The concept of a “hit song” seems like a relatively modern invention, launching in tandem with phonograph records, and then radio, jukeboxes, and eventually MTV. But you can go back to a much older medium in order to trace the origins of the hit.

Welcome to the printing press!

Initially used primarily to print religious literature, particularly for the wealthy, by the 16th century manufacturing costs had come down and people found the press useful for disseminating “lower” forms of culture. In England, that meant broadside ballads, one sheet of cheap paper which contained the lyrics to a popular song. Presumably people would know the tune based on older, established songs, or would learn it at the local pub or some other gathering. Tens of millions of these broadsides were sold, particularly during the 17th century.

One of the earliest smash hits — and the most enduring — was a ballad registered in 1580 by one Richard Jones as “A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves.” The song proved so popular that it immediately spawned six registered variations over the next year, including another by Jones. Twenty years later Shakespeare made a reference to the tune in The Merry Wives Of Windsor — taking it as a given that his audience would know it — and hundreds of years later every child who picked up a recorder in music class learned how to play the tune.

And you could still score a hit with it! As demonstrated by The Beverley Sisters.

For some reason the 1940s and 50s spawned a fad for sister acts. You had your Andrews, your Lemons, your Fontanes, your Kayes, and beginning in 1944, your Beverleys. The sisters hailed from England and spent the immediate post-war years touring with orchestras and big bands while frequently singing on BBC radio. Their appearances proved so successful that the Beeb ended up giving the trio their own television show which ran for seven years.

Although The Beverley Sisters had a recording contract, they actually preferred performing before a live audience and only recorded during a ten year window in the 50s and early 60s. A handful of their singles charted in the UK, but one particular song didn’t chart at all in their home country. Oddly, that one ended up as their only American hit.

Released as a single in December of 1956, their retelling of “Greensleeves” reached #41 on the US chart, not usually a spectacular number, but for a UK artist in the pre-British Invasion era that’s considered a massive hit — UK artists usually didn’t even reach the charts in the US at that time. From paper to vinyl, even after 400 years, people were still spending their hard-earned pennies on “Greensleeves.”

So delight in the beautiful music … of The Beverley Sisters.