| Pos | LW | Weeks | Song | Artist | |
| 1 | 1 | 9 | California Girls | – | Beach Boys |
| 2 | 3 | 7 | Stand Beside Me | – | Perry Como |
| 3 | 5 | 6 | Tears | – | Ken Dodd |
| 4 | 2 | 11 | What’s New Pussycat | – | Tom Jones |
| 5 | 6 | 5 | Love | – | Gene Rockwell |
| 6 | 8 | 6 | Come Back Silly Girl | – | Staccatos |
| 7 | 9 | 5 | If You Gotta Go, Go Now | – | Manfred Mann |
| 8 | 10 | 5 | Houston | – | Dean Martin |
| 9 | 4 | 11 | Unchained Melody | – | Righteous Brothers |
| 10 | 11 | 5 | Hang On Sloopy | – | McCoys |
| 11 | 7 | 8 | Look Through Any Window | – | Hollies |
| 12 | 13 | 3 | Hungry For Love | – | A-Cads |
| 13 | 16 | 3 | Only You My Love | – | Murray Campbell |
| 14 | 17 | 4 | You Were On My Mind | – | We Five |
| 15 | 12 | 10 | I Got You Babe | – | Sonny And Cher |
| 16 | 18 | 2 | Amore Scusami (My Love Forgive Me) | – | Theo Cavalieros |
| 17 | 20 | 2 | How The Mighty Hath Fallen | – | Emil Dean |
| 18 | New | 1 | Yesterday | – | Matt Monro |
| 19 | New | 1 | That’s How I Feel | – | Bats |
| 20 | New | 1 | Wind Me Up, Let Me Go | – | Cliff Richard |
‘California Girls’ by The Beach Boys became the 4th song to get to 3 weeks at the top of the charts as it clung on to the number 1 spot again this week. Pressure came from Perry Como’s ‘Stand Beside Me’ which moved up 1 to number 1, knocking the previous chart topper, Tom Jones’ ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ into 4th place.
It took just a 3 place climb to be the biggest climber this week and 3 songs managed this, Murray Campbell’s ‘Only You My Love’, We Five’s ‘You Were On My Mind’ and Emil Dean’s ‘How The Mighty Hath Fallen’. Campbell and Dean accounted for the 8th and 9th time that the biggest climber had been local and while it was a first time with the award for We Five and Emil Dean, it was the 3rd time for Murray Campbell.
While there were 3 biggest climbers, there was only 1 biggest faller and that was The Righteous Brother’s ‘Unchained Melody’ which dropped 5 places from 4 to 9 to give them their first biggest faller award.
The last of the 3 versions of ‘Goodbye My Love’ that we had seen chart, left the top 20 this week and that was Murray Campbell’s solo version of the song. It had spent 15 weeks in the charts and 6 of those had been as the number 1 song. In total ‘Goodbye My Love’ spent 29 weeks in the charts, the other versions being Virginia Lee’s duet version with Murray Campbell and Nini Rosso’s original (which went under the name ‘Il Silenzio’ in other parts of the world).
‘Keep On Dancing’ by The Gentrys had chart career almost as short as the song itself, lasting only 2 weeks in the top 20 and peaking at 15. This would be the sum total of The Gentrys’ SA chart career.
The last song to go was ‘Everyone’s Gone To The Moon’ by Jonathan King. It had spent 6 weeks in the charts and peaked at 8 during that time. It would be King’s only solo hit in SA, but he would be back under the pseudonym Sakkarin.
The first new entry was our first cover of a Beatles track to chart as we welcomed Matt Monro’s version of ‘Yesterday’ onto our charts. Interestingly The Beatles, despite not having been banned by the SABC at this stage, would not chart in SA with their version which appeared on their ‘Help!’ album. Monro would score a number 8 hit with it in the UK (the lowest placed of his 4 top 10 hits there, but still better than the other 9 of his that charted but didn’t make the top 10), a peak that would equal the Fab Four’s peak for the same song.
The Bats second hit to chart, ‘That’s How I Feel’ was the 13th by a local act to make the top 20 and The Bats became the 4th local act to clock up 2 or more hits. ‘That’s How I Feel’ was a cover of an obscure single by a British band called Adam, Mike & Tim who would have no chart success on either side of the Atlantic, despite recording one of the first songs written by future Pink Floyd keyboardists, Richard Wright (called ‘You’re The Reason Why’ which was the b-side of Adam, Mike & Tim’s first single, ‘Little Baby’).
Cliff Richard became the 6th act to score a 3rd hit on the top 20 as ‘Wind Me Up, Let Me Go’ entered at number 20. The song would be his 35th UK hit and would go to number 2 there. It would also go to 15 in Holland. Cliff also recorded a German version of the song under the title ‘Nur Bei Dir Bin Ich Zu Haus’ which made it to 21 in Germany.
Tom Jones’ ‘What’s new Pussycat?’ and The Righteous Brother’s ‘Unchained Melody’ were the oldest on the chart this week, both sitting on 11 weeks. They took over from Murray Campbell’s ‘Goodbye My Love’. The Hollies were the 8th act to reach the 20 weeks on the chart mark while Sonny & Cher reached 10.
Youtube playlist:
SA Singles Charts 