Today, we look at the first song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for multiple artists.
In “When We First Met”, we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of pop culture lore, like the first time that JJ said “Dy-no-MITE” or the first time that Fonzie made the jukebox at Arnold’s turn on and off by hitting it.
Bobby Vee was a hit musician in the late 1950s/early 1960s, in the mold of his idol, Buddy Holly. Vee wrote a number of hit songs, but one of them has the unusual distinction of being the first song to hit number one for two different artists, although neither of them was Vee himself!
Vee wrote and release the song, “Go Away Little Girl” in 1962, about a young man telling a young woman to go away from him so that he won’t be tempted to cheat on his girlfriend.
It was then covered the following year, 1963, by crooner Steve Lawrence, whose version of “Go Away Little Girl” hit #1 on the Hot 100 (the overall Billboard singles chart) in 1963 for one week (it was a bigger hit on the Easy Listening charts).
Nine years later, bubblegum pop star Donny Osmond had a bigger hit (lasting three weeks on the top of the Hot 100 in 1971) with his version of “Go Away Little Girl”, which, to be fair, works a lot better coming from an actual little kid…
The second song to hit for two artists, “The Loco-Motion,” came out three years later (1962 hit for Little Eva and 1974 for Grand Funk).
If anyone has a suggestion for a future When We First Met, drop me a line at brian@popculturereferences.com.
I thought it would be an idea to mention the equivalent in the UK chart as it is very different and seems bizarre enough to be of interest.
The UK chart started on 14th November 1952 – first number one “Here in my heart” by Al Martino
In the 1950s it was not uncommon for different versions of a song by different singers would be about at the same time with more than one making the chart especially in the UK as there would often be British and American versions of a song.
On 6th November 1953 (almost a year after the chart was launched) the number one was “Answer Me” by David Whitfield
On 13th November 1953 it was the same song “Answer Me” sung by Frankie Laine
While Frankie Laine held the number one spot for 8 weeks, the 11th December 1953 was one of the rare occasions that 2 songs shared the number one spot – the other song was “Answer Me” by David Whitfield.
I believe that was the only time that the UK had the same song sharing the number 1 spot, however, there was another occasion where 2 versions of the same song had number one in consecutive weeks.
4th January 1957 the number one spot was “Singing the Blues” by Guy Mitchell
On 11th January 1957 it was “Singing the Blues” by Tommy Steele but only for one week as Guy Mitchell ‘s version was back at number 1 on the 18th January.
The first non-consecutive occurrence of the same song at number one in the UK charts by different Artists was in 1955
On 29th April 1955 the number one was “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Perez ‘Prez’ Prado.
After 2 weeks at the top it was replaced by “Stranger in Paradise” by Tony Bennett for 2 weeks
And on 27th May 1955 number one was “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Eddie Calvert