My brother found a survey from WABC, the Top 40 radio station we grew up on, for this week in 1964. He called it “the calm before the storm,” because it was the last week before the first appearance of the Beatles on the WABC chart.
In some ways the survey is a reflection of the styles of music before the British Invasion shook up pop music, with artists like Bobby Rydell, Jan and Dean, and The Singing Nun. Jack Jones was instructing young women to comb their hair and fix their makeup because “wives should always be lovers, too — run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.”
There also were signs of the coming upheaval, too, though — after all, the now-classic garage band song “Louie Louie” had been No. 1 for at least a couple of weeks, and there bubbling under the top songs was Lesley Gore’s anthem “You Don’t Own Me,” the complete opposite message from Jack Jones: “I’m not one of your little toys.”
The printed survey only showed the Top 14 songs and a handful of the rest of the Top 40, and whoever drafted this particular week’s survey didn’t include a little tune down at #35, no doubt not suspecting that a song could jump 35 slots in a single week.
But that’s what happened — “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” came from nowhere to No. 1, where it stayed for six weeks before being supplanted by “She Loves You,” which was No. 1 for six weeks until it was replaced by “Can’t Buy Me Love,” which was No. 1 for two weeks before “Hello Dolly!” by Louis Armstrong in mid-April became the first non-Beatle song since January to top the chart.
Louis ruled the roost for all of one week, and the next week “Do You Want to Know a Secret” was No. 1. The madness was underway, and pop music would never quite be the same.
