This time around they're celebrating their Fifth Year as a Top 40 Radio Station ... and what a powerhouse they were, too. With 50,000 Watts beaming a clear signal through the night, you could pick up WLS Radio in nearly every state in the union. While this gained literally thousands of fans from coast to coast, it would become an even bigger factor in the station's success a few years later when they started promoting some of the local talent starting to make waves here in The Windy City.
But for now ... we seem to have a decidedly British feel to OUR chart, too ... as 11 of the Top 13 songs on the list belong to British Invasion Artists.
These include Herman's Hermits (#1 with "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" and #11 with their remake of "Silhouettes", The Kinks at #2 with "Tired Of Waiting For You", The Beatles with a two-sided hit at #3 ("Ticket To Ride" / "Yes It Is"), Petula Clark right behind them at #4 with "I Know A Place", The Rolling Stones at #6 with "The Last Time", Freddie and the Dreamers at #8 with "I'm Telling You Now", Gerry and the Pacemakers (misspelled as "Gerri"!) at #9 with "It's Gonna Be All-Right", The Seekers at #10 with "I'll Never Find Another You", the aforementioned "Silhouettes" at #11, "Go Now" by The Moody Blues at #12 and "Game Of Love" by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders at #13.
The ONLY American Acts to break that spell are Gary Lewis and the Playboys (#5 with "Count Me In") and The Beach Boys, who sit at #7 with "Do You Want To Dance" ... so we've just GOT to feature these two this week!!!
Their 20 Best-Selling #1 Records list is a bit shaken up from previous issues ... but The Beatles still have the Top Three Tracks here on this list, too, with "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You" and "Twist And Shout". (You'll also find The Fab Four at #7, #10 and #15, giving them SIX of the Top 20 Songs from the past five years ... incredible!)
They only dip back to 1960 once, for Ferrante and Teicher's hit "Exodus" ... same thing with 1961 for Lawrence Welk's "Calcutta". This is a bit surprising as NEITHER of these tunes were the biggest hits of their respective years. Look at the list closely and you'll see once again that spelling was never really the station's strong suit ... The Singing Nuns (plural)? The Angeles (huh?)? At least they finally got rid of those ridiculous apostrophes on The Beatles and The Supremes!
Our favorite jock of the time, Ron Riley, is pictured at the bottom of the survey ... by now his on-air feuds with morning man Clark Weber were legendary ... together, they gave us Personality Radio at its very best. A "golden" time in radio, to be sure.
