In 1963, Billboard magazine published a chart ranking the top-performing songs in the United States which were considered to be "middle of the road". The chart has undergone various name changes and since 1996 has been published under the title Adult Contemporary.[1] Until 1965, the listing was compiled simply by extracting from Billboard's pop music chart, the Hot 100, those songs which were deemed by the magazine's staff to be of an appropriate style and ranking them according to their placings on the Hot 100.[2] In 1963, the chart was published under the title Middle-Road Singles and 14 different songs topped the listing in 52 issues of the magazine.[3]
At the start of the year, Steve Lawrence held the number one position with "Go Away Little Girl", which stayed in the top spot through the issue of Billboard dated January 19 before it was replaced by "Walk Right In" by the Rooftop Singers. Only one act had more than one number one hit during the year: folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary spent two weeks at the top of the chart in May with "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and a further five weeks at number one in August with "Blowin' in the Wind". The latter song was replaced in the top spot by the longest-running Middle-Road chart-topper of the year, "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one. Vinton thus also had the highest total number of weeks at number one by any artist.
Nearly half of the acts who topped the Middle-Road chart in 1963 never reached number one on the Hot 100, including the Cascades, Skeeter Davis, Rolf Harris, and the Village Stompers.[4] Neither Al Martino or Andy Williams ever topped the Hot 100,[4] but both reached number one on the Most Played by Jockeys chart, one of the multiple pop charts which Billboard published prior to the creation of the Hot 100 in 1958.[4] The success of the Cascades was short-lived,[5] and the group achieved the unusual feat of topping the Middle-Road chart with the only one of their songs ever to appear on the listing.[3] This feat was also achieved by Belgian vocalist the Singing Nun, who had the final Middle-Road number one of 1963 with "Dominique". Although it also topped the Hot 100, it was the only song which the Singing Nun, also known as Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile), placed on either chart during her brief commercial career.[6][3][4]
Chart history
![A young East Asian man wearing a tuxedo and smiling broadly](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Kyu_sakamoto.png/170px-Kyu_sakamoto.png)
![A blonde-haired young woman smiling broadly](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Skeeter_Davis.png/170px-Skeeter_Davis.png)
See also
References
- ^ Whitburn 2002, p. 6.
- ^ Whitburn 2007, p. vi.
- ^ a b c Whitburn 2002, p. TBC.
- ^ a b c d Whitburn 2005, pp. TBC.
- ^ Wynn, Ron. "The Cascades Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
- ^ Seida, Linda. "The Singing Nun Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for January 5, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for January 12, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for January 19, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for January 26, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for February 2, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for February 9, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for February 16, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for February 23, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for March 2, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for March 9, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for March 16, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for March 23, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for March 30, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for April 6, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for April 13, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for April 20, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for April 27, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for May 4, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for May 11, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for May 18, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for May 25, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for June 1, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for June 8, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for June 15, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for June 22, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for June 29, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for July 6, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for July 13, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for July 20, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for July 27, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for August 3, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for August 10, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for August 17, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for August 24, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for August 31, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for September 7, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for September 14, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for September 21, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for September 28, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for October 5, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for October 12, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for October 19, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for October 26, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for November 2, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for November 9, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for November 16, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for November 23, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for November 30, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for December 7, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for December 14, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for December 21, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary chart for December 28, 1963". Billboard. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
Works cited
- Whitburn, Joel (2002). Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary, 1961–2001. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-149-9.
- Whitburn, Joel (2005). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 1955–2002. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-155-0.
- Whitburn, Joel (2007). Joel Whitburn Presents Billboard Top Adult Songs, 1961-2006. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-169-7.