Monday, June 29, 2015

50 Year Flashback - June 29th, 1965

Check out the #2 song this week on the KEWB Survey ...

It's Paul Revere and the Raiders' version of "Louie Louie", a record first released back in 1963 where it fell victim of the power of The Kingsmen's version ... yet here it is, up near the top of the chart some two and a half years later.

The rest of The Top Ten is pretty indicative of what was going on elsewhere in the country ... although instead of seeing "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter", "Silhouettes" or "Wonderful World" in The Top Ten for Herman's Hermits, KEWB was already charting "I'm Henry The VIII, I Am".  (This chart doesn't show weeks played, weeks charted or even last week's position ... so we'd be hard-pressed to guess if this record really came out of nowhere ... as it appears to have done ... or had been climbing the chart for a week or two.)

Check out the RCA ad for Elvis Presley ... touting THREE hits on the chart ... a rare feat for The King during the height of Beatlemania and The British Invasion ... although The Fabs are nowhere to be found on this particular survey.  (Little Esther Phillips has her take of "And I Love Him" at #17 ... but that's about it in the way of Lennon - McCartney contributions this time around.)

Once again Them has TWO hits in The Top 20, again reinforcing my point last week about how BOTH of these records should have charted better nationally.  Steve Alaimo's vocal version of "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" sits at #15 ... it only reached #89 in Billboard ... and a long-forgotten Kinks favorite of mine can be found at #27 ... "Set Me Free".