We're Counting Down The Biggest #2 Records of The Forgotten Hits Era, 1955 - 1989 ... And We're Now Up to #17 - #12!
#17
Drifting back to 1959, here's one of those early rock tunes that I call a "mood" record.
There's just something about the dark and sinister groove of Phil Phillips' "Sea Of Love" that sucks you in. Many years later, it became the perfect song to serve as the title track for the Al Pacino flick of the same name. (You know, it's movies like this that keep me going to the grocery store in hopes of finding the ultimate shopping experience!)
"Sea Of Love" spent a collective seven weeks at #2, earning 74 points ... and here is an instance where I truly believe the better song lost out to the #1 spot. It stalled at #2 because The Browns' song "The Three Bells," was #1 at the time. (I never quite understood how that song occupied the #1 spot for four weeks ... and FIVE weeks in Music Vendor ... but I wasn't buying records in '59, so I wash my hands of this one!) Still, it seems like "Sea Of Love" should have snuck in there for at least a week or two!
#16
Next up is another #2 Hit from the '80's. This one belongs to The Go-Go's, recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees, and the recent topic of a successful documentary.
The all girl group managed to collect seven weeks at #2 and 75 points, but were aced out of the #1 spot by ANOTHER all girl group, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. There weren't many songs bigger than "I Love Rock And Roll" that year ... and it became the hotter of the two tracks.
#15
This record made it to #1 here in Chicago, as I'm sure it did in many cities around the country ... and I still think it's one of the prettiest songs released in 1969.
"Love Can Make You Happy" by the One Hit Wonder group Mercy was another seven-week #2 hit, earning 76 points. It was held at bay by The Beatles' big smash "Get Back" at the time.
Coming up next are two of my all-time favorite recordings.
People will often ask me "Hey, You're a Music Guy ... What's your favorite song?" and I've never been able to break it down by those terms ...
For me, it has always been the complete package ...
The overall sound of the record ...
The perfect mix of song, artist producer, instrumentation, etc., that all find themselves in perfect sync with one another to create a piece of magic that lives on for all eternity.
And our #14 and #13 songs in our Biggest #2 Hits Countdown rank right up there near the top of my list.
#14
You rarely heard Michelle Phillips sing a solo lead on a Mamas and Papas record. Let's face it, she didn't have the strongest voice, especially when compared to her bandmates Denny Doherty and Cass Elliott. (Michelle's assets were, shall we say, in OTHER areas!)
But her softly sung intro to The Mamas and The Papas' remake of "Dedicated To The One I Love" made this a stand-out track for me. (The song had already been a hit twice before ... which is why I say it isn't the SONG necessarily that won me over ... it was this particular performance of the song that did it for me.)
It spent an accumulated seven weeks in the #2 spot in 1967, earning 78 points in the process, kept at bay by The Turtles' monster hit "Happy Together."
While I've since OD'd on "Happy Together" after so much repetitive airplay over the past 55 years (and am just as likely to turn it off as let it play these days), I will listen to The Mamas and Papas' hit, "Dedicated To The One I Love" EVERY single time it comes on.
#13
Coming up right behind it at #13 on the list is Lesley Gore's 1964 hit "You Don't Own Me" ... perhaps the very first Women's Rights Anthem ever (some seven years before there even was a Women' Rights Movement!)
Cowritten by our FH Buddy John Madara, this song gets me every time ... and it actually DID get to #1 in MANY cities across the country.
But this was truly a case of "timing is everything."
1963 ended with a battle for the top spot between a Singing Nun ("Dominique"), a MOR crooner named Bobby Vinton ("There, I've Said It Again") and perhaps the Greatest Garage Band Classic of All-Time, "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen.
Also intermixed in this shuffle were "Popsicles, Icicles" by The Murmaids and Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me." Depending on where you lived at the time, any one (or two) of these could have been the #1 Record in your area.
But then along came this group out of Liverpool called The Beatles and all of a sudden NOBODY else could get a #1 Record!!!
Think I'm kidding???
The Beatles knocked THEMSELVES out of the #1 spot four songs (and 16 weeks!) in a row!
One by one, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "Twist And Shout" and "Can't Buy Me Love" all climbed into the #1 spot. (They would hit the top of the pop singles chart three more times before the year was over with "Love Me Do," "A Hard Day's Night" and "I Feel Fine.")
Somewhat lost in the shuffle was nothing short of a masterpiece.
"You Don't Own Me" managed to spend seven combined week in the #2 position, earning 79 points in the process. It was "I Want To Hold Your Hand" that kept it out of the #1 position.
#12
Now I will admit that, as big as this song was (eight accumulated weeks at #2 and 80 points earned), it was COMPLETELY off my radar at the time ... and until I started putting together this countdown of The Biggest #2 Hits of The Forgotten Hits Era, 1955 - 1989, I had never even heard it before! (This is actually true of a few songs that hit #2 after 1985 ... by then I was completely immersed in FM radio, listening to rock and roll.)
But Jody Watley, who was born right here in Chicago and had previously sung with the R&B band Shalamar, was a former dancer on television's "Soul Train" and was even Jackie Wilson's Goddaughter (!) put together a string of SIX Top Ten Pop Hits between 1987 and 1990.
"Looking For A New Love" was the first ... and the biggest ... and it just might be a new discovery for some of you folks out there, too!
We're inching closer and closer to the Biggest #2 Hit of The Forgotten Hits Era.
