Music Survey Archives 1963
Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson would have their first hit, and their biggest hit, enter the nation’s Top 40 in January of 1963. Soon, their song would be #1 in the country and also on KEWB in the Bay Area. They would be known to us as Paul & Paula.
This next survey is from the week ending May 4, 1963. Look at the song that was #40. It would only spend 3 weeks on the KEWB Top and then it would fall off the charts. This song was “Please Please Me” by The Beatles. This was more than a half year before Beatlemania would invade America. With the arrival of Beatlemania, this song would come back and be one of the top songs in the country and also the Bay Area.
The date was August 12, 1985. A Japanese Airlines 747 would crash near Tokyo, Japan claiming the lives of 520 people and among those that were killed in this plane crash was Kyu Sakamoto. Kyu had his biggest moment in American music in the early summer of 1963 when his recording of “Ue O Muite Aruko”. would go to #1 in the country We would know this song as “Sukiyaki” (*)
This survey is from KYA on the week ending August 16, 1961. “Wipeout” by The Surfaris was the #1 song in the Bay Area. We also see that one of my favorite DJ’s is now on KYA. His name was Gene Nelson, known to us as “Emperor Gene Nelson”. KYA has now changed it’s format to Top 30.
On the week ending September 14, 1963, the top song in the Bay area belonged to Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine-they were The Beach Boys.
This next survey is from the top rhythm and blues station in the Bay Area at this time-KDIA. One of the disc jockeys was Belva Davis., long before she became a TV news person. This survey is from the week ending on September 20, 1963
On the week of December 28, 1963, the #1 song in the Bay Area was performed by Jeanine Deckers, an actual nun. She would record under the name Soeur Sourire, which meant “Sister Smile”. We would know her as The Singing Nun.
References: (*) “One Hit Wonders” by Wayne Jancik “The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits, 9th Edition” by Joel Whitburn and the music surveys of KEWB, KYA and KDIA in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area in California, U.S.A. 🙂 🙂 🙂
