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JUMP TO:
🎵 1989 – I’LL BE LOVING YOU (Forever) / New Kids On The Block
🎵 1979 – HOT STUFF / Donna Summer
🎬 1969 – GET BACK / The Beatles with Billy Preston (“Rooftop Concert” from the film ‘Let It Be’)
🎵 1959 – THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS / Johnny Horton
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Welcome to another installment of #1 Songs On This Date and another great set of hits from “the 9’s!”
Since it began during the first week of January, 2016 258 distinct number one singles from the years 1956 through 1995 have now been featured – with hundreds more to follow.
They’re all part of a permanent archive that’s being built at HouseoftheHits.com which will ultimately feature ALL 837 different number one singles as listed in 2,080 weekly national music charts published by Billboard® within that 40-year timeframe.
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Fortunately, HouseoftheHits has every one of those charts – plus secondary data – as published in the essential Joel Whitburn’s Record Research series (CD-ROM and eBook edition formats).
Everything is stored digitally on a HouseoftheHits computer – as are all 837 number one singles (in high-quality audio) from the music vault.
With the availability of precise data and the HOTH song files – together with some amazing technology – approximately 600 – 700 of those Billboard® chart-toppers will be presented this year – with the remainder to follow in early 2017.
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As the archive grows you will have continual free access to the accumulating repository, indexed by Decade, Month and Year. Plus, EVERY Title and Artist will be (blue) hyper-linked for smooth, easy navigation from song to song – with more great features to be added along the way.
Again, it will contain every #1 single in America, plus interesting commentary about each song (written by yours truly) and presented with a crystal clear High-Definition audio version of the complete original hit to instantly play as often as you wish.
The ever-expanding library is found HERE and you can bookmark this link for future instant access.
Enjoy!
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[NOTE]
Due to copyright issues, some audio song files may not play on smartphones, tablets and connected devices. Whenever possible, an alternate working audio source will be provided, but a PC, Mac or laptop may ultimately be required in some cases.
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#1 / June 19th, 1989
I’LL BE LOVING YOU (Forever)
New Kids On The Block
[1989]
(Single Version)
Number One: 1 week
Replaced: WIND BENEATH MY WINGS / Bette Midler
Succeeded by: SATISFIED / Richard Marx
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In a 26-month span between 1988-1990, the Boston teen boy-band New Kids On The Block was one of the hottest recording acts around.
Amazingly, during that period, every one of their first nine singles placed inside the Hot 100’s Top Ten – a run that included three #1’s, two platinum and three gold discs.
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The quintet’s genesis was connected to the mid-1980’s R&B boy group New Edition – also from Boston – whose producer Maurice Starr formed a new Beantown band in 1984 which he named New Kids On The Block.
From the group’s second album called Hangin’ Tough, the ballad I’ll Be Loving You (Forever) featured the lead vocals of Jordan Knight.
Although spending just a single week at the top of the charts, IBLY(F) boasted 6 weeks in the Top 10, 8 weeks in the Top 20, and 14 weeks in Billboard’s Top 40.
https://youtu.be/5yBVXQxk_TQ
[Trivia Bits] In early 2008, New Kids On The Block reunited for their first full-length album in fourteen years. Titled The Block, it produced the single, Summertime, that reached #36 on the Hot 100.
The most successful post-NKOTB member has been Donnie Wahlberg, Jr. who went on to a productive acting career, initially appearing in a number of motion pictures before starring in the TV crime drama ‘Boomtown’ from 2002-2003.
Since 2010, Wahlberg scored a starring role in the CBS drama series ‘Blue Bloods’ with Tom Selleck and Bridget Moynahan and beginning in 2014, acted in and became an executive producer of the TNT reality television show ‘Boston’s Finest.’
Other #1 Singles by NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK (3)
• 1989 / HANGIN’ TOUGH
• 1990 / STEP BY STEP
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#1 / June 19th, 1979
HOT STUFF
Donna Summer
[1979]
(Single Version)
Number One: 3 weeks
Replaced (1st Time): REUNITED / Peaches & Herb
Succeeded by (1st Time): LOVE YOU INSIDE OUT / Bee Gees
Replaced (2nd Time): LOVE YOU INSIDE OUT / Bee Gees
Succeeded by (2nd Time): RING MY BELL / Anita Ward
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Boston-born LaDonna Andrea Gaines grew up being such a huge fan of iconic American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson that she pursued singing as a profession.
