What was the first number-one of the 1960s?
If there’s one decade that feels the most like the tip of an iceberg, it’s the 1960s. First acts that come to mind? Easy: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Doors…these are all names synonymous with the best of the best that the ’60s had to offer. For some, nothing else matters. But what about the unsung heroes, the hidden guardians of the charts that fuelled the fire when things were just getting started?
There was a very different game brewing at the dawn of the ’60s. Competitiveness went by a different name, where it wasn’t all about putting out the best music, but about having the presence and charisma to make it work. Obviously, talent was a big thing, but so was the je ne sais quoi, and many were able to smash the figurative scoreboard by being seemingly perfect versions of what a modern star should look and sound like.
Take The Beatles, for instance: it wasn’t about playing the role of the quintessential rock ‘n’ roll star, it was just a set of strangely unconventional and aloof British musicians who didn’t care to take the piss in front of a camera (“Turn left at Greenland”). Audiences no longer sported flags for the polished and well put together; they wanted something real that wasn’t just about the talent but about what they meant for culture on a grander scale.
But creating culture isn’t just about those at the top; it’s often the base that forms such movements, and many of those in the charts are names we no longer even talk about. The first number one single of the ’60s? Technically, it was Emile Ford and the Checkmates’ ‘What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For’. Heard of it? Didn’t think so. But that’s also probably less likely to do with its popularity and more with it being a doo-wop cover of a lesser-known 1917 hit.
Who had the most number-one singles in the 1960s?
Just a few years later, though, the charts would be filled with names we still know and love, with, surprise, The Beatles coming out on top as champions of the decade’s pop music, accumulating the most number-one singles with a total of 17 hits. Among them was the best-selling single of the decade, ‘She Loves You’, though their future-gazing didn’t stop the full-steam ahead fervour of another relic of the past: Elvis Presley.
Still, things were moving fast, with the focus falling onto quantity in many circles as a means of keeping their name in lights and head above water. With the exception of some ringleaders, most made ends meet by churning out single after single, hoping and praying that with enough feelers out there, something would stick. For some, it was meant to be. For others, not so much. For The Beatles, mess and misdirection would never taint their explosive monopoly.
Suppose that’s also what made the machine work well: even flaws during the height of their reign didn’t dismantle their timeless flow, and, even if they hadn’t dominated the charts so intensely, it’s likely they’d still hold a large chunk of today’s cultural impact, where it was never really about the details of their commercial appeal or how polished they looked to others. It was just a group of lads accidentally mastering the system.
