Adult Contemporary is a chart published by Billboard ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the adult contemporary music (AC) market. First published in 1961, the listing was compiled until 1965 by simply extracting from the magazine's all-genre chart, the Hot 100, those songs which were deemed of an appropriate style and ranking them according to their placings on the Hot 100. [1] In 1963, during which the chart was published under the title Middle-Road Singles, 14 different songs topped the chart in 52 issues of the magazine.
At the start of the year, Steve Lawrence held the number one position with "Go Away Little Girl", which stayed in the top spot through the issue of Billboard dated January 19 before it was replaced by "Walk Right In" by The Rooftop Singers. Only one act had more than one number one hit during the year: folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary spent two weeks at the top of the chart in May with "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and a further five weeks at number one in August with "Blowin' in the Wind". The latter song was replaced in the top spot by the longest-running Middle Road chart-topper of the year, "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one. Vinton thus also had the highest total number of weeks at number one by any artist.
A number of acts who topped the Middle Road chart in 1963 never reached number one on the Hot 100, including The Cascades, [2] Skeeter Davis, [3] Rolf Harris, [4] and The Village Stompers. [5] Neither Al Martino or Andy Williams ever topped the Hot 100, [6] [7] but both reached number one on the Most Played by Jockeys chart, one of the multiple all-genres charts which Billboard published prior to the creation of the Hot 100 in 1958. [8] [9] The success of the Cascades was short-lived, [10] and the group achieved the unusual feat of topping the Middle-Road chart with the only one of their songs ever to appear on the listing. [2] This feat was also achieved by Belgian vocalist The Singing Nun, who had the final Middle-Road number one of 1963 with "Dominique". Although it also topped the Hot 100, it was the only song which The Singing Nun, also known as Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile), placed on any Billboard chart during her brief commercial career. [11] [12]
"Dominique" is a 1963 French language popular song, written and performed by the Belgian female singer Jeannine Deckers, better known as Sœur Sourire or The Singing Nun. The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order, of which she was a member. The English-version lyrics of the song were written by Noël Regney. In addition to French and English, Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese.
"As I Lay Me Down" is a song composed and performed by singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins. It is from her album Whaler and also appears on The Best of Sophie B. Hawkins. The song is one of her two biggest hits, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary chart for six weeks during 1995. Outside the United States, the song reached number six in Canada, number seven in Australia, number 19 in New Zealand, and number 24 in the United Kingdom.
"100 Years" is a song by American singer Five for Fighting. It was released in November 2003 as the first single from the album The Battle for Everything. The single reached number one on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2007 the song earned a Platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for more than 1,000,000 copies sold. It also charted in Australia and New Zealand, peaking at number 32 in both countries.
"Rhythm of the Rain" is a song performed by The Cascades, released in November 1962. It was written by Cascades band member John Claude Gummoe. On March 9, 1963, it rose to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and spent two weeks at number 1 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked the record as the number 4 song of 1963.
"Her Diamonds" is the lead single from Rob Thomas's second studio album, Cradlesong (2009). Thomas confirmed the single's release via a Twitter account he had created on March 11, 2009. The single premiered on April 22, preceding the release of Cradlesong on June 30. On July 3, 2009, Thomas confirmed in an interview with Natalie Morales and Lester Holt on NBC's Today show that the song references his wife Marisol's auto-immune disease. Thomas announced his wife sang backup on the track and also helped produce its arrangement.
"Hands Tied" is a song by American singer Toni Braxton, taken from her sixth studio album Pulse (2010). It was written by Heather Bright, Warren "Oak" Felder, and Harvey Mason Jr., while production was helmed by Oak and Mason. A mid-paced contemporary R&B ballad, the instrumentation of "Hands Tied" consists essentially of synthesizers, electric guitar, and a cascading piano line. Lyrically, it features Braxton as the protagonist talking about how she could love a man with her hands tied, singing in double entendres with repeated phrases in the chorus of "Hands Tied."
"This Night Won't Last Forever" is a song written by Bill LaBounty and Roy Freeland, and originally recorded by LaBounty in 1978, whose version of the song was a minor Adult Contemporary and pop hit, reaching number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"The Bones" is a song recorded by American singer Maren Morris for her second studio album, Girl. Morris co-wrote the song with Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz, and it was produced by Greg Kurstin. "The Bones" was released digitally as a promotional single on February 22, 2019 and was later serviced to hot adult contemporary radio on May 20, 2019 as the album's second single. The song became a sleeper hit, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2020. A remix of the song with Irish singer Hozier was released on October 4, 2019.