Number Two Hits, 1961-1963

People really loved novelty hits in the early 60's. Louie Louie, Be My Baby, and Crying are the clear standouts here

Rather boringly it's a straight fight between the Kingsmen and the Ronettes for me.

(Open Link)
(See "Louie Louie" as the first choice.)
(Vote for it without looking at anything else.)

Loads of great ones but went with the Kenny Ball light orchestra outlier.

Allan Sherman of course

Louie Louie, Be My Baby, and Crying are the clear standouts here

But holy crap is that a hard choice.

...

No it isn't, "Be My Baby" is the greatest

Kingsmen, Ronettes, Orbison and Kenny Ball are all favourites, but I have to go with "Can't Help Falling in Love."

Yeah, the idea of voting for a song that isn't Be My Baby on a poll that has BE MY FUCKING BABY on it is just laughably absurd.

it's a great song, don't get me wrong but maybe i've overplayed it now. And Crying is genuinely one of the most affecting songs of all time. And I'm a fan of both the Elvis songs. And Midnight In Moscow gets stuck in my head on a regular basis.

I also think that Skeeter Davis song is underrated.

Be My Baby in a walk.

Yeah, this is so 'Be My Baby'. Though 'End of the World' is fantastic, and there are plenty of other good-to-great tracks here. But it's 'Be My Baby'.

Be My Baby was held at #2 for three weeks by Jimmy Gilmer's 'Sugar Shack' of all things

Be My Baby is great, but I went with Louie Louie.

So many good songs on here come down to Louie Louie or Shop Around, went with the latter because I remember being very young, like 6 or 7, and asking my mom whether it was true that I should shop around.

went with 'be my baby' without a second thought, though i was tempted to throw a vote to allan sherman just for the hell of it.

The problem with voting for Allan Sherman or one of the other novelty hits is that the #1 hits of this period are absolutely littered with novelty hits already. I don't see how another one would be a good thing. Voting for "Crying" because I suspect it's getting lost in the shuffle.

despite how much i love "be my baby" and "louie louie" and "sally go round the roses" and "shop around" and several others, i must vote for skeeter davis. if i, and not david byrne, had written a book called "how music works," i might have embedded the 7-inch of "the end of the world" on page 1 and left it at that.

(ruby and the romantics' "our day will come" kept it out of the #1 slot.)

xp I am also voting for "Crying." Plenty of people are going to vote for "Be My Baby," it's a great song, it's given us many lovely drum intros over the years, but Roy Orbison is Roy Orbison.

Could have voted "End Of The World," though, which is instant nostalgia for me. My mom used to listen to Skeeter Davis a LOT when I was a kid.

"Ruby Baby" is one of my all time favorite vocal performances.

<3 Sally Go 'Round the Roses

voted 'louie louie'. kinda crazy to think that the biggest hit incarnation of 'apache' in the us is by a danish jazz musician.

a really strong list. End of the World followed by Raindrops

First instinct here is "Bristol Stomp."

no matter my affection for "Be My Baby," "Crying" still astounds me.

I don't think I heard the original Chris Kenner "I Like It Like That" all that much growing up. Great New Orleans record.

If all you guys going "Oh, Be My Baby will have enough votes, I'm voting for someone else..." end up with Be My Baby not winning, I swear to god I am coming round all your houses and giving you a slap, and trust me that hit will *not* feel like a kiss!

Not even joking!*

*(joking)

I almost stopped reading after "Be My Baby", but whatdoyaknow it's really "The End Of The World" that connects with me most. Honourable mention for "Can't Help Falling in Love", "Louie Louie", and "Raindrops" (love the bass line on this one)

"Be My Baby" is great but it's no "Da Doo Ron Ron" tbh

The Miracles ft. Bill 'Smokey' Robinson

Is that really how that band was once billed? "Smokey Robinson and the Miracles" somehow rolls off the tongue so much easier....

