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. Beverly Bremers began her music career early, appearing on television programs and recording her first singles when still a teenager. She experience only the mildest success until she found herself in the middle of a sensation, joining the cast of Hair during its original Broadway run. That led to other stage work, including a featured role in the Tony-nominated musical The Me Nobody … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “We’re Free”

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. Joe Simon was a major player on the R&B charts during the late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies, including a million-seller that nabbed him a Grammy Award. As was too often the case, that success didn’t completely translate to the pop charts, where Simon had a respectable number of Top 40 hits (eight in total), but was largely unable to push his material to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Time to Cry”

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. Jimmy Brooks was a student at Degrassi Community School, whose struggles with school, particularly English class, originally compromised his hopes to become a player on the basketball team. That eventually changed, and Jimmy become one of the star players on the team. He also came from a background of family wealth, which could cause strain with some of his friends, especially when Jimmy didn’t … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’m Goin’ In”

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. Tommy James spent plenty of time in the Billboard Top 40 when he was backed up by the Shondells. Debuting under the name Tommy James and the Shondells with the 1966 chart-topper “Hanky Panky” (a song they’d released at least twice previously without James’s name as prominent on the label), the group had a string of hit through the rest of the sixties, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’m Comin’ Home”

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. Fanny was billed as the first all-female rock group to release an album on a major label. Naturally, given the stultifying sexism of the era, it’s entirely possible the band wouldn’t have reached that status without the behind-the-scenes influence of a male. Richard Perry was a producer with an eclectic batch of records on his resume, including Captain Beefheart’s Safe as Milk and God … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Charity Ball”

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 my count, Barbra Streisand has amassed twenty-one Top 40 singles during the course of her career. To my surprise, her sustained success on that particular Billboard chart didn’t really begin until the nineteen-seventies. From her double-barreled debut in 1963 (The Barbra Streisand Album was followed by The Second Barbra Streisand Album within months), she always sold albums at a steady clip, making … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel”

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. “Sweet Maxine” is a song by the Doobie Brothers. Released as the second single from their 1975 album, Stampede, it brought them their eighth trip to the Billboard Top 40, although just barely. Across their career, they’d make it into the Top 40 a total of sixteen times, including two instances when they topped the chart. Not knowing anything about this particular song … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Sweet Maxine”

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. Brenda Lee saw two straight singles climb all the way to the top of the Billboard chart in 1960, when she was still a teenager. It was the beginning of a stretch of enormous success that allowed her to claim a quantity of chart hits in the sixties surpassed by only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Ray Charles. “I’m Sorry” resided at #1 for … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Just a Little”

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 feature has gone on far longer than I expected. Just look at all those songs underneath the Previously… down there. When I started this, almost four years ago, I had a nice, tidy list of singles that peaked at #40. As I poked around for other writing, I kept stumbling on other songs that qualified, enough so that I eventually decided I … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Love Rollercoaster”

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. Elvis Aaron Presley had a few hits during his career. According to Joel Whitburn, who is as definitive of an expert as the field of counting chart hits gets, say he made the Top 10 thirty-eight times and claimed the coveted #1 position on eighteen occasions. For our purposes, what’s important is that two singles out of over one hundred peaked at #40. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Spinout” and “Until It’s Time For You To Go”