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 is what Billboard wrote about Kay Starr’s “Second Fiddle” upon its release in May of 1956: “Miss Starr renders a poignant ballad in a warm and fetching style. The tune itself has much of the of ‘Tennessee Waltz’ and ‘Rock and Roll Waltz,’ and figures to be a highly successful follow-up to the latter.” “The Rock and Roll Waltz” (which sounds like … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Second Fiddle”

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. Ernest Evans was overweight, but just a little. Just enough, in fact, that he was nicknamed “Chubby” by one the bosses at a low-level job he worked. As the story goes, Evans had just done a Fats Domino impression during an audition when he was asked his name. When he responded to a question about his name, he replied with the nickname related … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Lazy Elsie Molly” and “Let’s Do the Freddie”

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. Back before he became the poster boy for Branson, Missouri milquetoast schtick and one of the more famous doddering parrots of Fox News petrified nonsense, Andy Williams was a velvet-voiced singer with a string of hits, a sort of safe alternative to those who were were likely to clutch their metaphorical (or, indeed, actual) pearls whenever they heard the raw, reckless sounds coming … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Ain’t It True”

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 quartet comprised of Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend, known collectively as the Who, first reached the Billboard Top 40 with their 1966 single “Happy Jack.” They made it into that portion of the chart a total of sixteen times, doing so as late as 1982, by which point dearly departed drummer Keith Moon (who, as much as anyone … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Call Me Lightning”

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. Unquestionably the most successful group of the highly successful Motown record label, the Supremes had thirty-three Top 40 singles in the U.S., with more than a third of them reaching the very top of the Billboard chart. That included an amazing run of five straight #1 singles in 1964 and 1965, beginning with “Where Did Our Love Go” and ending with “Back in … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’m Going to Let My Heart Do the Walking”

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. Gene Cotton was a singer-songwriter who worked primarily in the nineteen-seventies, racking up a few moderately successful singles, four of which landed in the Billboard Top 40. Among that quartet was a 1978 duet with Kim Carnes on the song “You’re a Part of Me,” a track that stood as her first trip to the Billboard charts, two years before she made it … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Like a Sunday in Salem”

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. Before he started performing under the name Blowfly, Clarence Reid was a crack songwriter and a fine soul singer. While most of the material he released was fairly benign, there were some early indications that there was a raunchy sensibility lurking there. The Blowfly persona started as a gag at parties, with the singer trying out dirty songs and parodies on his pals … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Nobody But You Babe”

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. Brad Paisley absolutely owned the country charts in the aughts. After nabbing his first country #1 (and Billboard Top 40 hit) in 1999, with “He Didn’t Have to Be,” Paisley had an even more prodigious stretch in the following decade, including ten straight chart-toppers at one point, which was then a record. (Shameless country huckster bested that feat just this year.) Maybe even … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Ticks” and “Letter to Me”

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. As I write this, I’m too tired to count high, so I’m going to rely on the ever-shaky Wikipedia to provide some information. According to the crowd-edited website, Marvin Gaye reached the Billboard Top 40 a total of forty-one times, including three songs that topped the charts. Of those many hits, one of them qualifies for this series, just barely scratching into the … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The End of Our Road”