Ranking the #1 Songs - 1959

The first full year of the Billboard Hot 100 chart was 1959. Let's take a look at all of the songs to reach #1 in that year:

The contenders:

The Chipmunk Song	The Chipmunks With David Seville
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes	The Platters
Stagger Lee	Lloyd Price
Venus	Frankie Avalon
Come Softly To Me	The Fleetwoods
The Happy Organ	Dave 'Baby' Cortez
Kansas City	Wilbert Harrison
The Battle Of New Orleans	Johnny Horton
Lonely Boy	Paul Anka
A Big Hunk O' Love	Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires
The Three Bells	The Browns
Sleep Walk	Santo & Johnny
Mack The Knife	Bobby Darin
Mr. Blue	The Fleetwoods
Heartaches By The Number	Guy Mitchell

The year started with the previous year's Christmas hit, the "Chipmunk Song." Since we looked at it last time, we'll disqualify it for this year. The biggest hit of 1959 was Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," which spent a total of 9 weeks at number 1. It's a fun song, but I never quite understood all the love it gets. Some other notable songs are the Platters' "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee," and "Kansas City" by Wilbert Harrison, which I first heard on my way to Kansas City with the PIC crew.

Best song: Come Softly To Me

There were a few strong contenders for best song, including "Sleep Walk" by Santo & Johnny, the aforementioned "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "Stagger Lee," but I have to give it to the Fleetwoods' "Come Softly To Me." To me, it has a timeless sound.



Worst song: The Battle of New Orleans

This was a much easier choice. I don't even know what to say about "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton. I (very briefly) tried to find a reason this song not only went to #1, but stayed there for six (6!) weeks (maybe a movie?), but came up empty.