Do you have a favorite song? Most of us do. If I were to bet, I would guess that your favorite is a song that came out at a very emotional time in your life. Maybe you were dating your husband or wife. Maybe you had a fascination for someone or some place. Maybe it was a lost love. It usually is, you know.
Yeah, even research tells us that music is most important to us at emotional times in our lives. Music, it is said, can soothe the savage beast. And I’m sure it can. But it probably did more to prompt a kiss or two than soothe the beast in us. Even other artists can have a bit of fun capitalizing on the popularity of a song or group.
Here(s something I(m betting you didn’t know. For every single recording that was a Billboard Top 40 hit, whose title included the name of a different recording act, that other act had at least one Top 40 hit at the same exact time? Here are some examples of what I mean. In 1964 the song, We Love You Beatles, by The Carefrees was on the charts at the same time The Beatles had seven songs of their own in the Top 40. In 1984 Rick Springfield had the minor hit, Bruce, exactly at the same time Bruce Springsteen was charting himself with Born in the U.S.A.
In 1987, both the ABC song When Smokey Sings and Smokey Robinson’s own recording of One Heartbeat were in the Top 10 at the same time. And in 1992 even Weird Al Yankovic had the hit Smells Like Nirvana at the same time that Nirvana had the hit Come As You Are.
But I(m betting that none of those were your favorite songs. Let me take a guess. Never My Love? Yesterday? Stand By Me? I’ll bet I hit a few favorite nerves there. But when I tell you that those three songs were played on the radio more than 7,000,000 times, then you would probably be able to guess that for yourself. But they don’t hold the record. Nope. Do you know which song does? It isn’t White Christmas, although that is the biggest selling record of all time.
No. It’s a Little Known Fact that the most played song on American radio during the 20th century was You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, which was written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector, and Cynthia Weil. Although recorded by different artists, the song is the only one in history to be played more than 8,000,000 times on the radio. Eight million! Do the math. That amounts to about 45 years if the song was played back to back! Now that, folks, is what I call royalties!
