Today we take a peek-eroo at classic Number One singles from three different decades. Because they're all really cool songs, that's why...

Rod Stewart
Rod; Sept. 1973. (Photo: Roy Jones/Evening Standard/Getty Images)
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10/02/1959 (56 years ago today) - "Stay" by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs enters the U.S. singles chart where it will soon hit the No. 1 spot. Coming in at 1:37, it also becomes the shortest-in-length chart topper in U.S. history! Jackson Browne gets to work it in rather nicely a couple of decades later on his classic "Running On Empty" album (though his version, "The Load-Out/Stay", clocks in at 8:50).

10/02/1965 (50 years ago today) - The McCoys hit No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Hang On Sloopy" featuring a then-unknown Rick Derringer on guitar and vocals. The song was first recorded in 1964 by The Vibrations, an R&B band on Atlantic records. The Strangeloves (famous for "I Want Candy") wanted to re-record it too; at the time, they were touring with The Dave Clark Five who also had plans to do the song. Figuring The DC5's version would outsell anything they could come up with, The Strangeloves bailed on it. Dave Clark did too, leaving it up to The McCoys to turn it into a classic -- it was to be the only time The McCoys bothered the charts.

10/02/1971 (44 years ago today) - Rod Stewart starts a five-week run at No. 1 in America with the originally-double-A sided single "Maggie May" / "Reason To Believe". It didn't take long for radio stations to pick up on "Maggie" as the featured side, though "Reason" did manage some significant airplay, too. Coincidentally, on this same date, the album that both songs were on ("Every Picture Tells A Story") began a month-long residency at the top of the charts in England. It really is Stewart's best work; it was also the first 8-track tape I actually wore out and had to replace. True!

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"I know I keep you amused/But I feel I'm being used...", xoxo!

 

 

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