Friday Fives: The Billboard Hot… Five!

Last week we took a journey back in time to see what songs held the top five positions in the UK singles chart 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago. This week, I’m shining the spotlight on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart: what songs were sitting on top of the US charts all those years ago? I’m also adding 50 years ago, to make this a 5×5 (the top five for the past five decades). So here they are–with YouTube links, of course.

Happy Friday!

February 18-24, 1962

  1. Duke of Earl: Gene Chandler
  2. The Wanderer: Dion
  3. Norman: Sue Thompson
  4. The Twist: Chubby Checker
  5. Hey Baby: Bruce Channel

February 20-26, 1972

  1. Without You: Nilsson
  2. Hurting Each Other: The Carpenters
  3. Precious and Few: Climax
  4. Let’s Stay Together: Al Green
  5. Down by the Lazy River: The Osmonds

February 21-27, 1982

  1. Centerfold: The J. Geils Band
  2. Open Arms: Journey
  3. I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do): Daryl Hall & John Oates
  4. Shake It Up: The Cars
  5. That Girl: Stevie Wonder

February 23-29, 1992

  1. To Be with You: Mr. Big
  2. I’m Too Sexy: Right Said Fred
  3. I Love Your Smile: Shanice
  4. Remember the Time: Michael Jackson
  5. Diamonds and Pearls: Prince & the N.P.G.

February 24-March 2, 2002

  1. Always on Time: Ja Rule featuring Ashanti
  2. How You Remind Me: Nickelback
  3. Ain’t It Funny: Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule
  4. In the End: Linkin Park
  5. Hey Baby: No Doubt featuring Bounty Killer

 

cds

Colin D. Smith, writer of blogs and fiction of various sizes.

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7 Responses

  1. E.Maree says:

    I sent an e-mail to Paper Hangover earlier today asking if everything was OK, and had a moment of panic of ‘Ack! Did they update? Did I just socially embarrass myself?’ xD But I see nothing’s changed on the site.

    I’ve been resisting the urge to sporadically make up questions to fill the empty, Friday Five shaped hole in my life.

    From this, I think my favourites are:
    The Twist: Chubby Checker
    I’m Too Sexy: Right Said Fred
    In the End: Linkin Park

    Right Said Fred in particular = nostalgia!

    • cds says:

      Thanks for thinking of e-mailing Paper Hangover, Emma. I checked periodically and it seems they haven’t updated for two weeks. I too hope everything’s okay. It’s possible they decided that since relatively few people participate (compared to, say, the number of people that participate in RTW), it wasn’t worth keeping up?

      My policy with Friday Fives now is to do one, whether of my own making, or Paper Hangover’s if they have one.

      Your list of faves is certainly eclectic: one doesn’t often see Chubby Checker and Linkin Park mentioned in the same breath. Cool! 🙂

      • E.Maree says:

        Haha, yeah, my music taste is all over the place–it helps that I gave up on having ‘guilty pleasures’ and now I keep an attitude of ‘I don’t care, I enjoy it’ xD

        Haven’t heard anything back from P.H. yet. It seems very strange that a blog with so many submitters could just grind to a halt without so much as a ‘we’re no longer blogging’ message… if they were struggling for posts or ideas I’d have gladly responded to a call for submissions, joining a group blog could be fun.

        But yeah, I just hope they’re all okay and nothing bad’s happened.

  2. Jaime says:

    Nice! I’m Too Sexy by Right Said Fred. Hilarious 🙂 And I see there’s a Nickelback song too (*gag*)–so sad that those guys are from a couple hours away from here (they’re kind of like Alberta’s poster boys, unfortunately).

    I’m kind of missing Friday Fives. I wonder what’s up with that?

    • cds says:

      “I’m Too Sexy” was one of those British songs that surprised me when it became popular in the US. For a start it’s just… odd. I was used to odd songs in the British charts (Father Abraham and the Smurfs, Joe Dolce’s “Shaddap You Face,” etc.). But in the US? And there was also the fact that the band’s name is a reference to an old old OLD (i.e., before my time) Bernard Cribbins song that I’m fairly certain didn’t get much airplay this side of the Atlantic.

      I had much to learn back then… 😉

      Hopefully we’ll hear something soon about Paper Hangover, and what’s up over there.

  3. Kris Atkins says:

    “To Be With You” by Mr. Big is one of my favorite 90s songs EVER.

    • cds says:

      There were a couple of acoustic songs like this around at this time, weren’t there (e.g., “More than Words” by Extreme–I think)? A nice change.

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