Leading into this countdown’s #28 song, Casey relays a factoid about rock-era songs whose title begins with the word “And:” only one, “And When I Die” from Blood Sweat and Tears, had ever gone Top 10. My curiosity was piqued enough to investigate how many hit song titles have started with this word, so I turned to my trusty Joel Whitburn book, which encompasses Hot 100 hits through 2002. Counting covers, there have been thirty “And” tunes, with just a cool dozen (well, almost, as we’ll see) having made the Top 40. Here are those (other than the BS&T) that hit prior to 85:
“And Get Away,” The Esquires
“And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” Jennifer Holliday
“And I Love Her,” The Beatles
“And I Love You So,” Perry Como
“And Roses and Roses,” Andy Williams
“And That Reminds Me,” Della Reese
“And the Beat Goes On,” The Whispers
Sure enough, none of these made the Top 10—Della Reese (on the Disc Jockey chart in the fall of 57) and the Beatles had come closest, both reaching #12. And neither did “And So It Goes” by Billy Joel or “And Our Feelings” from Babyface, the only two from the post-85 period covered in my Whitburn.
But I’m eliding here. For a while today, I thought Casey’s staff had made a mistake. That’s because while Reese was on the chart, a competing version by Kay Starr was also heading up Disc Jockey, and would reach #9.
So why doesn’t this count? It turns out that Starr retitled the song to “My Heart Reminds Me,” and Whitburn lumped all versions under one title in his index (if you look for “My Heart Reminds Me,” you’re directed to “And That Reminds Me”).
Goodness knows that Casey made many errors over the course of the eighteen years of classic AT40 shows, but this wasn’t one of them.
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The inspiration for Kasem sharing this nugget was, of course, the presence of the #21-peaking “And We Danced.” While I enjoyed “All You Zombies” pretty well back in the summer (I confess I like the “calf/half” couplet more than I probably should), it was this follow-up that really caught my ear—“the room is spinning as she whispers my name” gets me every time, even if the wrong syllable of ‘whispers’ is emphasized. I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t a Top 10 record, and incredulous that Nervous Night‘s third single “Day By Day” went higher, to #18.
Hooters leaders Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman had been toiling on the Philly scene for a number of years before getting this measured measure of success. Each has co-writing credit on a huge hit: Hyman for “Time After Time” (they both had a major role playing on Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual), and Bazilian for Joan Osborne’s “One of Us.”
The Music of My Life 