On this day in 1964, The Beatles had the top five singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It's been said that it's an unrivaled feat that will likely never be duplicated but those sorts of records always seem to eventually be broken (especially in the the ever-evolving music biz). The kids on Glee will probably occupy the entire Top 20 this year sometime or Vanilla Ice will die and spark a massive revival, smashing any and all previous chart records.
Until then, here are those Beatles singles in their chart positions the week of April 4, 1964:
1) "Can't Buy Me Love"
2) "Twist and Shout"
3) "She Loves You"
4) "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
5) "Please Please Me"
The group had a remarkable 12 songs on the chart that week. The other songs in the Top 100 were "I Saw Her Standing There" (No. 31), "From Me To You" (No. 41), "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (No. 46), "All My Loving" (No. 58), "You Can't Do That" (No. 65), "Roll Over Beethoven" (No. 68) and "Thank You Girl" (No. 79).
The chart even contained two Beatles-inspired novelty ditties — "A Letter to The Beatles" by The Four Preps (No. 85) and The Carefrees' "We Love You Beatles" (No. 42).
(Stats from the Beatles Bible.)
Click on for Born This Day featuring Muddy Waters, Mike Starr, Curren$y and Jill Scott.
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Born This Day: Musical movers and shakers sharing an April 4 birthday include influential Blues legend Muddy Waters (1913); Jazz and AfroBeat multi-instrumentalist and composer Hugh Masekela (1939); guitarist for Irish Rock icons Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore (1952); drummer for influential Punk band Misfits, Dr. Chud (1964); late former bassist for Alice in Chains (and Celebrity Rehab "star") Mike Starr (1966), massively-tattooed frontman for Buckcherry, Josh Todd (1971); guitarist for Metalcore band Killswitch Engage, Adam Dutkiewicz (1977); masterful fingerstyle guitarist Andy McKee (1979); currently-buzzing Hip Hop MC Curren$y (1981); and Neo Soul giant Jill Scott (1972).
Happy 40th to Ms. Scott, who continues to help bring back a classic Soul vibe to contemporary R&B. Scott has been pursuing acting lately (she'll reportedly play Truvy in the upcoming remake of Steel Magnolias for Lifetime), but last year she put out her fourth album, The Light of the Sun, which, like most of her albums, was widely praised by critics. The album debuted at No. 1 when it was released, her first chart-topper to date. Scott has also been releasing material from "the vault"; always one to "over-record" when making new albums, the well-received release The Original Jill Scott: From the Vault Vol. 1 features several tunes that didn't fit on her "official" records. Check out some samples here. Scott also issued a live concert album and film last year.
Here's one of The Vault tracks, "Dear Mr. & Mrs. Record Industry."