THE
BIG
SINGLES
SINGLES
For the
Chart-Week ENDING
June 13, 1964
HOT 100
SINGLES
Top 10
THIS WEEK IN ‘64:
THIS WEEK—LAST WEEK—TITLE—WRITER(s)—ARTIST(s)—RECORD LABEL—CATALOG NO.
***************************************************************************
No. 10 – (LW 17) – “I GET AROUND”
(Brian Wilson)
THE BEACH BOYS – CAPITOL – 5174
***************************************************************************No. 9 – (LW 12) – “PEOPLE”
(Bob Merrill / Jule Styne)
BARBRA STREISAND – COLUMBIA – 42965
***************************************************************************
No. 8 – (LW 5) – “HELLO, DOLLY!”
(Jerry Herman)
LOUIS ARMSTRONG And The All Stars – KAPP – 673
***************************************************************************
No. 7 – (LW 8) – “LITTLE CHILDREN”
(Mort Shuman / J. Leslie McFarland)
BILLY J. KRAMER With The Dakotas – IMPERIAL – 66027
***************************************************************************
No. 6 – (LW 7) – “WALK ON BY”
(Burt Bacharach)
DIONNE WARWICK – SCEPTER – 1274
***************************************************************************
No. 5 – (LW 3) – “MY GUY”
(William Robinson, Jr.)
MARY WELLS – MOTOWN – 1056
***************************************************************************
No. 4 – (LW 2) – “LOVE ME DO”
(John Lennon / Paul McCartney)
THE BEATLES – TOLLIE – 9008
***************************************************************************
No. 3 – (LW 4) – “LOVE ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART” (“Cuando Calienta El Sol”)
(Michael Vaughn / Carlos Rigual)
THE RAY CHARLES SINGERS – COMMAND –4046
***************************************************************************
No. 2 – (LW 6) – “A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE”
(John Lennon / Paul McCartney)
PETER AND GORDON With Geoff Love’s Music – CAPITOL – 5175
***************************************************************************
No.1
Pop
45 RPM
(Last Week No. 1)
“CHAPEL OF LOVE”
(Jeff Barry / Ellie Greenwich / Phil Spector)
Flip-Side:
“AIN’T THAT NICE”
THE DIXIE CUPS
RED BIRD RECORDS – 10-001
When you mix songwriters and producers of this caliber, it was a pretty good bet that a song like this would be a “sure thing.” In this case, that axiom applied. Songwriters Jeff Barry joined his then wife Ellie Greenwich along with future jail-bird Phil Spector to write a song for The Ronettes. Producer legends Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wanted to cut the song as well. The latter had just started a new label called Red Bird Records. The result was Leiber and Stoller getting the jump on Spector and his “Wall-of-Sound” techniques; giving them this week’s #1 record in the U.S.A. with “Chapel Of Love” by a group from New Orleans—Joan Marie Johnson, and her cousins, sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins—The Dixie Cups. This was the second of an ultimate three survey-phases as the biggest hit in America. Here’s the group lip-syncing to the original MONO single mix of the song on TV’sHollywood A Go-Go.
Any stereo mix you hear today on some audio outlets is not the original version we heard on that Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 45 RPM recording. “Chapel Of Love” was arranged by Mike Stoller. The Dixie Cups was the only American recording group to reach the No. 1 position on the Hot 100 in the entire first half of 1964—that is if you don’t include Louis Armstrong and His All Stars with “Hello Dolly.” And that just shows the dominance of the Beatles during those six months of ’64. The Dixie Cups’ follow-up single do “Chapel Of Love” was called “People Say,” which sounded suspiciously like its predecessor for good reason; Barry and Greenwich wrote that song as well. “People Say” reached a healthy No. 12 on the Hot 100 during the summer of ’64. Their next singles didn’t fare as well, with “You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked At Me” garnering the highest position of No. 39, followed by an even lesser chart record (No. 51 Pop) called “Little Bell.” The girls did have one more Top 20 hit in them with a remake of a 1953 recording then known as “Jock-O-Mo” by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, renamed “Iko Iko” reaching No. 20 Pop. Red Bird Records did pretty well right out of the box, with another Barry / Greenwich composition getting the No. 9 slot in a few weeks with a group from Jersey City, N.J. called the Jelly Beans, with a song called “I Wanna Love Him So Bad.” Then, the Shangra-Las began an all-out girl-group assault of the charts, beginning with “Remember, Walking In The Sand” (No. 5 Pop) and their biggest hit (No. 1 Pop) “Leader Of The Pack.” In fact, 11 of the labels’ first 30 45 RPM releases hit the Top 40. But Red Bird Records (along with sister labels, Blue Cat, Tiger and Daisy Records) was gone by the beginning of 1967—reportedly because Leiber and Stoller had brought in another record executive, George Goldner; who quickly incurred huge gambling debts, causing a New York mafia family to want all of the labels’ assets under their wing in exchange for the money owed. Leiber and Stoller sold the label to Goldner for just $1, and the producing duo ran for cover, getting back to their original occupations to get away from those unsavory types.
