CHART SWEEP! No. 1, 1958

Several years ago I stumbled across two MP3s from the Evolution Control Committee entitled "chart sweep." Together they comprise short clips from every single to reach the number one spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart from 1958 to 1992. It's glorious. I'm still unsure of the provenance -- I doubt ECC created it, because it sounds like it was recorded over the radio. I'm also not sure if it's still up at their site, but you might poke around to find out.

Anyway, after obsessing over this gem for about a week, I forgot about it. A while ago I rediscovered it with a vengeance. Since then I've been inspired to give it a facelift -- the sound quality of the MP3s are pretty bad. (Like I said, recorded off a radio.) But not only am I improving the sound -- and not only am I bringing it up-to-date (to 2007) -- but I'm doing it all in video form.

So without further ado, introducing the first installment of my chart sweep project, every #1 single of 1958, beginning August 3 when the Hot 100 era officially began.



Fun fact: during the Teddy Bears song, the guitarist to the right of Annette Kleinbard is a very young Phil Spector. The Teddy Bears was his first band.

Also, just to put this in perspective, there have been 937 #1 singles on the hot 100. So if you want to see me finish this, donate to the American Diabetes Association.