The song with the longest gap between reaching number one
For some artists, securing a number one record is their life’s work and the ultimate dream of their musical career. However, for most professional musicians, it’s an unattainable goal they’ll likely never attain. Therefore, it’s not worth worrying about; instead, most decide to focus purely on their artistic exhibitions.
With pop stars, meanwhile, the typical trend is to endure a purple patch in which everything they touch seems to become a hit before the next hottest property arrives and knocks them off their perch. When superstar electronic music producer Calvin Harris was making hits for fun in the 2010s, he infamously said of his success: “It’s incredibly easy to do, but hard to do perfectly”.
He added: “I’d struggle to make a perfect ham sandwich because I never make them, whereas pop music comes naturally to me – it’s what I do every day.”
During the 1960s, The Beatles were the first to grasp a strong dominance on the charts, and in 1964, they incredibly had six separate singles climb to the zenith of the Billboard Hot 100. The Beatles themselves were the only musical act to come close to replicating this level of supremacy when they had five number one hits the following year.
In the aftermath of their split, The Beatles each achieved multiple number ones, but George Harrison was the first out of the blocks to reach this success. His debut single ‘My Sweet Lord’ immediately cemented his status as a solo star. The song rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 during the same week Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass reached the chart’s summit.
However, during his lifetime, Harrison only had one more song at the top of the chart, and it was time to pass the baton on to the next generation. Following his death in 2001, there was a newfound appreciation for his work, and ‘My Sweet Lord’ had an unexpected resurgence, again hitting the number one spot two months after the musician’s death. It first reached this chart position exactly 31 years prior.
After reaching the top spot, a spokesperson for EMI Records said: “We are very happy that the reissue of My Sweet Lord continues to spread George Harrison’s music and message around the world. It’s especially appropriate that the Material World Charitable Foundation, a charity that George set up some time ago will benefit from the profits made from the single’s success, thus helping the needy all over the world.”
While ‘My Sweet Lord’ is Harrison’s most well-known solo song, his feelings toward the track turned sour after it became at the heart of a lengthy copyright infringement case after The Chiffons’ publishing house Bright Tunes Music noted its similarities to ‘He’s So Fine’. After many years of legal disputes, he was eventually found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” in 1976 and was ordered to pay around $1.6 million.
Thankfully all of the proceeds from the re-release that landed at number one in 2002 went to charitable causes, preventing Bright Tunes Music from profiteering from Harrison’s brilliance.
Listen to ‘My Sweet Lord’ below.
