You're listening ad-free on Amazon Music.

Hey there, hip parade listeners.

What you're about to hear is part one of this episode.

Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month.

Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops?

Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all

of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com slash hit parade plus.

You'll get to hear every hit parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus, hit parade The Bridge, our bonus episodes,

with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again,

to join, that's slate.com slash hit parade plus. Thanks. And now, please enjoy part one of this Hit Parade episode.

Going to the chapel and we're going to get married. Going to the chapel and we're going to get married. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine about the hits from

coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's

Why Is This Song Number One series? On today's show, 60 years ago,

in late May, 1964, a black female trio from New Orleans who'd moved to New York City

to make it big, pulled off a coup. They knocked the Beatles out of number one on Billboard's Hot 100.

They were called the Dixie Cups.

They were the only American group to top the chart in the entire first half of 1964.

And their hit, like so many, recorded by female ensembles in this period was written by professional

New York songwriters who set to music the desires and dreams of other young women this

diddy was especially dreamy a wish for a white wedding called Chapel of Love.

Now, let's flash ahead a few decades.

Twenty-five years ago this week, in May of 1999, a different trio of young black women

...