She spent the early part of her career overseas, first in Germany performing in a touring company version of the musical ‘Hair’ and later in European productions of ‘Godspell,’ ‘The Me Nobody Knows’ and ‘Porgy And Bess.’
While in Germany she met Italian record producer Giorgio Moroder and his British counterpart Pete Bellotte, who together began writing and recording material with Summer.
One of those songs included a nearly 17-minute-long, sexually charged, disco oriented tune called Love To Love You Baby, a demo of which reached the hands – and ears – of Casablanca Records owner/president Neil Bogart.
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Based upon her blatantly euphoric performance in that song, Bogart signed Ms. Summer to his company’s subsidiary label Oasis in 1975, with an edited single version of LTLYB climbing all the way to #2 on the Hot 100 and selling one million copies.
Then, after a couple of failed releases on Oasis, Bogart moved Summer’s recordings to his primary Casablanca label and four gold-selling singles followed between 1977-1979: I Feel Love (#6), Last Dance (#3), MacArthur Park (#1) and Heaven Knows (#4).
The next single was Hot Stuff, an edited-to-45 track from Donna’s 1979 double album titled Bad Girls. The dance song sold 2 million units (platinum) and sizzled at #1 for three weeks – with its tenure split up for 7 days by the Bee Gees‘ Love You Inside Out between weeks one and two.
https://youtu.be/DIFcq4ftBOI
[Trivia Bits] The original intention was for Hot Stuff to be recorded by Cher, but instead, Donna kept the song for herself.
The Bad Girls album also yielded two additional hit singles, the platinum-selling and chart-topping title track and the gold-achieving #2 Dim All The Lights.
At the 22nd Grammy Awards ceremony in 1980, Hot Stuff won the shiny hardware for that year’s newly-created ‘Best Rock Vocal Performance – Female’ category.
On May 17, 2012 Donna Summer died from lung cancer at the age of 63.
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The guitar solo on Hot Stuff was played by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a former session musician and one-time band member in both Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.
Baxter has since become a member of the Washington State Senate, works as a defense consultant and chairs a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense.
Other #1 Singles for DONNA SUMMER (4)
• 1978 / MacARTHUR PARK
• 1979 / BAD GIRLS
• 1979 / NO MORE TEARS (Enough Is Enough) (Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer)
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#1 / June 19th, 1969
GET BACK
The Beatles with Billy Preston
[1969]
(“Rooftop Concert” from the film Let It Be)
Number One: 5 weeks
Replaced: AQUARIUS/LET THE SUNSHINE IN (The Flesh Failures) / The Fifth Dimension
Succeeded by: LOVE THEME FROM ‘ROMEO AND JULIET’ / Henry Mancini
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Get Back was the 17th of a record-holding 20 Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers for the Beatles, following on the heels of their all-time biggest single, the quadruple platinum-selling Hey Jude, which spent 9 weeks at #1 in the fall of 1968.
With GB officially being listing as by “The Beatles with Billy Preston,” it marked the first and only time a name other than simply “The Beatles” appeared on any of their record labels.
[Note] “The Beatles with Tony Sheridan” was found on some of their early pre-EMI Parlophone/Capitol recordings – specifically on the Polydor/MGM labels – but that occurred when they were primarily backing artists for the UK rock ‘n roll singer.
Preston, the Houston, TX keyboardist who also became known as the ‘fifth Beatle,’ played on both Get Back and the single’s B-side, Don’t Let Me Down and also appeared in the “Rooftop Concert” performances of both (see below).
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Due to worldwide copyright restrictions, the studio-recorded hit version of Get Back cannot be used here.
Presented instead is this 22-minutes long “Rooftop Concert” segment from their final film ‘Let It Be,’ – ultimately their very last public performance as a group.
On this clip, the song Get Back is just a part of various rehearsals, sound checks and false starts for several other tracks from their forthcoming Let It Be album, including Don’t Let Me Down, Dig A Pony, One After 909 and I’ve Got A Feeling.
The impromptu concert took place on January 30th, 1969 on the roof high atop the Fab Four’s Apple Corps Ltd. headquarters at 3 Savile Row during the height of a weekday lunch hour in mid-town London.
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The fact that ‘Let It Be’ is the only Beatles movie not to be digitally remastered and re-released in any high-definition configuration – including DVD, Blu-ray and streaming – is puzzling. The film was briefly available in the now-defunct VHS tape and lesser-known laser disc formats, but both are now long out-of-print.
