Season 370: Runners Up

Lloyd Price took this to #2 in 1959, kept out of the top spot by "The battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton. This always just sounded like a hit to me though. I had a best of Lloyd Price cassette I wore out in the late 70's. I ran myself out of breath on the chorus' cause he's only singing part of it, I was trying to do it all. lol

 
A number 2 hit for The Who in 1966, kept off the top spot by Jim Reeves Distant Drums. And contains probably one of the best lyrics ever! “My name is Bill and I’m a headcase!” :D
 
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Silly short song this week, didn't have time to set up the camera.

Here we go - this one peaked as number two in the US:

 
Great week so far.

There was no mention of original songs this week, but I take it that was an oversight of Geoff's and we are "alright now" (#2 on the UK Charts in 1970) submitting songs which deal with the "Runner Up" theme. Indeed, I see that Flatbaroque John just did. So here is mine.

 
I've always tried to avoid doing an Air Supply song, because I was afraid it would show everyone what a huge Air Supply fan I once was. But I guess I'll go ahead and confess: I used to have this whole album pretty much memorized.

Made it to #2 in 1980 (yikes, what a summer that was!). Occupying #1 at this time was "Upside Down" by Donna Summer, which I hated as soon as I heard it, and I was forced to hear about 1,000 times, and "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen, which was okay at first but I tired of quite quickly. I'll never forget that summer.

 
I love this song - it brings back so many memories of my late teenage years. I’ve wanted to cover it for a while but it presented two main problems - the main riff (impossible for me to manage on a uke) and the range required on the vocal. So I had to dust the keyboards off for the former and drop an octave at the critical times for the latter.

An utter travesty that it only reached number 2 in the UK charts in 1985 - held off the top spot by Jennifer Rush’s “The Power Of Love”.

 
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Tootler said:
I've just heard my Father's just died. He would have been 99 next week so he's had a good innings. He's not been well since Christmas so it wasn't really a surprise & he went peacefully. I might get a bit behind with commenting on your videos, so bear with me. I will catch up.
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I'm so sorry to hear that, Geoff. My prayers and wishes go out to you at your time of need. My parents are in their 80's now. My Dad and Mom still have their faculties together, but they need my help now and then.
 
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Buck Owens took this to #2 in 1961, and Patsy Cline recorded this one as well. Beginning in 1963 Owens had an amazing run of 14 #1's in a row, and a total of 18 #1's in the 60's. He definitely was not fooling around when it came to his career.

 
Elvis Presley kept Bobby Darin off the number 1 spot with "Wooden Heart".
Lazy river was written by Hoagy Carmichael and was recorded by the Mills Brothers.
 
Confession: As a rule I don’t like musicals. The acting interrupts the music and the music interrupts the acting and I find it so hard to believe in anything I’m watching. There are of course a few exceptions, and Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is one of them. We learnt the song I’m covering at school when I was about 9 and my parents then took me and my brothers to see the full show in Canterbury - it blew me away, and I after that I listened for hours on end to the soundtrack on cassette until I knew every word of every song.

Anyway, in 2007 there was a talent competition on BBC1 to find a lead Joseph for a new launch of the show, and this song, recorded by the winner Lee Mead, was released on the back of that and peaked at #2 in the UK chart. Incidentally, he is now acting in a BBC medical drama called Holby City, and lives in or near to Cranbrook, the town I work in - I often see him around the town.

 
Quick one-taker before I head out for the day. This peaked at #2 in both the us and uk charts in 1966 behind the Righteous Brothers (You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.



It was a #1 for 3 weeks in New Zealand though, and for a week in Canada. I hope that’s not disqualifying.
 
a john lennon song, released in 1995 with his 1977 home-demo recording added to by the rest of the band in 1994, this was held off the top spot in the UK by michael jackson's earth song

 
So sorry, Geoff, to hear about your father.

"Downtown" (1964) by Tony Hatch peaked at #2 in the Uk singles chart. "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles was number one.
 
First all thanks to all of you for your condolences on my Father passing away. He had a good innings but he had not been well these last few months. I think he had just realised it was time to go and was tired of life.

I've caught up,with your entries to the end of page 8 bur I'll have to stop there for now as I need to get to bed early as I have to be up early to take my daughter to work in the morning. I'll catch up some more tomorrow.
 
#2 for Charlie Walker in 1958, but once again I couldn't find the exact date so that's all I can tell you. Maybe Randy knows.

I've talked about Charlie Walker before. He started out as a country music DJ for KKYX in San Antonio, so everything he did got massive airplay around here because he was a local guy who had become a country star.

One of the guys in the nursing home band opens with this song every time, and I always sing the high harmony in the chorus. So the harmony I'm singing in the chorus on this recording is something I do almost every week.

This is one of those songs that I can't remember not knowing.

 
This one was a 1983 hit for Paul Young - kept off the top spot in the UK charts by Billy Joel’s very annoying ‘Uptown Girl’ and The Flying Pickets’ annoyingly inferior a cappella version of Yazoo’s ‘Only You’.

 
This Paul Simon classic peaked at #2 the week of October 6, 1973. Cher's "Half Breed" was #1.

 
I liked playing "Crazy" so much that I found another song called "Crazy" to do. This Seal song went to #2 in the U.K.

 
uke4ia said:
I liked playing "Crazy" so much that I found another song called "Crazy" to do. This Seal song went to #2 in the U.K.

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I've often thought of attempting a mash up of those two songs. I feel they'd go well together
 
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