Yesterday Once More

25 Jul 2017

Preview: Once At The Top

Hi Listeners

Sometimes a song will hit number 1 on the charts for one week, only to fall back the week after. This week we are paying tribute to those briefly successful songs. In Australia, the main source of statistics for pop songs was the Kent Music Chart which we draw on for our information about the Australian scene.

The earliest Australian song I could find which topped our charts for one week in 1955 was by Daryl Stewart from a very popular film ‘A Man Called Peter’. Johnny O’Keefe, the undisputed king of rock and roll in our country, hit the top of the chart with ‘She’s My Baby’ in February, 1960. Surprisingly the song, recorded in America, only stayed on top for one week. Another brief stay was Liv Maesson’s cover ‘Knock Knock Who’s There’.

Big stars who experienced a brief stay at the top of the charts were Stevie Wonder (Superstition), Connie Francis ( Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You) Chicago (If You Leave Me Now) and most surprising, the Beatles (Love Me Do). Top sixties group the Supremes also hit the top with ‘The Happening’. There were also many one offs such as ‘Computer Games’ by Mi Sex in 1979, the instrumental theme from the film ‘Picnic’ – ‘Moonglow’ in 1956, and the Tommy Edwards popular ‘It’s All In The Game’ in 1958.

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