Top Ten Tuesday: 1960, The Next 10

After a month of Top Tens, where I recreated the Top Ten for 26 radio stations around the US, Canada, and other parts of the world, I got to today and thought "well, fat boy, what do you do for an encore?" I considered doing the Top Tens from the Billboard Hot 100 year-end lists, starting with 1960 and working the rest of the surveys going forward until, say, 1989 (which would take me the rest of the year), but, as I looked at the songs in the Top Ten, I realized I’ve played all of those, a lot. Looking at the next ten, on the other hand, looked more interesting. I made up my mind to look at the year-end Hot 100’s, but rather than doing #1-10, I’d do #11-20. The full year-end Hot 100 for 1960 is here; here are #11-20…

#20 – Roy Orbison, "Only The Lonely": Brenda Lee’s "I’m Sorry" kept it out of the top spot on the Hot 100, while the song did reach #1 in the UK. Roy and co-writer Joe Melson wrote it, intending to sell it to Elvis or the Everly Brothers, but when neither act was interested, Roy recorded it himself.

#19 – Brian Hyland, "Itsy Bitsy, Teenie Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini": Reached #1 on the Hot 100 and sold a million copies, earning a gold record.

#18 – Brenda Lee, "Sweet Nothin’s": Brenda’s first Top ten hit, it reached #4 on the Hot 100 and in the UK.

#17 – Connie Francis, "My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own": By Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller, it was the followup to "Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool," but didn’t cross over to the country chart. It reached #1 on the Hot 100 and #4 in the UK.

#16 – The Hollywood Argyles, "Alley Oop": Reached #1 on the Hot 100 and was The Argyles’ only Top Ten hit.

#15 – Marty Robbins, "El Paso": I was surprised that this wasn’t a Top Ten single, but regardless, it was a #1 hit on the pop and country charts.

#14 – Jack Scott, "What In The World’s Come Over You": A Canadian-American singer and songwriterJack is a member of the Canadian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and has been called "Canada’s greatest rock & roll singer of all time." The song peaked at #5 in the US and #2 in Canada.

#13 – The Brothers Four, "Greenfields": An American folk quartet from the Seattle area, "Greenfields" peaked at #2 in the US, #40 in the UK,and #1 in Norway.

#12 – Bobby Rydell, "Wild One": Reached #2 on the Hot 100, trapped there behind Percy Faith’s "Theme From A Summer Place." This was Rydell’s biggest hit.

#11 – Connie Francis, "Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool": Executives at MGM had their doubts about this record, thinking Connie was committing career suicide in Europe, but the song reached #12 in the US and the B side, "Jealous of You (Tango Della Gelosia)," was a hit in Italy.

That’s Top Ten Tuesday for May 4, 2021. Let me know what you think of this.