@Rockgolf: Because of the lack of a single, official pop music chart before 1958, it would be hard to list the songs that both won the Oscar and hit #1. OTOH, there's no official date that began the Rock Era; some sources begin it when Bill Haley went to #1 with "Rock Around the Clock" in July of 1955 (even though the song was first released by Haley in 1954; Haley'd also had a Top 10 hit with "Shake, Rattle and Roll" in 1954) and several of the #1 songs that hit the various Billboard pop charts before Haley, such as "Sh-Boom" by the Crew Cuts and "Mr Sandman" by the Chordettes), while not necessarily "rock" are part of the "Early Rock Era" pantheon of hits.
Using Billboard's "Best Sellers in Stores" chart, the following songs went to #1 and won the Oscar: "White Christmas" (1942); "You'll Never Know" (1943); "Swinging on a Star" (1944); "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (1946); "Buttons and Bows" (1948); "Mona Lisa" (1950); and, "Secret Love" (1953--hit #1 in 1954 for Doris Day). Only one other song from Billboard's "Best Sellers" chart would also be an Oscar winner before the chart was discontinued--"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (as recorded by the Four Aces, in 1955). That song would largely be the first Oscar-winnning #1 song of the Rock Era, and it was a "consensus" #1 (topping not only the "Best Sellers" chart, but also the "Most Played by Jockeys," the "Most Played in Jukeboxes," and the newly-established "Top 100" charts, although it never held #1 on all 4 charts simultaneously).
Until the 1969 entry listed on the quiz, no other Oscar-winning song from 1956 to 1968 would reach #1 on the Billboard Pop singles chart. (In fact, during that period only TWO Oscar Best Song nominees even reached #1: "Tammy" as recorded by Debbie Reynolds, and "April Love" as recorded by Pat Boone, both in 1957.) |
4 Letter Hit Songs
Superstars' Greatest Hits
Top 10 Hits of 2009
