Interesting. Do you know what the period was for the 1966 list? I can’t find that.
I did find a site that tried to duplicate the year end charts for the 1960s using the original top 100 weekly listings, scoring 100 for no. 1 and 1 for no. 100. They didn’t exactly match, so he tried adding 100 bonus points for each week at no. 1 and changing the date range slightly. Still no matches, but interesting results.
For 1966, going through 12/10 left off GV, but going through 12/31 it suddenly popped up at no. 33. Those extra three weeks would have added about 275 points to the total, so it’s possible that an earlier cut off would put it just under the top 100. Not bubbling up, though.
IMO, half of the greatest songs in pop music history are from just those two years. Just staying at number one for a week was a huge accomplishment. No song remained at number one for more than a week in 1966 (although “Sounds of Silence” made number one twice in nonconsecutive weeks)
I don’t have exactly what you’re looking for, but this Wikipedia link sheds some light on the past and present methods for tabulating positions on Billboard’s year-end singles charts.
It sounds fine to me there with its meticulous orchestration. It’s “Sloop John B” that sounds jarring on Pet Sounds to me, though I like the song fine. It’s an okay Pet Sounds song, but I’m not sure it’d be in my top half of songs from that album. Now that I think of it, I used to skip past it when listening to Pet Sounds as it would upset the mood for me.
I know, right on. That list is incredible. I bet most people here from that era could instantly start humming any from 1 to 100. And probably most of the second 100 as well. Was catchiness catching in those years?
But since you got me on “Good Vibrations,” I need to say that a full sixteen songs other than SoS were no. 1 for more than one week, topped by the worst song of the 60s, “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” at five straight.
Apparently, the record company insisted given the success of the single. I’ve always thought that the four singles on the album came from a different album than the other songs, which maybe is why I don’t rate it as highly as others do. It’s more like the American version of Magical Mystery Tour, part Tour and part collected singles. Their earlier albums (not Party, of course) seemed more coherent in tone, which I know is heretical.
@pulykamell I’m sort of the opposite: In Pet Sounds I like Sloop John B, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, God Only Knows and skip the rest** because the rest sound like a lush teen angst paean. More about layering beautiful sounds rather than constructing a good pop song.
I’m sure some of you are well aware of this, but there was more to Brian Wilson than just The Beach Boys. From some of the discussion I’ve seen here and elsewhere, one gets the impression that Brian was synonymous with the Beach Boys. That’s understandable—Brian’s most significant work was what he did with The Beach Boys, and vice versa—but it’s not entirely accurate. A significant amount of the muisic that The Beach Boys recorded post-1960s had little or no involvement from Brian. And Brian had a significant solo career without the Boys. A few samples:
“Love and Mercy” - probably the closest thing he had to a “signature song” as a solo artist.
As far as I can tell, he had no involvement in the two Wilson Phillips albums prior to the group breaking up in 1993.
In 2003, they reunited, and their three subsequent albums have been primarily cover songs; on each of those albums, they had at least one (old) song written by Brian; it looks like Brian played on their cover of “In My Room,” and did the arrangement for their cover of “Our Prayer.”
I was never a fan, but when Musical Geniuses all toss out the same name, it’s kinda hard to dispute. I’m not a big fan of Neil Simon, either. But same goes for him.
I didn’t read this. I don’t have to. The headline says it all. Love is a fixture in my area, and its well know, according to him, that he was the sole talent behind that whole organization. Always in a Pink Satin Jacket.
The Beach Boys’ heyday was well before my time, but they were a favorite of my dad’s, who held Brian Wilson in especially high regard. God Only Knows may well have been #1 on his list of favorite songs. It’s one of my favorites too.
I have alwasy felt blessed to have grown up in a time when the Beach Boys and the Beatles were churning out classic songs on the radio every other week (or more). Thanks mom for having that radio in the kitchen when I was 5, and for not playing country music like my dad!
