think their crimes were far worse than judgement. Perspective. Capitol Records who deliberately fudged accounting records to screw the band is also a pretty big villain.

    If you mean other members of the band, it saddens me that such talented individuals (to some extent or another) could be casually reduced to nothing by anonymous people on the Internet for such an understandable thing. I don’t know.

    The Wilson Brothers were all self/destructive tortured addicts (at one point) who basically had very questionable judgement and couldn’t take care of themselves, at least Dennis and Brian couldn’t: Dennis was living in a repossessed boat when he died ! and the others were meditating vegans who were just trying to do their job as they saw it, trying to literally hold it together: of course there was friction and it is silly that people feel that there wouldn’t be. At least they weren’t pedophiles sleeping with 14 year olds or whatever like most rock stars of the era. (Though Dennis might have been.)

    It is part of the tragedy of the band that the big talent (I.e. all three Wilsons) were so screwed up they couldn’t function; well maybe Carl could but he was the point of loving calm in between two incompatible factions, I have never heard that he was anything but supportive, he spent most of the last years of his life fighting to free Brian from Landy even as Landy (masquerading Brian’s name) public ally called him a vulgar names.
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2021
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  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I was thinking of somebody with the initials 'C.M.' (other than that hint, no other explanation's needed). Besides all you mentioned (Murry, Landy, Capitol etc. - and in terms of the label, management being locked in to their "old" image of surf and hot rods while they were turning out Pet Sounds). But yeah, the brothers except for maybe Carl . . .
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2021
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  22. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    Yes, well, that was Dennis, and he did disassociate himself from those people (plus, allegedly kicked CM's ass) before it went really bad. Part of me has always wondered if those idiots weren't aiming for Dennis and just missed.
     
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  23. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Murry Wilson is part of a long line of stage parents from hell. Joseph Jackson and Jamie Spears also come to mind. It's hard to come out unscathed with parents like those and while Brian will forever have his issues, I'm glad hes been able to find some semblance of normalcy and happiness in his old age, whereas Dennis and Carl both died way too young. Carl being the youngest might account for less issues than his brothers much like Janet never seemed to have the same problems as her elder siblings because she was still an infant when they became superstars so she likely never saw the side of Joseph that Michael, La Toya and the others did growing up poor in Indiana
     
  24. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Unfortunately there isn't one for this thread. Look up a number one song for the year you're interested in and put that in the search engine. Chances are it was mentioned several times in the year you're looking for.

    List of Billboard number-one singles - Wikipedia
     
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  25. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    I agree, including the bit about Carl. I believe that Dennis drew Murry's heat to protect Carl. Still Carl was definitely a heroin addict and a hard-drinking coke-snorting fool like his brothers in the seventies, but luckily seemed to find some kind of balance in the 80s.

    Ultimately, when you give a bunch of kids fame and fortune at a very young age....problems follow.
     

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