The Creepiest Song of All Time Went to Number-One on This Date in 1973

As a radio DJ it's interesting to me to look back at various times and see very unusual songs that charted and songs that went to #1 on the charts.  "Dueling Banjos", the theme from Deliverance, would most certainly qualify.

I've never actually sat down and watched the movie, but I know enough about the scene in question to know it's a terrifying song.  Jokes come fast and furious in rural settings in which a Deliverance-type scene could realistically happen.  To think that, in 1973 radio stations in multiple genres played this song enough to make it a #1 hit.

The album from Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell went to #1 on the album charts on this date in 1973, where it would stay for three weeks.  The song charted in the Top-5 on multiple charts, but to me it all comes back to amazement that radio stations playing this song.  This isn't the Dust Bowl era.  This is post-Woodstock America, and it's incredible that this song, with its gross use in a movie at the time, was a huge hit.