🏆 Billboard Chart Week of March 2, 1968
🎵 #1 Song: “Love Is Blue (L’amour Est Bleu)” by Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra
⏱ Week at #1: Week 4 of 5
⚡ What Happened This Week
The Billboard Hot 100 chart for March 2, 1968 continued one of the most unexpected chart runs of the late 1960s as “Love Is Blue” remained America’s #1 song for a fourth consecutive week.
Meanwhile, soul music and emotional ballads continued gaining momentum as the musical landscape of 1968 became increasingly sophisticated and diverse.
The Top 5 this week blended orchestral pop, Motown soul, Southern soul, and bubblegum pop into one fascinating chart snapshot.
🎂 What Was the #1 Song on Your Birthday?
If you were born during the week ending March 2, 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 (March 2, 1968)
“Love Is Blue (L’amour Est Bleu)” – Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra
“(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” – Dionne Warwick
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” – Otis Redding
“I Wish It Would Rain” – The Temptations
“Simon Says” – 1910 Fruitgum Co.
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🎻 “Love Is Blue” Continues Dominating
Paul Mauriat’s instrumental smash held the #1 position for a fourth week.
Its gentle melody and lush orchestration stood apart from the louder rock music becoming increasingly popular during 1968.
The song became one of the biggest instrumental hits of the entire decade and proved that audiences still embraced softer easy-listening records.
🎬 Dionne Warwick Keeps Climbing
“(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” remained strong at #2.
Dionne Warwick’s elegant vocal delivery and the sophisticated songwriting of Burt Bacharach and Hal David gave the song a dramatic cinematic quality.
The record reflected the growing popularity of orchestral pop music during the late 1960s.
⚓ Otis Redding’s Legacy Grows
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” climbed to #3.
The song continued gaining emotional power with listeners following Otis Redding’s tragic death just months earlier.
Its reflective mood and stripped-down style helped redefine soul music and showed a more introspective side of popular songwriting.
The song would soon become one of the most celebrated soul recordings ever made.
🌧 The Temptations Stay In The Top 5
“I Wish It Would Rain” held at #4.
The Temptations delivered one of Motown’s most emotionally intense performances with a song filled with heartbreak and vulnerability.
Its darker emotional tone helped show how soul music was becoming increasingly mature and expressive by 1968.
🎉 Bubblegum Pop Arrives With “Simon Says”
At #5, “Simon Says” by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. continued climbing rapidly.
The catchy singalong hit became one of the defining examples of bubblegum pop — a style built around:
- simple hooks,
- playful lyrics,
- and upbeat energy.
The song’s childlike fun made it wildly popular with younger listeners and showed how many different styles could coexist on the charts at the same time.
🎶 A Chart Filled With Contrasts
The March 2, 1968 chart demonstrated the incredible diversity of late-1960s popular music.
The Top 5 included:
- orchestral instrumentals,
- cinematic pop,
- Southern soul,
- Motown heartbreak,
- and bubblegum pop fun.
Few eras in music history produced charts with such a wide range of sounds and emotions.
🔥 Final Thoughts
The Billboard chart week of March 2, 1968 highlighted a music industry changing rapidly in every direction.
While “Love Is Blue” surprisingly continued its run at #1, artists like Otis Redding, Dionne Warwick, and The Temptations showed that emotional depth and musical experimentation were becoming central parts of popular music.