The Top Hits of 1962 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

Of course it was! In 1960, it charted in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the top 40 for 15 weeks, the top ten for 12 weeks and was Number One for one week, totaling 1310 chart points. The numbers for 1962 were as follows - Hot 100, 21 weeks; top 40, 18 weeks; top 10, 13 weeks; Number One, two weeks; total - 1536 points. Its cumulative total of 2846 points makes it the fourth biggest hit in terms of these point ratings for the 1956-1987 era. Only "Singing The Blues" by Guy Mitchell in 1956 with 2931 points, "You Light Up My Life" by Debbie Boone in 1977 with 3150 points and "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John in 1981 with 3040 points, rated higher.

This was Chubby Checker's legacy to the rock era... well, most of it anyway!

Answer: I Can't Stop Loving You

This was Ray Charles' third and last Number One hit and the biggest hit of his 40+ year career. Charles was always partial to country music, a product of his childhood in rural Georgia. Although he dabbled in the genre in his early recordings, most of his songs were R&B oriented. Perhaps because there were notoriously few black artists in the country field at the time, Charles, or maybe his record label, was reluctant to cut a recording with a country bias, perhaps fearful of alienating his fans. This hit obviously laid to rest those possible apprehensions and most of his recordings over the next two years were country-tinged.

Don Gibson wrote the song and he also flitted between pop and country music with the songs he recorded such as "Oh Lonesome Me", "Blue, Blue Day" and "Sea Of Heartbreak". Gibson recorded this song himself as the flip side to "Oh Lonesome Me" and it made a Number 81 chart appearance in 1958. Clearly, what it needed was the soulful rendering that Charles applied to the song to make it a hit. It earned 1499 points based on its 18 week chart run, falling 37 points short of "The Twist" in the year-end ratings.

Answer: Big Girls Don't Cry

This was The Four Seasons' biggest hit of the year spending 16 weeks on the chart, five of them at Number One. It earned 1438 points. More about the group later in the quiz... they had only just begun!

Answer: Limbo Rock

Here's some more of the lyric that amplifies how often the word "limbo" appears in the lyric - 28 times!

"Every limbo boy and girl all around the limbo world
Gonna do the limbo rock all around the limbo clock
Jack be limbo, Jack be quick, Jack go under limbo stick
All around the limbo clock, hey, let's do the limbo rock"

While the "Chubby one" was not quite done with these types of songs just yet, it would be his penultimate top 10 hit and the last song of his that would achieve a high rank at year-end.

Answer: The Starlighters were the house band at the Peppermint Lounge

Indeed, Joey Dee and The Starlighters were the house band at "The Peppermint Lounge" nightclub and had been since 1960. The club apparently was quite the hot spot in New York City, the 1960s version of Studio 54, that uppity disco haunt. It was where the fashionable youngsters went to twist the night away. Sadly, perhaps, "The Peppermint Lounge" has long since closed its doors and Joey Dee actually opened his own nightspot "The Starlighter" in 1964, that only lasted a year.

He still is an active performer on the oldies circuit.

Answer: Stranger On The Shore

A Danish jazz pianist named Bent Fabric recorded "Alley Cat". It was a Number Seven hit in 1962 that ranked at 44 for the year. "Take Five" was that classic 1963 jazz recording by The Dave Brubeck Quartet that managed a Number 25 charting on the Hot 100 that year. "Midnight In Moscow" was a Dixieland number recorded by British jazzman Kenny Ball. It peaked at Number Two in 1962 and was ranked number 38.

Acker Bilk learned to play the clarinet while pulling guard duty with the British military in Egypt in 1947. He became proficient enough to lead his own jazz band upon his discharge in the early 1950s and became a highly respected musician and entertainer in his homeland. Strangely enough, however, although this song spent close to a year on the British version of the Hot 100, it never was a Number One hit there! It accumulated 1293 Billboard points to attain its lofty year end status.

