My quest to determine my “peak music year” continues this week.  As you may or may not recall (or care for that matter) I resolved to examine the BillBoard Hot 100 charts from 1965 to 1975, see who were the groups or artists with the most #1 songs in each year, then choose  a favorite from those and then deem the year that artist or group “won” as my peak music year.  Not very scientific, but it’s the best I have for now.  Anyhoo, last week we stated with 1965, so this week it’s 1966.

And the 1966 Winner is…The Beatles.  Again.  I think this may end up being a trend that will come to a halt after 1970.  However…I noticed a couple things that I hadn’t anticipated.  First is the fact that choosing a “winner” based on the quantity of #1 songs might not be fair.  For example, the Beatles had the #1 song for 4 different times for a total of 5 weeks, but with only two songs.  There was another artist who had only one #1 song that year (Sgt. Barry Sandler, The Ballad of the Green Berets), but it was at #1 for 5 weeks.  So, also 5 weeks at #1, but only 1 song.

Next, I noticed that there are a lot of awesome “one hit wonders” – songs that were at #1 a single time for one week only, some obscure and some iconic.  Case in point: Wild Thing by The Troggs; Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys.  You get the idea – take a look at the chart and see for yourself.  Even The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra had a #1 that year with Strangers in the Night.  Doobie doobie doo indeed.  So I think I’ll have to give 1966 an asterisk for overall additional awesomeness.  By the way you can click on any of those song titles to listen.  And here, once again are The Beatles with their two songs that held the #1 position for a total of five weeks in 1966:  We Can Work It Out and Paperback Writer.  Enjoy!  Oh, and…comments!