These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. The Olympics were a doo-wop group from Los Angeles that began life under a moniker that relied on the name of their lead singer. Using the name Walter Ward and the Challengers, they released a single called “I Can Tell.” After it didn’t do much on the charts, the band tried a name change, releasing “Western Movies” on the Demon Records label in … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Bounce”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Now that MTV treats music videos like some syphilitic growth that it had removed, I wonder if anyone but the most hardcore nostalgists really cares about retaining the tidbit about which song was the first to cross the coaxial launching the cable channel. There was certainly a time when it was a requirement to serious music fans to have the ready capability to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Video Killed the Radio Star”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. The Hollies were a band that formed in Manchester in the early nineteen-sixties. While they had success in their home country almost right away, scoring a Top 40 hit on the U.K. charts with their very first single in 1963, it took them a while to fully capitalize on the Beatles-led British Invasion in the United States. They had some modest chart attention … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Jennifer Eccles”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Percy Sledge had as strong of a start as any new recording artist could hope for. He was working in an Alabama hospital while touring with a music group on the weekends in the mid-nineteen-sixties when a friend introduced him to DJ-turned-producer Quin Ivy, who helped get him signed to a recording contract. The very first product of that, issued on Atlantic Records … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Love Me Tender”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Ross Bagdasarian famously stumbled upon the the notion of a singing group comprises of small furry mammals by playing around with tape speed in the studio. He was already a relatively successful figure in the entertainment industry, having appeared on Broadway and in several films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. he also co-wrote the hit song “Come On-A My House” with his famed … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Alvin Twist”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. This may seem an odd statement, but Eric Clapton was so firmly entrenched as a full-fledged rock ‘n’ roll legend by the time I started paying attention that I found it easy to forget how successful he was on the Billboard charts. This is partially because I rarely think of straight-ahead rock songs as having a significant place on the Top 40 chart. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Watch Out For Lucy”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. I wonder if Simple Minds would have been chosen to record the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” for the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club if they had still been operating under the name Johnny & The Self-Abusers. Of course, that outfit was more of a distant relation than a direct ancestor of the Scottish band that favored the lush and the gently … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “See the Lights”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. According to most accounts of Motown Records, Mary Wells was the label’s first big star, the one who set the benchmark for “The Sound of Young America.” A talent contest regular from the tender age of ten in her hometown of Detroit, Wells approached Berry Gordy, then the head of Tamla Records, a label that had a string of major successes. Wells wanted … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Old Standby”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. By the time “Come See” was release in 1965, Major Lance had already notched five prior Top 40 songs, the biggest of which was probably “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um,” which had climbed all the way to #5 (and topped the R&B charts) the previous year. He was considered one of the major figures of Chicago soul and was one of the … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Come See”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Some biographies of Chuck Woolery note that his nineteen-sixties band the Avant-Garde “had one-hit wonder success in 1968 with the top 40 pop hit ‘Naturally Stoned.’” This is absolutely true, fully verifiable. The duo Woolery was part of with some character named Elkin “Bubba” Fowler peaked at #40 with their soft, almost lackadaisical psychedelic song. It was a pretty oddball year for music … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Naturally Stoned”