A Hit Record
"An Open Letter" became a surprise hit in Michigan and was released nationally by Liberty Records, jumping onto the Billboard Hot 100 at #84 on November 11, 1967. Within three weeks it went #58 - #18 - #10, making it one of the dozen or so fastest-climbing records in Hot 100 history up to that point, and Lundberg made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. After another week at #10, the record slipped to #22 for the week ending December 16, 1967, then vanished from the Hot 100 completely, after a total run of just six weeks. Few other records have ever been ranked so high in such a short chart stay on the Hot 100 (Napoleon XIV's "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" peaked at #3 but was only on the Hot 100 for six weeks; Kenny G's "Auld Lang Syne" (The Millennium Mix) peaked at #7 but was only the Hot 100 for five weeks). However, it sold over one million copies within a month of release and was awarded a gold disc. "An Open Letter" also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Recording.
There were also at least seven "response" records: Keith Gordon's "A Teenager's Answer", released on the Tower label, "A Teenager's Open Letter To His Father" by Robert Tamlin., "Letter From A Teenage Son" by Brandon Wade, "A Letter To Dad" by Every Father's Teenage Son", "Hi, Dad (An Open Letter To Dad)" by Dick Clair and "An Open Letter To My Dad" by Marceline .
Read more about this topic: Victor Lundberg
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