Tonight, we're going to go down memory lane a bit.
(1) What was the #1 song on the day you were born? Or on your birthday when you were 15? When you were 18? Or when you married? Or some other important date in your life.
(2) Go to http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/birthdayno1, enter the date, and select from UK, US, or Australia record lists. Note: The first date available is 1 January 1946.
Alternatively, go to Wikipedia.org and search for "number one songs in yyyy" (insert your year), enter the month and date, and see a list of number one songs for each year since 1940.
(3) Tell us what your results are (if you are sensitive about your age, don't list the date or year) in a blog post of your own, a comment to this post, or a Facebook status line or note.
So, let's see what I came up with.
• Birth date April 9, 1962:
From "This Day in Music", the #1 song in the United States was "Good Luck Charm" by Elvis Presley, also #1 in Australia on that day. (YouTube says that the song hit #1 the week ending April 21, which means spanning April 15–21, so the "This Day in Music" site may not be entirely accurate?)
• 15th birthday, April 9, 1977:
From "This Day in Music", the #1 song in the United States was Abba's "Dancing Queen", which was also #1 in Canada on that day.
• 18th birthday, April 9, 1980:
From "This Day in Music", the #1 song in the United States was "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" by Pink Floyd, another song which was also #1 in Canada on that day.
• 25th birthday, April 9, 1987 (which was important to me because I turned a quarter of a century):
From "This Day in Music", the #1 song in the United States was Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", which was yet another song that was also #1 in Canada on that day.
• I haven't been married, but my anniversary date with my ex is February 14, 2007:
From "This Day in Music", the #1 song was Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" (which I've never heard of, but I haven't heard of any of the other songs from that date either).
• 50th birthday, April 9, 2012:
From "This Day in Music", the #1 song in the United States was "We Are Young" by Fun (featuring Janelle Monáe), would you believe another song which was also #1 in Canada on that day.
The year 2012, when I turned 50, was also the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and I celebrated my birthday at a costume ball commemorating the ship. According to one site, the most popular song that year was "That Haunting Melody" by Al Jolson, but I can't find anything for a specific date.
"This Day in Music" also provides the #1 song in Australia and in Germany, by the way.
Your early songs are all pretty good. I had that Pink Floyd song on my list in 1980 until I realized I needed to fix it to Aug. It was interesting that the top songs in UK and Germany were about a year later than in the US.
ReplyDeleteI guess it kind of makes sense that it took songs longer to get over the pond to Europe, especially for the earlier years. Elvis must have transcended that kind of mundane thing with his song also being #1 in Australia at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI loved this challenge with all the oldies. I don't know a lot about music from the 1980s onward, but I love the 50s and 60s. Good Luck Charm was a fun song.
ReplyDeleteApparently you're a little bit older than I am. :) But I love 50s and 60s songs also!
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