The 10 Weirdest #1 Hits of the 20th Century

Hey, Meh writer @JasonToon here. There’s not much to say about these double-walled 14-ounce travel mugs with Autoseal lids except that they have uncanny powers of insulation. So that’s all we’ll say. The name “Pinnacle” got us thinking about #1 hits. So I went browsing the list of every single that’s ever topped the Billboard Hot 100 (or its antecedents) from 1940 all the way to now. And you know what I found? Some of them are really fucking weird.

Some songs just sound like #1 hits: “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Single Ladies”, “Billie Jean”. Then there are those songs that top the charts through some unforeseeable confluence of novelty value, lack of competition, movie or TV promotion, and mass insanity. And maybe some of these hits from bygone days just sound “weird” to me now because I’m not familiar enough with the musical atmosphere of the time. But hey, listen to this list of bizarre chart-toppers (also compiled in a YouTube playlist) and you tell me:

"Piano Concerto in B Flat" by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra (Oct 4 - Nov 22, 1941)
This big-band version of the Tchaikovsky piece is a mildly weird idea on paper, but it’s much odder in execution, never sticking with one mood, rhythm, or dominant lead instrument for more than twenty seconds at a time. Not exactly a toe-tapper.

"Peg o’ My Heart" by The Harmonicats (Jun 21, 1947)
The first use of reverb on a pop record, recorded through a chamber specially built for that purpose. It’s strange enough that a trio of harmonica players had a big hit with an instrumental version of a then-34-year-old showtune. The primitive reverb gives the whole thing an eerie nightmare dub feel that was, to put it mildly, not common in the pop charts of the late 1940s.

"The Third Man Theme" by Anton Karas (Apr 29 - Jul 8, 1950)
Director Carol Reed heard Karas playing the zither in a tavern in Vienna while Reed was preparing to shoot The Third Man. Karas was duly drafted to compose the music for the film, landing this twangy web of exotica atop the charts for more than two months.

"St. George and the Dragonet" by Stan Freberg (Oct 10-31, 1953)
The legend of St. George and the Dragon told as a Dragnet-style cop show. Freberg’s a funny guy, but it’s hard to imagine a piece of recorded sound less likely to ever get top 40 radio airplay ever again.

"Dominique" by The Singing Nun (Dec 7-28, 1963)
It’s a pretty song, but few industry insiders would have bet on Belgian nun Jeanne Deckers as a future pop star. She managed to make “Dominique” one of only a handful of foreign-language songs to ever top the Hot 100, the only one in French, and the only Belgian recording.

"In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" by Zager and Evans (Jul 12- Aug 16, 1969)
In the year 1969
A lot of people liked hippie sci-fi
With dopey lyrics and pompous vocals, too
I don’t get it, do you? Whoa-oooh-oh

"Theme from S.W.A.T." by Rhythm Heritage (Feb 28, 1976)
If you’re wondering how limp pop music was in the mid-'70s, consider that a briefly popular Aaron Spelling copsploitation drama was all it took to turn an anonymous funk instrumental into America’s favorite song.

"Stars on 45 Medley" by Stars on 45 (Jun 20, 1981)
A disco medley of Beatles songs is an obvious (if terrible) idea. But why start it with snippets of two non-Beatles songs, “Venus” and “Sugar Sugar”? Why such a random, pointless selection of Beatles cuts? Who bought this and why? WHY? This mess holds two Billboard records: the longest official title (“Medley: Intro ‘Venus’ / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I’ll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You’re Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45”) and the biggest embarrassment.

"Batdance" by Prince (Aug 5, 1989)
Blogging superstar and Prince scholar Anil Dash has strong feelings about Batdance. To Dash, the song is Prince’s statement about his Godlike role in creating his own aesthetic universe. To me, it’s just one of the strangest “songs” ever to top the Billboard chart.

"Kiss from a Rose" by Seal (Aug 26, 1995)
The power of the Caped Crusader also boosted another unlikely #1. This misty breath of Elizabethan erotica first appeared on the soundtrack to Batman Forever, and later on a million sweat-stained, hopeful mixtapes. Be honest: if you’d never heard it before, would you think “now THAT’s a #1 hit”?

There were a lot more novelty records, TV themes, and other head-scratchers I could have included; maybe I’ll do a Volume II. Why nothing from this century? None of those hits sound that weird to me. Maybe the pop charts are a lot more engineered now, or maybe I don’t have enough distance yet to identify what’s bizarre about today’s hits. Anyway, the point is, anybody can afford these Contigo Pinnacle tumblers, and anybody can reach the pinnacle of pop stardom. Just keep in mind, Sisters, we don’t ship to Belgium.

Our weekend playlist archive is number FUN with a bullet! (sorry):

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• 12 Great British Deep Cuts
• Ahhhhhh: 12 Shades of Musical Relaxation
• Campfire Hits: The '60s Pop-Folk Fad
• Weekend playlist archive