(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer down below)
Lou Christie - "Lightnin' Strikes"
Hit Number 1: February 19, 1966
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
The 1960s is the decade where music changed the most. The first couple years of the decade was a lot of 50s hangover, and a lot of rock 'n' roll and doo-wop was still dominating the charts. Then there was that brief period of hammy little nothings of ballads that took over before the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion arrived, and turned everything upside down. Right now in "The Hit Hammer", we're reaching the end of the British Invasion excitement, and we'll be entering the period of psychedelia pretty soon, with that sort of rounding out the rest of the 60s along with the hippie movement and all that. In every decade, you can always find major differences from start to finish, but 1960 and 1969 seem like they should be more than a decade apart. The British Invasion in the mid-60s had a lot to do with that, but that makes the case of "Lightnin' Strikes" really curious, as it sounds like it's way out of its time.
In the early part of 1966, it was to be expected that we'd see groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and folk junkies Simon & Garfunkel, but artists like Lou Christie seem like they should've been long gone. After all, it was artists like Christie that were completely wiped out by the Beatles tsunami in 1964, and the howling falsettos and girl group backing bands were something the record buying public didn't desire anymore. At least you would think they didn't desire it, because "Lightnin' Strikes" sounds like something that should've been a hit in 1963, the year Christie first burst onto the scene, rather than 1966. But it still hit #1 anyway that year, and ironically on Christie's 23rd birthday.
The song acts as a Four Seasons ripoff, with Christie using a normal soft tenor voice in the verses before erupting in a falsetto in the chorus. There's a girl group backing band, who accompany Christie's ever changing voice levels pretty nicely throughout the song. I'm not really that surprised that this was a #1 hit, as it is a decent little song, I'm just more surprised at the time of it doing so. Maybe I'm reaching a little bit here, but there is a soft meandering piano riff, and subtle horns that do give it a little mid-60s vibe that might have appealed to the public. Or of course, maybe the public was starting to feel nostalgic for music from a few years ago, and Christie's song was the best way for them to satisfy their nostalgia. Whatever the case, "Lightnin' Strikes" is a decent song that is more or less a shout out to music from years gone by. It's hard to fault Christie or the record buying public too much for letting this get to #1, and it could've been with a much worse song.
GRADE: 6/10
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