Top 10: June 30, 1973

Three years after their split, the Beatles still weighed heavy on the pop charts

Jun 27, 2025

THREE YEARS AFTER their breakup, the Beatles were still dominating the pop charts midway through 1973. Two members of the Beatles, plus the Beatles-adjacent Billy Preston, held down the top three positions during the week of June 30, 1973. With its ascent to the top position, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” by George Harrison knocked his bandmate Paul McCartney’s “My Love” out of first place (thereby marking the only occasion when two former Beatles held the top two chart positions in America). This week in pop history also reflected a fertile period for R&B artists taking deep funk and soul recordings to the top of the pop charts, including hits by Preston, Barry White, and Sylvia.

Click on the above playlist to listen to the songs discussed below.

1. “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” George Harrison

George Harrison’s single -- the opening track on his second solo album, Living in the Material World -- was his biggest hit since 1970’s “My Sweet Lord,” which was the first solo Beatles track to attain the top spot. Like the earlier hit, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” featured shimmering acoustic guitars and twinned electric slide-guitar riffs backing the yearningful-voiced Harrison on a song that invokes “my lord,” begging for aid and assistance, love and support. Nothing more, nothing less. Not your typical fare for a number-one pop hit, but a common thread running through Harrison’s prayerful solo work.

2. “My Love,” Paul McCartney & Wings

Written for his then-wife and bandmate Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney’s “My Love” – his first post-Beatles hit -- spent four weeks at number one. A piano ballad recalling “The Long and Winding Road” and “Hey Jude,” the sentimental track was somewhat mocked by critics during its reign on the charts (no doubt fueling McCartney’s rejoinder to his critics, 1976’s “Silly Love Songs”). What was not mocked was the guitar solo, played not by McCartney but by Wings guitarist Henry McCullough, who instead of playing the notes McCartney had written out for him went his own way, composing his own solo that proved to be the tastiest musical aspect of the recording. McCartney paid tribute to McCullough for his bluesy licks, so much so that he insisted in subsequent live performances McCullough reproduce the solo note-for-note as heard on the recording, immensely frustrating the guitarist, who had hoped to be able to improvise portions of his solo as the mood fit.

3. “Will It Go Round in Circles,” Billy Preston

This funky, soulful, horn-laced R&B jam -- from his 1972 album Music Is My Life -- marks something of a break from the Beatles orbit for Billy Preston, with no instrumental or songwriting contributions from the Fab Four. (The B-side of the single, however, was a version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird.”) George Harrison’s guitar, in contrast, was all over Preston’s previous album, I Wrote a Simple Song, and Encouraging Words, the one before that -- his second release for the Beatles’ Apple Records label -- was co-produced by Harrison and featured such Harrison tunes as “My Sweet Lord” and “All Things Must Pass,” two months before they were re-introduced to the world under Harrison’s own imprint on All Things Must Pass. Nevertheless, “Will It Go Round in Circles” was Preston’s first of two number-one hits, the other being “Nothing from Nothing.”

4. “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby,” Barry White

“I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby” introduced the world to the signature sound and style the multitalented Barry White became known for, with his bedroom growl atop pre-disco boudoir-funk. The single was followed the next year by “Never, Never Gonna Give You Up,” “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” and “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything.” But White almost did not record the song. After he wrote it, he made a stripped-down demo recording of it in the hopes of attracting someone else to record it. Someone close to White convinced him to re-record the tune in a complete version ready for radio. Good thing, too – the single spent two weeks atop the R&B charts and peaked at number three on pop charts.

5. “Kodachrome,” Paul Simon

“Kodachrome” almost wasn’t “Kodachrome.” Paul Simon originally wrote the song as “Goin’ Home.” Dissatisfied with the generic nature of the title and the phrase, Simon sought out a replacement that could slot right in with the same meter and rhyme. As it turned out, landing on “Kodachrome” was a bit of inspiration, as it tied together the song thematically with its nostalgic view of the past. The infectious, bouncy tune also benefitted from the brilliant opening couplet – “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school / It’s a wonder I can think at all” – expressing a sentiment to which just about everybody could relate.

