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. David Ball had a first pass at a music career in the late nineteen-eighties when the country music singer-songwriter secured a recording contract with RCA Records. A trio of singles in 1988 and 1989 failed to generate anything but the most meager of interest from country radio and the album he recorded was shelved. Jump forward a few years, and Ball gets his … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Thinkin’ Problem”

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 Four Tops were one of the signature acts of Motown. They placed twenty-four singles in the Billboard Top 40, including two that made it all the way to the top spot. Featuring Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Lawrence Payton and the incomparable Levi Stubbs. The epitome of dependability, the quartet was comprised of the same four individuals–across multiple labels and countless … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life)”

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 band 10cc started in 1972. At least that’s when the group of British musicians who’d been writing and recording together for a while decided to formally become a band under that name. Before that, they’d operated in several different iterations, including a stint as a band called Hotlegs, as which they had a minor hit in 1970 with the song “Neanderthal Man.” … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “People in Love”

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 band Rainbow started when guitarist Ritchie Blackmore decided he’d had enough of playing in Deep Purple. Dissatisfied with the funkier direction his bandmates were taking around the time of the 1974 album Stormbringer, Blackmore decided to explore the possibility of a solo outing. He recruited a couple of members of the blues rock band Elf, including Ronnie James Dio, along with other … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Stone Cold”

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. Jomanda was a trio that hailed from New Jersey. Members Cheri Williams and Joanne Thomas knew each other in their younger years, eventually reuniting after losing touch during high school. They were joined by Renee Washington, who’d developed her singing skills in church choirs, and began recording under the name Jomanda in 1987, quickly scoring hits on the Dance charts. Mixing the driving … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Got a Love for You”

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. Sonny Charles was the lead singer of the band Checkmates, Ltd., a group out of Fort Wayne, Indiana that had a sizable hit in the late nineteen-sixties with “Black Pearl,” a track that undoubtedly garnered at least some of its attention because of the wall it was draped in trademark Wall of Sound regalia by producer Phil Spector. That taste of success wasn’t … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Put It in a Magazine”

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. Diana Ross is very well acquainted with the Billboard Top 40. With the Supremes, both before and after her name officially preceded that of the group, she amassed 26 Top 40 singles, twelve of which topped the chart (the group made seven more appearances in the Top 40 after her formal departure from the group in January 1970, including with one song that … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “So Close”