My generation just missed the Beatles, so can you tell me: I recall hearing there was at least one time when the Beatles had the top hits #1 thru #5 spots simultaneously on the record chart. Is that correct? Did it happen more than once? Did Elvis, Beach Boys, or anyone else ever do the same…or something close?
It was April 1964 when it happened, and no other group did the same.
The Beatles swept the Top 5 in the first week of April 1964.
… sweet. I’m the ninja, not the ninja’d, finally. 
If memory serves, I believe it was April. 1964.
No one has duplicated the feat, but I know the BeeGees had 3 songs in the top 10 at once (Stayin’ Alive, Night Fever, and How Deep is Your Love), along with Andy Gibb’s Love is Thicker than Water, which was written by Barry and Andy Gibb, and Samantha Sang’s Emotion which was written by Barry and Robin Gibb. I believe there may have been a time when at least four of those 5 were in the top 5, but I am not sure how to Google that.
Did Michael Jackson come even close at any point during his Thriller years?
From another angle, in 1979 Triumph and Ian Gomm had songs titled “Hold On” in the Top 40 at the same time.
Wilson-Phillips and En Vogue did the same thing in 1991.
:eek:
The 1979 songs were by far the best.
Notice that those five Beatles records were on four different record labels. That’s really why it happened - the sudden popularity of the group encouraged all the American record labels they had dealt with to that point to suddenly release Beatles singles at the same time.
Funny you should ask, because a similar thing just happened this month on the UK singles chart, on which Ed Sheeran captured nine of the top 10 slots.
And this is probably why the answer to Mahaloth’s question about Michael Jackson is likely “no.”
Jackson released seven singles off of “Thriller”, across 1982 and 1983, all of which hit the top 10 on the U.S. charts. In order of release:
The Girl Is Mine #2
Billie Jean #1
Beat It #1
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ #5
Human Nature #7
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) #10
Thriller #4
But, with all of those off the same album, under the same record label, it wasn’t likely that Epic was going to cluster the releases of those singles so tightly that you’d get all of the singles simultaneously at the top of the charts. Most smart record companies would have been spreading out the single releases, to maximize the album’s exposure on the singles chart for as long as possible. (Note that Epic wasn’t even interested in doing a video for the song Thriller, as they were already happy with how well the album had sold, and Jackson went directly to MTV to get funding for it.)
So, I found the weekly charts for 1983:
The answer is that Jackson’s singles off of “Thriller” were spread out, from late 1982, through 1983, and into 1984.
“The Girl Is Mine” entered the top 10 in late November 1982, and was #2 through January '83, but by the time “Billie Jean” hit the top 10 (week of 2/19), “The Girl Is Mine” had fallen out of the top 40.
“Billie Jean” was then at #1 for 7 straight weeks (3/5 - 4/16); “Beat It” was in the top 10 for the final two of those weeks. After one week in which a Michael Jackson song was not #1 (4/23, Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come On Eileen”), “Beat It” was then #1 for three straight weeks, but by the second week in which “Beat It” was #1, “Billie Jean” had fallen out of the top 10.
“Beat It” finally dropped out of the top 10 in the week of 6/18, but Jackson’s next single, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” didn’t reach the top 10 until 7/2; it stayed in the top 10 until 8/6, peaking at #5.
“Human Nature” made it to the top 10 on 9/3, peaked at #7, and dropped back out of the top 10 on 10/1. “P.Y.T.” had one week in the top 10 (#10, week of 11/26), though, in that week, “Say Say Say” (Jackson’s duet with Paul McCartney, which wasn’t on “Thriller”, but on McCartney’s “Pipes of Peace”) was at #2.
“Say Say Say” spent 5 weeks at #1, across the end of 1983 and beginning of 1984; it left the top 10 on 2/4. “Thriller” (the single) wasn’t released in the U.S. until 1/23/84, and didn’t make the top 10 until 2/18, peaking at #4.
So, there was a period of about a year and a half (late 1982 - early 1984) in which Michael Jackson had a top-10 single for most of the time, but in that span, there were only two weeks in which he had multiple songs in the top 10 – and in both cases, it was only 2 songs.
Fun fact about the Beatles’ domination of the charts at the time. They held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks, from Feb. 1 through May 2, with three of their songs. When they finally got knocked off the top on May 9, it was by Louis Armstrong, with “Hello Dolly.”
Curious thing: Did anyone happen to catch AT40 this past Sunday, March 26th? The year chosen to replay was 1982. When Casey got to the Top 5, he said something about groups with their first five songs debuting in the Top 5…or something like that. He mentioned Michael Jackson and Elvis, but he did not mention the Beatles nor Beach Boys. Might some SD music buff have a guess at what Casey might have been driving at (and why it was relevant to 1982)?
Meanwhile, I’ll do some digging on my own. If I find out, I’ll post an update.
Not the same, of course, but Ed Sheeran has 5 songs in the top 12 in the UK Charts at the moment, including #1-2-3.
Jinx, a number of Beatles songs were not hits in the US when originally released in 1963… that might be the issue there. It was “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” that kicked off Beatlemania in the US starting in Dec 63.
You are correct. I actually reached out to AT40.com, and I was surprised they answered me and sent me a sound bite of Casom’s fact. The fact is that only a scant number of groups had their first 6 hits go to the Top 5 (as-of 1982). Th groups were:
a) Elvis
b) The Monkees
c) The Jackson 5*
d) …and Air Supply in 1982.
*Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was probably released in 1983, I believe.
Note: My original post did not reflect the correct statement heard on AT40. My apologies. Still, I think many may find the answer to the correct trivia fact surprising.
Close enough – November 30th, 1982.
Also, note that Jackson had a long string of non-Jackson 5 singles before Thriller, going back to 1971.