6. “Pillow Talk,” Sylvia

Before Madonna Ciccone became the mononymous Madonna there was Sylvia Robinson, who recorded under her first name, Sylvia. (Yes, Cher Sarkisian pioneered this sort of thing years earlier.) As you can tell from the title, “Pillow Talk” was one of a piece thematically with Barry White’s contemporaneous hit, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby.” But it shared more than just the sexy vocals and overt bedroom moans and whispers, two years before Donna Summer rode to the top of the charts with her own orgasmic “Love to Love You Baby.” Like White’s single, this one also hinted at the shape of disco to come. The difference in both cases is that White’s and Sylvia’s recordings feature unique characters and vocal styles; disco tended to flatten that sort of thing out in favor of generic movin’ and groovin’ to the hi-hat and the strings. Later on, Sylvia would earn the moniker “Mother of Hip Hop,” for producing “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang and “The Message” (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and for founding the pioneering hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. Incidentally, just as White intended his song to be recorded by someone else, Sylvia specifically wrote “Pillow Talk” for Al Green, who rejected it for violating his religious beliefs.

7. “Playground in My Mind,” Clint Holmes

It took almost a year after its release, but “Playground in My Mind” by Clint Holmes peaked at number two. The British-born Holmes was something of a one-hit wonder with this nursery-rhyme-like novelty tune he shared with writer-producer Paul Vance’s seven-year-old son, Philip, who sang the memorable verse that began “My name is Michael, I’ve got a nickel, I’ve got a nickel, shiny and new…” As popular as it was at the time, this number stands out among the rest of the week’s Top 10 for its inane mediocrity. That was pretty much it for Holmes, who eventually found his way to Las Vegas, where he was an in-house entertainer for many years.

8. “Long Train Runnin’,” Doobie Brothers

“Long Train Runnin’,” which you might recall from its key phrase, “Without love, where would you be now,” cemented the Doobie Brothers signature blend of riffing electric and acoustic guitars, the sound they rode until 1975, when Michael McDonald joined the band and smoothed out their sound with more of a soft-rock, keyboard-based approach. Like several other songs on this week’s list, it almost never happened. The number is based on a guitar jam frequently played by Tom Johnston but never intended to be a song. Producer Ted Templeman heard the jam and suggested Johnston write lyrics to go with it, which he did.

9. “Right Place, Wrong Time,” Dr. John

Louisiana singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Dr. John enjoyed his biggest hit with this infectious, exotic blast of New Orleans funk. It features delectable passages of guitar, organ, and horns, much of it supplied by his New Orleans musical pals the Meters, who functioned almost as the house band for New Orleans musicians at the time, including Lee Dorsey, Robert Palmer, and Allen Toussaint, as well as for Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John). The likes of Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, and Doug Sahm reportedly contributed lyrical bits to the tune.

10. “Shambala,” Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night was a veritable hit factory, producing twenty-one Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975, with three hitting number one. They drew upon work by songwriters including Harry Nilsson (“One”), Randy Newman (“Mama Told Me Not to Come”), Paul Williams (“An Old Fashioned Love Song”), Laura Nyro (“Eli's Comin’”) and Hoyt Axton (“Joy to the World,” “Never Been to Spain”). “Shambala” was written by Daniel Moore, who also supplied hits for Joe Cocker, Canned Heat, Kenny Rogers, and Bonnie Raitt. “Shambala” includes references to Eastern mysticism; Shambala is a spiritual kingdom in Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Whereas other songs in this week’s Top 10 are notable for their distinctive styles, Three Dog Night’s secret sauce was to divest their sound of any style, opting for a faux-rock, generic pop sound. As is so often the case, this wound up being a successful commercial formula, while annoying the heck out of listeners who appreciated originality and distinction as supplied by most of the numbers in this week’s Top 10.

Reference: https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1973-06-30/

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