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).

  

Longest #1 song titles

"American Pie" was the longest #1 hit single for a long time, but its title was of normal length.  On this week's top 40 replay from 1972, Casey was asked who had the longest song title to hit #1.  At that point, it was Brian Hyland from 1960 with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini." (41 letters) After Casey answered the question, he resumed the countdown with B.J. Thomas'' "Rock and Roll Lullaby"

But what Casey didn't know is that the record for longest #1 song title would be broken by...B.J. Thomas! In 1975, Thomas made it to the top with "Hey, Won't You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" (49!)

The current record holder is a medley, known in 1981 as "Medley" or colloquially "The Beatles Medley" by Stars on 45, a studio cover band.  The full official title on the label of the single and listed in Billboard was a mouthful:  "Medley: Intro 'Venus' / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I'll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You're Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45."

Among non-medleys, no one has yet to beat Thomas.

Slowest Climbs To and Falls from #1

As for slowest falls from #1, Casey noted that the record at as of 1972 was 24 weeks by Pat Boone's "Love Letters in the Sand" by Pat Boone from 1958, which I would believe would hold until at least 1991 when the charts changed to Soundscan.  

Without doing a full accounting for every song, "Blinding Lights" by the Weeknd would clearly be a contender.  Its last week at #1 was 2 June 2000, and it spent the next 31 weeks in the top _10_ alone and a total of 66 more weeks on the chart (having been bumped off for a few weeks over Christmas).  No wonder it finished in the top 3 two consecutive years and Billboard now lists it as the #1 song of all time.

Another likely contender was Glass Animals' "Heat Wave" which now holds the record for longest chart run and slowest climb _to_ #1 (a stunning 59 weeks on the chart...), but it "only" spent 21 weeks on the chart after hitting #1.

The slowest fall statistic will always need an * as the rules for when a song is removed has changed over time, with the biggest change in 1991 when songs below #50 were removed if they'd charted more than 20 weeks.  Both "Blinding Lights" and "Heat Wave" were removed when they dropped below #25 having already charted more than 52 weeks.

That rule also impacted the slowest climb to #1 -- Los Del Rio's "Macarena" which by chart rules hit #1 in its 33rd week, but because it hadn't made it to #50 by its 20th week on the chart, it was dropped from the Hot 100 for the next 4 months until it reached the #47 and then continued its climb to #1 13 weeks later.  It was on the Hot 100 Sales chart the whole time, so it was clearly one chart run.

Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You" was also a slow climber to #1 in two senses:  it didn't make it until 25 years after first release, plus its 3-5 weeks of charting many years over Christmas before hitting #1 gave it a remarkable tally of 35 non-consecutive chart weeks prior to hitting #1.

Quickest Falls from #1

This week's random retro countdown on SiriusXM was from December 1972, and Casey Kasem read a letter about fastest and slowest falls from #1.  At that point, The Rascals' "Groovin'" had the record for the quickest drop off the chart with "Groovin'" which fell 1 to 2 to 9 to 38 and then off.

In the next few years to follow, this dubious record was tied by Billy Preston's "Nothing from Nothing", which fell 1-15-39-72-off, Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently", which fell 1-12-32-48-off, and Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls", which fell 1-7-19-44-off.  Preston's record was the long-standing record holder for biggest drop from #1.

Casey made no qualifications about seasonal records, so I was surprised the answer wasn't "The Chipmunk Song" which spent 4 weeks at #1 over the 1958 Christmas season, but overall charted for 13 weeks, 6 of which were after it was #1.

The current record holder will be the all-time record holder, since no one can do more than tie... Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" in the 2019 Christmas season hit #1 (a record 25 years after its release), and when Christmas was over, it fell from #1 all the way off the charts.  Due to the timing of when Christmas Day falls in a given official chart week, in subsequent years she has actually stayed on the chart for an extra week .

Given the extraordinarily slow falls most records take, I doubt any non-seasonal records will even match the Rascal's achievement.  I looked up "Harlem Shake" and even that spent 9 weeks on the chart following the peak of the meme.

Separate Trips to #1

This week on American Top 40 from 1979, Casey made a big deal out of "Le Freak" by Chic moving into the #1 position for the 3rd time in the same chart run.  Once hitting #1, it was replaced by "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," regained the top spot, was replaced by "Too Much Heaven" for a couple weeks, then regained the top spot again.  No record in the rock era had ever done that.

And for the next few decades, no one did again!  Even the arrival of the Soundscan era didn't lead to a lot of bouncing and rebounding near the top, though some #1 runs were interrupted by the first-week surge of an artist with a huge fan base (mostly Mariah Carey).

