The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*: #350-341

We hope you are enjoying The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*, brought to you in 2015 as a special presentation to celebrate the big 60th birthday of rock & roll.  We have played 150 songs thus far, and now dive into The Top 350*:

 

 

 

#350:

Take A Bow
 Madonna
1995

"I've always been in love with this song."

 

"Beautiful song!"

 

"Amazing song by a LEGEND."

 

"Great lyrics."

 

"The best song that she's ever done."



 

After just one year at the University of Michigan, this artist moved to New York.  There, Madonna studied with choreographer Pearl Lang, and supported herself by working at a number of jobs, including a stint in a doughnut shop in Times Square.  Soon, Madonna landed a job with singer Patrick Hernandez, who scored a big worldwide hit with "Born To Be Alive". 

 

Madonna formed the band The Breakfast Club later in 1979, which played local venues.  In 1980, she and Steve Bray worked on demo tapes at Bray's home studio, and two years later Madonna gave those tapes to DJ Mark Kamins at the Danceteria club.  Kamins introduced Madonna to Michael Rosenblatt, executive at Sire Records.  Rosenblatt signed Madonna to a recording contract.

 

Once she finally landed a deal, Madonna certainly made the most of it.  She racked up 32 hits in 12 years, a streak that included 16 consecutive Top 10 songs.  Her career had begun to tumble, however, connected with decisions she had made in poor taste.  In 1994, Madonna turned to Babyface to get her a big hit. 

In addition to producing the song, Babyface sang backup.  At Madonna's request, the song was recorded with a full orchestra.  It was the first time that Babyface had worked with live strings.  Madonna released the single from her album Bedtime Stories. 

 

By December of 1994, "Take A Bow" had hit the airwaves.  Other songs current at the time included "I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee" by Boyz II Men, Seal's "Kiss From A Rose", "Waterfalls" and "Creep" by TLC, and "All I Wanna' Do" by Sheryl Crow.

 

"Take A Bow" rose to #1 for 7 weeks in the United States with 15 weeks in the Top 10 overall and an impressive 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult chart.  The song also reached #1 in Canada, #8 in Switzerland, and #9 in New Zealand.  "Take A Bow", however, was the first Madonna single to miss the Top 10 in the U.K. since "Lucky Star" stalled at #14 nine years before.

 

"Take A Bow" won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video of the Year.  The song sold half a million copies, helped sell four million albums, and has logged one million radio airplays.

 

#349:

You're The Inspiration 

Chicago
1985

"Love this song.  It's my heart."

 

"This is a very meaningful song.  Beautiful."

 

"Love this song--the best."

 

"A beautiful song and the lyrics are indescribable".

 

"Great song.  Awesome band."

 

One of the biggest groups of all-time experienced tragedy when Terry Kath died in 1978.  After releasing three albums since Kath's passing, Columbia Records gave the group quite a jolt by dropping them from the label.  Robert Lamm told the newspaper The Los Angeles Times:

That really hurt us.  We were tempted to break up the band...[but] we were all so furious with Columbia.  That kept us going.  We wanted to show them they were wrong. 

Manager Irving Azoff arranged for Chicago to record new albums on his Full Moon label, distributed by Warner Brothers.  They achieved a big comeback with Chicago 16 and the song "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", then recorded their next album.

Peter Cetera, the bassist for Chicago, co-wrote this song with producer David Foster for Kenny Rogers.  Kenny was in the studio with Foster, and needed a song.  Although Cetera was due to fly to Italy, Rogers needed the song that night before he left.  So while Peter was packing for his trip, Foster came over, and in the space of about three hours, they came up with the music for “You’re The Inspiration".  Then, while Cetera was in Italy, he wrote the words to the song.  When Kenny decided not to record it, the pair reworked it for Chicago, and they recorded it instead for their album Chicago 17. 

Chicago released “You’re The Inspiration” in October of 1984 and it did not take long for the song to pick up popularity.  Other songs out at the same time were “What's Love Got To Do With It" by Tina Turner, "Like A Virgin" and "Crazy For You" by Madonna, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears for Fears, "We Are The World" by USA for Africa, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, "Careless Whisper" from Wham, Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is", "Can't Fight This Feeling" from REO Speedwagon, "Missing You" by John Waite, "One More Night" by Phil Collins, "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean, and "Let's Go Crazy" from Prince.

