# Is this the most obscure #1 Billboard hit song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953 "2015-08-15T23:34:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/101 "2015-08-19T15:35:09Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Wait, weren’t there plenty of “unpatriotic” and antiwar songs that had already become popular in the years immediately preceding 1974? Yes indeed. It’s hard to be more antiwar than “War, What is it good for, absolutely nothing”, #1 for Edwin Starr, 1970. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/102 "2015-08-19T16:24:09Z")
Interesting that no one mentioned the strong anti-war message of Billy. In the day the message probably would have received more notice than its musical qualities. I don’t know that I ever heard it before linking just now. I’m sure that Green Berets was played 20 times more frequently. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/103 "2015-08-19T16:34:36Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Wait, weren’t there plenty of “unpatriotic” and antiwar songs that had already become popular in the years immediately preceding 1974? Well I was 14 at the time. Here’s my analysis: It was a simplistic bubblegum song basically for little kids that had archaic marching drums on it, men in Blue, and some kind of rural reference in his going off to a war that sounded domestic, and I heard it a thousand times. At the end she throws the letter away, which is a different thing than saying “war, what is it good for” or “One two three, what are we fightin for?” For young rock fans it was hugely annoying and a symbol of immature dreck, and not any social sentiment. Didn’t remotely sound like any vietnam song to me. The war was over by that point, and nobody needed to be reminded not to be a hero at that time. Walter Cronkite had come out against it. Granted war is a universal subject, but I’d like to see one contemporaneous cite that anyone thought it was about Vietnam or that it was social commentary. Most anti war songs were about a draft, but this song is about a guy who enlists to be a hero. Can you cite another one of those having to do with Vietnam? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/104 "2015-08-19T16:39:00Z")
> [@svd678](#): > > Interesting that no one mentioned the strong anti-war message of Billy. In the day the message probably would have received more notice than its musical qualities. I don’t know that I ever heard it before linking just now. I’m sure that Green Berets was played 20 times more frequently. Thats because it was Kitsch and had no message, other than “War can get you killed” I don’t know how much Green Beret was played. But I suspect that billy was played a lot more. It was a huge huge hit. It was catchier, and was not fighting a whole countercultural tide, not to mention the great records that competed with Green Beret. You got to remember everything that happened between 62 and 74 was not about vietnam. We watched movies about WW2 and the Civil war and everything else. So songs were not only in one context. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/105 "2015-08-19T16:41:40Z")
Caught again, for posting after reading one page, and not seeing those following. I never thought of Civil War or Revolutionary while hearing it. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/106 "2015-08-19T16:53:01Z")
> [@svd678](#): > > Caught again, for posting after reading one page, and not seeing those following. I never thought of Civil War or Revolutionary while hearing it. No probs dude. I was just thinking in addition that culture has a lag to it that you don’t think about in retrospect. For instance most movies about war have to do with previous wars. It took until apocalypse now to make a big deal vietnam movie. Way way late, and because it was a subject that they didn’t want to tackle. All children at that time grew up watching WW2 movies, and other things from earlier: The little rascals, sherlock holmes movies, (Set in the 40s) sitcoms set in the 50s and early 60s. The cutting edge culture came in through rock and other things. If you had ever heard Edwin Starr you didn’t need Bo Donaldson to tell you about war, a day late and a dollar short. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/107 "2015-08-19T18:53:57Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I don’t know how much Green Beret was played. But I suspect that billy was played a lot more. It was a huge huge hit. It was catchier, and was not fighting a whole countercultural tide, not to mention the great records that competed with Green Beret. “Ballad of the Green Berets” was the [\*number one \*song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1966)of 1966. “Billy” only made #21 on 1974’s year-end chart. