People say that love's a game

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1959 : Put Your Head On My Shoulder - Paul Anka

This is the first track on the list that I'm not aware I've even heard of before, let alone heard.  I think I have heard some Paul Anka tracks (it's crooner-ish pop, isn't it?) so I might have heard this, but it didn't sink in.

And having listened to it, I still can't tell you - but, obviously I've listened to it at least once now and it's definitely crooner-ish pop.  It's fine I guess, although his voice isn't as good as I was expecting - but it's only 2:37 so it's not like I got much chance to get too annoyed with him.  I'm VERY intrigued as to why this has the top spot for the year though - from the cover, I'm guessing it's not his supremely cool image.

Wikipedia tells me it was released and it was successful (#2 in the US and #7 in the UK) and, apart from some very dodgy cover versions (which I won't be relaying to you) that's pretty much your lot.  secondhandsongs.com, our more reliable source of covers, doesn't exactly suggest it's been a widely used source of inspiration - PJ Proby, Nancy Sinatra, Keith Chegwin (really?) and Michael Bublé are the only names I recognise and Paul Anka is the only person who's charted with it.

But then, right at the end, Wikipedia gives me what must be the reason for this track having the top spot for the year - "A mashed up version of Doja Cat's "Streets" containing the first 12 seconds of "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" became a TikTok challenge known as the "Silhouette Challenge"".  So those numbers must have counted, which for twelve seconds feels like a bit of a cheat and I suspect there are going to be some songs unhappy about this situation.

The best selling single in the UK in this year was Cliff Richard's "Living Doll" (backed by The Drifters here, which I never knew, although they were just The Shadows before a name change) - and, surprisingly, there were very few other tracks I'd heard of from the UK this year and none that I would expect to be anywhere near the top of any list.  There's remarkably few tracks I recognise from the US as well - Connie Francis's "Lipstick On Your Collar" is probably the best known (and it's a good bit of fun).  It's odd how '56-'58 churned out so many classic tracks but there's very little of note from '59.

Which must be at least partly why '21 was responsible for Paul getting top spot this year - I would have been happier if '86 had delivered it to "Living Doll" which feels a much more "British" entry representative of the time (and I reckon is still warmly thought of).  But we have to accept that social media is going to drive a lot of these tracks and finding out which ones is going to be part of the fun - there are certainly some very peculiar selections coming up.  The twelve second thing annoys me though...

1958 - Our last rock'n'roll track
1960 - Another surprising track