This 1969 single written by the unlikely team of Brian Wilson and father Murry (as “Reggie Dunbar”) perhaps should have been a higher charting follow up to “Do It Again” for the Beach Boys (although it did sit rather uncomfortably as part of the 1974 Endless Summer lineup). Why didn’t “Breakaway” do better than its numerologically eye-catching #69 peak position? My theory: the “Breakaway” catchphrase had already been getting tons of airplay with Steve Karmen’s jingle for the 1969 Pontiac.

Beach Boys – “Breakaway” (1969)

Beach Boys – “Celebrate the News” (1969): This was the broody B-side, a Dennis Wilson track that gives the single the yin yang tension familiar to many a Beach Boys observer.

And here’s this:

The Steve Karmen Big Band featuring Jimmy Radcliffe (1968) – “Breakaway Parts I and II”: Side A is Jimmy Radcliffe talking and singing over a troubled, minor key arrangement of Karmen’s theme, while Side B is the major-key instrumental version more familiar from TV and radio ads.

Number of years after signing with Chess that the Four Tops finally signed with Motown: 7 (1956-1963).

Number of Four Tops songs to crack the Billboard Top Ten: 7 (“I Can’t Help Myself,” “Same Old Song,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” “Bernadette,” “Keeper of the Castle,” and “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)”).

Number of Four Tops charting hits to feature a number: 3. The number featured in all three of those: 7 (“7 Rooms of Gloom,” “Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life),” “Seven Lonely Nights”).

Numbers featured in the titles of two albums recorded by the Four Tops/Supremes supergroup: 7 (The Magnificent 7, The Return of the Magnificent Seven).