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. When a nation is ...

When a nation is confronted with grief and doubt and uncertainty, its culture can sometimes fold inward — to the simple, the comforting, the seemingly pure. And maybe that’s what happened late in 1963 ...