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

Youtube ^ | 7/6/13

[Finny]

Hey -- that music is why we won WWII! I love Big Band and boogie woogie. Am listening to Les Brown right now, and have Benny Goodman cued up.

It was my dad's generation's music, but I liked it better than my own's.

[Finny]

THAT IS A GREAT LIST!

[driftless2]

Soeur Sourire actually appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in her nun’s habit with another nun singing her hit song.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I remember that Ed Sullivan Show...

[Migraine]

Interesting list; thanks especially for the links to the songs. That Pitney song, Half Heaven...; I hadn’t heard it. Was it the flip side of a more famous record?
I liked Pitney, esp 24 hours to Tulsa and the Liberty Valance song, oh yeah, and Town w/o Pity. I often wondered, though (as I did with Sedaka and Mathis) with those girlish voices, if they were kinda gay?

[Carriage Hill]

I was 14 in 1963, and I remember these well:

http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1963

[Fiji Hill]

Gene Pitney's "Half Heaven, Half Heartache" should actually be on a 1962 list, because it entered the charts in December of that year and carried over into '63, rising to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Another great December tune that carried over into '63 was Dionne Warwick's first and best hit, Don't Make Me Over. This is the full-length version, not the edited version heard on most Top 40 radio stations at the time.

[Fiji Hill]

Although it climbed to #15 in the summer of 1963, one song that didn't make the Top 100 chart was Abilene by George Hamilton IV. Although the singer describes Abilene--a place in Syria west of Damascus--as the "prettiest town I've ever seen," I don't share his desire to go there--or, for that matter, anywhere near there.

Danny Michaels did a parody of the tune, entitled "Chavez Ravine" (1963) which is a hymn to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

[Carriage Hill]

I remember that one, briefly making the airwaves.

[csvset]

I was born in June , 1959. The #1 song was The Battle of New Orleans.

[Fiji Hill]

Another song from 1963 that is in my collection but has not made it to Youtube is "John Birch, American" by the New Breed--the story of John Birch, and army officer who "died in freedom's name" during WWII and whose life story inspired the John Birch Society. It was issued on the Impact label, having been produced by Anthony Hilder, a movie and TV actor who produced a number of rhythm and blues and surf-rock hits in the '50's and '60's. His political views make most of us on FR look like liberals.

[mware]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIEBErVs0fY

[Fiji Hill]

I was born in June , 1959.

Another big hit at that time was Kookie, Kookie by Edd Byrnes and Connie Stevens

[mware]

You Belong To Me, tops in the pops Sept 18-Oct.20, 1952

[Finny]

I always assumed he was referring to Abiline, Texas. :^)

"Women there don't treat you mean in Abiline."

[Fiji Hill]

"Women there don't treat you mean in Abilene."

That's because of the Muslim faith that predominates in Abilene, Syria.

[Fiji Hill]

ware You Belong To Me, tops in the pops Sept 18-Oct.20, 1952

On the CW charts, Jambalaya by Hank Williams held sway.

[Cunning8]

Top 1,2 songs of 1932 were:

“All of Me” by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra; also version by Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra

“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” – Bing Crosby; also version by Rudy Vallee

[WashingtonSource]

What is the name of the female lead singer?

[JoeProBono]

Anita Humes, the lead singer, passed away in 2010 at the age of 69