No. 1 this week in 1995, "Balance" by Van Halen. "This is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” @sammyhagar told me. “I’m at a whole other place vocally and lyrically. And this album has songs that I can sing with dignity for the rest of my life.”

No. 1 this week in 1967, "More of the Monkees" by @TheMonkees. I spoke to @TheMickyDolenz1, who told me, "Comparing the Monkees to @TheBeatleswas a bit like comparing @WilliamShatner to Neil Armstrong." More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1958, "Come Fly With Me" by @FrankSinatra. “The material was so good, " Billy May told me, "The whole idea that they presented to me was so good, I figured we couldn’t go far from wrong.” More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1979, "Blondes Have More Fun" by @rodstewart. "I suppose you could say I was jumping on a bandwagon,” Stewart told me. “Everybody thought I was singing about myself. Of course I’m not, I’m singing in the third person." More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1975, "Fire" by the @ohioplayersog. Marshall Jones told me, “We were pumped up. Having a Number One album and single was like getting a Super Bowl ring to us.” More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1985, "Like a Virgin" by @Madonna. “It sounded really bubble-gummy to me, but it grew on me," she told me. "I real­ly started to like it, my little gears started clicking, and I thought, ‘This could be really cool.’"

No. 1 this week in 1969, "TCB" by @DianaRoss & The Supremes With @thetemptations. “We did silly things and got to make fools of ourselves," @dianaross told me. "We were dressed in these costumes and we did a lot of dancing and comedy.”

No. 1 this week in 1976, @BobDylan's "Desire." I spoke to violinist Scarlet Rivera, who told me, "The sessions were outrageous. There were really no rehearsals... and once the song structure was understood, the red [recording] light went on.”

No. 1 this week in 1982, the J. Geils Band's "Freeze-Frame." I spoke to @PeterWolf_Woofa, who told me, "It was exciting because we spent so many years where people would say, ‘J. Who? It was great to finally have people recognize the band.”

No. 1 this week in 1979, the Blues Brothers' "Briefcase Full of Blues." I spoke to Paul Shaffer who told me, "Everyone knew that John [Belushi] and Danny [Aykroyd] were so hot that there would be a lot of attention paid to what they did."

No. 1 this week in 1960, "The Sound of Music" Original Cast album. I spoke to singer/actor Theodore Bikel, who told me, "Since 'The Sound of Music' was the first musical I ever did on stage, I had to be extra careful to adapt to the medium.”

No. 1 this week in 1986, "The Broadway Album" by @BarbraStreisand. David Foster told me, "I had played piano on her records and arranged some songs for her. But when the call came to work on 'The Broadway Album,' I was thrilled."

No. 1 this week in 1961, the "Exodus" soundtrack. “I only had four weeks and three days to write 90 minutes of music,” composer Ernest Gold told William H. Rosar in The Cue Sheet. More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1988, "Tiffany" by @tiffanytunes. She told me, "When I first start­ed recording, we did some songs with a Stevie Nicks kind of sound and a Lone Justice kind of a sound with a little country influence, and I was just a happy camper.”

No. 1 this week in 1978, the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack with @BeeGees. Record exec Al Coury told me, "Robert [Stigwood] would tell them what the scene was about and what tempo and rhythm to use and the boys would write it the way they he wanted it.”

No. 1 this week in 1989, Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel." Producer @KennyEdmonds told me, "We were familiar with him mainly from New Edition, but we liked him, because he brought a lot of energy and fire to the table.”

No. 1 this week in 1977, "Wings Over America" by @PaulMcCartney & Wings. In its fifth week on the chart, it soared to the top, becoming the fifth consecutive and final Wings chart-topper. More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1972, @donmclean's "American Pie." He told me, "I came up with this nine-minute rock ‘n’ roll thing. They actually fought it a little bit. They said, 'We don’t want to put that out as a single, let’s put out a slow ballad.'” More @ link.

No. 1 this week in 1958, "Ricky" by Ricky Nelson. “If Ricky liked a song and Ozzie didn’t, they would have a discussion about it," A&R exec Jimmie Haskell told me. "And if Ricky still insisted, Ozzie would let him do it.” More at the link.

No. 1 this week in 1980, @pinkfloyd's "The Wall." Producer @bob_ezrin told me, "We built a model for the show at the same time we were actually recording the album on tape...We knew not only how it sounded, but what it looked like and how it played.”