# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/121 "2015-08-21T11:35:20Z")
Personally, I think the most obscure Billboard #1 hit has to be _Stranger on the Shore_, by Mr. Acker Bilk, which in May of 1962 knocked _Soldier Boy_ by the Shirelles out of the top spot. ---
**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 22, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/122 "2015-08-22T11:41:35Z")
A worthy nominee! ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/123 "2015-08-22T15:10:14Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > **Is this the most obscure #1 Billboard hit song?** > > _The Streak_, which was about, well, someone running around naked. Hey, that got a reference on The Simpsons! (Homer: “My copy of The Streak! The dog must have buried it! Marg: Yes, the dog buried it, (nervous laugh)” “Billy don’t be a hero” was on high rotation when I was in high school. It’s got a strong simple melody. That video doesn’t do it any favours. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/124 "2015-08-22T22:08:57Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > 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? Theme to the 1971 movie Billy Jack, which was about a Vietnam veteran: Recorded by Jinx Dawson of Coven. Not a hippie-folk band; they were actually a goth-metal precursor to Black Sabbath, who came out with War Pigs in 1970: John Lennon released "Imagine" in 1971. ---
**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 22, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953/125 "2015-08-22T23:09:28Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > Theme to the 1971 movie Billy Jack, which was about a Vietnam veteran: > > Recorded by Jinx Dawson of Coven. Not a hippie-folk band; they were actually a goth-metal precursor to Black Sabbath, who came out with War Pigs in 1970: > > John Lennon released "Imagine" in 1971. Are you trying to make my point for me? The Billy Jack song was not about the real world, even, certainly not about Billy Jack. John Lennon as a Beatle was **forbidden** to talk about the war, (the premier songwriter of the age) and Imagine is not about war particularly. He mentioned it in passing a couple of times vaguely as a concept in a couple of songs. If that is all you got why bother? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-most-obscure-1-billboard-hit-song/727953.md?page=6)