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/108 "2015-08-19T19:47:35Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > “Ballad of the Green Berets” was the [\*number one \*song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1966)of 1966. I got the “Ballad” LP for Christmas 1965; Barry Sadler was a featured guest on the nighttime version of _ **To Tell the Truth** _; my dad had a lounge singer dedicate her rendition to me (I was heavily into Army stuff at the time). It was **immensely** popular at the time, just like the original GI Joe was with guys my age! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/109 "2015-08-19T20:31:40Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > It was **immensely** popular at the time, just like the original GI Joe was with guys my age! Indeed. The “Ballad”–and the mystique of the Green Berets overall–was a major cultural phenomenon. “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” was a blip. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/110 "2015-08-19T20:32:15Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I got the “Ballad” LP for Christmas 1965; Barry Sadler was a featured guest on the nighttime version of _ **To Tell the Truth** _; my dad had a lounge singer dedicate her rendition to me (I was heavily into Army stuff at the time). It was **immensely** popular at the time, just like the original GI Joe was with guys my age! Well I wasn’t listening to top 40 that year a lot. It was quite popular though I’m sure. I forgot how Barry Sadler got into this anyway. If it’s important can you remind me? I have some phrases for you in this context: The exception that proves the rule The Silent majority Cognitive dissonance Reaction formation It clearly was selling to a different shade of audience than the Beatles Kinks Cream the stones ad infinitum. That can make for a very popular record. But charts aren’t everything and they do not only reflect airplay. Green Beret would have stood out as a novelty song in the midst of arguably the greatest year for rock singles, so I reasoned that it would have been played less. I could be wrong but I forgot why it matters. Oh wait a minute, To Tell the Truth, and Lounge singers? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/111 "2015-08-19T20:35:59Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Indeed. The “Ballad”–and the mystique of the Green Berets overall–was a major cultural phenomenon. “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” was a blip. Oh no. Are you going to start a thread on Billy Vs the Green Beret? He had enough trouble with that damned girlfriend. How “major” exactly? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/112 "2015-08-19T20:58:10Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > “Ballad of the Green Berets” was the [\*number one \*song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1966)of 1966. “Billy” only made #21 on 1974’s year-end chart. I know but: The #1 LP was Whipped Cream and other Delights, which you’ll remember from every thrift store visit you ever made. The beatles never had a top LP. Which was more important? 1965 top single was Woolly Bully, not Satisfaction. Says more about the chart calculations. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/113 "2015-08-20T06:03:39Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Granted war is a universal subject, but I’d like to see one contemporaneous cite that anyone thought it was about Vietnam or that it was social commentary. Most anti war songs were about a draft, but this song is about a guy who enlists to be a hero. Can you cite another one of those having to do with Vietnam? I’m not arguing for it being about Vietnam. I was just surprised that you marshalled “and so unpatriotic” as part of your argument…in 1974. ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/114 "2015-08-20T13:50:33Z")
I was born in the late 80’s and know half the suggestions here, Telstar, Disco Duck, Fly Robin Fly, Seasons in the sun, Yellow Polkadot Bikini. Not obscure. Never heard the OP ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/115 "2015-08-20T14:03:44Z")
“Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” was banned by some radio stations at the time, so, yes, some people thought of it as being about Vietnam: > **[Songs of the Vietnam Conflict](https://books.google.com/books?id=HHQqoUcbd8gC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=%22Billy%2BDon%27t%2BBe%2Ba%2BHero%22%2BVietnam&source=bl&ots=OnV-V8xvMm&sig=4ViWd3H-84V82gIrNqfFQ1XfBcs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCGoVChMIp9Sbo-m3xwIV1ICSCh1eOwtb#v=onepage&q=%22Billy%20Don't%20Be%20a%20Hero%22%20Vietnam&f=false)** > > Offering the widest scope of any study of one of popular music's most important eras, Songs of the Vietnam Conflict treats both anti-war and pro-government songs of the 1960s and early 1970s, from widely known selections such as Give Peace a Chance... ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/116 "2015-08-20T16:07:08Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m not arguing for it being about Vietnam. I was just surprised that you marshalled “and so unpatriotic” as part of your argument…in 1974. I meant “unpatriotic” for what amounted to a children’s song. Apparently it was seen that way by a few, vid: a post above this one. It was controversial by being “war is bad” and using a war death for commercial purposes when society had not got to the point where “Apocalypse now” or “Coming Home” could be made. That doesn’t mean it was about vietnam or even that “people thought it was about vietnam” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/117 "2015-08-20T18:27:11Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Yeah, it’s been covered. In the day the idea that it was about Vietnam was inconceivable. It was a bubblegum song for one thing. And so unpatriotic. It was clear it was a historical song and not contemporary social commentary at all. To sing along with it, or play it on the radio, knowing it was about Vietnam would have been really tone deaf at that time. It was “about” Vietnam in the same sense that _M_A_S_H\* was “about” Vietnam (The show was set in Korea, but shown in a manner that really didn’t make a distinction between the two cultures). After a glut of antiwar songs from about 1967-72, here was kind of a lull in the genre and then this one popped up in 1974. There was a bandwagon, and this song was part of it, a very late part of it. _The Red Badge of Courage_ is deliberately absent of any specific identifiers. Do you have any serious doubts about what war it was set in? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/118 "2015-08-20T20:25:42Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > It was “about” Vietnam in the same sense that _M_A_S_H\* was “about” Vietnam (The show was set in Korea, but shown in a manner that really didn’t make a distinction between the two cultures). After a glut of antiwar songs from about 1967-72, here was kind of a lull in the genre and then this one popped up in 1974. There was a bandwagon, and this song was part of it, a very late part of it. > > _The Red Badge of Courage_ is deliberately absent of any specific identifiers. Do you have any serious doubts about what war it was set in? Oh please, HH Your’e analogizing between MASH and Billy? MASH was a work of art as a movie, and great craft as TV. It was meant to be a stand in for the recent conflict. Has nada to do with this pop song. I don’t recall that the war had a special place for songwriters then. They only wrote about it as often as most other things, or less. Not much of a genre, but I don’t really care too much. Please feel free to name the hit songs about Vietnam from 67-72. This was an English song and hit by paper lace, written by the same guy that wrote “I’m telling you now” and “I Like It”. Do you mean there was a mood of anomie about war in the air and a hack songwriter was influenced by that to write a bubblegum song about the American Civil War? OK you got me, ouch? ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/119 "2015-08-20T20:54:21Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qlK9TJvuSk) was #1 on the Billboard charts only a decade before I started getting into pop music, but I had NEVER heard of the song or the group before today (thanks to the Meat Loaf thread). > > If it’s not this one, what is it? I get the sense that there would be a lot of sappy '70s light rock on a list of now-forgotten #1s. I’ve probably only heard of the song because of the show “Friends.” I know a lot of 70s lite rock just from the commercials or primarily from those compilations and the Air Supply infomercials. So much so that when I do hear one of those songs I always hear the songs in the sequence of the commercial. For example, I always expect to hear “Waiting for a Girl Like You” right after “Nights in White Satin”- well, I guess a lot of the compilations weren’t limited to the '70s. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/120 "2015-08-21T04:56:57Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I’ve probably only heard of the song because of the show “Friends.” I know a lot of 70s lite rock just from the commercials or primarily from those compilations and the Air Supply infomercials. So much so that when I do hear one of those songs I always hear the songs in the sequence of the commercial. For example, I always expect to hear “Waiting for a Girl Like You” right after “Nights in White Satin”- well, I guess a lot of the compilations weren’t limited to the '70s. To me, those two songs are HUGE compared to “Billy”. But I’m surprised to learn the song was referenced on a smash hit TV '90s show. That probably would disqualify it from my “award”. > [@Shearer](#): > > I was born in the late 80’s and know half the suggestions here, Telstar, Disco Duck, Fly Robin Fly, Seasons in the sun, Yellow Polkadot Bikini. Not obscure. > > Never heard the OP Thanks for providing a younger perspective! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953.md?page=7)