Successful Songs with Same Title

Casey made a big point today (in 1979) that with the rise of the Pointer Sisters' "Fire" into the top 5, that was the first time three different songs with the same title had accomplished that, following the Ohio Players and Arthur Brown.  This is distinguished from remakes of the same song, like "The Loco-Motion" which hit #1 twice plus a third top 5.  In the last 40 years, no other "Fire"'s have gone that high, but...

Using my music catalog, I found some new matches with three trips to the top 5:

"Girlfriend" (*NSync, Pebbles, Avril Lavigne)

"Hero" (Mariah Carey, Enrique Iglesias, Chad Kroeger)

"If" (Bread, Perry Como, Janet Jackson)

"Jump" (Kris Kross, Van Halen, and Pointer Sisters)

 "Power of Love (Kuther Vandross, Huey Lewis, and Celine Dion)

and one with four!

"Angel" (Aerosmith, Madonna, Shaggy, and Sarah MacLachlan)

You may have thought of "Hold On" which hit big twice in the 90's, but the many other songs with that title (including four top 40 entries from 1979-1982, all different), all fell short of even the top 10.

In October 1988, "Don't Be Cruel" made the top 10 concurrently by Cheap Trick (remaking Elvis) and Bobby Brown (new song)!

Later, both Robyn and Robin S. (confusing?) hit the top 10 in the 90's with very different "Show Me Love"'s.

The most unusual example could think of was when Tony! Toni! Toné! hit the top 40 with "It Never Rains in Southern California" which unbelievably was not a remake of the Albert Hammond classic.

Biggest Gap between #1s

This week in 1971, Casey quoted a fun chart fact...Frank Sinatra had gone 20 years between #1's, the longest of any other artist, between "Five Minutes more" from 1946 to "Strangers in the Night" in 1966, which Casey then played.

Looking back in my chart books, I found "Learning the Blues" was listed as a number one hit in 1955, but the fine print showed it was #1 on the radio chart, but not best sellers, which showed Casey relied on that in the days from before the Hot 100 combined radio, sales, and juke boxes (and later streaming)

In the years to follow, the record gap between #1s stayed the same, only matched by Aretha Franklin between "Respect" (1967) and "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me." (1987).

But, later in 1971, Casey would play "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" as the #1 song by Cher.  That started a chain of #1's for Cher ending with "Dark Lady" in 1974.  Little might he have known that she would not have another, even through a huge resurgence in the late 1980's, until "Believe" in 1999, extending the record to 24 1/2 years.

As for gaps between first and last #1s, "Believe" also gave Cher that record, at 28 years....or 35 if you count her work with Sonny, with "I Got You, Babe" which hit #1 back in 1964.

Mariah Carey's gunning for that record though.  From "Vision of Love" in 1990 to the now ubiquitous Christmas #1 "All I Want for Christmas is You," she's now up to 32 1/2 years from first to last, and I bet she's got a few more years left as the Queen of Christmas.

Michael Jackson's posthumous records all fell short of #1, leaving him with a 23-year span (25 including his brothers) between "Ben" (1972) and "You Are Not Alone" (1995).