They Had 25 #1 Hits...More Than The Beatles...Why Are They Forgotten? | Professor of Rock

We’re rewriting history again today as we revisit a year when one band completely took over and overshadowed many classic songs that deserved better. Today we put those songs where they belong at #1. Including The Drifters Under the Boardwalk, a song that was recorded just a day after an iconic band’s lead singer passed away. Their singer was gone, but they still had a session planned, so an outsider walked in and sang a perfect vocal that gave them their most famous hit. Plus the Innocent Classic by the Zombies, She's Not There, that got banned nationwide 37 years after it peaked on the charts for offensive lyrics, but everyone’s still trying to figure out what was offensive about it, including the band who’s here to comment. Plus the creepy song Last Kiss that was inspired by a fatal car crash, but it got even creepier after the song became a hit, and life imitated art when the band got into a fan carwreck that would destroy their group. Plus, I tracked down the mysterious girl behind the classic Beach Boys car song Fun Fun Fun, who got in trouble for driving her dad’s T-Bird. And lastly the biggest band in the world The Beatles took over the charts for one fateful week they made up 7 of the top 10 spots on the countdown but their best song, that was ruled by their singer’s sick as a dog vocal missed #1…Let's do it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Kelly Moan, Curtis Stoddard, Paul Duenas, Robert Hickerty, rondell m ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/ Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #60smusic #vinylstory #onehitwonder Hey Music Junkies, Today we’re taking the time machine back to a phenomenal year in music as well as a rare one, because a single band turned the year and the world upside down, changing rock forever… The Beatles.. It was such a tsunami it overshadowed some incredible songs that finished short of their goal of hitting the #1 spot, so today we are going to rewrite history and put those classic top ten hits that missed the top spot where they belong. It’s number in our hearts for the year 1964. Starting out at #10…It’s a song that the Rolling Stones found in an import shop and loved it so much they rushed to record it, but their cover started getting all the credit as the definitive version, offending the singer who first recorded it…but time would heal the wound, and in the end the Stones would end up performing it with this artist. It’s the rendition of “Time is on My Side” by The Rolling Stones: The Rolling Stones put out their take on “Time Is on My Side” as a U.S. single in September 64, and it turned into their first American Top 10 hit, landing at # 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, but in our hearts, it went all the way. The song was written by Jerry Ragovoy, credited as Norman Meade: Before the Stones ever got there, the journey of “Time is On My Side” was well traveled. In October, 63, Kai Winding recorded the track with an instrumental-and-gospel-choir feel, featuring backing vocals from Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, and Whitney Houston’s mother, Cissy Houston. Then in April ’64, Irma Thomas recorded the version people remember most, and she released it in May 1964 as a B-side: And then…fate stepped in… The Stones heard Thomas’s record while hunting for U.S. imports in London shops, and they rushed to Regent Sound Studios in June 1964 to cut their own cover, just weeks after hers came out. For years, though, Thomas didn’t feel like she was getting her due. Interviewers and fans kept calling it “the Stones song,” and she grew frustrated that her original work wasn’t being credited. For decades, she refused to perform it live until 1992, when Bonnie Raitt introduced her on TV as the original artist. That was the push Irma Thomas needed to bring it back to her setlist: Even the Stones recorded two versions in 1964, one for the U.S. single with an organ intro, and another in November with a guitar hook that showed up on their 1965 album The Rolling Stones #2. And then, years later, the “time is on our side” moment finally hit in real life. On May 2, 2024, during a New Orleans performance, Mick Jagger brought out Irma Thomas for a live duet. It was the first time the Stones had played the song live since 1998, and the first time Thomas and Jagger had ever performed it together.