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May 3, 2020 3:35 pm  #1


Artists With The Longest Gap Between Major Chart Hits

Music is a fickle business, in which even the biggest artists are huge superstars one day and then forgotten the next. But there are the occasional legendary performers who defy the odds and manage to disappear for years from the charts and then incredibly make a usually short lived comeback years or even decades later.
 
The list of the longest pauses between chart appearances – minus tunes that lingered around the lower reaches of the Top 40 charts –is quite amazing, with two of the biggest names in music tied for an incredible 25 years between hits. And one of them is the biggest group in rock history.
 
Here are the great comeback kids in rock music from the Billboard Hot 100 chart. I’m sure there are others I haven’t thought of.
 
Four Seasons
 
Last Big Hit: C’mon Marianne, #9, 1967
Next Hit: Who Loves You, #3, 1975
Years Between Hits: 8
 
Four Tops
 
Last Big Hit: Ain’t No Woman, #4, 1973
Next Hit: When She Was My Girl, #11, 1981
Years Between Hits: 8
 
Gene Chandler
 
Last Big Hit: Duke of Earl, #1, 1962
Next Hit: Groovy Situation, #12, 1970
Years Between Hits: 8
 
Beach Boys:
 
Last Big Hit: I Can Hear Music, #24, 1969
Next Hit: Rock and Roll Music, #5, 1976
Years Between Hits: 8
 
Tommy James
 
Last Big Hit: Draggin’ The Line, #4 1971
Next Hit: Three Times In Love, #19, 1980
Years Between Hits: 9
 
Wilbert Harrison:
 
Last Big Hit: Kansas City, #1, 1959
Next Hit: Let’s Work Together, #32, 1970
Years Between Hits: 11
 
Neil Sedaka
 
Last Big Hit: Right Next Door To An Angel #5, 1962
Next Hit: Laughter In The Rain, #1, 1974
Years Between Hits: 12
 
Paul Anka
 
Last Big Hit: Dance On Little Girl, #10, 1961
Next Hit: You’re Having My Baby, #1, 1974
Years Between Hits: 13
 
Monkees
 
Last Big Hit: Valleri, #3, 1968
Next Hit: That Was Then, This Is Now, #20, 1986
Years Between Hits: 18
 
Roy Orbison
 
Last Big Hit: Oh, Pretty Woman, #1, 1964
Next Hit: You Got it, #9, 1988
Years Between Hits: 24
 
Cher
 
Last Big Hit: Dark Lady, #1, 1974
Next Hit: Believe, #1, 1999
Years Between Hits: 25
 
Cher aside, I had to save the best for last, because who else could go a quarter of a century and still have a Top 10 hit?
 
Beatles
 
Last Big Hit: The Long & Winding Road, #1, 1970
Next Hit: Free As A Bird, #6, 1995
Years Between Hits: 25 Years
(Note: “Got to Get You Into My Life” was re-released in 1976, and made it up to #7, but it wasn’t a new song.)

And a more than honorable mention to:
 
Bob Dylan
 
Last Big Hit: You Gotta Serve Somebody, #24, 1979
Next Hit: Murder Most Foul, #6, 2020
Years Between Hits: 41 Years
(Hit #1 on Billboard's Rock Digital Song Sales, not the old Billboard Hot 100 chart used for the other tunes in the list. But it's still an amazing accomplishment.)

 

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