Top 20 Songs Charted Twice By Same Artist

Here is a list of songs that repeated a Top 20 success twice by the same artist.

Chubby Checker – The Twist (1960 and 1961) (#1 both times)
Ben E. King – Stand By Me (#4 in 1961 and #9 in 1986)
The Contours – Do You Love Me (#3 in 1962 and #11 in 1988)
Bobby “Boris” Pickett & Crypt-Kickers – Monster Mash (#1 in 1962 and #10 in 1973)
The Safaris – Wipeout (#2 in 1963 and #16 in 1966)
The Righteous Brothers – Unchained Melody (#4 in 1965 and #13 in 1990)
Aerosmith – Dream On (#59 in 1973 and #6 in 1976)
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (#9 in 1976 and #2 in 1992)
Benny Mardones – Into the Night (#11 in 1980 and #20 in 1989)
Whitney Houston – The Star-Spangled Banner (#20 in 1991 and #6 in 2001)
Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You (#1 in 1992 and #3 in 2012)
Prince & The Revolution – Purple Rain (#2 in 1984 and #4 in 2016) *
Prince – When Doves Cry (#1 in 1984 and #8 in 2016) *
Prince – Little Red Corvette (#6 in 1983 and #20 in 2016) *

“Twist and Shout” by The Beatles came close, by the way. In 1964 it hit #2 and in 1986 it hit #23. **

Honorable Mentions:

Layla (#10 in 1972 by Derek & The Dominoes and #12 by Eric Clapton in 1992) ***

Other songs that charted a second time in a different form:

The Ventures – Walk, Don’t Run / Walk Don’t Run ’64 (#2 in 1960 and #8 in 1964) (Same song, new recording)
Neil Sedaka – Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (#1 in 1962 and #8 in 1976) (Fast and slow versions)
Elton John – Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (#2 in 1974 and #1 in 1991) (as a solo and as a duet with George Michael)
Four Seasons – December 1963 (Oh What A Night) (#1 in 1976 and #14 in 1994) (Pop version and remix version)
Elton John – Candle in the Wind (#6 in 1987 and #1 in 1997) (live version and re-record version)

Say! Did we forget any? Let us know. Check our Intro Main Page to write us and add to the list. The song had to have been a hit in the Top 20 twice by the same artist.

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* Others were included in the re-issuing of Prince songs in 2016, due to his untimely death, but the three above were the only ones to hit Top 20. To view Prince’s posthumous releases, you can view them in them HERE. When you go to that page, scroll down to May 7th to begin Prince’s re-appearances on the Billboard charts.

** As a fun trivia, the re-emergence of “Twist And Shout” in 1986 was directly made possible by its appearance in the film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but also arguably in the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield comedy, Back To School. Both movies were released in June of 1986. However, the Back To School performance of the song was by Dangerfield himself, as opposed to the Bueller version actually being The Beatles. But it was a great coincidence that the song appeared in two movies at the same time (and both moves had a reference to school, albeit different concepts where one goes to school and the other skips school).

Many other songs had their re-appearances on the charts due to movies, “Unchained Melody” was a hit again because of the 1990 Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore movie, Ghost. “Do You Love Me” came about again because of its inclusion in that other big Swayze movie, 1987’s Dirty Dancing (with Jennifer Grey, also of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). And of course, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” had a movie named after it and was taken from the 1986 Rob Reiner film of the same name.

But who can forget that “totally awesome” moment in Wayne’s World (1992, with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) singing and headbanging to “Bohemian Rhapsody” in their AMC Pacer? Freddie Mercury had passed away in November 1991, just three months before the movie’s release, but died while the movie was in production. The MTV video got heavy rotation, which assisted in the release of the song, but arguably Mercury’s death would be inevitable to its re-release, being one of Mercury’s most accomplished pieces of music. And by the way, it has been reported that Mercury did get to see the Wayne’s World scene before his passing, and was said to have loved it and approved of it being used.

*** Thanks to Sam Hudachek for pointing that one out to us. While most will see “Layla” as strictly an Eric Clapton song, it was recorded by the band, Derek & The Dominoes (with Clapton, Jim Gordon, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and featuring Duane Allman on slide guitar). Eric had once claimed that he was “just a member of the band”, despite forming it as a side project, “Layla” is still synonymous with Clapton’s work. However, the Billboard showing of “Layla” in 1971 and 1972 was listed as a Derek & The Dominoes chart release. So it gets an honorable, but substantial mention. On a related note, however, “Bell Bottom Blues” was recorded and released as an album cut by Derek & The Dominoes (available on Side One of the Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs album in 1970) but then released in 1971 as a solo Clapton single, and then again in 1973, charting as Eric Clapton (Derek & The Dominoes). This lays the foundation to the whole “Layla” discussion.

But deep down, we all know it’s just an Eric Clapton masterpiece.