So the men who were shut out of the heteronormative numbers game, the ones who couldn’t spend their time with women, spent their time with bottles of wine instead.

Apparently, somewhere in the north of Canada, there was a native tribe where the women outnumbered the men. The first time Neil Diamond got to #1, he did it with the drinking song “ Cracklin’ Rosie.” That song had been inspired by a story that Diamond had heard.

It’s a peculiar gift: To sing about sadness without sounding the slightest bit sad. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.