In "The Hit Hammer" I am reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, starting with when the chart started in 1958 and working my way up to the present. I got this idea from a column that is doing the exact same thing on Stereogum's website, with one of their writers, Tom Breihan, reviewing each song as well. Just like Breihan, I will give some information about the artist, some background of the song, and of course, my personal opinion of the song. At the end of each post, I will give a grade of 1-10 for each song, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. As a bit of a hat tip to Breihan, I will have a feature called "THE TWOS", where I will point out songs that peaked at #2 and give a grade to them, and "THE TENS", where I will give a 10 grade to any song in the top 10 that I think is deserving of it. I highly suggest, if you haven't already, to go check out Tom's column. It's called "The Number Ones". All information I got either comes from Wikipedia or Billboard's website. One final note, I will try to have a new post every day, but obviously this won't always be possible. Now that you know what this is all about, let's start the journey!
"Poor Little Fool" - Ricky Nelson
Hit Number 1: August 4, 1958
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
It's only fitting that when the Billboard Hot 100 started in 1958, a teen idol was at the top spot. Throughout the 1950s, there was a show called "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet", in which the couple's young son, Ricky Nelson, starred with them. As Nelson got older, he became a teen idol, and eventually started his own music career. And with the help of him being a "teen idol", he was able to yield a #1 hit in "Poor Little Fool".
There were pretty much always #1 songs, but they started the Billboard Hot 100 in August of 1958, with a different format of tracking sales. "Poor Little Fool" happened to be the first #1 song on the new chart, but it was too bad that the first song wasn't that exciting. "Poor Little Fool" is kind of a dried up song, that just repeats itself. You will likely hear me alluding to something called "The Poor Little Fool Effect" whenever I feel like a song does the same. The song goes something like this "Poor little fool, oh yeah. I was a fool, uh huh" with a little verse thrown in between that, over and over again. And that's the whole song. I don't think it's a bad song, but it's just bland. Nelson would be more exciting to listen to in the future.
Unfortunately, as Nelson continued to age, his teen idol status obviously faded, and he was never quite the same. His song "Garden Party" did relatively well for itself several years later in 1972. ("Garden Party" peaked at #6. It's a 9.) But that hit came years after Nelson was relevant in the music world. In fact, "Garden Party" is about Nelson's dwindling popularity, and how no one even knew who he was anymore. Despite all that, it really has become Nelson's best song, but I digress.
Nelson didn't do much exciting after "Garden Party" but he did continue to tour. Unfortunately, Nelson would later die in a plane crash on New Years Eve in 1985, cause the weather was shit and no one cared to acknowledge that. But Nelson will always be the answer to the trivia question on who had the first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It's just too bad it wasn't a very exciting song.
GRADE: 5/10
THE TWOS:
Perez Prado and His Orchestra's "Patricia" peaked at #2 behind "Poor Little Fool". It's a 4.
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