The Billboard Hot 100 began in 1958. Tom Breihan launched his Stereogum column in early 2018, “The Number Ones”— Breihan has been writing about every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, in chronological order ever since.
The Number Ones: Twenty Chart=Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music features Breihan’s choices as the key songs that influenced Rock ‘n’ Roll music. Just check out the Table of Contents below. My favorite chapter is “The Beach Boys — Good Vibrations.” Breihan presents the evolution of the song with its many changes. Brian Wilson spent $400,000 on the production of “Good Vibrations.” At the time, it was the most expensive single every made! But, Breihan takes the Extra Step of recounting what happened after “Good Vibrations” hit Number One. You’ll be surprised!
How many of these Number One songs do you remember? Any favorites? GRADE: A
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Chubby Checker-“The Twist” 11
(Released June 1960; hit #1 September 19, 1960; one-week reign; hit #1 again January 13, 1962; two-week reign.)
Chapter 2 The Shirelles-“Will You Love Me Tomorrow” 23
(Released November 1960; hit #1 January 30, 1961; two-week reign.)
Chapter 3 The Beatles-“I Want to Hold Your Hand” 35
(Released December 26, 1963; hit #1 February 1, 1964; seven-week reign.)
Chapter 4 The Supremes-“Where Did Our Love Go” 49
(Released June 17, 1964; hit #1 August 22, 1964; two-week reign.)
Chapter 5 The Byrds-“Mr. Tambourine Man” 67
(Released April 12, 1965; hit #1 June 26, 1965; one-week reign.)
Chapter 6 The Beach Boys-“Good Vibrations” 83
(Released October 10, 1966; hit #1 December 10, 1966; one-week reign.)
Chapter 7 George McCrae-“Rock Your Baby” 99
(Released April 1974; hit #1 July 13, 1974; two-week reign.)
Chapter 8 Fleetwood Mac-“Dreams” 113
(Released March 24, 1977; hit #1 June 11, 1977; one-week reign.)
Chapter 9 The Human League-“Don’t You Want Me” 127
(Released November 27, 1981; hit #1 July 3, 1982; three-week reign.)
Chapter 10 Michael Jackson-“Billie Jean” 141
(Released January 2, 1983; hit #1 March 5, 1983; seven-week reign.)
Chapter 11 Prince-“When Doves Cry” 159
(Released May 16, 1984; hit #1 July 7, 1984; five-week reign.)
Chapter 12 Bon Jovi-“You Give Love a Bad Name” 175
(Released July 23, 1986; hit #1 November 29, 1986; one-week reign.)
Chapter 13 Mariah Carey-“Vision of Love” 189
(Released May 15, 1990; hit #1 August 4, 1990; four-week reign.)
Chapter 14 Vanilla Ice-“Ice ice Baby” 203
(Released August 22, 1990; hit #1 November 3, 1990; one-week reign.)
Chapter 15 Puff Daddy-“Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” (Featuring Mase) 217
(Released February 11, 1997; hit #1 March 22, 1997; six-week reign.)
Chapter 16 Britney Spears-“… Baby One More Time” 233
(Released October 23, 1998; hit #1 January 30, 1999; two-week reign.)
Chapter 17 T-Pain-“Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” (Featuring Yung Joe) 249
(Released February 20, 2007; hit #1 May 26, 2007; one-week reign.)
Chapter 18 Soulja Boy Tell’em -“Crank That (Soulja Boy)” 263
(Released May 2, 2007; hit #1 September 15, 2007; seven-week reign.)
Chapter 19 Rae Sremmurd-“Black Beatles” (Featuring Gucci Mane) 277
(Released September 13, 2016; hit #1 November 25, 2016; seven-week reign.)
Chapter 20 BTS-“Dynamite” 293
(Released August 21, 2020; hit #1 September 5, 2020; three-week reign.)
Outro 313
Acknowledgments 317
Selected Bibliography 321
Index 325
I know every song up through Chapter 16. From that point on, I’m fuzzy. But I doubt I’m the demographic who hits the dance floor to “Shawty Snappin’”, so that’s understandable. This is probably a good “dip-into” book where you don’t have to read the chapters in order. One thing I do know about “Good Vibrations” is that, after hearing it, Paul McCartney told the other Beatles they were going to have to up their game for their next album—resulting in “Sgt. Pepper”.
Deb, McCartney also called “God Only Knows” the best song ever written.
That was McCartney’s famous response to first hearing PET SOUNDS, rather than the slightly later “Good Vibrations.”
I can’t discuss the “influence” of the last four performers, because I never heard of em. Of the ones I recognise . . . George McCrae? The Human League? Vanilla Ice?What did they influence, even in the ephemeral realm of pop music?