Answer: Roses Are Red

Bobby Vinton is among the very few who managed a Number One hit with their first release. He was born in Canonsburg, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa., the son of a popular local big band conductor and growing up, it was his life's ambition to emulate his dad. He did form his own band while in high school and the proceeds enabled him to attend Duquesne University graduating with a degree in music.

The big band era was done by the late 1950s but Vinton persevered in his quest and ultimately became the bandleader for Dick Clark's "Caravan Of Stars", his traveling show, in 1960. Vinton and his orchestra cut a few demos in 1962 and he tried singing a little ditty on just one of them. Yep, "Roses Are Red"! Vinton maintained a steady influence on the charts over the next 13 years and he really was an anachronism during this era... a fellow who was able to be successful singing stuff that hearkened back to the previous generation. He still tours on a regular basis, mostly concert halls and casinos, and during the 1980s, had his own concert hall in Branson, Missouri. Although he has divested himself of any interest in that venture, he does try to perform there at least a couple of months a year.

Answer: Sherry

Unlike Bobby Vinton, The Four Seasons and lead singer, Frankie Valli, had been beating the bushes for many years prior to their sudden rise to stardom. Essentially, they were an Italian "doo-wop" group and that sound had been passé for many years when they came under the influence of Philadelphia producer Bob Crewe early in 1962. Crewe did a few things: 1. he emphasized Valli's singing range, particularly his ability to sing in falsetto; 2. he modernized the sound of the group with his musical arrangements; 3. he collaborated with group member Bob Gaudio to write the songs the group recorded in 1962 that became so popular. Crewe's influence would extend during the entire duration of The Four Seasons' success into the latter half of the decade.

Answer: Mashed Potato Time

Dee Dee Sharp got her start singing in, then leading, the choir at her grandfather's Philadelphia church. At the age of 13, in 1958, her mother was seriously injured in an accident and Dee Dee secured work as a back-up singer while still attending school. She backed up the whole roster of Philadelphia artists - Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Lloyd Price, Bobby Rydell and Jackie Wilson, before finally getting her chance with this song and she didn't miss! She became a star overnight and was the first black, female teen idol of the era. Incidentally, her real name was Dione LaRue but her record producers weren't fond of the handle. They changed it to Dee Dee Sharp simply because she sang in the key of D Sharp.

She followed up this release with three more quick top 10 ten hits and continued to record well into the 1980s but without much chart success. Over the years, she has diversified her repertoire not only performing live in concerts but also on TV and in the movies. The new millennium sees her active in all these entertainment mediums.

Answer: Return To Sender

"Return To Sender" spent 10 of its 16 weeks on the Hot 100 within the top 10, peaking at Number Two for five long weeks. It was denied Number One by the records that finished at number three and number eleven in this recap. Elvis would have three other entries among the top 100 ranked songs of the year: the number 27 "Good Luck Charm", the number 28 "Can't Help Falling In Love" and the number 90 "She's Not You".

The next few years would not be as kind to "The King"

Answer: True

Mistakenly, many think that The Beatles, as leaders of the "British Invasion" in 1964, would have copped that honor. However, it was this quintet of studio musicians under the aegis of producer Joe Meeks who beat The Beatles to the punch by 13 months!

The first British performer to have any sort of Number One in America was Laurie London. A London, England resident at the time, he recorded "He's Got The Whole World (In His Hands)" in 1958 at the age of 13 and it topped the Jockey Chart for four weeks. However, it only peaked at Number Two on the Top 100 chart, the predecessor to the Hot 100. The first British artist to achieve that feat was Mr. Acker Bilk earlier in 1962 and the subject of an earlier question in this quiz.

The Tornados time in the spotlight was very brief indeed. They only had one other Billboard chart entry, the forgettable "Ridin' The Wind" that peaked at Number 63 in 1963. Thereafter, a lawsuit between Joe Meek and a French concern over copyright infringements essentially grounded The Tornados and they went their separate ways in 1964.

