Number one song 50 years ago this week ! ( Vanity )

Youtube ^ | 7/6/13

[sushiman]

Remember it well ...I was 11 ...Summer at my Grandparents' house on Long Island listening to the big radio console when not at the beach or outside playing ...

[Fiji Hill]

That doesn’t sound stupid to me. In fact, it sounds like some of the strange dreams I have occasionally had.

[Fiji Hill]

On the R & B charts, the number one song the day I was born was Rocket 88 y Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats. On the country/western charts, it was I Want to Be With You Always by Lefty Frizzell.

[DonnerT]

I am way past my use by date. “Song of the Volga Boatmen, Glenn Miller”

[onyx]

I remember that song.

[UnwashedPeasant]

The band was made up of active-duty Marines, including the female singer. (wikipedia)

[sushiman]

Never heard it before . Thanks for the heads up from sushiman 6/9/52 ...

[Migraine]

1963 was a big deal to me. In August, I gave my life to Christ just before the start of my senior year of high school.
A lot of romantic drama and sports memories for me that school year; so, of my top 5 songs of 1963, my favorites were songs to listen to while parked:
1. Deep Purple (Nino Tempo and April Stevens)
2. Surfer Girl (Beach Boys; those chords still thrill me)
3. Be My Baby (Ronettes)
4. Blue Velvet (Bobby Vinton)
5. That Sunday, That Summer (Nat King Cole; one of his last)
My next one is just a great, feel-good instrumental:
6. Pipeline
My next 3 are reminiscent of how girls can put you through the wringer as they wrap you around their little finger:
7. Mean Woman Blues (Roy Orbison)
8. Devil in Disguise (Elvis)
9. Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash)
My last one was by the man who touched everyone’s soul:
10. I’m Busted (Ray Charles; no list complete w/o him)

I wonder if anyone else has favorites from a particular year, like a senior year or such?

[sushiman]

Although only 11 at the time , I know all of these songs . A year later the British Invasion would dominate the charts ...and I would take up the drums ...

[jobim]

That’s a haunting little story, YD. We think we know what life is, but so much is sacred mystery, as perhaps your dream indicates. “There is more to life than dreamed of in your philosophy” Hamlet says to somebody. Well, God willing, Heaven will reveal all!

[re_nortex]

I remember that song.

No way dear onyx! As I figure it, you were still 15 years away from being born when that song came out, right? :-)

[yarddog]

I will say that dream haunted me for a very long time. One thing I didn’t even think about at the time is that I usually dream in Black and White but every now and then color and that one was color.

Oddly, the colors are always pastels. Never a bright color.

[Fiji Hill]

Chart toppers for 6/9/52

• Here in My Heart--Al Martino (Pop)

• The Wild Side of Life--Hank Thompson (Country/Western)
  Kitty Wells answered this song with It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (1952), which was, in turn, answered by Lonny Smith's You're My Honky Tonk Angel (1953)

• 5-10-15 Hours--Ruth Brown (Rhythm and Blues)
  an answer to Sixty Minute Man by the Dominoes (1951)

[Intolerant in NJ]

Hey - Okinawa in ‘62 - I was there in ‘65-’66 so...I probably never ran into either one of them.....

[Fiji Hill]

A number of hits from 1963 are featured in this "break-in" novelty record

Senate Hearing--Dickie Goodman (1963)

[knarf]

I just spent an enjoyable hour all OVER youtube

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

One great song leads to another...

[Fiji Hill]

My top 10 from 1963 (excluding "Six Days on the Road," which I mentioned previously)

1. Leave Me Alone--Baby Washington

2. Half Heaven, Half Heartache--Gene Pitney

3. Mecca--Gene Pitney (one the jihadis won't like)

4. The Bounce--The Olympics

5. I Will Follow Him--Petula Clark

6. Baja--The Astronauts

7. Groovy Baby--Billy Abbott & the Jewels

8. You Had Time--The Heartbreakers

9. Sally Go Round the Roses--The Jaynetts

10. Dominique--Soeur Sourire (Incredibly, this ballad about the medieval evangelist, diplomat and crusader Domingo de Guzmán topped the charts for four weeks)

[sushiman]

Not too shabby ! ;-)

[knarf]

exactly

So many firsts in the 60 - 65 window.

[TheMole]

The song Rocket 88 was actually written and produced by Ike Turner, who played piano on the track. It was basically his first commercial success.