Monday, March 16, 2015

50 Year Flashback - March 16th, 1965

Here are "The Fabulous 57" Hits of WMCA, home of "The Good Guys" in New York CIty, circa 1965.

They're charting TWO versions of "Red Roses For A Blue Lady" ... Bert Kaempfert's instrumental hit is at #11 while the Vic Dana vocal version is at #21(We featured the Wayne Newton version a couple of weeks ago on our 50 Year Flashback!)

Petula Clark's got a couple of songs on the countdown this week ("I Know A Place" comes in at #25, three places ahead of her first US Hit "Downtown", now down to #28.)  In fact there are still quite a few British Invasion Artists represented on this week's chart:  "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey is at #2, "Eight Days A Week" by The Beatles is right behind it at #3, followed by Freddie and the Dreamers ("I'm Telling You Now", #4) and Herman's Hermits ("Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", #5).

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders hold down the #13 spot with their future #1 Hit "Game Of Love", followed by The Animals ("Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", #17), the two previously mentioned Petula Clark hits, "Tired Of Waiting" by The Kinks at #31, "If I Loved You" by Chad and Jeremy at #32, followed by The Searchers (#33 with "Bumble Bee") and Sandie Shaw (#34 with "Girl Don't Come").

The Moody Blues are at #37 with their first big hit, "Go Now", followed by Julie Andrews (technically British, right?) and Dick Van Dyke with the "Mary Poppins" hit "Super-Cali-Fragil-Istic-Expi-Ali-Docious" at #38.  Bringing up the rear are The Who (#46 with "I Can't Explain") and The Rolling Stones, new on the chart with "The Last Time", premiering at #56.  That gives British Acts 16 of the Top 57 songs, or a solid 28%.

Other Forgotten Hits favorites include "The Race Is On" by Jack Jones and "She's About A Mover" by The Sir Douglas Quintet.  I'm also partial to "Double-O-Seven", the follow-up hit for The Detergents ... it occupies the #27 spot this week on WMCA!