From the “Summer of Love” to the summer of Woodstock. The winds of change that swept through America in the sixties seemed particularly violent between June and September. Whether it was the British invasion that arrived on our coasts. Or the beach boys that plunged into the waves. The decade was dominated by hot windows, which could be as cartoon -like as the Archies or as urgent as “People got to be free”. Here are the biggest summer hits of the decade. Ordered after their length of stay at the top of the charts. We left ballads and atypically gentle hits. So sorry, Bobby Vinton, Dean Martin and others.
20. The Supremes – “Where did our love go”
In 1969, “Where did our love go” was the first song to take the Supremes to first place on the Hot 100 – a position that dominated the following year by standing at the top for a total of eleven weeks with their first five singles. In 1982 he became a summer hit again as a medley with “Tainted Love” in Soft Cells Synth-Pop success.
19. Chubby Checker – “The Twist”
Less a song than a meme, “The Twist” became the greatest dance trend of the dance trend of early sixties, for the first time in the summer of 1960 and again in the winter of 1962 at the top of the Hot 100 and produced several successors such as “Peppermint Twist” and “Let’s Twist Again”. Twist purists may prefer Hank Ballard’s original, but Chubby Checker’s version remains a monument of pop culture.
18. Little Stevie Wonder – “Finger tips – Part 2”
This title of Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius was-not surprisingly-the first number one hit by the later legend. It was also the first live recording that the Hot 100 ever listed-and the first time that a young Marvin Gaye-then Motown session drummer-could be heard on a number one plate.
17. The Supremes – “You Can’t Hurry Love”
The seventh number one hit of the Supremes, just two years after the first, was one of Motown’s wisest songs-a youthful love story, coupled with a motherly advice. When Phil Collins brought the song to the top 10 again in the early 1980s, he didn’t quite spell – thanks to the boomernostalgia.
16. Sly & The Family Stone – “Hot Fun in the Summertime”
“Hot Fun in the Summertime” was published in August 1969 as a non-album single. And was the crowning glory of an incredible summer for Sly & The Family Stone, which was a legendary Woodstock appearance and the success of the album! belonged. At the same time, the song marked the end of the band’s carefree early days – in autumn it moved to Los Angeles and fellfold drugs and disputes.
15. The Beatles – “Help!”
The title song of the second, satirical-albernen Beatles film is one of the last straightforward hymns from the band’s early hit phase-before introspective, less rocky songs like “Yesterday” appeared. In an interview in 1980, John Lennon admitted that the song was actually an unconscious call for help as a result of his rigid circumstances.
14. Little Eva-“The Loco-Motion”
One of the biggest hits by the songwriter couple Gerry Goffin and Carole King was a summer hit in three decades. Little Eva’s original recording from 1962 remains the final version, but Grand Funk Railroad again reached the charts in 1974 – and Kylie Minogue repeated this in 1988.
13. Cream – “Sunshine of your love”
Creams first and largest US hit was created in one night of inspiration when Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce came home from a concert by Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix returned a few months later – and made his version of “Sunshine of your love” an integral part of his live shows 1968/69.
12. The Doors – “Light My Fire”
In 1967, when long-playing plates became the new means of expression of the rock, a gap between singles popacts and serious album artists was created. The Doors hit the bridge with her breakthrough: a psychedelic seven-minute masterpiece with Ray Manzareek’s keyboard soli-but also a 2: 52 radio edit that made Jim Morrison a teenage idol.
11. The Beach Boys – “I Get Around”
The Beach Boys – Poetic Chronicler of the Summer – first place one of the hot 100 with this single from the album All Summer Long in July 1964. From then on it was said: sand and surf boards without end.
10. David Rose and his Orchestra – “The Stripper”
A song from 1958, which was published again in 1962 as the B-side of “EBB Tide”-and then shot in first place on the Popcharts. Since then he has accompanied every striptease in film and television. Long before Juicy J this was the strip club soundtrack of the masses.
9. The Rolling Stones – “Honky Tonk Women”
Four summer after “Satis Faction”, the Stones still ruled the summer like no other band of the sixties. In the turbulent first week of July in 1969, “Honky Tonk Women” appeared – the first single with the new guitarist Mick Taylor.
8. The Rolling Stones – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
Perhaps the most important nap in rock history: Keith Richards fell asleep after taking the reef and snowering into the tape for 40 minutes. However, the reef only became famous when he chased it through a Gibson Maestro Fuzz pedal-an imitation of the wind players that Richards had imagined but never recorded.
7. The Box Tops – “The Letter”
With Big Star, Alex Chilton became a cult hero in the 1970s. But before that he was the surprisingly rough 16-year-old singer of the chart “The Letter”-a classic of the Blue-Eyed Soul.
6. Four Tops – “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”
The same bitter sweet chords, which made it a hit in 1964 “Where did our love go”, returned the next summer-this time in a harder robe, with Levi Stubbs’ powerful vocals over one of the most rousing Motown grooves.
5. The Archies – “Sugar, Sugar”
No band-whether real or drawn-has produced a more iconic bubblegum single.
4. The Rascals – “People got to be free”
No song summarized the tense summer of 1968 – after the murder of MLK and RFK – better together than “People Got to be free”: a catchy, optimistic song that also sounded like a desperate call for peace and freedom.
3. The Four Seasons – “Sherry”
Bob Gaudios Songwriting and Frankie Valli’s incredible voice made several pop magic in the 1960s. But it was “sherry” that first gave the Jersey Boys first place-almost a decade after Valli’s first solo single.
2. Elvis Presley with the Jordanaires – “It’s now or never”
When Elvis came back from the army, he brought a song with him that he had heard in Germany – Tony Martin’s “There’s No Tomorrow”, based on the Italian melody “‘O Sole Mio”. Back in America, Presley had a new English hit version written on the same melody.
1. Bobby Lewis – “Tossin ‘And Turnin'”
“Tossin ‘and Turnin'” ruled the hot 100 for seven weeks-through sleepless July and August nights in 1961. Ironically, only the hit “One Track Mind” saved him from being stamped as one-hit wonder-his only top 10 hit.