The Music Of 1969: A weekly look at America’s top singles in the year of ‘Sugar, Sugar’, ‘Aquarius’/‘Let The Sunshine In’, ‘Something’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and Woodstock.

As the decade comes to an end, the AM dial is filled with hits from almost every musical genre imaginable and that variety is captured by Billboard’s ranking of the Year End Hot 100 Singles Of 1969 that had ‘Sugar, Sugar’ by the cartoon band, The Archies, at #1. After that, and in order, we see ‘Aquarius’/‘Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)’ by The 5th Dimension, ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’ by The Temptations, ‘Honky Tonk Women’ by The Rolling Stones, ‘Everyday People’ by Sly & The Family Stone, ‘Dizzy’ by Tommy Roe, ‘Hot Fun In The Summertime’ by Sly & The Family Stone again, ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ by Tom Jones, ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ by The Foundations and ‘Crimson And Clover’ by Tommy James and The Shondells. Other famous songs in the Top 100 singles of 1969 include ‘Suspicious Minds’ by Elvis Presley, ‘Something’ and ‘Get Back’ by The Beatles, ‘Proud Mary’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival, ‘Sweet Caroline’ by Neil Diamond, ‘Time Of The Season’ by The Zombies, ‘These Eyes’ by The Guess Who, ‘Galveston’ by Glen Campbell, ‘A Boy Named Sue’ by Johnny Cash and ‘It’s Your Thing’ by The Isley Brothers. No less than 4 songs from the musical ‘Hair’ reach the Top 5 in 1969: ‘Aquarius’/‘Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)’ by The 5th Dimension, ‘Hair’ by The Cowsills, ‘Good Morning Starshine’ by Oliver and ‘Easy To Be Hard’ by Three Dog Night and all of them are in the Top 100 singles of 1969.There were 17 songs that reached #1 in 1969 with 7 of them by artists who topped the Hot 100 for the first time and what a mix of artists that 7 is. We see folk legends Peter, Paul and Mary (‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’), conductor and arranger Henry Mancini and His Orchestra (‘Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet’), studio bands The Archies (‘Sugar, Sugar’) and Steam (‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’), funk and soul band Sly & The Family Stone (‘Everyday People’), one hit wonders Zager & Evans (‘In The Year 2525’) and the pop quintet, The 5th Dimension, who did it twice (‘Aquarius’/‘Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)