The introduction of streaming and digital downloads made that easier to do, leading to 

a) More interruptions by a surge from a new release (at first, many "American Idol" winners then later big sellers like BTS, Drake, and Taylor Swift) 

b) true dueling between songs, which began most seriously in 2008 with T.I. matching "Le Freak"

c) occasional remixes and the addition of a duet partner leading to a resurgence of popularity, and 

d) the late 2010's rise in Holiday hits disrupting the normal charts

The first song to have 4 runs at #1 was Drake's "Nice for What" in 2018 which logged 8 weeks over the course of thirteen weeks, including one gap with two different songs.

2022 took the record to 5 separate moves into the #1 spot, with Harry Styles "As it Was" being bumped mostly for reason a) above, including once by 3 different songs in a row!  Despite the bumps, it logged 15 weeks at #1 over a stunning 25-week period -- the longest such period in a single chart run -- look for that in the next listing of biggest hits of all time!

Speaking of which, also look for Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" -- it too has risen to #1 five times, four of them marking the beginning of the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 holiday seasons dominating streaming and sales...plus being interrupted during the 2020 run.  She's now logged 12 weeks at #1, with four this year.  She'll almost certainly break Styles' record for runs at #1 by the same song and within three years should have the most weeks at #1 overall (the record is currently 19 by "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X)...a record she held for a long time at 16 weeks for "One Sweet Day."

  

Top 10's per album

This week Casey noted the then historic accomplishment of Fleetwood Mac having four hits that made the top 10, all originating from one album, Rumours.  He claimed it was the first album of the 70's to do such, implying an act like the Beatles might've had more.  The "originating" word would leave out compilation/Greatest Hits albums or live versions on a concert album.

Michael Jackson would be the first to match that accomplishment with four top 10 hits in 1979-80 with "Off the Wall," and he then crushed the record in 1982-1984 with 7 top 10 hits from "Thriller" which broke open the floodgates for hit albums suddenly having 5 or more singles released, with 4 top 10's being done by rather ordinary artists like Richard Marx or Expose....and the standard became 4 or 5 number one singles from an album (Michael Jackson again, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul).

The arrival of the "Soundscan" era of actually counting singles and sales in 1991 brought an end for awhile to such huge numbers of even top 10's, making even 2 #1's from an album a serious accomplishment and the top 10's per album were likewise limited as the charts slowed way down.

That all flipped around again when then whole idea of a single was challenged with streaming music and digital downloads of tracks from albums.  Now, for a big name artist like Drake (the master of this!) or Taylor Swift, or even SZA, your opening week for an album might carry many of the tracks into the Hot 100...with Taylor Swift in late 2022 pulling off the ultimate -- she claimed the entire top 10, with only one of those being a traditional radio-pushed single "Anti-Hero."

Ten does seem the natural limit -- to get to 11, you'd have to do the Taylor trick of covering the top 10 your first week then push one of the rest of the tracks later to radio eventually get to top 10 status, knowing that on initial release, it was not a fan favorite.

Given that Thriller only had 9 tracks to begin with, it demonstrates how fundamentally music purchasing and marketing has changed. 

Long Runs at #1

In two recent 70's countdowns, Casey's mentioned that Elvis was the first artist to have three #1's in a row on the charts...."Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," and "Love Me Tender" were on top for 16 straight weeks.  At the time of the countdown, the number of back-to-back #1s had only been tied by the Beatles and the number of weeks in a row at the top had only been matched Les Brown and the Band of Renown.

In the decades to follow, having three #1's in a row by the same artist is still the record, but the weeks in a row at #1 had been smashed:

In 2009 the Black Eyed Peas hit #1 first with the 12-week champ "Boom Boom Pow" and then immediately another 14 with "I Gotta Feeling."

For three in a row, two artists got super close -- Usher replaced "Yeah!" at #1 with "Burn" which was interrupted at #1 by Fantasia (hot off an American Idol win) for 1 week, before "Burn" hit #1 again, to be replaced by his "Confessions (Part 2)" -- 22 out of 23 weeks.

Drake had a similar phenomenon in 2009 as "In My Feelings" replaced "Nice for What" which replaced "God's Plan" for a total of 29 weeks at #1... but "Nice for What" was interrupted a then-record three times by four different songs!

Next closest was Mariah Carey, who had 24 out of 25 weeks with "Fantasy" and "One Sweet Day", interrupted only by Whitney Houston's "Exhale" for a single week between the two.  Her partners on "One Sweet Day," Boyz II Men did earlier have back-to-back songs at #1 for 16 weeks, but the 2nd "On Bended Knee" was also interrupted, giving them 20 out of 22 weeks, starting with 14 weeks with "I'll Make Love to You."

But back to Elvis, he gets an * for three in a row anyway... the first two were flip sides of the same 45 rpm record, and it was before the Hot 100 began.  The Beatles three in a row were all independent records in the Hot 100 era of combining sales and airplay.

