Saturday, April 13, 2024

The Saturday Survey

 

The Brits maintain control of The Top Ten this week with six entries on the chart, four by The Beatles (#1 - "Can't Buy Me Love," #2 - "Twist And Shout," #6 - "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and #9 - "She Loves You") and two by The Dave Clark Five (#7 - "Glad All Over" and #10 - "Bits And Pieces," up 17 spots to crack The Top Ten.

The other four positions are held by Louis Armstrong (#3 - "Hello Dolly"), Terry Stafford (#4 - "Suspicion"), Betty Everett (#5 - "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)") and #8 - "Don't Let The Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" by The Serendipity Singers.

Monitoring The British Invasion, we find NINE more Beatles tracks on the list ("I Want To Hold Your Hand," #13, "Please Please Me," #19, "All My Loving," #39, "Thank You Girl," #51, "Love Me Do" (up 35 places from #88 to #53), "Roll Over Beethoven, #54, "I Saw Her Standing There," #75, "You Can't Do That," #78 and "From Me To You," #89, and one track ABOUT The Beatles ("We Love You Beatles," #43), by The Carefrees.

Holding down other Top 100 Hits are the British acts The Searchers (#12 with "Needles And Pins"), The Swinging Blue Jeans (#28 with "Hippy Hippy Shake"), Dusty Springfield (#44 with "Stay Awhile") and, new on the chart, "Little Children" by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, another artist in Brian Epstein's stable, who'll be flying across the pond to make and appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in a couple of months.  (The flip side of Billy's first US Hit is a Lennon and McCartney composition called "Bad To Me," which will also chart.) 

 

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

4/13/64 – The 36th Academy Awards are held at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  Big winners include "Tom Jones" for Best Film) Patricia Neal for Best Actress for “Hud” and Sidney Poitier for Best Actor for “Lilies Of The Field.”  Poitier is the first Black actor to ever win an Oscar in a lead role.  (By the way, during these same ceremonies, Bobby Darin will lose the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in “Captain Newman, MD” to Melvyn Douglas “Hud.”