Huh, crazy to see Jørgen Ingmann on there, had no idea. He won the Eurovision as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYyhJvRE3mQ

He is awesome. But voted for Be My Baby, obviously.

I've never heard "Apache" on oldies radio - that seems to be one of those completely forgotten/ignored big hits

1. "The Mountain's High," 2. "Can't Get Used to Losing You," 3. "Bristol Stomp," 4. one of the ones that will win--Ronettes or Kingsmen or Surfaris.

Hey, it turns out this makes a pretty good playlist.
http://open.spotify.com/user/wmcrump/playlist/6LxFf330VwL4pJn0WxWuqJ

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Gotta agree with the notion that Be My Baby is overplayed and I'll add that it's over-lauded too, as is Spector in general. OK, come round and slap me BB. I think that as a producer he has his triumphs but while not exactly a one-trick pony he's actually not particularly creative beyond the formula he established in this period. The Back To Mono boxset is/was a great resource for individual songs but difficult to listen to an entire disc because it's so samey. Joe Meek, Kim Fowley, Shadow Morton all have much more variety and experimentation. Of course the vocals are cool though.

Voted for Mashed Potato Time.

If you're gonna listen to Be My Baby and tell me it's all about ~Phil Spector maaaaaan~ and just casually dismiss and elide the emotional resonance and delivery and performance of Ronnie with a tossed off "yeah the vocals are cool too", then I'm not going to come round and slap you, I'm going to come round and confiscate your ears because clearly you're not using them.

though i've already voted for skeeter davis, i would like to take a moment to praise the weird, haunting, mysterious wonder that is "sally go 'round the roses." the purity of that groove. the depth and lushness of the recording (according to wiki, there are at least 10 voices on the single, and the label spent $60,000 making it -- in 1962). the fact that it doesn't have a chorus, per se, and not much of a verse either. the whole song sounds like an extended outro to some other unheard song. some other implied song. a really, really dark implied, unheard song, whose essence has been distilled into this other amazing song that we are listening to, which says so much, both musically and lyrically, by saying so little. basically, a girl (or 10), about whom we know nothing, is telling another girl, about whom we know nothing, not to go out lest she run into her boyfriend, about whom we also know nothing except that he may be out there running around with a girl who is not sally. it amazes me that anyone thought this was going to be a hit, and that it actually became one.

Totally agreed on all counts. There's so much mystery piled into that song. The allusion to "Ring a Round o' Roses" alone is packed with vague menace. There's a sense of being in an obsessive elliptical loop, caught between two different forces of attraction - downtown and pain on the one hand, the roses on the other. Rather than resolving the loop, the song ends where it begins, with Sally teetering between them. I've seen lots of people interpret it in lesbian terms.

Luc Sante had a nice piece: http://ekotodi.blogspot.ca/2008/11/not-fade-away-part-6.html

When I became of age my mother called me to her side,
She said,"Son, you're growing up now.... pretty soon you'll take a bride...

and then she said...

that luc sante piece is great. thanks for the link, jmm!

It amuses me that The Orlons provided the backing vocals on "Mashed Potato Time", then afterword subtly trashed Dee Dee Sharp's record by singing of the inferiority of the Mashed Potato (and the Twist and the Fly) to the mighty Watusi, in their own #2 dance-craze hit of that year. That's not reason enough for me to vote for "The Wah-Watusi" over the Ronettes/Kingsmen/Surfaris/Dion, but I wanted to give it a shout-out anyways.

Anyways, "Be My Baby" again.

Voted "Crying", just Ahead of "Be My Baby". They are in a League of their own here, as the pre-Beatlesque (in US terms anyway) masterpieces they were.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Phew, I don't have to slap anyone tonight.

totally reasonable results.

except that dee clark was robbed

I thought I'd voted, guess not. I don't know why "The Mountain's High" isn't more famous. Dick and Dee Dee look squarer than Pat Boone, but the song itself is epic, apocalypic, huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJtTUR-qPqc

Apocalyp Now.