Friday, June 27, 2014

50 Years Ago This Weekend

A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE finally reaches #1 on The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart for PETER AND GORDON this week, a nice feather in the cap of PAUL McCARTNEY as well, who wrote the song for the duo.  (MACCA was dating PETER's sister, Actress JANE ASHER, at the time.)  DON'T LET THE SUN CATCH YOU CRYING sat at #7 for GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS and another LENNON and McCARTNEY tune, this time recorded by BILLY J. KRAMER AND THE DAKOTAS, was this week's #9 Hit, BAD TO ME.

LOVE ME DO fell out of The Top Ten for The Fab Four (at #11) and the BILLY J. KRAMER flipside LITTLE CHILDREN was right behind it at #12.  CAN'T YOU SEE THAT SHE'S MINE by THE DAVE CLARK FIVE continued its climb up the charts, now sitting at #16 in its third week on the chart, just ahead of DIANE by THE BACHELORS, which fell to #17.  The CHAD AND JEREMY version of YESTERDAY'S GONE sat at #24, one position ahead of THE SEARCHERS'  latest hit, DON'T THROW YOUR LOVE AWAY.  DO YOU LOVE ME by THE DAVE CLARK FIVE and P.S. I LOVE YOU by THE BEATLES held on to their Top 40 positions at #34 and #37 respectively.

WISHIN' AND HOPIN' climbed 18 places for DUSTY SPRINGFIELD to #61 and THE ROLLING STONES hit their highest position at #63 with NOT FADE AWAY after nine weeks on the chart.  PETER AND GORDON's next release, NOBODY I KNOW (another LENNON and McCARTNEY tune) debuted at #73.  THE OVERLANDERS were still trying to hold on at #75 with their version of YESTERDAY'S GONE while FOUR BY THE BEATLES climbed to #92.  How desperate were we for new BEATLES material???  SIE LIEBT DICH, THE BEATLES' recording of their #1 Hit SHE LOVES YOU sung in German, premiers at #97.  (It had already been on our local WLS Chart for a couple weeks at this point.)  Other interesting premiers this week:  I'M INTO SOMETHIN' GOOD by EARL J EAN and IT'S ALL OVER NOW by THE VALENTINOS.  Neither will make much of an impact on the charts until they're covered a few months later by British Invasion sensations HERMAN'S HERMITS and THE ROLLING STONES!






It's interesting to see that "A World Without Love" FINALLY hit the #1 Spot on the Billboard Chart this week … a full two weeks AFTER it topped the chart here in Chicago.  (This week it sits at #4 on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey).  "Little Children" remains the #1 record in town.  "Can't You See That She's Mine" leaps to #7 (from #24), putting it four places ahead of The Dave Clark Five's other current hit "Do You Love Me", which sits at #11.  The Beatles are still holding on to a Top Ten Hit with "Love Me Do" / "P.S. I Love You", which sits at #8.

"Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" climbs to #12, "Sie Liebt Dich" falls to #19 and The Searchers premier at #25 with their new one, "Don't Throw Your Love Away".

Another new favorite on the WLS Chart this week is "She's The One" by The Chartbusters, a group out of Washington, D.C. that sounds an AWFUL lot like The Beatles!  This would become a fairly big hit here in Chicagoland, peaking at #9 a few weeks later.