#1 songs - 1960

Hello again dear reader(s)! I am finally free from the hell that was going down to Orange County nearly every week for a trial, so I should be able to post more regularly now. Anyway, let's get back into it with the biggest hits of 1960.

First, here are the contenders:

Why	Frankie Avalon
El Paso	Marty Robbins
Running Bear	Johnny Preston
Teen Angel	Mark Dinning
The Theme From A Summer Place	Percy Faith And His Orchestra
Stuck On You	Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires
Cathy's Clown	The Everly Brothers
Everybody's Somebody's Fool	Connie Francis
Alley-Oop	Hollywood Argyles
I'm Sorry	Brenda Lee
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini	Brian Hyland
It's Now Or Never	Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires
The Twist	Chubby Checker
My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own	Connie Francis
Mr. Custer	Larry Verne
Save The Last Dance For Me	The Drifters
I Want To Be Wanted	Brenda Lee
Georgia On My Mind	Ray Charles
Stay	Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
Are You Lonesome To-night?	Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires

1960 was an interesting year in music. There are songs from quite a few different genres: country, rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, and even the novelty song, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini." It was not a good year for native americans (not that there have been many since the white man came...), as both "Running Bear" and "Mr. Custer" are kind of racist. The biggest hit of the year was the instrumental, "Theme from a Summer Place," which spent an incredible 9 weeks at number 1, which is still the record for an instrumental.


The best:

There were quite a few good songs that topped the chart in 1960, but the two that stand out are "It's Now Or Never," by Elvis and "Georgia On My Mind," by Ray Charles. Both songs are modern classics, but I'll give the edge to the great Ray Charles.



The worst:

Unfortunately, there were quite a few awful songs that somehow made it to number 1 in 1960. I've mentioned a few of them above, including the somewhat racist songs "Running Bear" and "Mr. Custer," which make the novelty song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" sound like a good song. In a normal year, the Hollywood Argyles' song about a caveman, "Alley-Oop," would have been a strong contender for the worst #1 song, but it doesn't come close to the awfulness of "Mr. Custer," by Larry Verne.