16th Consecutive No. 1 of Sonny James, “Here Comes Honey Again”

Sonny James had amassed record-breaking fifteen consecutive No. 1 singles on the Billboard’s Country Chart by the fall of 1971.  On the first week of November of the same year, he landed his sixteenth in a row, “Here Comes Honey Again”.

A lot of Sonny James’ chart-toppers were covers of previous hits, mostly from the pop genre.

Many of Sonny’s chart-toppers had been covers of previous hits, and mostly pop ones at that. Starting from 1961, Adam Wade’s “Take Good Care Of Her” to Jimmy Reed’s “Bright Lights, Big City” from 1961.

The Composition

Out of all his No. 1 hits, the song “Here Comes Honey Again” is an original.  In fact, Sonny James co-wrote the song with his friend Carole Smith during a telephone conversation. Thinking of his hit from 1966, “Take Good Care Of Her”, Sonny wanted to duplicate this previous record. He wanted a really simple and straightforward of a song that he personally loved.

The outcome of his phone conversation with Carole Smith was what he had in mind. It was a love song that was simply written, with the same tempo and flow of the earlier hit. That telephone call gave birth to the song “Here Comes Honey Again”.

The Amazing Chart Performance

With his sixteenth consecutive No. 1 hit, Sonny James set a mark that would hold for nearly fourteen years. The run of his chart-toppers stretched from April 29, 1967, through November 6, 1971. His achievement went uncontested until Alabama notched their seventeenth straight No. 1 hit with “Forty Hour Week (For A Livin’)”.

During the four-and-a-half reign of Sonny James, he spent a total of 45 weeks at the No. 1 spot on Billboard Country Chart. Sadly, his streak ended when a remake of Gene Pitney’s 1962 pop hit “Only Love Can Break A Heart” which stalled at No. 2 on February 26, 1972. Pitney’s hit rested at that spot for three weeks and blocked from the top spot by Faron Young’s “It’s Four In The Morning”, Tammy Wynette’s “Bedtime Story” and Freddie Hart’s “My Hang Up Is You.”