All Year in the Top 40

Casey took a question this week back in 1977, asking if any artist had ever spent a whole year in the top 40.  Since at that point, the longevity record for the Hot 100 was only 36 weeks, clearly no one had.  But, his staff looked across all the major charts and found a country record that had in fact been on the Country and Western top 40 chart for 53 weeks!  Casey clearly thought that that record was unassailable.

Flash forward to 2022, with the record charts being admittedly quite different, but still reflecting broadly sales and airplay (but now including streaming)...and now a record has not only spent a year in the top 40, but in the top 10!  "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd was the #1 song of 2020, and it nearly repeated, ending up as the #3 song of 2021, after 53 weeks in the top 10, 86 in the top 40, and 90 on the Hot 100, all records...

...until this week.  Glass Animals' "Heat Wave" has now spent 91 weeks on the Hot 100!  It won't break the record for the top 10, but the top 40 longevity record is still in play as it's still at #19 after nearly 2 years!

June 1976 -- Icons return & more TV themes

Great countdown today, and Casey was very excited today as of the 5 debuts, one was by the Beach Boys and another by the Beatles!   Despite being 10 years old, "Got to Get You Into My Life" doesn't sound dated at all -- another sign of genius of the Beatles.  Both will eventually make the top 10.

Meanwhile, joining the Happy Days theme, the theme from the spin-off show "Laverne and Shirley" --- "Making Our Dreams Come True" is at #32.  John Travolta (then a TV star) and his show "Welcome Back, Kotter"'s theme song both charted as well, along with Baretta's great theme.

Another disco classic "Turn the Beat Around" entered, as did one of the few outdated songs, a Tony Orlando throwback "Save your Kisses for Me."

Bolting up the chart were two other 70's classics "Moonlight Feels Right" and "Afternoon Delight," two I clearly remember from the radio that summer.

At the top, Wings in is third non-consecutive week at #1 -- meaning the same person (Paul McCartney) is singing lead for two different groups on the same countdown.  I've heard of a solo artist co-charting with their main band (Lionel Richie, Phil Collins), but never two bands.

Wings was interrupted at #1 by Diana Ross.  Casey mentioned how she'd hit the top 10 four times as a solo artist, each of them hitting #1...and she'd go 5 for 5 in 1980 with "Upside Down."  "Love Hangover" was also the song that broke the tie with Cher, Helen Ready, Roberta Flack, and Connie Francis for most solo #1's by a female...a trivia question he'd answered in 1972 when only Francis even had 3.  I doubt Casey would've guessed that Mariah Carey would one day have 19!

19 first-timers on the chart today, including Hall & Oates

No 5-star songs today, but 4-stars from Nightingale, Carmen, the Beatles, Robinson, Seals and Crofts, and the Starland Vocal Band.

1 1 SILLY LOVE SONGS –•– Wings (Capitol)-11 (3 weeks at #1) (1)
2 2 GET UP AND BOOGIE (That’s Right) –•– Silver Convention (Midland International)-15 (2)
3 3 MISTY BLUE –•– Dorothy Moore (Malaco)-14 (3)
4 4 LOVE HANGOVER –•– Diana Ross (Motown)-12 (1)
5 7 SARA SMILE –•– Daryl Hall and John Oates (RCA)-21 (5)
6 6 SHANNON –•– Henry Gross (Lifesong)-17 (6)
7 8 SHOP AROUND –•– The Captain and Tennille (A&M)-8 (7)
8 9 MORE, MORE, MORE (Part 1) –•– The Andrea True Connection (Buddah)-15 (8)
9 25 AFTERNOON DELIGHT –•– The Starland Vocal Band (Windsong)-7 (9)

10 13 I’LL BE GOOD TO YOU –•– The Brothers Johnson (A&M)-8 (10)

11 5 HAPPY DAYS –•– Pratt and McClain (Reprise)-12 (5)
12 21 KISS AND SAY GOODBYE –•– The Manhattans (Columbia)-10 (12)
13 15 LOVE IS ALIVE –•– Gary Wright (Warner Brothers)-10 (13)
14 16 TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS –•– The Doobie Brothers (Warner Brothers)-10 (14)
15 17 MOVIN’ –•– Brass Construction (United Artists)-12 (15)
16 18 I WANT YOU –•– Marvin Gaye (Tamla)-9 (16)
17 19 NEVER GONNA FALL IN LOVE AGAIN –•– Eric Carmen (Arista)-8 (17)
18 24 MOONLIGHT FEELS RIGHT –•– Starbuck (Private Stock)-10 (18)
19 23 TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN –•– The Steve Miller Band (Capitol)-7 (19)
20 20 BARETTA’S THEME (“Keep Your Eye On the Sparrow”) –•– Rhythm Heritage (ABC)-11 (20)

