The Kingston Trio’s 1959 chart achievement that eluded both Elvis and The Beatles
Curiously enough, even rock and pop’s heavyweights don’t count the same chart milestones as California folk pop’s The Kingston Trio.
They might not have endured as a prominent name in today’s musical memory, but their breezy mine of Americana gold and polish for pop success saw Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds’ nimble guitar, banjo and vocal harmonies score a much-loved presence for the US counterculture lying in wait, everybody from Paul Simon, Tim Buckley, Gene Clark, and Lindsey Buckingham having namechecked the Trio as an influence, and The Beach Boys’ blue and white striped shirts largely borrowing The Kingstons’ distinctive wardrobe in their early years.
Chart domination would meet The Kingston Trio from the virtual get-go. Once their take on the old ‘Tom Dooley’ murder ballad topped the Billboard Hot 100, their albums would hit Gold sales with consecutive ease through to 1960. This was while wading scorn from the scene’s folkie purists. Such smoother and seemingly politically neutral cuts rubbed many of their more esteemed peers the wrong way, especially the Sing Out! publication, which ensured many a seething article attack during the Trio’s heyday.
Not that some of the folk revivalists succumbed to hurling such accusations of heresy. It’s been suggested by later experts that The Kingston Trio’s easy bridge of traditional folk and a brighter pop accessibility paved an important path to the 1960s’ Greenwich Village scene and later folk rock wave.
The Trio’s influence was acknowledged by Bob Dylan himself. “I never really was an elitist,” he confessed to Rolling Stone in 2001. “Personally, I liked The Kingston Trio. I could see the picture… The Kingston Trio were probably the best commercial group going, and they seemed to know what they were doing.”
Whatever the substance of their folk pop repertoire, Billboard was paying attention. The Kingston Trio released a whopping 14 albums that broke the Top Ten, and cumulatively, sit comfortably in the all-time lists for most weeks with a number one album, most total weeks charting an album, and most top ten albums. One major Billboard record breaker, however, saw the Trio hold an unbroken chart milestone for over 50 years.
So, what was their big chart feat?
Once ‘Tom Dooley’ shifted 3million copies, their first five albums all shot to the premier spot of the Billboard Top LPs, the precursor to the later 200 table.
Four of these records hold the distinction of sitting in the top ten concurrently for five consecutive weeks in November and December 1959. The Kingston Trio, At Large, Here We Go Again!, and the …from the “Hungry i” live album all floating around the Billboard charts’ toppermost at the same time, a remarkable pull off that not even Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson ever boasted.
Tijuana Brass trumpeter Herb Alpert would tie such a chart record in 1966 with four simultaneous Top 10 albums in April, then Prince would finally break both The Kingston Trio and Alpert’s Billboard footnote when The Very Best of Prince, Purple Rain, The Hits/The B-Sides, Ultimate, and 1999 all hit the top ten at once when mourning fans saw his back catalogue explode in sales after his passing in May 2016.
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