Despite the audio and video quality of either discontinued product being sub-standard, this copy has somehow been cleaned up to give it excellent clarity.
https://vimeo.com/95681569
FURTHER READING: The “Rooftop Concert”
[Trivia Bits] The ‘Let It Be’ video project initially was intended to be a made-for-British TV documentary, including a ‘live’ concert broadcast. However, when the latter part of the plan failed to materialize, the endeavor turned into a full-length film.
Get Back was the original title of the Let It Be album. But after the Let It Be single rose to #1 in 1970, Apple Records changed the name of the LP to piggyback it to the success of the 45.
Other #1 Singles by THE BEATLES (20)
• 1964 / I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
• 1964 / SHE LOVES YOU
• 1964 / CAN’T BUY ME LOVE
• 1964 / LOVE ME DO
• 1964 / A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
• 1964 / I FEEL FINE
• 1965 / EIGHT DAYS A WEEK
• 1965 / TICKET TO RIDE
• 1965 / HELP!
• 1965 / YESTERDAY
• 1966 / WE CAN WORK IT OUT
• 1966 / PAPERBACK WRITER
• 1967 / PENNY LANE
• 1967 / ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
• 1967 / HELLO GOODBYE
• 1968 / HEY JUDE
• 1969 / COME TOGETHER b/w SOMETHING
• 1970 / LET IT BE
• 1970 / THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
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#1 / June 19th, 1959
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
Johnny Horton
[1959]
(U.S. Single Version)
Number One: 6 weeks
Replaced: KANSAS CITY / Wilbert Harrison
Succeeded by: LONELY BOY / Paul Anka
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One hundred and forty-seven years and six months after the historic British-American ‘War of 1812’ had officially ended, Los Angeles-born singer Johnny Horton hit #1 on Billboard’s singles chart with his musical salute to the struggle’s final battle along the Lower Mississippi River in the city of New Orleans.
But it wasn’t the first immortalization of the war in song after the Andrew Jackson-led troops defeated Commander Pakenham’s forces in the Crescent City.
Not long after that final Jackson-Pakenham set-to on January 8th of 1812, a fiddle-friendly instrumental emerged, aptly called The Eighth Of January, and became the war’s only known musical ode to America’s victory.
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And that ditty endured until 1955, when an Arkansas teacher named Jimmy Driftwood penned lyrics to the original work and re-titled it The Battle Of New Orleans.
Strictly known as a country vocalist prior to TBONO, Johnny Horton’s hit also ‘crossed over’ to the Top 40 side three years after his signing with Columbia Records.
It dominated the pop-chart ‘wars’ for six consecutive weeks during the entire month of June through mid-July on 1959.
https://youtu.be/obE2SMROxMg
[Trivia Bits] The Battle Of New Orleans was just the second single of the Top 40/Rock ‘n Roll era to a feature an American city in both its title and lyrical content. And as it so happened, Johnny Horton‘s hit directly followed the other memorialized locale – and at Billboard’s top spot! It succeeded Kansas City, as performed by Wilbert Harrison (the link to which is above).
Johnny Horton died tragically on November 5th, 1960 in a late-night car crash while returning from a gig in Austin, TX to his home in Shreveport, Louisiana. The accident, which occurred during heavy fog, also claimed the life of his guitarist Gerald Tomlinson. Horton was only 35.
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CREDITS
Produced & Written By: Rick Murray Hunter / HouseoftheHits.com
Songs Source: The Music Vault of HouseoftheHits Inc.
Billboard® Chart Data: Joel Whitburn’s Record Research (eBook Editions)
References:
• The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits (5th Edition) by Fred Bronson
• The Billboard Book Of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits by Adam White and Fred Bronson
• The Billboard Book Of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits by Wesley Hyatt
• The Billboard Book Of Number One Albums by Craig Rosen
• The Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits (4th Edition) by Fred Bronson
• 1000 UK Chart Hits (Kindle Edition) by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh
• All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release (Kindle Edition) by Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon
• The Beatles’ Story On Capitol Records / Part One: The Singles (Digital Edition) by Bruce Spizer
• The Beatles’ Story On Capitol Records / Part Two: The Albums (Digital Edition) by Bruce Spizer
• The website BeatlesBible.com
• The Archives of RollingStone.com
Record Sleeve & Label Graphics: Courtesy of 45cat.com
Special thanks to the patio of Starbucks, Little Road in New Port Richey, FL 😎
Other #1 Songs on This Date Posts are HERE
