Special Sub-Topic: One Shot to the Top #1 Click Here To Play: One Shot to the Top #1

This novelty song was about a beast with an appetite for colorful humans.

Purple People Eater. Sheb Wooley took this ditty to #1 in 1958.

This song was an unlikely hit in the US. Why? Because the original version was sung completely in Italian.

Volare. This song, based on a dream by it's composer, was a #1 hit for Domenico Modugno in 1958.

This song was by a group of three individuals, one of whom would return numerous times to the top forty, but as a producer and writer.

To Know Him is to Love Him. One of the founding members of the Teddy Bears, who had a #1 hit with this song, was none other than Phil Spector, legendary producer from the 60's. Spector's father's grave bears the epitaph, "To Know Him is to Love Him".

One of the first "teen death" songs to hit the charts, this sad tale tells the story of a stalled car, an oncoming train, and an evidently irreplacable class ring.

Teen Angel. Mark Dinning took this tear-jerker to #1 in 1960.

This song is by a poor guy who gets not a moment's peace at home, due to constant nagging by a particular family member.

Mother-in-Law. Poor Ernie K-Doe. We can only hope things got better for him after having a hit record. A 1961 #1 tune.

This instrumental featured a hypnotic clarinet solo, just made for slow dancin' at the sock hop.

Stranger on the Shore. Mr. Acker Bilk performed this lovely song, and took it to the top in 1962.

This song was the first ever Japanese import to make it to #1 in the States.

Sukiyaki. Kyu Sakamoto, who performed this #1 hit in 1963, and subsequently enjoyed a successful career in his native Japan, died tragically in a 1987 plane crash.

Here's another unlikely hit. In the midst of the British Invasion, with Beatlemania at it's height, a middle aged Canadian takes a spoken-word tale of the old west to #1. Can you name the "song"?

Ringo. Lorne Greene, familiar to millions as Pa Cartwright on the TV series "Bonanza", scored with this one. Perhaps some thought it was about the Beatles' drummer, but it was a good story nonetheless. The year was 1964.

This novelty song featured a sound that was a throwback to the 1920's, in which the singer sang through a megaphone into the mike. It also contained those memorable lyrics "Oh vo-dee-oh-doe". Name the song.

Winchester Cathedral. Taken to #1 in 1966 by Geoff Stephens and the New Vaudeville Band, this song spawned a number of "23 skidoo" take-offs, none of which was as successful.

This song, about small town gossip and hypocrisy, topped both the pop and country charts in 1968.

Harper Valley P.T.A.. A sassy shot at all the gossip-mongers of the world, "Harper Valley" was written by Tom T. Hall, and performed by Jeannie C. Riley.