Ranking the Songs with Royal Titles This topic generated a lot of interest on The Diner, July 29, 2018. Using the database from Ranking the Rock Writers, I found 81 songs with royal titles that charted in the top 100 of any of the three major magazines between 1955 and 1991. The royal titles are king, queen, prince, princess, duke, duchess, earl, baron and knight. To qualify, a song has to have a standalone history (not part of a medley or a tagalong). Here's the top 20: Title Act 1 Duke Of Earl Gene CHANDLER 2 Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron ROYAL GUARDSMEN 3 Queen Of Hearts Juice NEWTON 4 King Of The Road Roger MILLER 5 Dancing Queen ABBA 6 Sir Duke Stevie WONDER 7 Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) Billy OCEAN 8 From A Jack T...
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Ranking the Rock Writers 1955-1991: Writer Team #32, Individual Writer #39: John D. LOUDERMILK It is hard to write a short blurb about John D. Loudermilk. Listening to his music, and knowing he grew up in North Carolina and eventually worked out of Nashville, his country roots are clear. But there is a sense of humor that underlies many of his songs. Maybe like a much more subtle Ray Stevens. In his obituary in the Guardian, it was noted that he was something of a prankster, sending up Casey Kasem with a fake story of the origin of his song Indian Reservation . His first song, A Rose And A Baby Ruth was written in 1956 and became a fair sized hit for George Hamilton IV. Eddie Cochran had a hit with Sittin’ In The Balcony . Both songs had contemporary covers that also charted simultaneously. Things were quiet, however, until Stonewall Jackson recorded Waterloo , a song Loudermilk co-wrote with Marijohn Wilkin....
Ranking the Rock Writers, 1955-1991 Writer Team #40: Eddie BRIGATI/Felix CAVALIERE The world of pop music is replete with stories of acts that had magical runs of about eighteen months. The Supremes. Andy Gibb. The 4 Seasons. Add to that list the Young Rascals/Rascals. In 1967 and 1968, they strung together seven hits in 18 months that averaged nearly 5 times the chart strength of the average song around them. That included two that ranked well into the top 1%: Groovin’ and People Got To Be Free . The band only charted two songs not written by Eddie Brigati and/or Felix Cavaliere. First was “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Any More” by Lori Burton and Pam Sawyer. Pam Sawyer charted 30 songs as a writer including co-credit on the Supremes’ biggest hit, Love Child ; Lori Burton was co-credited on the Royal Guardsmen’s song-against-type, Baby Let’s Wait . The other, Good Lovin’ , has more of a story, because there were two vers...
The Act With the Most Top 40 Cover Recordings
Recently, on Lou Simon’s SiriusXM show “The Diner,” a caller asked who took the most cover songs to the Top 40. Her thought was Johnny Rivers—pretty good guess, it turns out--and covers were certainly his long suit. I decided to try to find the answer rigorously. I took my 1955 to 1991 Top 100 database and restricted it to Billboard only. Note that many of these songs were written and originally recorded long before the rock era, but I’m only counting the 1955-1991 time period. I restricted it to songs appearing more than once, and ordered each group of repeat songs by date of appearance on the chart. I did not require that the original and cover songs be separated in time. Whether that should actually be done is an arguable point. I then tested to see if any repeat appearance peaked in the Top 40. Eight hundred fifty-two unique songs fit this category; there were a total of 2859 recordings of these songs. From this list of so...