Non pop #1s?

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Songs or albums that were nothing like their time's top 40... if this hasn't already been done.

― Shaun (shaun), Sunday, 31 August 2003 04:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember Foster and Allen's "Maggie" keeping Frankie Goes to Hollywood out of the number one spot in my youth (in New Zealand)

― plebian plebs (plebian), Sunday, 31 August 2003 05:32 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread belongs to Robson and Jerome.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 31 August 2003 08:06 (twenty-two years ago)

wasnt there a bagpipe version of 'amazing grace' that was #1 in the 70s?

― joni, Sunday, 31 August 2003 08:25 (twenty-two years ago)

other #1s that stretch the definition of 'pop' to breaking point:

kenny rogers - coward of the county (is this the only country song to get to #1 in the uk?)
st winifreds choir thingy - grandma we love you
clive dunn - grandad
var der valk theme tune

― joni, Sunday, 31 August 2003 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

oh superman by laurie anderson.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 31 August 2003 08:48 (twenty-two years ago)

kenny rogers - coward of the county (is this the only country song to get to #1 in the uk?)

No, it isn't. Rogers himself went to #1 also three years prior to that one with "Lucille". Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" also topped the UK charts in the mid 70s, as did one off country-tinged hits by Pussycat and J.J. Barrie.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 31 August 2003 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Louis Armstrong's "Hello Dolly" displaced the Beatles at #1

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 31 August 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

wtf is "pop" if it doesn't include Louis Armstrong?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 31 August 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Bit difficult to pin down actually, as "pop" (the sociological definition) by default incorporates anything that hits #1.

As for the musical definition of "pop", I can think of a lot of #1s that doesn't fit in, because they were rock, dance, hip-hop, R&B, whatever rather than pop.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 31 August 2003 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

and just before that The Beatles displaced The Singing Nun

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 31 August 2003 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I was going to mention Hooked On Classics, but then I remembered that their single only got to #2 in America.

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Sunday, 31 August 2003 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

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