At the end of every year since the birth of this blog in 2004, we’ve looked back at yearend music surveys, the sort of thing that a radio station would count down on New Year’s Eve. This year we’ll plumb the amazing Cash Box archives. Cash Box was one of three major record industry publications compiling national charts during the classic era of Top 40 radio, although Cash Box itself dated back to 1942 and survived until 1996. It never had the reputation of Billboard, which was and is considered the industry’s bible, but it was widely used nevertheless. Today, the relaunched web version of the magazine has made its entire chart archives available online. As we’ve done in past years, we’ll check the top and bottom of the yearend chart and look for interesting tidbits in between.
1964
#1: “I Want to Hold Your Hand”/Beatles
#100: “Haunted House”/Gene Simmons (Simmons, better known as Jumpin’ Gene Simmons, is not the guy from KISS. He’s a rockabilly singer who recorded “Haunted House” after Sam the Sham, who had been performing it live, wouldn’t.)
Comment: Eight Beatles tunes on the chart, but despite the British Invasion, only a few other British artists chart for the year: the Dave Clark Five, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and Manfred Mann.
1965
#1: “Back in My Arms Again”/Supremes (but check the note at the bottom of the chart)
#100: “Baby Love”/Supremes
Comment: Nine other Motown songs chart, and a lot more British music too. The top 20 songs are a nearly continuous parade of classics except for Bobby Vinton’s turgid “Mr. Lonely,” the existence of which explains why both Motown and the British Invasion had to happen.
1966
#1: a tie—”Ballad of the Green Berets”/SSgt. Barry Sadler and “California Dreaming”/Mamas and the Papas
#100: “As Tears Go By”/Rolling Stones
Comment: The smash success of “Ballad of the Green Berets” is a reminder that the Vietnam War was still fairly popular in 1966. Looking back 42 years later, you have to go pretty deep on this chart before you find anything else that’s disappeared as far down the memory hole. One example: the woman-as-victim schtick of Sandy Posey’s “Born a Woman” (#51), which was just beginning to pass out of fashion, although few would have realized it at the time.
1967
#1: “The Letter”/Box Tops
#100: “Sunday Will Never Be the Same”/Spanky and Our Gang
Best segue: “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (#62) into “Brown Eyed Girl” (#61)
1968
#1: “Hey Jude”/Beatles
#100: “Like to Get to Know You”/Spanky and Our Gang
Comment: This chart is all killer, no filler. And with Spanky and Our Gang holding the anchor position for the second year in a row, it’s worth noting that few groups of the 60s could claim a more charming pair of singles than “Sunday Will Never Be the Same,” and “Like to Get to Know You”—equally appealing to Top 40 teens, their older stoner siblings, and parents of both. “Lazy Day” is pretty fine, too.
1969
#1: “Sugar Sugar”/Archies
#100 (actually #99, since Three Dog Night’s “Easy to Be Hard” is listed twice, at #12 and #31): “Oh What a Night”/Dells
Comment: Pure AM radio pleasure from Number 30 to Number 24: “Love Child,” “What Does it Take to Win Your Love,” “In the Ghetto,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Sweet Caroline,” “This Magic Moment,” and “Stormy.” Don’t turn off the radio, kids, or you’ll miss something.
1970
#1: “Spirit in the Sky”/Norman Greenbaum
#100: “El Condor Pasa”/Simon and Garfunkel
Best segue: “Let It Be” (#10) into “Which Way You Goin’ Billy” (#9)
Weirdest segue: “Whole Lotta Love” (#54) into “Indiana Wants Me” (#53)
1971
#1: “Joy to the World”/Three Dog Night
#100: a tie—”If Not for You”/Olivia Newton-John and “Riders on the Storm”/Doors
Weirdest entry: “Watching Scotty Grow”/Bobby Goldsboro (#61). This is the sort of ode to domestic bliss that moved loads of product in the late 60s and early 70s, a time when traditional views about domesticity were under siege. It was also one of the biggest hits of Goldsboro’s career.
Coming tomorrow: More of the 1970s, as counted down in Cash Box.
Filed under: Record Charts
