The Official Top 10 biggest '60s songs of the digital era

 

POS TITLE ARTIST CHART SALES

1 I WANT YOU BACK JACKSON 5 842,000

2 BROWN EYED GIRL VAN MORRISON 830,000

3 AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL 753,000

4 STAND BY ME BEN E KING 742,000

5 PAINT IT BLACK ROLLING STONES 679,000

6 HERE COMES THE SUN BEATLES 632,000

7 (SITTIN' ON THE) DOCK OF THE BAY OTIS REDDING 623,000

8 SWEET CAROLINE NEIL DIAMOND 617,000

9 GIMME SHELTER ROLLING STONES 568,000

10 MY GIRL TEMPTATIONS 566,000

 

©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

*Taking in downloads, audio and video streams from Week 1 2004 to Week 30 2019

 

I am surprised there’s no Dusty Springfield here, maybe she’d be Top 20 ish

Found it strange (though used to it now) that Here Comes The Sun has become the most popular Beatles track of the streaming era. In most polls of best songs or best Beatles songs before about 2009 it would rarely feature at all, instead you would see Hey Jude, Let It Be, etc.

Same for The Rolling Stones. Gimme shelter but not Satisfaction.

Edited August 14, 20195 yr by ben08

And where is You'll never walk alone?

Edited August 14, 20195 yr by ben08

Gimme Shelter and Here Comes the Sun have simply aged better than other big songs of theirs and appeal more to younger audiences.

 

Hey Jude and Let It Be are very overrated in my opinion anyway so HCTS can stay as The Beatles top seller of the modern era.

Interesting how a lot of these songs weren't initially big hits. 'Stand By Me' was only a small hit to begin with, 'My Girl' had a couple of small chart entries before charting at #2 in 1992 and 'Brown Eyed Girl', 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', 'Paint It Black', 'Here Comes the Sun' and 'Gimme Shelter' didn't chart at all until the download era.

 

'I Want You Back' sold 290k in 1970 and another 140k in 1988, so 1.272m in total.

 

'Stand By Me' sold 25k in 1961 and 530k in 1987 (thanks to the film of the same name), so 1.297m in total.

 

Unsure of the 60s sales for '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' but it was a #3 hit so probably not far off 1m sales.

 

Likewise, I'm not sure what 'Sweet Caroline' sold in 1971 when it reached #8, but maybe ~800k in total.

 

'My Girl' sold 268k in 1992, plus a small amount of sales from the 1965 and 1986 releases, so at least 834k in total.

 

These are 2018's most streamed songs by year of release from the 60s, so presumably the ones that haven't been mentioned won't be far off the list either:

 

1969 I WANT YOU BACK THE JACKSON 5

1968 (SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY OTIS REDDING

1967 AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL

1966 PAINT IT BLACK THE ROLLING STONES

1965 I CAN'T HELP MYSELF THE FOUR TOPS

1964 MY GIRL THE TEMPTATIONS

1963 IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME ANDY WILLIAMS

1962 BRING IT ON HOME TO ME SAM COOKE

1961 STAND BY ME BEN E KING

1960 AT LAST ETTA JAMES

 

And from 2017's list:

 

1968 ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER - JIMI HENDRIX

 

EDIT: Turns out 'Paint It Black' was a #1 in 1966, I just didn't notice it as the OCC credits the number one version as 'Paint It, Black' with a comma. It sold 280k in 1966 and an additional 10k in 1990, so 969k all together.

 

Also, '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' sold 240k in 1968 (863k in total) and 'Sweet Caroline' sold 160k in 1971 (777k in total). A revised total of 217k for 'My Girl' in 1992 plus 5k from 1965 puts it on 788k to date.

That is not a great list !!

Only one Beatles song? And I've never understood why Paint It Black's more popular than ICGNS

Beatles digital downloads only began on 16.11.2010 and Beatles streaming began in December 2015.

Let it be has just passed 400,000 digital sales plus streams. So give it time to improve.

Surprised that Marvin and Tammi's version of Ain't No Mountain High Enough has done that well considering Diana's was the bigger hit.

I didn't realise until I was playing the Yesterday soundtrack the other day and my little niece knew Here Comes The Sun, that it's been featured in a couple of big kids movies in recent years apparently. Must have something to do with it.

Surely Hey Jude sold a lot round the Olympics etc?

Surely Hey Jude sold a lot round the Olympics etc?

 

It is their #2 most streamed anyway

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/t...d-songs__26794/

 

Another thing that might have given Here Comes The Sun a boost was that it wasn't on their 3 million selling compilation "1".

Edited August 16, 20195 yr by AcerBen

Gimme Shelter and Here Comes the Sun have simply aged better than other big songs of theirs and appeal more to younger audiences.

 

Hey Jude and Let It Be are very overrated in my opinion anyway so HCTS can stay as The Beatles top seller of the modern era.

Both 'Gimme Shelter' and 'Here Comes The Sun' have also benefitted from being available to download / stream. Prior to the digital age both were popular songs with the older generation but there was no way of buying either without buying an album. And their availability as downloads / streams has helped bring them to the attention of a younger audience who possibly weren't previously aware of either track.

 

I've never really liked 'Hey Jude' - it goes on far too long - and can only listen to 'Let It Be' in small doses.

Edited August 16, 20195 yr by Robbie