Answer: Johnny Angel

Shelley Fabares was destined for a career in show business being born to a family with roots in the industry - her aunt was entertainer Nanette Fabray. Before she was a teenager, she had already appeared in several movies and got her first big break in 1958 at the age of 14 playing the role of Mary Stone, the daughter in "The Donna Reed Show", for five years.

Shelley was a reluctant recording star. Columbia Pictures Television produced the TV show and they prevailed on her to record some tracks in support of their music division and record label, Colpix. This was her debut release and easily the biggest hit in her short recording career. In some circles, the song is considered to be the quintessential "girl song" spawning the success that various girl groups would have with similar material over the next couple of years. Her own follow-up, "Johnny Loves Me", peaked at Number 21 but when subsequent recordings failed to make much of an impression, she decided to forego music altogether to concentrate on acting.

She continues to land roles primarily in TV movie productions but has also had continuing roles in a couple of TV series, most notably "One Day At A Time" and as Craig T. Nelson's wife in "Coach". Along with her husband, Mike Farrell, she devotes much of her time now to charitable causes, particularly those pertinent to Alzheimer's disease.

"Johnny Angel" gathered 1085 points based on a 15 week tenure in the Hot 100 with two weeks at Number One.

Answer: Soldier Boy

Between their debut release in 1960 and their last top 40 charting song in 1963, The Shirelles etched an indelible impression on the music world: 17 charting hits, 12 top 40 hits, six top 10s and two Number One hits - this one and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" in 1961. Then... struggles! From 1964 to 1967 they would only have nine more recordings enter the Hot 100 and none could crack the top 40. Then, from 1968 to 1982 when they disbanded, not a solitary chart entry!

In my attempts to find out what went wrong, there appeared to be nothing definitive, but perhaps "the perfect storm" of events all contributed to their lack of success. Among the factors: 1. Beatlemania 2. A general shift in the musical tastes of the listening public 3. Material that was inferior to their earlier hits 4. Reduced promotion of their output by their record label. Regardless, suffice to say that their overall impact and legacy to the industry was such that they were inducted into the R&R Hall Of Fame in 1996.

Answer: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" finished 1962 with 1079 points based on a 15 week run in the Hot 100 with three weeks at Number One.

In 1955, Hank Medress, a student at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, gathered together three of his classmates and formed a doo-wop group dubbed The Linc-Tones. Among those original members was Neil Sedaka. They were good enough to be signed to a record contract but after their initial releases went nowhere, they disbanded. Medress formed The Tokens with a new line-up in 1960. Despite many years of effort, they were never able to duplicate the success they had with this hit. Medress left the group in 1971 to produce the recordings of Tony Orlando and Dawn and The Tokens folded shortly after.

Answer: The Monster Mash

Bobby Pickett was 22 years old, just discharged from the military, and looking for acting work in L.A. To make ends meet in the interim, he joined a band known as The Cordials as lead singer. They regularly performed a cover of The Diamonds hit "Little Darlin'" that featured a talking verse. Pickett would emulate Boris Karloff in that part and it became a popular element of their act. Another member of the group, Bobby Capizzi, suggested that he and Pickett write a song utilizing Pickett's Karloff imitation. It took a year to conceptualize and ninety minutes to write... "The Monster Mash" was created and Bobby Pickett became Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Among the supporting musicians who played on the record, dubbed The Crypt Kickers, was one Leon Russell.

They took the song to Gary Paxton, a record producer who wrote, performed and produced the hit record "Alley Oop" as The Hollywood Argyles. He thought highly of the project and a demo was cut. Paxton tried to sell it to a few record labels, without success, but undaunted, he underwrote the cost of pressing a thousand copies and hand delivered them to DJ's throughout Southern California. When it started getting significant airplay, London records took it over and within eight weeks it hit Number One on Billboards Hot 100!

Pickett still makes a living off this one hit performing at special events. Obviously, he doesn't take himself too seriously - on his website it states "Bobby 'Boris' Pickett is available year round and can be dug up to appear and sing a medley of his hit"!