If you tie me to a chair and beat me silly with a rubber hose, I’ll probably admit that I saw Vanilla Ice live in 1990 with my then-13-year-old daughter. If memory serves, Milli Vanilli and Young MC. were on the same bill.
Fred, I used to take Katie and her friends to concerts of the Back Street Boys, N’Sync, and Christina Aguilera back in the day. Breihan has convincing arguments about George McCrae, The Human League, and even Vanilla Ice affecting the trends in pop music.
I only remember the “old hits” – from the 1980s on I was no longer interested and found the songs being played on radio everyday really silly, easy to forget.
But of course there are other groups/singers who were/are still active. People like Joe Bonamassa and the Tedeschi-Trucks couple – but these will probably never be a number 1 in pop.
It’s the same everywhere now:
Those who are most popular on the internet eg are just boring.
Wolf, with record sales so minuscule today, tracking songs on the Internet is a Black Art. I’m not convinced by any of those “statistics.”
I’ve never seen much correlation between popularity (not even being # 1) and quality, and that position is certainly borne out on this list. The only two I really love are “Good Vibrations” and the Byrds’ cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man”, which eclipses the Dylan version, one of only two times that ever happened to Dylan, the other being from Hendrix. Most of the rest are just OK , awful, or unknown to me.
Michael, Breihan explores “influences” these songs had on other artists. I agree with you on The Byrds and Hendrix.
The Band did some pretty good covers of Dylan.
Steve, The Band was Dylan’s backup band when he toured. I’m sure all the members knew Dylan’s songs inside and out!
I had it up to Chapter Six.
That leads me to conclude that no worthwhile music was written after “Good Vibrations” and I quit listening. It’s the only possible explanation.
Dan, I know several music lovers who would agree with your “Good Vibrations” assessment!
That reminds me of a professor I had in college who said nothing good had been written since Robert Browning died.
Deb, I’ve heard variations of that sentiment: “There’s been no great baseball player since Mickey Mantle” and “There hasn’t been a great mystery writer since Agatha Christie.”
I like The Bryrds, The Shirelles, The Beach Boys and Prince. I don’t mind The Human League, Fleetwood Mac and The Supremes. I love the Beatles but I wanna Hold Your Hand is not my favorite song of theirs but I can see why it is important as the first hit of the British Wave. Not familiar with the last group nor do i want to be.
Steve, you would enjoy Breihan’s analysis of The Beatles and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” I struggled with the last chapters of this book because I was not familiar with the artists/groups.
If one really wants to pick nits, one could insist that “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” as covered by the Springfields was the first hit of the Invasion, but it was a bit more of a Fore-Rumble of what was to come, as the first Top 20 single in the US by a UK pop group. As was the Tornado’s “Telstar”, which was the first #1 by a Brit rock band two months later, both in ’62.
Pity how “Eight Miles High”, the best single the Byrds were to record, was kept from achieving its likely full success by widespread radio-industry hostility to its perceived drug angle, as opposed to being mostly about their first tour of the UK and secondarily about Gene Clark’s terror of flying (making for an unfortunate early exit and easy Bird jokes).
Fairport Convention also was among the several who did better versions of Dylan songs than Dylan did.
If you quit after Chapter 11, I’m with you. Jackie is a big fan of “Don’t You Want Me,” which she has always called “the cookie song” because they used it in a Chips Ahoy commercial. But Vanilla Ice? Britney? Puffy? Pass.
On the other hand, I would definitely be interested in reading his column starting in 1958.
Jeff, I admire Tom Breihan for listen to all the BILLBOARD NUMBER ONE hits and trying to make sense of the impacts on the music industry. I think he’s somewhere in the 1980s in his column.
It seems he got to the seventies pretty fast and had a lot of songs from then on! Pshaw! Most of the music that came out post-disco is forgettable and sounds like it was written by a computer! Naturally, exceptions happen, but I’ll take the fifties and sixties any day!
Bob, you and Michael share preferences for Fifties and Sixties music!
And the more compelling music of recent years doesn’t usually get anywhere near the upper reaches of the charts. True of most yeaars, actually, but at least as much as ever these years.
It’s interesting the degree to which this reflects “his” music, inasmuch as the latter ’60s and the ’70s are skipped through…and, perhaps even odder, recent decades (though one could make the argument it’s harder to see what since 2016 has had much sustained influence). BTS’s online fandom certainly has earned more points than, say, Beyonce Knowles’s…
Todd, I agree with you. The choices in THE NUMBER ONES sometimes confounded me.