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).
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