{"id":222210,"date":"2025-06-28T20:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T20:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222210\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T20:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T20:32:16","slug":"which-song-held-the-number-one-spot-for-the-longest-in-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222210\/","title":{"rendered":"Which song held the number one spot for the longest in 1969?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Woodstock<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube \/ James M Shelley)<\/p>\n

Sat 28 June 2025 17:00, UK <\/p>\n

Woodstock<\/a>, the moon landing, Vietnam, political upheavals: at the risk of sounding like a bad Billy Joel song, there was an awful lot of big stuff going on in 1969. Some have further proposed, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, that this might have been the single greatest year in the history of popular music, from the rise of metal and reggae to the rooftop farewell of The Beatles and the first space mission of David Bowie. <\/p>\n

However, as is often the case when we go back and explore the public record, not every music listener in 1969 seemed aware they were in the middle of a golden age.<\/p>\n

Many of the songs from the year that we now consider all-time classics didn\u2019t make it to number one in the UK. Dusty Springfield\u2019s \u2018Son of a Preacher Man\u2019, The Who\u2019s \u2018Pinball Wizard\u2019<\/a>, The Hollies\u2019 \u2018He Ain\u2019t Heavy, He\u2019s My Brother\u2019, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles\u2019 \u2018The Tracks of My Tears\u2019 all fell short of the summit. <\/p>\n

These things do happen, as great singles are sometimes the victims of their own release dates and the quality of their competition. Unfortunately, many of the songs that did manage to climb to the top row of the UK singles chart in 1969 were not memorable reflections of their time, but a sort of embarrassing, oddball mix of novelty tunes, lazy covers, and outright curiosities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among them were \u2018Lily the Pink\u2019 by The Scaffold featuring Paul McCartney\u2019s brother\u2019s Peter<\/a>, which spent four weeks at number one with its comic sing-along stylings; Marmalade\u2019s bouncy cover of The Beatles\u2019 \u2018Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da\u2019, which claimed three weeks; and the bleak sci-fi vision of Zager & Evans\u2019 \u2018In the Year 2525\u2019, which ruled for three. I hesitate to even mention Rolf Harris\u2019 \u2018Two Little Boys\u2019, now far more infamous than beloved, which held the number one spot for an insane six weeks at the tail end of the year.<\/p>\n

As for the grand champion, the single that held the number one position for the most weeks in the year of our lord 1969? Well, you won\u2019t be surprised to learn that it wasn\u2019t anything by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or Simon & Garfunkel. It was, instead, \u2018Sugar, Sugar\u2019\u2014a saccharine, bubblegum pop confection performed by a cartoon band, The Archies. The track, produced by Don Kirshner and sung by Ron Dante, was created specifically for the animated TV series based on the Archie comics, and it took the idea of a catchy earworm to frightening new heights.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sugar, Sugar\u2019 spent an astonishing eight weeks at number one on the UK chart in the autumn of 1969, making it the longest-reigning chart-topper of the year. In the United States, it fared nearly as well, spending four weeks at number one and ultimately landing as the best-selling single of the year on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, two songs did surpass \u2018Sugar, Sugar\u2019 that year in terms of longevity at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100: \u2018In the Year 2525\u2019 and \u2018Aquarius \/ Let the Sunshine In\u2019 by The 5th Dimension, both of which spent six weeks at the top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One could at least argue that, despite the novelty of \u2018Sugar, Sugar\u2019 and \u2018Aquarius\u2019, they have at least remained a part of the culture over the subsequent half-century, even if you\u2019re most likely to hear them in commercials for shampoo or smartphone gaming apps. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube \/ James M Shelley) Sat 28 June 2025 17:00, UK Woodstock, the moon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[87711,77,269,55332,16,588,15,65639],"class_list":{"0":"post-222210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-87711","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-singles","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-uk-charts","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-us-charts"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114762897743464343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}