# Number One with their first single **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847 "2020-03-19T22:36:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/21 "2020-03-20T14:22:18Z")
Procol Harum hit #1 in the UK with “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” though only #5 in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/22 "2020-03-20T16:15:52Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Procol Harum hit #1 in the UK with “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” though only #5 in the US. I’m not nearly as familiar with the UK charts, so there probably are other surprising examples as well. I do know that for most of the early 1960s in the UK, singles were left off of albums, on the theory that people didn’t want to buy the same music twice. That had to have some effect on singles sales, but it could go either way. People might buy more of the single because it was their only chance or they could buy fewer because hearing it on other peoples’ albums didn’t happen. Anybody from the UK who can address this? ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/23 "2020-03-20T16:47:38Z")
I don’t think The Knack had a single before “My Sharona”. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/24 "2020-03-20T16:59:46Z")
Kesha’s first release was an uncredited appearance in Flo Rida’s #1 single “Right Round,” and then she hit #1 again with her own debut single “TiK ToK.” ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/25 "2020-03-20T17:18:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > The Jackson 5 were the [“first group to debut with four consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with the songs “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “The Love You Save”, and “I’ll Be There”.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jackson_5) Along similar lines _in the UK_, Frankie Goes To Hollywood went: Relax - #1 Two Tribes - #1 The Power Of Love - #1 Welcome To The Pleasure Dome - #2 (Awwwww…) j ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/26 "2020-03-20T17:58:38Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Along similar lines _in the UK_, Frankie Goes To Hollywood went: > > Relax - #1 > Two Tribes - #1 > The Power Of Love - #1 > Welcome To The Pleasure Dome - #2 (Awwwww…) > > j Fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers had already debuted with 3 number 1s and then a number 2 in 1963/4. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/27 "2020-03-20T21:52:40Z")
In January of 1983 Men At Work simultaneously hit #1 with their first single ([Down Under](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9iY5y94s)) and their first album (_Business As Usual_) in not just the US but also in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/28 "2020-03-20T23:37:06Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Don’t forget how easily these charts are manipulated…or not so much manipulated, but getting airtime on Top 40 stations doesn’t just _happen_. I don’t know how prominent it is today, but I recall a huge artist (Britney, maybe) talking about how payola really isn’t gone. No, the producers aren’t paying the DJs, but the radio stations have a deal that they’ll only play songs that come from a specific company and the producers pay those 3rd parties to push their records. Heh. Per wiki, [Gary Lewis & the Playboys](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lewis_%26_the_Playboys) got their #1 debut the old-fashioned way: _“Garrett got airplay in New York City for “This Diamond Ring” by making a deal with WINS disc jockey “Murray the K” Kaufman, who ran a series of all-star concerts at theaters around the New York area. Garrett promised that if Kaufman played Lewis’ record, the Playboys would do his shows. Garrett then had Jerry Lewis use his contacts to get his son onto The Ed Sullivan Show.”_ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/29 "2020-03-21T01:52:01Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I do know that for most of the early 1960s in the UK, singles were left off of albums, on the theory that people didn’t want to buy the same music twice. It was more than just theory. Record buyers had less money in the UK and did not like to waste it. So the three formats – singles, LPs, and EPs (which never caught on in the US) avoided repeating songs. Putting a song on more than one was considered a rip off. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/30 "2020-03-21T02:46:02Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > Lisa Loeb “Stay (I Missed You)” > Macklemore and Ryan Lewis “Thrift Shop” I came in to mention these two. Then I found out it wasn’t Macklemore’s first single, which I honestly didn’t know. Cyndi Lauper hit #1 with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” her first single. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/31 "2020-03-21T03:56:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It was more than just theory. Record buyers had less money in the UK and did not like to waste it. So the three formats – singles, LPs, and EPs (which never caught on in the US) avoided repeating songs. Putting a song on more than one was considered a rip off. There were also unwritten laws that US pop albums consisted of 12 songs and UK albums of 14 songs. That’s why the early Beatles’ LP output (and that of the Rolling Stones and countless others) was so different in both countries. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/32 "2020-03-21T04:01:17Z")
Another from the U.K., Thunderclap Newman hit #1 with “Something in the Air” in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/33 "2020-03-21T04:15:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The Beatles’s “Love Me Do” was their first US single and went to #1 in the US. (This is if you don’t count “My Bonnie,” where they weren’t billed as the Beatles). > > Little Eva hit #1 with her first single, “The Loco-Motion.” That isn’t true at all. In the USA, the first single was I Want to Hold Your Hand. Love Me Do was the first UK single and not a number one, that was Please Please Me. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/34 "2020-03-21T05:17:16Z")
Ninja’d ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/35 "2020-03-21T06:13:08Z")
[A-ha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-ha_discography)’s Take on Me was their debut song and reached #1 on the US charts. Might be a bit of a cheat though, they released a second version of the song after the first failed to chart; but it was still the same song. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/36 "2020-03-21T06:25:40Z")
Men at Work probably qualify, depending on how stringently you want to define “first single.” They had been around for a couple of years, working as a “pub band” in Australia, and then signed their first record contract, with CBS Records, in early '81. Their first single once they had that contract, “Who Can It Be Now?”, reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard chart. However, prior to signing a record conract, they had self-released at least one single in Australia – a song called “Keypunch Operator,” which apparently did not chart in Australia (or anywhere else, for that matter). The B-side of that single was an early version of “Down Under” – a re-recorded version of that song was their second release with CBS, and it, too, reached #1 in the U.S. Edit: I didn’t see that Snowboarder Bo had already mentioned them – sorry! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/37 "2020-03-21T08:08:11Z")
[“If You Had My Love”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You_Had_My_Love) looks to qualify as a debut #1 for Jennifer Lopez. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/38 "2020-03-21T12:00:43Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > Another from the U.K., Thunderclap Newman hit #1 with “Something in the Air” in 1969. Also their only #1 from their only album. I had fun playing bass on the album. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/39 "2020-03-21T12:07:02Z")
I guess it’s time to mention the one-hit wonder that was Zager and Evans, with the truly weird #1 debut that was _In The Year 2525_. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847/40 "2020-03-21T13:22:41Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Also their only #1 from their only album. I had fun playing bass on the album. 🙂 Yes! I was hoping you might see your group namechecked and drop by! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/number-one-with-their-first-single/849847.md?page=3)