POP- STANDARD SINGLES
“20 45 RPM Special Survey”
THIS WEEK IN ‘64
No.1
MIDDLE-ROAD
45 RPM
(Last Week No. 1)
“LOVE ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART”
(“Cuando Caliente El Sol”)
(Michael Vaughn / Carlos Rigual)
Flip-Side:
“SWEET LITTLE MOUNTAIN BIRD”
THE RAY CHARLES SINGERS
COMMAND RECORDS – 4046
Not THAT Ray Charles. THIS Ray Charles was a conductor / arranger named Charles Raymond Offenberg from Chicago. He had the prime 45 RPM on the 20-title chart called Pop-Standard Singles as The Ray Charles Singers with “Love Me With All Your Heart” on the Command Records label. On that record label, only two people are listed as the song’s writers. However, the original melody supposedly came from a Nicaraguan songwriter Rafael Gaston Perez, reportedly with the help of an Argentine composer Carlos Albert Martinoli. Then Spanish lyrics were written by brothers Carlos and Mario Rigual. Here’s where it really gets confusing. The English lyrics were credited to a guy named Michael Vaughn (or Maurice Vaughn) or often credited to a guy named Selig Shaftel, under the pen-name Sunny Skylar, who performed with many Big Bands in the ‘40s. But the original U.S. single in ’64 says it was co-written ONLY by Michael Vaughn and Carlos Rigual.
“Love Me With All Your Heart” was in the third of four back-to-back weeks in the pinnacle position on the Pop-Standards Singles listing. It reached a healthy peak of No. 3 during this survey-cycle on the Hot 100. Many cover versions appeared out of nowhere, as did many remakes over the years by dozens of artists. It is a pleasant song with this vocal arrangement by Ray Charles. Not THAT Ray Charles! Oh, never mind.
**NOTE:
There was no Hot R&B Sides Chart this week in ‘64, as Billboard Magazine stopped reporting this listing from November of ’63 through January of ’65. In its place, I have chosen theCashbox Magazine Top 50 in R&B LocationsSingles chart to portray the biggest R&B single this week in ’64.
CASHBOX TOP 50 in R&B Locations CHART
THIS WEEK IN ‘64
No.1
R&B
45 RPM
(Last Week No. 6)
“MY GUY”
(William Robinson, Jr.)
Flip-Side:
“OH LITTLE BOY (WHAT YOU DID TO ME)”
MARY WELLS
MOTOWN RECORDS – 1056
By 1964, William Robinson was one of the most fruitful R&B producers/songwriters of the early ‘60s; and on this week’s No. 1 45 RPM on the Hot 100 Singles chart, the labels’ artwork featured just his nickname “Smokey” as the moniker for the producer. “My Guy” was in the last of seven ultimate weeks in the pinnacle position of the Cashbox Top 50 in R&B Locations chart, as sung by “The Queen of Motown,” Mary Wells. This “Hitsville, U.S.A.” song was not only the biggest single for Wells; it was the last solo 45 for the singer on Motown. Mary has the distinction of having the earliest No. 1 single on the Motown label. The first for Berry Gordy’s sister label Tamla Records was “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes almost three years earlier. Wells had four previous Top-15 Pop hits all put together by Robinson.
