🏆 Billboard Chart Week of February 24, 1968
🎵 #1 Song: “Love Is Blue (L’amour Est Bleu)” by Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra
⏱ Week at #1: Week 3 of 5
⚡ What Happened This Week
The Billboard Hot 100 chart for February 24, 1968 continued to showcase one of the most surprising #1 hits of the decade.
“Love Is Blue (L’amour Est Bleu)” remained America’s biggest song for a third straight week while soul music, cinematic pop, and emotional ballads continued rising beneath it.
The chart captured a period when popular music was rapidly expanding beyond traditional rock and roll formulas.
🎂 What Was the #1 Song on Your Birthday?
If you were born during the week ending February 24, 1968, this was your birthday song:
🎵 Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat
▶ Watch and experience this song →
🎂 Try your own birthday:
📊 Billboard Hot 100 – Top 5 Songs (February 24, 1968)
“Love Is Blue (L’amour Est Bleu)” – Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra
“(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” – Dionne Warwick
“Spooky” – Classics IV
“I Wish It Would Rain” – The Temptations
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” – Otis Redding
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🎻 “Love Is Blue” Holds The Top Spot
Paul Mauriat’s orchestral instrumental stayed at #1 for a third consecutive week.
The song’s soft melody and relaxing arrangement stood in sharp contrast to the psychedelic rock and heavy soul music becoming popular during the late 1960s.
Its success proved that easy-listening music could still dominate mainstream radio during the rock era.
🎬 Dionne Warwick Climbs To #2
“(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” climbed to second place.
Dionne Warwick’s smooth vocals combined perfectly with the sophisticated songwriting style of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
The dramatic orchestral arrangement helped the song feel both elegant and emotional, making it one of the standout pop recordings of early 1968.
👻 “Spooky” Remains A Major Hit
Classics IV held steady at #3 with “Spooky.”
The song’s relaxed groove and jazzy style gave it a unique sound compared to many of the louder rock records climbing the charts at the time.
Its cool atmosphere helped make it one of the era’s most memorable soft rock hits.
🌧 The Temptations Continue Their Emotional Run
“I Wish It Would Rain” stayed at #4 for The Temptations.
The song featured one of the group’s most heartbreaking vocal performances and demonstrated the emotional depth Motown artists were beginning to explore.
Its dramatic production and sorrowful lyrics helped separate it from many upbeat soul hits of the period.
⚓ Otis Redding’s Final Masterpiece Reaches The Top 5
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” climbed into the Top 5 at #5.
The song carried enormous emotional weight because Otis Redding had tragically died in a plane crash just months earlier in December 1967.
Blending soul, folk, and introspective songwriting, the record became one of the most important and influential soul recordings ever released.
Its quiet reflective mood represented a major evolution in soul music.
🎶 The Sound Of 1968 Keeps Expanding
The February 24, 1968 chart showed how broad American popular music had become.
The Top 5 included:
- orchestral instrumentals,
- cinematic pop,
- jazz-influenced soft rock,
- Motown soul,
- and deeply emotional Southern soul.
Listeners were embracing a wider variety of musical styles than ever before.
🔥 Final Thoughts
The Billboard chart week of February 24, 1968 highlighted a fascinating moment in music history.
While “Love Is Blue” continued its unlikely run at #1, artists like Dionne Warwick, The Temptations, and Otis Redding showed how sophisticated and emotional popular music was becoming as 1968 moved forward.