Very 'Special' Billboard Hot 100 Singles of the Past Which You Must Hear Because...Wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfBkR8k7rpg

regarding the first one, i remember that there was a brief fad around 1961 for "authenticity" in the form of people who really couldn't sing at all.

yeah, here we go, it was called the "sick" sound, and most of its practitioners were women, but i feel like that version of blue moon has some glancing relation

http://musicweird.blogspot.com/2018/05/sick-sound-craze-for-amateur-girl.html

What's that you say? You're hungry for a Beach Boys rip-off about a half-naked nonagenarian? Well, if you insist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evuh16CywIA

(I'm cherry-picking these from a playlist which is split roughly 50/50 between these things and a bunch of random song poems, and I'm not sure the untrained ear would be able to discern which category a given song belongs to.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Bn_Egd96A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nN5CnshorY

Having listened to some of his more obscure singles and soundtrack appearances, I would heartily welcome a track-by-track Glenn Frey thread. So many of songs evoke the feeling of being touched by an unwashed stranger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHgFYoHhEKs

so many of HIS songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uy6RQFdccI

Pretty sure this song is legally required to introduce itself to its neighbors and maintain a two-mile berth from all schools and playgrounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZMNhRJhaw

great, now shaddap you face is stuck in my head

i wish my internal monologue what shaddap its face

*would not what

A tender paean to multiple homicide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyY204b7hk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5BlvJoXTWQ

People tend to malign Jimmy Buffett's beach bum songsmithery, but if you go a little deeper you'll realize that he contains many different facets of awfulness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMJNBziXzXk

If you've ever found yourself wishing for a low-energy and less focused version of 'We Didn't Start the Fire' have I ever got the song for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogjqFTBZscs

It takes some doing for any particular Styx track to jump out at me as especially O_O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrj40kcz0rk

Is the "Blue Moon" posted here the version that was used in countless 80s movies about the 50s/60s? The vocals sound less polished than I remember.

No, that era featured many different renditions of 'Blue Moon'. The one I posted is...among the less accomplished I've heard.

The older brothers of the Shaggs, iirc.

Aw c'mon, it's not THAT bad. They're just ripping off The Marcels' arrangement with less talent. I'm surprised that managed to chart at all.

This was a #1 in Sweden. I always assumed it charted in the US, since my local "morning zoo team" used to play it every morning for a while, but it looks like it did not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2qsC-PuJQ

Here's a song from New Kids on the Rock's bodyguard, Biscuit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9B8xG3Dxu4

It peaked at #85.

And there's of course this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quG-Q7iKfn0

New Kids on the Block, not Rock.

how many of these were US number ones?

fun thread regardless

First time I'm hearing it but I don't think the Joe Walsh song is that bad, tbh, although it's obv dated and not his best work. I have no trouble seeing why it made the bottom half of the Hot 100 in the early 80s. I like music that combines electric guitars with the synthesizers and effects of that time.

This 'sick sound' stuff is kind of fascinating. It's almost proto-indie in a way.

a charting entry that i would like to hear but cannot (unless i decide to snatch up one of the 2 copies that seem to be available via discogs) is a cover of "tubthumping" billed to an 'artist' called chucklebutt, which reached #87 in 1998 -- chumbawamba's original was at its charting peak at the same time.

the reason it charted is b/c the chumbawamba version was only released to retail in an edition of 70k copies, virtually all of which had sold out by the time the single properly broke at radio. (this is why, despite reaching #1 on the hot 100 airplay chart, it was unable to get past #6 on the main chart.) in other words, it was basically absent at retail during peak saturation, thus leaving a spot open for any opportunists shameless enough to release a cheap cover version to retail with a soundalike artist name.

chucklebutt is a pretty funny name, but my favorite that the label (under the cover records) put out is 'krazi & judo' (for a cover of k-ci & jojo's "all my life", which did get a full, although late, retail release). the guy who produced these covers, based on what i can see from discogs, was mainly a freestyle producer who also pumped out a lot of these covers not just for under the cover records, but also a few other labels that were in on the game.

It takes some doing for any particular Styx track to jump out at me as especially O_O

📹

I vividly remember that Styx video from my youth. I'm pretty sure it's from the same album as "Mr. Roboto". As a kid I probably thought that Styx was a wacky new wave combo due to those 2 songs. "Music Time" is like when there would be original songs on a "Weird Al" tape. Dennis DeYoung looks about 50 in the video, but also very manic.

