Six More of the Old 97s

There’s a thin line between history and oblivion. Cross it, leave a mark, and even if it’s a small one, it will stand for all time. One of those lines is the last slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lately we’ve been looking into some of the records and performers who just squeaked past [...]

Top 5: Get It From the Bottom

One of my favorite posts in the history of this blog appeared three years ago this week, about the darkness audible on Top 40 radio in the fall of 1969 via the WLS chart from the week of November 10. There are other ways to look at the same week, of course—how dark could it [...]

We’re Number 98

Over the weekend, we started looking at the 20 records that peaked at Number 98 on the Hot 100 between 1955 and 1986. In this installment covering the last 10, we pick up in 1967.
“Walkin’ Proud”/Pete Klint Quintet (10/21/67). This group, from Mason City, Iowa, packed ‘em in around the Midwest in the 1960s, and [...]

Soul Heaven, Disco Inferno

Picking up the trail from this earlier post, here are a few more singles that reached no higher than Number 99 on the Hot 100. As was the case with songs that peaked at 100, there were lots of them in the 1960s, fewer in the 1970s, and none come the 80s.
“She’s My Girl”/Bobby Shafto [...]

99 Hits to Number One

For last month’s One Hit Wonder week, I dug into the archives for some artists whose lone hit peaked at Number 100 in Billboard. Because no good idea ever goes unrepeated around here, here are some one-hit wonders who peaked at Number 99. Some of these lasted a couple of weeks, but most made it [...]

Listen Here

It’s One Hit Wonder Day today—a day for celebrating performers who hit the charts but one time and never again. And at this blog we’re celebrating performers who just made it. Earlier this week, we wrote about 13 records that records spent a single week on the Hot 100 in the anchor position and then fell [...]