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The Oldest Hit Song Ever


cytania
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[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1429383129' post='2751015']
Most of the ones mentioned so far were not actually hits.

Didnt Joe Brown have a hit with Hava Nigila ? Or was it Dave Edmunds ?
Either way its a very old song, and was at least, a minor hit for one of em.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Oo8dSBwAA
[/quote]
Scarborough Fair #11 in US 1968.

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"Try a Little Tenderness" was written in the 1930s I believe and "It's Now Or Never" uses the old Neopolitan tune Santa Lucia.

Greensleeves was a 1966 hit in Europe, by The Lords I think, my old garage band used to perform their arrangement.

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[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1429386418' post='2751052']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3][size=4][i][b]Most [/b][/i][/size]of the ones mentioned so far were not actually hits.[/size][/font][/color]
[/quote]What is a hit though? If you took Leadbelly- Gallows Pole, that would have been way before any chart . Who knows what could have been a hit back then. That song goes back to the 17th century

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I suspect that Enigma's 'Sadness (Part 1)' might be a contender - it used chunks of Gregorian plainchant, which in general dates back to maybe 10th century, although I don't know exactly how old the piece they sampled is. But it's got to be somewhere round a thousand years old.

Edited by JoeEvans
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[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1429389951' post='2751081']
What is a hit though? If you took Leadbelly- Gallows Pole, that would have been way before any chart . Who knows what could have been a hit back then. That song goes back to the 17th century
[/quote]

Gallows pole was a hit - when ?

Greensleeves was written by Henry VIII, so early 16th Century, well known song. But I dont know of a hit version.

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[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1429448749' post='2751435']
Gaudete goes back to the 15th Century and was covered by Steelye Span and turned into a hit by the Strawbs.
[/quote]

Probably the oldest one mentioned that actually was a big hit, or at least it seemed to be on the radio and pub jukeboxes a lot. Mid 70s
Dunno where the Strawbs come into it though

Edited by BILL POSTERS
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The chorus to 'By the Rivers of Babylon' was lifted, pretty much word for word, from Psalm 137 from the Old Testament.

The Psalm itself refers to the exile of of the Jews after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC & was probably written within 100 years of those events, making those lyrics around 2,500 years old.

Turn,Turn,Turn by Pete Seeger has a similar Old Testament pedigree.

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[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1429400555' post='2751152']
Gallows pole was a hit - when ?

Greensleeves was written by Henry VIII, so early 16th Century, well known song. But I dont know of a hit version.
[/quote] It wasn`t if you had read the first bit of the sentence, as there were no charts in those days. Just an example of loads of old records that were before charts

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[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1429475803' post='2751803']
It wasn`t if you had read the first bit of the sentence, as there were no charts in those days.
[/quote]

And the first sentence in post #1 is ?

If it hasnt been a contemporary hit, it doesnt count - does it ? To me that means it has to have charted. Which Gallows pole hasn't as far as I know. Although Zep 2 or whichever it was on presumably did.

So far the oldest one thats been mentioned, which has actually been a 'hit' as far as I know, has been Gaudete. In the UK anyway.




[i]Edited. to correct a typo and prevent the pedantic people on here offending me by pointing it out.[/i]

Edited by BILL POSTERS
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[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1429480153' post='2751871']
And the first sentence in post #1 is ?

If it hasnt been a contemporary hit, it doesnt count - does it ? To me that means it has to have charted. Which Gallows pole hasn't as far as I know. Although Zep 2 or whichever it was on presumably did.

So far the oldest one thats been mentioned, which has actually been a 'hit' as far as I know, has been Gaudete. In the UK anyway.




[i]Edited. to correct a typo and prevent the pedantic people on here offending me by pointing it out.[/i]
[/quote]Ok, i have been admonished, and will refrain from posting in this topic again

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[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1429400555' post='2751152']
Gallows pole was a hit - when ?

Greensleeves was written by Henry VIII, so early 16th Century, well known song. But I dont know of a hit version.
[/quote] Anyway, the reason i asked if Henry VIII wrote it was because i looked it up. Although it seems there is a slight chance he did, it seems to be discredited. When someone comes out with things like that, i have to look it up, and find it very interesting. Who wouldv`e thought basschat could be so educational :)
As for Gallows Pole, by Leadbelly, i also learned something else. It could have been a contempory hit in America, as it was released in 1939, and the hit parade in America started in 1936. So yes, i was wrong about that as well. Charts before that were based on sheet music sales.It seems that the beginning was very genre specific, and only tracked Rythm and Blues, Pop, and Country and Western, by the Billboard Magazine.The jukebox was responsible for the start of record charts. The proper charts as we know it today started in 1961 in America, and 1969 in UK. Before 1969, it seems that NME used to phone 15 shops to find out how many sales were made, and based the charts on this. I found it interesting anyway :P

Edited by timmo
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