This Charming Instrumental Love Song Held The No. 1 Spot The Longest In 1960

No song spent more time in the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 pop chart in 1960 than "Theme from 'A Summer Place,'" a pleasant and engaging love song that doesn't need words to create a mood. Its nine weeks at the peak position helped make it Billboard's most popular song of 1960 and the third-biggest single of the entire decade, trailing Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and the Beatles' "Hey Jude," which held the No. 1 spot the longest in 1968. Credited to Percy Faith and His Orchestra, the tune is sweet and heart-swelling, dramatic and commanding, as gently played, staccato notes dance around a wall of sound built by numerous stringed instruments played in unison. Remarkably, "Theme from 'A Summer Place'" is an instrumental — no lyrics were necessary to convey all that romance.

While it may seem odd that a conductor is responsible for the biggest song of a year after the arrival of rock 'n' roll, Faith was a respected musician who knew his way around moving music. After his soundtrack cut "Song from Moulin Rouge" outsold all other singles in 1953 and his music for "Love Me or Leave Me" netted a 1956 Academy Award nomination, producers of the 1959 film "A Summer Place" hired Faith to produce and record a work by composer Max Steiner. When all was said and done, "Theme From 'A Summer Place'" was a monumentally successful, long-running No. 1 love song — and more popular than the romantic film that inspired it.

Certainly a song from 1960 that reminds us what it means to be young and in love, "Theme from 'A Summer Place'" fulfilled the assignment given to composer Max Steiner and conductor Percy Faith. It had to musically support and reflect the emotions and actions on display in "A Summer Place," a soapy and salacious romantic drama about two former flames reigniting their love while their respective teenage kids start up a passionate affair of their own. And they did it all without a single  lyric.

Entering wide release in the United States in November 1959, "A Summer Place" didn't land anywhere near the list of the year's top-grossing movies. It was met with such a middling response that audience unfamiliarity with the film may have prevented "Theme from 'A Summer Place'" from starting its historic pop chart run at an earlier date. Released to record stores and radio in September 1959, Faith's recording didn't debut on the Hot 100 until January 1960. And it took another six weeks after that for it to reach No. 1. And there "Theme from 'A Summer Place'" rested for nine weeks. No other chart-topping single released in 1960 came anywhere close to that mark.