Chicago took “You’re The Inspiration” to #3 for two weeks overall and #1 for 2 weeks on the all-important Adult chart in the United States and #6 in Sweden.

The song contributed to 13.5 million in album sales for Chicago, and has topped three million in radio airplay.



 

 

 

#348

Rhythm Of The Rain

 Cascades
1963

 

 

 

"Amazing song."

 

"ADORE this track."

 

"Genuine classic."

 

"Brilliant.  Great song!"

 

"One of the greats."

 



 

 

 

 

We have heard of the origins of all the artists who are fortunate enough to land a Top 500 Song of the Rock Era*--here's a new one.  This group started out on the USS Jason when they were a group of members of the U.S. Navy calling themselves the Silver Strands.

After their service, the group renamed themselves the Thundernotes. That group's only recording was with Del-fi Records. That group broke up shortly afterwards and reformed with a completely different lineup. The new group became known for their harmony, and after a demo impressed Barry De Vorzon and Valiant Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, they changed their name to the Cascades. And if you think the name has to do with a certain dishwashing detergent, give yourself bonus points.

The Cascades released the single "There's A Reason", which caught on regionally. In 1962, the group recorded a song written by manager John Gummoe in his days aboard the USS Jason when Gummoe was on watch during a thunderstorm. DeVorzon hired only the best as backing musicians, including Glen Campbell on guitar and Carol Kaye on bass.  Perry Botkin, Jr. arranged the song for the Cascades. In 1976, De Vorzon and Botkin, Jr. teamed up again to release the beautiful "Nadia's Theme", which became a big hit.

"Rhythm Of The Rain" was released in November, 1962 as the title song from the Cascades' album.

At the time, "Return To Sender" by Elvis Presley, "Walk Right In" from the Rooftop Singers, and "Big Girls Don't Cry" by the 4 Seasons were also out. The lack of a host of great songs out at the time will limit most songs from the 50's from making The Top 500*. In the case of "Rhythm Of The Rain", it didn't phase it.

"Rhythm Of The Rain" slowly climbed to a peak of #3 in the U.S., but it was a hit in over 80 countries. It made it to #1 in Canada and Ireland, #3 in Australia, #5 in the U.K., and #7 in Norway, and sold over one million copies.

The peak of #3 on the surface doesn't tell us much. But then, intelligent Rock Era fans and radio station professionals will look at the song's other strengths, such as 9 weeks in the Top 10, #1 on the Adult chart for 2 weeks, and #7 on the R&B chart, showing its universal appeal. It shouldn't be any surprise, then, that "Rhythm Of The Rain" has gone over five million in radio airplay, to rank #113 in the Rock Era in that department. Only a lack of sales and awards, and the absence of strong competition keeps the song from ranking higher.

The Cascades reformed twice, in 1995 and again in 2004, touring the United States and the Philippines.

 

 

 

 

 
#347:

Singing The Blues
Guy Mitchell
1956

"Soo soo good."

 

"Greatest song I've heard in many moons."

 

"WONDERFUL SONG."

"Great classic."

"Great music from a great time."

 

 

 

 

It has now been 59 years, and no solo male singer has matched Guy Mitchell with 10 weeks at #1.  Oh, plenty of men have tried, from Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson, from Barry Manilow to Bruno Mars.  But no male solo artist has been able to come up with a song that is the top song for 10 weeks, and only one male group (Boyz II Men) has recorded a song that lasted at least 10 weeks at #1. 

On a train taking his family from Michigan to Los Angeles, someone handed Al's (Mitchell's real name Is Al Cernick) mother a business card, asking her to contact him.  The man helped arrange an audition with Warner Brothers Records, which signed Cernick to a contract.  After some starts and stops, Cernick signed with King Records in 1949, and won Arthur Godfrey's Talent Search. 

