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I can’t recall before or since 1969 a Broadway musical having so many songs from it that it reached the top 10.
There have been many movies where several songs from the soundtrack have crossed over to the pop charts, including “Saturday Night Fever,” “Top Gun,” “Footloose” and others, but I believe it is because the style that Broadway show tunes were written in did not lend itself to become best selling tunes.
Memorable, yes, but not the stuff hit singles are made from, That is, until 1969 and the musical “Hair.”
With its portrayal of hippies and the counter-culture of the time, it is amazing how the show ever got to the Broadway stage, but Chicago businessman turned anti-war politician Michael Butler liked the show enough to used his influence to get a theater to produce the show after several turned it down for being too controversial.
What is extremely interesting is that there were four top 10 songs from the show – one peaked at No.4, one at No. 3, one at No.2, and one topped the chart at No.1.
I am going to tell you about them, and for this week’s quiz, tell me which one went as high as No. 4, which went to No. 3, which went to No. 2, and which one went all the way to No.1. As usual, send your answer to lowtekman5@aol.com. All correct answers get to download an episode of my radio show that features the music from a month and year of your choice.
The Cowsills were the inspiration for TV’s Partridge Family. A group with mom, two teenage boys, and a young daughter made nice harmonies on their debut song, “The Rain, The Park and Other Things,” and then they decided to record the title song from "Hair."
Oliver Swofford, who went only by his first name, released the song from the show “Good Morning Starshine.” He later had a hit with a song from a movie – “Jean” from the film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brody” that starred Maggie Smith.
The Cowsills and Oliver were two-hit wonders, but the 5th Dimension already had several hits to their credit when they put out “Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine In.”
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