None of the actual Crystals are on the song at all. Darlene Love ghost-sang that one with her group the Blossoms, getting no credit for it. The Crystals only hit #1 once: 1962’s “ He’s A Rebel,” which is only a Crystals song by name. It’s mythic nothingness, a song that lives forever in your brain after the first time you hear it. There’s something almost experimental in the way he layers the sounds - the drone of the saxophone, the relentless pounding of the piano, the way the handclaps merge with Hal Blaine’s drums. “Da Doo Ron Ron” sounds huge in that classic Phil Spector way. (Edmund Sylvers, who sang lead on the Sylvers’ “ Boogie Fever,” came close he was born six months before Billboard started the chart.) Shaun Cassidy, the second person to pull this feat off, did it with a song that was decidedly shittier than “I Want You Back.” And it wasn’t until 1977 - more than seven years after “I Want You Back” - that another singer younger than the Hot 100 would top the Hot 100. All through the ’70s, most of the singers topping the Hot 100 were baby boomers, born in the ’40s or early ’50s. Two and a half years later, Jackson would land his first #1 as a solo artist: “ Ben,” not a classic on the “I Want You Back” level but a great song nonetheless. (The #1 song when Jackson was born was the Elegants’ “ Little Star.”) Jackson was 11 when he recorded the lead vocal on the Jackson 5’s “ I Want You Back” - a timeless pop classic, one of the best songs ever to top the charts. Jackson was born in August 1958, a few weeks after Billboard launched the Hot 100. Michael Jackson was the first singer ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 who was younger than the Hot 100 itself. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
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