When Frank Sinatra refused to record two songs for Mitch Miller at Columbia Records, Cernick got his break.  Miller remembered hearing his voice on demo records and called him.  Two hours later, Cernick recorded "My Heart Cries For You" and "The Roving Kind", both of which made the Top Five.  In fact, it was Miller who gave Cernick his studio name of Guy Mitchell.  

Twenty-year-old Melvin Endsley wrote this next classic.  Endsley contracted polio when he was a child and he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  Marty Robbins recorded it first in August of 1956 and released it as a single.  Mitchell heard the song and wanted to record it as well.  

"Singing The Blues" entered the charts in October, being played alongside songs such as "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", "Don't Be Cruel" and "Too Much" by Elvis Presley and "My Prayer" by the Platters. 

Both versions of the song entered the charts on the same date.  Robbins peaked at #17, but Mitchell took the same song all the way to #1 for 10 weeks.

"Singing The Blues" landed a #1 song of 10 weeks for Mitchell, and it reached #4 on the R&B chart in the U.S., and spent three weeks at #1 in the U.K. 

"Singing The Blues" has been played over two million times on the radio.

#346:

"Looks Like We Made It"

Barry Manilow
1977

 

"Great song!"

"This song:simply put: PERFECTION:):)"

"This song has aged well, as all the classic songs do."

"As good as it gets--Barry sings like no one else."

"I love this song!  It's beautiful!"

This Julliard-trained performer started out working at CBS-TV to pay his expenses.  At the time, Barry was arranging a new theme for The Late Show, while also writing, producing and singing the radio and television jingles he soon became famous for.  By night, he and Jeanne Lucas performed in clubs around the New York area. 

Beginning with his March 22, 1975 appearance on American Bandstand, Manilow struck up a friendship and productive working relationship with Dick Clark, which included numerous appearances on Bandstand, as well as Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and his awards show, the American Music Awards.  Clark and Manilow would also later work on the 1985 television movie Copacabana together.

Manilow has won several Grammy Awards and American Music Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and several Clio Awards for advertising jingles.  He was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and in 2007, received a plaque from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for worldwide record sales of 75 million.

Manilow has also given back.  When Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, Barry held a benefit concert at the University of South Carolina, and asked fans to bring canned food to be donated to affected residents in disaster areas.  Then again in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for every dollar donated by fans to the American Red Cross, Manilow personally matched, and the Barry’s fund itself also matched, tripling the original donation.

Manilow released “Looks Like We Made It” as a single from his album This One’s for You.  Manilow competed for airplay with great songs such as "Hotel California" by the Eagles, "Dreams" and "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac, "How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee Gees, "Evergreen' by Barbra Streisand, "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone, "Sir Duke" from Stevie Wonder, "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" by Andy Gibb, Linda Ronstadt’s "Blue Bayou", "Dancing Queen" by ABBA, "Lucille" from Kenny Rogers", Leo Sayer's "When I Need You", and "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell. 

Despite the outstanding competition, “Looks Like We Made It rose to #1 for one week overall, and #1 for three weeks among adults, which obviously make up the large majority of the population. 
 

The following year, the album This One’s for You was one of five Manilow albums on the Album chart simultaneously.  That’s a feat equaled only by the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Mathis and Herb Alpert in the history of the Rock Era. 

"Looks Like We Made It" has sold one million singles and helped sell 8.5 million albums.  It has exceeded two million in radio airplay.

 

#345:

"Believe"

Cher
1999

 

 

 

 "Classic."

 

"Magic!"

 

"Best song ever!"

 

"Love this song!  So uplifting!"

 

"Amazing!"

 

 

After building a successful acting career, which reached a peak in 1988 when she won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Moonstruck, Cher returned to her first love of music.  She scored a big comeback with "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "Just Like Jesse James" in 1989, her biggest solo hits in 15 years. 

She then had another dry spell before achieving another big comeback with this song.

As we have already seen throughout this special, many songs are written or recorded quickly, thanks to spur of the moment inspiration.  “Believe” is not one of these.  Rather, it is the result of the creative efforts of six songwriters and at least three producers who attempted to create a big hit for Cher over six years.
 

