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Musical Dice -- Songs And Remakes, Same Chart Peak

     Welcome to the music section of my Musical Dice website! For you music trivia enthusiasts, and those who love to learn about the stories behind the music, you've come to the right place! I love sharing my knowledge of music trivia, so that's why I created this section.

     It fascinates me whenever a song achieves a certain chart success, and then a remake of that song achieves the same exact peak on the chart. This is what today's article is all about. Here are some of the songs in which the remakes achieved exactly the same chart peak as the original hit song:


"Go Away Little Girl" (#1)

  • Steve Lawrence, 1963 (#1 for 2 weeks)

  • Donny Osmond, 1971 (#1 for 3 weeks)


"The Locomotion" (#1)

  • Little Eva, 1962 (#1 for 1 week)

  • Grand Funk, 1974 (#1 for 2 weeks)


"Please Mr. Postman" (#1)

  • The Marvelettes, 1961 (#1 for 2 weeks)

  • The Carpenters, 1975 (#1 for 1 week)


"Venus" (#1)

  • The Shocking Blue, 1970 (#1 for 1 week)

  • Bananarama, 1986 (#1 for 1 week)


"Lean On Me" (#1)

  • Bill Withers, 1972 (#1 for 3 weeks)

  • Club Nouveau, 1987 (#1 for 2 weeks)


"You Keep Me Hangin' On" (#1)

  • The Supremes, 1966 (#1 for 2 weeks)

  • Kim Wilde, 1987 (#1 for 1 week)


"When A Man Loves A Women" (#1)

  • Percy Sledge, 1966 (#1 for 2 weeks)

  • Michael Bolton, 1991 (#1 for 1 week)


"I'll Be There" (#1)

  • The Jackson 5, 1970 (#1 for 5 weeks)

  • Mariah Carey feat. Trey Lorenz, 1992 (#1 for 2 weeks)


"Lady Marmalade" (#1)

  • LaBelle, 1975 (#1 for 1 week)

  • Christina Aguilera/Pink/Mya/Li'l Kim, 2001 (#1 for 5 weeks)


"Rockin' Robin" (#2)

  • Bobby Day, 1957 (#2 for 2 weeks)

  • Michael Jackson, 1972 (#2 for 2 weeks)


"Last Kiss" (#2)

  • J. Frank Wilson & the Caviliers, 1964 (#2 for 1 week)

  • Pearl Jam, 1999 (#2 for 1 week)


"California Girls" (#3)

  • The Beach Boys, 1965

  • David Lee Roth, 1985


"Paper Roses" (#5)

  • Anita Bryant, 1960

  • Marie Osmond, 1973


"My Special Angel" (#7)

  • Bobby Helms, 1957

  • The Vogues, 1968


"Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" (#11)

  • Ben E. King, 1962

  • Aretha Franklin, 1970


"I Only Wanna Be With You" (#12)

  • Dusty Springfield, 1964

  • The Bay City Rollers, 1976 (#12, 12 years later!)


"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (#15)

  • The Animals, 1965

  • Santa Esmerelda, 1978


     SPECIAL NOTES: It is worth mentioning that there are also songs that have the same title, but are completely different songs, that somehow topped out at the same chart position. Some #1 hit song titles like that include "Good Vibrations" (the Beach Boys, and Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch), "I'm Sorry" (Brenda Lee, and John Denver), "My Love" (Petula Clark, Paul McCartney & Wings, and Justin Timberlake), and "Venus" (Frankie Avalon's song was not the same as either the Shocking Blue, or Bananarama). "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" was a #6 hit for Tom Jones in 1969, as well as a #6 hit for Dionne Warwick in 1970. Also, "Someday" was a #7 hit for Glass Tiger in 1987 as well as #7 for Sugar Ray in 1999. A future article on this website will explore deeper, same song titles, different songs. Watch for it.

     Finally, I should mention that some of the songs I mentioned in this article, had other hit versions of the same song that did not get as high on the chart as the versions I mentioned. For example Vanilla Fudge also had a top-ten hit version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (they reached #6 with their version in 1967). Also, Kylie Minogue reached #3 in 1988 with her version of "The Locomotion." Some of you may remember Samantha Fox having a hit version of "I Only Wanna Be With You" in 1989 (her version only reached #31). In fact, the first time I heard that song was when Nicolette Larson covered it in 1982 (her version failed to make the top 40). That's all for now! ☺