I just returned to the playlist I drew all of these lovelies from and would you even believe the first song that popped up on shuffle...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24jV_QlWD38

Fuckin Styx, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEnwtJ_697I

Holy wow, how did I ever forget this particularly ill-advised instance of discoification?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rKXM1o2wp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSaWLMcFiiQ

Here's another fun hit single that probably resulted in someone being put on a watchlist of some sort:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jL5ZItxH5s

Like sometimes I try to imagine a context where people bought a single like this because they thought it was a good example of the kind of music they enjoyed, and I just can't quite wrap my head around it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mg-VEas_ug

If you've been wondering 'did Neil Diamond ever take a stab at new wave, preferably half a decade after new wave was even a thing?', I have an answer that I think you're gonna like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vM3QAjWH8Q

(I could easily make a Diamond-centric spin-off of this thread.)

God, nothing has ever made me dread the future quite like this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q84lhmj8odk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QwI6wLYBYc

This is actually the primary song I had in mind when I started this thread and which I couldn't remember until it just now came up on shuffle. Buckle up for a hot time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoyHUY-UBYU

I don't understand why the opening song on this thread is "Blue Moon"

I guess because it's a not-as good-as-the-Marcels cover. Same with "Peanuts," that's not the original hit (which is a kind of annoying song in any event.)

That Randy Bell song, tho... that is amazing!

DJP, you gotta listen to that particular rendition to understand its inclusion.

okay lol I didn't listen long enough the first time

I know 1984 was a weird time but I've spent the whole last day perplexed over how you can invest that much effort into setting someone like poor Randy Bell as a teen idol and then release that as his lead single.

what are you finding odd about the randy bell song? the arch-80s sound? the lyrics (the hook sounding anti-sex, the "lips" line, "all mine" sounding like "a man")?

I dunno, to my ears it kinda sounds like someone released their karaoke performance as a commercial single.

Remember this "AIDS? nbd" jam that went to #35 in the US in 1991?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ImRyPymRAM

I loved that song (because I was in 6th grade and they said "sex"). Had no idea it got that high on the charts - I only heard it on the local alternative station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Bn_Egd96A

Here, let me serenade u about the troubles of the world, after which I will spend a few minutes flipping through the bible and citing random passages that have very little to do with the scenario at hand. Wait, why are you backing out of the room?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8McY8i4cUFA

Why wait for someone else to ape your distinctive vocal stylings for a substandard ripoff single when you can do the job yourself?

this somehow cracked the top 40 in 1990

https://youtu.be/-yAse1tL-mk

I remember!

RIP Poppy Bush Interzone.

Here, let me serenade u about the troubles of the world, after which I will spend a few minutes flipping through the bible and citing random passages that have very little to do with the scenario at hand. Wait, why are you backing out of the room?

― Feed Me Wheat Thins (Old Lunch),

One of the most terrible R&B hits ever.

The Neil Diamond and Styx songs up there I had relegated to some forgotten part of my mind. Kinda reeling tbh.

You probably wouldn't expect a song from the '50s to cover such steamy ground, but brace yourself: 'Let's Be Lovers' by the Playmates is just as raw and sensual as it sounds. It's nothing less than unrestrained sexual energy captured on vinyl. Try to refrain from pawing yourself while listening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9zFMc0SaRM

Those shrill "la-LA-la's" are kind of a turn-off, tbh

Just a reminder that the seats in the Playmates' beloved little Nash Ramblers folded back into beds.

https://i2.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Rambler-1957-bed.jpg?resize=352%2C319

morrisp, you may just need to recalibrate your ears, as that's an unfiltered expression of raw animal lust that you're hearing.

I've been to paradise but I've never been to whatever world Charlene and Stevie are pining for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd2dWHtbWlg

I had never heard this late-period Grand Funk song before last weekend on community radio. Made it to #69 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. Allegedly written by Mark for his then-paramour Sally Kellerman.

Stick with it, the more times he sings "SAAAAAAALLLLLAAAAYYYY BAAAAY-BAYYYYY" the funnier I find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9OLWXyGzY4