Four songwriters at Cher's label, Warner Brothers, began the song as a demo, which was shopped around the label, but no one wanted it.  From there, top producers, such as Nick Van Eede of the Cutting Crew and Kevin MacMichael produced the demo, along with Mark Scott and Brian Higgins in 1992.  If you listen to the first two chords of the Cutting Crew’s “I’ve Been In Love Before” and “Believe”, you will hear the similarity.  Eede says that the producers received a bottle of whisky as payment for their work.

From there, the song traveled to Metro Productions in London.  Two songwriters at Metro reworked the song, and producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling created a synthesized sound that wouldn’t  aelienate Cher’s core audience.  Taylor explained in an interview with Sound on Sound magazine that he had to produce the song twice:   

 

It was just too hardcore dance - it wasn't happening.  I scrapped it and started again, because I realized it needed a sound that was unusual, but not in a typical dance record sort of way. This was tricky, because dance music is very specific. To get what I was after I had to think about each sound very carefully, so that the sound itself was dance-based but not obviously so.

“Believe” became special when the producers used an Auto-Tune processor to correct the pitch in recorded vocals.  Eiffel 65 used the same technique a year later with their hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”.  The song took ten days to record in Surrey, England. 

Officially, songwriting credit is given to Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray and Timothy Powell.

Cher recorded the song for release from her 22^nd studio album of the same name.  It was finally released October 19, 1998. 

By December, “Believe” picked up steam, and she eventually collected the biggest hit of her career--#1 for 5 weeks, with an additional 4 at #2.  “Believe” also topped the AC chart for three weeks.  However, those numbers are shot down by the fact that only one other Top 500* songs were out at the same time--"Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia.

“Believe”, in fact, reached #1 in 23 countries, including the U.K., Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France,  Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and it reached #2 in Ireland and #6 in Finland, so it obviously is a mass appeal hit.  In the U.K., “Believe” remained at #1 for seven weeks, and became the biggest-selling single ever by a female artist.       

When this hit #1 in the U.S., it was the longest anyone had gone between #1 hits.  Cher’s  last chart-topper was "Dark Lady," which hit #1 in 1974.  At 25 years, this broke the record for biggest gap, which was previously held by The Beach Boys, who went 22 years between "Good Vibrations" and "Kokomo."

"Believe" was nominated for two Grammy Awards—Record of the Year and Best Dance Recording, winning the latter.  It sold over two million copies in the U.S. and six million worldwide.







 

#344:

At The Hop
 Danny & The Juniors

1958

"Love the harmonies."

"Super!"

 

"The best song of the '50s"

 

"Makes me get up and move!"

 

"One of the best!"

We go back to 1958 for this classic early Rock Era smash.  Written by Artie Singer, John Medora, and David White, White was originally slated to sing the lead vocal for Danny & the Juniors.  White sang lead on the recording (then called "Do The Bop"), while Danny and the Juniors, who were called the Juvenairs at the time, sang backup.  White had a recording contract with Prep Records, and Prep wanted White to do a song with producer SideFeller, who had been working with Paul Anka.  White had the goal of coming up with something similar to "Whole Lotta' Shakin' Goin' On" by Jerry Lee Lewis.  He told the engineer what he wanted, and played the Lewis song for the musicians. 

But when the song was completed, the people at Prep didn't care for it.  White went to Philadelphia to play "Do The Bop" for Dick Clark, but Clark said The Bop wasn't really hot at the time.  Clark suggested changing to song to be about sock hop dances.  In the '50s, dances were called "The Hop".  Sometimes, school administrators made the kids take off their shoes so they wouldn't scuff up the gymnasium floor, where the dance was usually held.  Because White was under contract with Prep, Danny and the Juniors recorded the new song, and this time, Danny Rapp sang lead.    

"At The Hop" was released June 17, and, after an appearance on Clark's American Bandstand, the song took off, catapulting to #1 for seven weeks on the Popular chart, and #1 for five weeks R&B.  

