This Day in Top 40 History: January 1
Happy New Year! Although many of us sit back and relax on the first day of the year, it was business as usual for many of our favorite artists throughout…
Happy New Year! Although many of us sit back and relax on the first day of the year, it was business as usual for many of our favorite artists throughout music history, including the Beatles, ABBA, and The Doors. These are the most important events that happened in music on Jan. 1st.
Breakthrough Hits and Milestones
Some of the most important Top 40 milestones to happen on the first day of the year include:
- 1966: Simon & Garfunkel's legendary song "The Sound of Silence" reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent two weeks. The original acoustic version had been recorded two years prior, but the version that went to number 1 also included electric guitar and drums.
- 2005: Mario's "Let Me Love You" went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent nine weeks. It was Ne-Yo's first number 1 hit as a songwriter, having co-written the song alongside Scott Storch and Kameron Houff.
Cultural Milestones
Music's stories and characters are a huge part of its charm. These are the most consequential cultural moments of the day:
- 1962: The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records at its studios in West Hampstead, London. The label's A&R exec Dick Rowe rejected them because he thought that "guitar groups are on the way out," famously making one of the biggest mistakes in music history.
- 2013: Patti Page passed away at a retirement community in California, aged 85. She had four number 1 hits in the US throughout her career and became the first-ever pop singer to overdub her own song in 1947, as she was recording her first single, "Confess," during an artist strike.
Notable Recordings and Performances
While one legendary band's career was starting out with a show on NYE, another was ending. These are two notable performances that happened on Jan. 1:
- 1967: The Doors made their first live TV appearance on a show called Shebang, aired by KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles. They lip-synched through the studio version of their first single, "Break on Through."
- 1982: ABBA played their last live show as a group, in their native Sweden, on The Late Late Breakfast Show. Although they reunited for a private performance in 2016, this is still their last official appearance.
Industry Changes and Challenges
The music industry as a whole also enjoyed two milestone moments on Jan. 1. They are:
- 1964: The British show Top of the Pops aired for the first time on the BBC. It eventually became the longest-running weekly music show ever, airing until 2006 and hosting many popular musicians from every era.
- 1968: Billboard Magazine announced that albums outsold singles in the US for the first time in music history. This generally meant that artists needed to go beyond Top 40 hit singles and make sure other songs on their albums were on the same level.
From legendary songs reaching number 1 on the charts to iconic performances, the first day of the year was a pretty busy one for some of the biggest names in music. Visit us again tomorrow to discover the most important events from that day in Top 40 history.
