Ask “Mr. Music”
Jerry Osborne



FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 18, 2016

DEAR JERRY: I'm a fan of 1964 and '65 British Invasion records, and would like to know in which week the Brits had the most songs on Billboard?
—Gary Maurer, Milaca, Minn.

DEAR GARY: My instincts directed me to midway between the two years you mention, and, once in the neighborhood, the Billboard survey for January 9, 1965 caught my eye. This could be the week that was.

Using the entire chart, the Hot 100 plus 35 "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" titles (101-135), I found 28 songs, by 23 different British acts, about 21 percent overall.

The five Brits with two charted tunes that week are: Beatles; Zombies; Kinks; Rolling Stones; and Dusty Springfield.

Here they are, in order of their position that week, with artist, title, and total number of weeks charted.

"Downtown" (Petula Clark) and "She's Not There" (Zombies) lead the pack in longevity, each with a 15-week stay:

1. Beatles - "I Feel Fine" (11)
4. Searchers - "Love Potion Number Nine" (14)
5. Petula Clark - "Downtown" (15)
10. Julie Rogers - "The Wedding" (11)
11. Beatles - "She's a Woman" (9)
12. Manfred Mann - "Sha La La" (12)
14. Dave Clark Five - "Any Way You Want It" (12)
16. Zombies - "She's Not There" (15)
17. Chad & Jeremy - "Willow Weep for Me" (13)
22. Marianne Faithful - "As Tears Go By" (9)
23. Matt Monro - "Walk Away" (9)
27. Herman's Hermits - "I'm Into Something Good" (13)
29. Gerry and the Pacemakers - "I'll Be There" (10)
43. Animals - "Boom Boom" (7)
44. Kinks - "All Day and All of the Night" (12)
49. Rolling Stones - "Time Is on My Side" (13)
51. Honeycombs - "I Can't Stop" (7)
59. Hullaballoos - "I'm Gonna Love You Too" (9)
60. Sandie Shaw - "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (7)
65. Bachelors - "No Arms Can Ever Hold You" (10)
77. Rolling Stones - "Heart of Stone" (9)
81. Zombies - "Tell Her No" (11)
85. Peter & Gordon - "I Go to Pieces" (11)

Of the five British entries in the Bubbling Under category, only Adam Faith hung around for awhile. The others quickly fizzled:

104. Adam Faith and the Roulettes - "It's Alright" (8)
109. Dusty Springfield - "Guess Who"
113. Lulu "I'll Come Running"
128. Dusty Springfield - "Live It Up"
134. Kinks - "Long Tall Sally"

Everything on the survey that week came out in late 1964.

DEAR JERRY: As you know, Joe Dowell's "Wooden Heart" has some verses in German.

Hearing of Dowell's recent passing (Feb. 4), has me wondering if there are any other Top 10 American hits of the 1950s and '60s that include a second language.
—Dave Leveton, Gainesville, Va.

DEAR DAVE: "Wooden Heart" is not unique in this regard, as you're about to discover.

When Elvis Presley's "Wooden Heart," from the "G.I. Blues" LP, was the No. 1 tune in the UK, Joe Dowell, knowing it was not scheduled to be an Elvis single in the U.S., wisely recorded it for Smash (#1708).

It was indeed a smash, one of the million-selling, Gold Record Award variety!

Both versions have a couple of verses in German that, in part, bear no resemblance or connection to the English lyrics.

Besides the parameters suggested, I'm adding a couple more.

The amount of each language used doesn't matter, as long as there is some of each. This disqualifies those sung entirely in another language. "Dominique" (French) and "Sukiyaki" (Japanese) are two examples.

Songs with a foreign title that have no other non-English lyrics, such as "Vaya Con Dios" and "My Cherie Amour," do not qualify.

Combing through 10,400 Top 10 hits, on 1,040 weekly charts, revealed only 25 qualified multilingual entries, and less than a third of those are from the 1960s.

Clearly, hits including a foreign language were far more common in the 1950s than in the '60s.

List is chronological, with title, artist, and second language:

September 1950: "La Vie en Rose" Tony Martin (French)
July 1952: "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (Italian)
September 1952: "Jambalaya" Jo Stafford (Cajun French)
January 1953: "Tell Me You're Mine" Gaylords (Italian)
June 1953: "Anna (El. N. Zumbon)" Silvana Mangano (Italian)
July 1953: "Allez-Vous-En" Kay Starr (French)
August 1953: "C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)" Eartha Kitt (French)
November 1953: "That's Amore" Dean Martin (Italian)
February 1954: "From the Vine Came the Grape" Gaylords (Italian)
March 1954: "Darktown Strutters Ball" Lou Monte (Italian)
July 1954: "Isle of Capri" Gaylords (Italian)
August 1954: "The Little Shoemaker" Gaylords (Italian)
November 1954: "Mambo Italiano" Rosemary Clooney (Italian)
May 1955: "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" Nat King Cole (French)
March 1958: "Lazy Mary (Luna Mezzo Mare)" Lou Monte (Italian)
May 1958: "Return to Me" Dean Martin (Italian)
August 1958: "Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)" Dean Martin (Italian)
April 1960: "Mama" Connie Francis (Italian)
August 1960: "Volare" Bobby Rydell (Italian)
December 1960: "Sailor (Your Home Is the Sea)" Lolita (German)
August 1961: "Wooden Heart" Joe Dowell (German)
June 1962: "Al Di La" Emilio Pericoli (Italian)
December 1962: "Pepino the Italian Mouse" Lou Monte (Italian)
May 1965: "Wooly Bully" Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (Spanish)
September 1966: "Guantanamera" Sandpipers (Spanish)

IZ ZAT SO? During the entire vinyl era (1949-1989), just five songs sung in a foreign language reached No. 1 in the U.S.

Amazingly, each of those is in a different language:

1958: Domenico Modugno "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)" (Italian)
1963: Kyu Sakamoto "Sukiyaki" (Japanese)
1963: The Singing Nun "Dominique" (French)
1986: Falco "Rock Me Amadeus" (German)
1987: Los Lobos "La Bamba" (Spanish)

There have been hits in Polish, Hawaiian, and Portuguese that just didn't quite qualify.





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