And "At The Hop" didn't ring up those numbers against weak competition.  "Jailhouse Rock"  and "Don't" by Elvis Presley and "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Wake Up Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers were out at the same time, as were "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke "Peggy Sue" and "That'll Be The Day" by Buddy Holly & the Crickets, "Diana" by Paul Anka, "Tequila" by the Champs, and "Twilight Time" by the Platters. 

"At The Hop" already showed its strength on the charts, but it experienced renewed interest when the group Sha Na Na performed it at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and then again when it was featured in the 1973 movie American Graffiti.  It has been played over one million times.

#343:

Superstition

Stevie Wonder

1973


 

"Metalheads love good soul music too."

 

"Fantastic!"

 

Absolute classic.  Great funky beat!

 

 

 "Awesome!"

"Just wow."

Stevie Wonder wrote this great song about the dangers of believing in superstitions, such as walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror (said to bring seven years of bad luck), and the number 13.  He recorded it at Electric Lady Studios, the studio that Jimi Hendrix built in New York City and recorded at briefly prior to his death. The studios stayed active after Hendrix's passing, with artists like Miles Davis and Deep Purple also recording there.

Wonder brought in elite guitarist Jeff Beck on the song, and in fact it was Beck who came up with the drum beat you hear at the opening of the song.  Wonder played the drums on a kit provided at the Record Plant in Hollywood, California.  Wonder also played the hip clavinet riff and the Moog synthesizer bass.   

After finishing the song for his Talking Book album, the first of an historic run of innovative and sensational albums for Wonder, Stevie went on tour with the Rolling Stones to promote it.  Wonder had been an established R&B star for years, and had enjoyed many hits to this time.  The tour with the Stones boosted Wonder's credibility among rock & roll fans.  When "Superstition" was released, the same radio stations that played the Stones added Wonder to their playlists, earning Stevie many new fans.   

"Superstition" didn't walk under the ladder, but boldly climbed each rung until it reached the top of the charts, and it led the way on the R&B chart for three weeks.  Along the way, Wonder encountered many perils and pitfalls, great songs like "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John, "Nights In White Satin" by the Moody Blues, "Killing Me Softly With His Song" by Roberta Flack, "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" by Vicki Lawrence, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn, Johnny Nash's "I Can see Clearly Now", "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me" from Mac Davis, and "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles.

"Superstition" sold one million singles and helped sell 11 million albums.  Wonder captured the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, and he has since been honored with the Billboard Century Award, the World Music Legend Award and the Soul Train Heritage Award for Career Achievement.

 

 

#342:

Crimson And Clover
Tommy James And The Shondells
1969

"The guitar sound is incendiary..."

 

"This song totally blows me away!"

 

"Such a sexy song!"

 

"Simply amazing."

 

"This song has EVERYTHING: soul, compassion, integrity, creativity, and magic.  A 1,000 years from now, the New Earth will remember this song."

Tommy James came up with this psychedelic gem from his favorite color and favorite flower.  Tommy got help from Shondells drummer Peter Lucia Jr. in writing the song, which represented a change of direction for the group.  Keyboardist Kenny Laguna said that Bo Gentry, who used to write songs for Tommy James & the Shondells, wasn't getting paid from Roulette Records, so Gentry went on strike and refused to write any more songs.  So the rest of the Shondells went to Tommy James and encouraged him to find someone else to write the songs.  They told him, "You can't try to do it yourself, you don't know how to write hit songs."
 

So James promptly went off with Lucia and wrote the song.  When he was finished, James told Laguna to come listen to the song.  Laguna was amazed.  James wrote it, produced it, and played all the instruments except the drums.  "Crimson And Clover" allowed the group to begin focusing on selling albums, which was the industry trend at that moment.  From 1955 through 1967, the focus had been on selling singles.

Towards this end, James wanted to expand the song, so the first two verses were copied without lead vocals and overdubbed with guitar solos from Ed Gray.  Because the speed of the single version and the master were different, this resulted in a drop in pitch during the solos, which was unfixed.  James used a tremolo effect on the guitar so that it vibrated in time with the rhythm of the song.  He thought it would be great if he could use that same tremolo effect on his vocals.  To achieve this, the voice microphone was plugged into an Ampeg amplifier with the tremolo turned on, and the output from the amplifier was recorded while James sang "Crimson and clover, over and over..."