21 10 FOOL TO CRY / HOT STUFF –•– The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stones)-9 (10)
22 26 THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN –•– Thin Lizzy (Mercury)-6 (22)
23 11 RHIANNON (Will You Ever Win) –•– Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)-16 (11)
24 12 WELCOME BACK –•– John Sebastian (Reprise)-13 (1)
25 14 BOOGIE FEVER –•– The Sylvers (Capitol)-19 (1)
26 30 GET CLOSER –•– Seals and Crofts (Featuring Carolyn Willis) (Warner Brothers)-10 (26)
27 32 YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND –•– Queen (Elektra)-5 (27)
28 34 THAT’S WHERE THE HAPPY PEOPLE GO –•– The Trammps (Atlantic)-11 (28)
29 54 GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE –•– The Beatles (Capitol)-2 (29)

31 36 LET HER IN –•– John Travolta (Midland International)-8 (31)
32 38 MAKING OUR DREAMS COME TRUE –•– Cyndi Grecco (Private Stock)-7 (32)
33 37 TEAR THE ROOF OFF THE SUCKER (Give Up the Funk) –•– Parliament (Casablanca)-6 (33)
34 22 FOOLED AROUND AND FELL IN LOVE –•– Elvin Bishop (Capricorn)-16 (3)
35 42 SAVE YOUR KISSES FOR ME –•– The Brotherhood Of Man (Pye)-7 (35)
36 41 TURN THE BEAT AROUND –•– Vicki Sue Robinson (RCA)-11 (36)
37 40 I’M EASY –•– Keith Carradine (ABC)-7 (37)
38 27 RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM –•– Maxine Nightingale (United Artists)-19 (2)
39 43 MAMMA MIA –•– Abba (Atlantic)-5 (39)
40 58 ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC –•– The Beach Boys (Brother)-3 (40)

Succeed yourself at #1

Casey answered a question this week (back in 1975) about artists replacing themselves at #1.  In ordinary times of the 70's and 80's, it seems possible but unlikely.  A follow-up song would have to be released while the earlier record was either on its way up or already #1, potentially stealing some of the sales or airplay from the earlier record.   Runs at #1 were also quite short in this time frame.

Also, until the early 2000's, "releasing" a record involved printing physical copies and shipping them to record stations and record stores.  This led to even very popular artists who pulled off multiple #1's from an album usually separated by at least a few months.

Casey noted the two times it had happened, both involving unusual breakouts by artists.  The first was Elvis, whose first top 100 hit went all the way to #1 -- "Heartbreak Hotel."  The releases then came fast and furious, and while "Don't Be Cruel / Hound Dog" perched at #1 for 11 weeks, "Love me Tender" climbed and succeeded it on all the component charts.

The next run was in 1964 when "I Want to Hold Your Hand" spurred the release of all sorts of Beatles records which were owned by various labels.  In the scrum that followed, the Beatles at one point held the top 5 positions on the chart (still unmatched), and had 3 back-to-back #1's after "She Loves You" and "Can't Buy Me Love" ascended to the top.

Casey predicted this wouldn't happen again for a LONG, LONG time, and he was right!

Even just to have two #1's back to back was quite rare through the rest of the century.  Later that very year, back to back #1's were by Neil Sedaka and then Elton John.  But Sedaka's "Bad Blood" had Elton John on backing vocals.  Today, he certainly would've been credited as "featuring."

A few have come close due to huge surge in popularity -- The Bee Gees only had a couple week pause each between their 3 #1s from "Saturday Night Fever"  (including a week with all 3 in the top 10).  Donna Summer had a short gap and held 2 of the top 3 with "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff."  Michael Jackson missed by only one week in 1983 between Billie Jean and Beat it, thwarted by "Come on Eileen."

It wasn't until 1994 that Boyz II Men hit #1 with "I'll Make Love to You" and stayed at #1 a record-tying 14 weeks, allowing "On Bended Knee" to climb and replace it.  That was made possible partly by chart methodologies changing so that airplay and sales were measured electronically rather than reported by record stores and stations (who often stopped reporting songs that they were still playing/selling to make room for new songs).

Since then, two other big changes have made replacing yourself at #1 easier...the aforementioned tidal wave of "featured" artists, and then the advent of releasing songs digitally, which avoids many time delays of the old system.  Under this new reality, for instance, Ja Rule replaced himself at #1 having been featured on Ashanti's and J' Lo's two #1's.  

Two artists have looked like they've had 3 in a row, but not quite:  Usher's big year of 2004 had "Yeah," replaced by "Burn" which was directly replaced* by "Confessions."  The asterisk?  It's because "Burn" was interrupted by a week by one of the American Idol winners, Fantasia.

Likewise, this year Drake's "God's Plan" was replaced by "Nice for What" which was replaced ultimately by "In My Feelings."  Alas, "Nice for What" was interrupted by 4 different songs!

So, you're right, Casey, but just by a hair, nearly 50 years on...