Description
The American folk group The Highwaymen reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with "Michael." It was their only UK Top 40 hit. The group members were American college students who went their separate ways after graduating.
Related events
- The Highwaymen’s million-selling recording “Michael (Row the Boat Ashore)”, their version of the African-American spiritual, reached No. 1 on the Cashbox chart. The five Wesleyan University students achieved another hit the following year with “Cotton Fields” and split up in 1964 after a run of 12 consecutive singles that failed to chart.
- The Highwaymen began a two-week run at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 with “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,” also known as “Michael.” It was a million-selling, gold-certified single and an adaptation of a 19th-century African-American spiritual originally sung by enslaved people on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The version by the Wesleyan University quintet from Middletown, Connecticut, earned a gold record for sales of one million copies.
- The Highwaymen reach No. 1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the African-American spiritual “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.”