 

James did a rough mix of the song in the studio, and put the tape in his briefcase.  The group played in Chicago, Illinois the next day, so James made a trip to the famous radio station WLS.  James played the mix for Program Director John Rook, and then played it for disc jockey Larry Lujack.  What James did not know was that WLS was taping the song at the time.  
 

When James got in his car, he heard WLS saying "World exclusive!  Tommy James and the Shondells!"  And they played the rough mix of "Crimson And Clover".  Since WLS was so influential, the song broke before James could remix the song, and Roulette was forced to press copies of the song WLS was playing.  

Tommy's strategy with "Crimson And Clover" achieved the desired result.  The album of the same name went to #8 on the Album chart.  Following a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the title song went to #1 for two weeks, and logged 11 weeks in the Top 10.  "Crimson And Clover" also reached number one in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland.  It also charted in Austria, Brazil, France, Holland, Italy, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines and Puerto Rico.
 

"Crimson And Clover" achieved those numbers despite competition from "Aquarius" by the 5th Dimension, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye, "Proud Mary" by CCR, "Everyday People" from Sly & the Family Stone, "Time Of The Season" by the Zombies, "You've Made Me So Very Happy" by Blood, Sweat and Tears, "Traces" by the Classics IV, "Love Child" by the Supremes, and "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe. 
 

"Crimson And Clover" has sold over five million singles, and has been played over two million times.

 Several artists, including Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and Prince, have covered it since.  Laguna produced for Joan Jett from the time she left the Runaways and embarked on a solo career.

#341:

Paint It, Black 
Rolling Stones
1966

"YES.  This is music."

 

"I love this song.  It's the best."

 

"Awesome song."

 

"Classic rock and roll."

 

"One of the best songs the Stones ever did."

 

 

 

This next classic is credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but it was clearly a group effort.  Mick wrote the words, while Richards came up with the melody.  Jagger got the part “I turn my head until my darkness goes” from the book Ulysses by James Joyce.

The protagonist in the song is depressed, and he wants everything to turn black to match his mood.  When originally written, “Paint It Black” resembled a slow soul song.   The Rolling Stones recorded it March 6-9 of 1966 at the RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. 

When they first began work on the song, the group began playing the song in a funky rhythm, which did not work.   During the recording session, Bill Wyman began improvising on the organ as a spoof of the original, and drummer Charlie Watts joined in and came up with a double-time drum pattern.  The more upbeat rhythm served to counterbalance the morbid lyrics that Jagger had written.  Guitarist Brian Jones came up with the signature sitar riff, and Jack Nitzsche played keyboards.  Besides working with The Stones, Nitzsche arranged records for Phil Spector and scored many movies.

The Stones released “Paint It Black” as the lead single from their album Aftermath on May 13, on Decca Records in the U.K. and London Records in the United States.  Although the song was originally written without a comma, Decca Records added it to the release of the 45.  This caused confusion and controversy with some listeners, thinking it was a racial song.

Competition included "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles, "When A Man Loves A Woman" by Percy Sledge, "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night", "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration" from the Righteous Brothers, "Sunny" by Bobby Hebb, "I Am A Rock" by Simon & Garfunkel, "Sunshine Superman" from Donovan, "Good Lovin'" by the Rascals, and "Summer In The City" by Lovin' Spoonful.

“Paint It Black” also reached  #1 in the U.K., Canada, and Holland, and #2 in Germany, Austria, Finland, and Ireland.

Former manager Allan Klein owns the publishing rights to “Paint It Black”.  The Stones hired Klein in 1965, and signed a contract they would later regret.  All songs written by the group prior to 1969 are owned by Klein.  Every time this and other Stones songs are used in a commercial or television show, Klein, not the Rolling Stones, gets paid.

"Paint It Black" has sold over 18 million albums and has gone over the one-million mark in radio airplay.

 

 

Some great songs in there.  It should now be evident of the tremendous quality of The Top 500*.  We have 340 ahead of these ones, and the special continues tomorrow on Inside The Rock Era!