Plethora of Pop’s Rate-A-Record

I Can’t Stop Loving You

Oddity of oddities — 1962

Photo by Acton Crawford on Unsplash

“It takes a lot to laugh; it takes a train to cry.”

I just felt like quoting Dylan this morning as I contemplated the odd facts found within the three big Billboard charts for 1962. We can laugh, we can cry, and we can or can’t stop loving how divided and yet how close we all are.

For instance, I’m certain you’ve heard of each of the number one songs on these charts:

Pop: Acker Bilk’s “Stranger on the Shore.”

Country: Claude King’s “Wolverton Mountain.”

R&B: King Curtis’s “Soul Twist.”

Or I bet Steven Hale has heard of them at least.

I have heard OF King Curtis, but the other two artists have escaped me, which I suppose is no big feat given how new I am to old country, or that in my sixth year of life I was mainly listening to either “Big Bad John” (#32 Country and found nowhere on Pop) or “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” (1939 and not charting because of that early time).

I no longer remember what else I knew, but if you had told me that in ’62, The Beach Boys had already charted with “Surfin Safari” (#100 Pop), I wouldn’t have believed it had come that early. Same with Brian…