Christmas by the Numbers

It can be tough to get a handle on just how popular certain classic Christmas singles really were in their time, compared to all the other records on the radio in the same season. Billboard’s erratic policy of charting Christmas singles—sometimes on a separate chart and sometimes not—meant that certain perennials like “Happy Xmas (War [...]

Top 5: You Oughta Be With Me

Every once in a while the universe smiles upon us, and we get a week that’s filled with musical goodness such that in years to come, we can hardly believe it was real. Six years ago, Eric Boehlert, then writing for Salon, called the week of December 20, 1969, “the greatest week in rock history.” [...]

Where Have You Gone, Wyatt McPherson?

Before I forget, here’s the final installment of the series on one-hit-wonders whose lone claim to fame peaked at Number 97 on the Hot 100. (The first part is here and the second part is here.)
“Mississippi Mama”/Owen B (3/14/70, two weeks on chart). Here’s an artist more obscure than Wyatt (Earp) McPherson, the first one-hit [...]

Top 5: One Little Speaker

As I’ve noted a million times before, the fall of 1970 is where time really begins for me—when the record charts first became the calendar of my life. I heard the season like the 10-year-old I was, gravitating toward my generation’s answer to the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana—the Partridge Family and Dawn. But while [...]

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 [...]

Old 97s

Hello again, music lovers. It’s time for another edition of whatever we’re calling this feature in which we look at records that peaked near the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100. This time, it’s Number 97. Between 1961 and 1977, 19 records topped out at 97. We’ll take six of them today and the rest [...]