The great seventies countdown week 11

The host's voice is growly as he approaches the mike.  "Almost didn't make it, " he says, "A cold is no way to enjoy this.  But I feel a little better now than I did most of the night, so here we go..."

130- Sugar Mountain, Neil Young, 1970, B-side of The Loner.  This song was never on an album until Decade in 1977, but has been a cult favorite since The Loner missed the charts back in 1970.  Live at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, MI in November of 1968. "You can't be 20 on Sugar Mountain... though you're thinkin' that you're leaving there too soon..."

129- Live And Let Die, Paul McCartney And Wings,  1973, #2.  Another song that oddly enough never saw an lp until years later (on 1978's Wings Greatest), it was the biggest Bond theme at that time.  Wasn't he great with this on the Super Bowl halftime years back?

128- Last Night (I Didn't Get To Sleep At All), the Fifth Dimension, 1972, #8.  I so wish that Billy Davis would have let Marilyn have the lead part on You Don't Have To Be A Star.  It would have been a far better song, maybe even like this one.

127- Bungle In The Jungle, Jethro Tull, 1975, #12. This kinda fits the trend the first two started; it was one of three songs left over from what would have been the follow-up to Thick As A Brick.  A nifty allegory of life at the office.

126- Rhinestone Cowboy, Glenn Campbell, 1975, #1.  More 8-track at the lake fun.  This whole album was great.

125- Rhiannon, Fleetwood Mac, 1975, #11.  Fleetwood Mac had that incredible 2 album run in the mid seventies, but the songs on Fleetwood Mac often get overshadowed by the ones on Rumours.  This was my favorite.

124- Carefree Highway, Gordon Lightfoot, 1974, #10.  "... I wonder how the old folks are tonght... Her name was Ann and I'll be damned if I recall her face..."  well, almost.

123- Summer, War, 1976, #7.   Take a trip through the lyrics of this one and you'll see why.



122- Emotion, Samantha Sang, 1977, #3.  Real name Cheryl Lau Sang, had some mid-sixties hits in her homeland of Australia under the name Cheryl Gray, and hit it big under Barry Gibb's wing as Samantha Sang. George Bitzer's keyboards made this.

121- The Things We Do For Love, 10cc, #5.  The anthem of my freshman year of high school.

120- Island Girl, Elton John, 1975, #4.  A lot of good but ubiquitous songs didn't make my chart.  Thus you don't see Stevie Wonder much, and EJ only three times.  The more hits you had, the more they had to stand out.

119- Couldn't Get It Right, Climax Blues Band, 1977, #3.  One of those songs that did a long, slow, grow-on-you sort of thing.

118- Best Of My Love, The Eagles, 1974, #1.  This was the best song on the first album I ever bought- Eagles Greatest Hits.

117- Rock Me Gently, Andy Kim, 1974, #1.  I had a mini-crush on a certain girl all through grade school.  This is one of "her" songs.

116- The Needle And The Damage Done, Neil Young, 1972, unreleased.  Like other Neil songs, you gotta pay attention to the lyrics (particularly the last line) to get this one.




115- No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature, The Guess Who, 1970, #1 (as the b-side to American Woman on Billboard) or #39 (on its own on Cashbox, both without New Mother Nature attached).  I'm not sure why it was ever seperated one from the other.  They sound naked apart.  Just listen to the album cut.

114- A Trick Of The Tail, Genesis, 1976, non-charting.  A delightful faerie tale which, according to our theme of the day, was mostly wrote in 1972 and intended for the lp Foxtrot.





113- Sweet City Woman, The Stampeders, 1971, #8.  #1 in Canada, both on their pop and country charts.  I still don't know what a macaroon is, honestly.

112- Just Remember I Love You, Firefall, 1977, #11.  I didn't know then the rich history that ran through Firefall- elements of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Byrds, and Poco.  I just knew that "when you feel like sorrow is you're only friend/knowing that tomorrow you'll feel this way again" resonated with me, and I could have used someone to remind me I was loved.

111- Only 16, Dr. Hook, 1976, #6.  This song has me at the opening chords.

"Yes, I was much too young to... AHEM", the host says as he realizes the mike's gone live.  "Next week, we'll be entering the top 100- where it will be very much like 93 songs fighting for spots 10, 9, 8, and 7.  Until then, may your highways be... care free."

The new time machine week two

First of all I’d like to make a hearty thank you to Bobby G., who has managed to pass his sinus cold through the WWW to me.  So if I get off track, lose my place, or generally sound like sneezing my head right off my body would be a good thing, blame him.

That said, we have a really big shuuuue for you today, that will include the Denver Nightingale (?), the Cuff Links revisited, the very first Beach Boys song, and a six degrees that covers Bananarama to the Stones.  Let’s do this before my eyes remove themselves from my forehead, shall we?

We had 8 debuts on the hot 100 this week, and I’ll stop off at 4 of them.  Badfinger enters the national consciousness at #100 with their debut single Come And Get It.  And two spots later, if you’d forgotten we’re going back to 1970 now, you’ll remember when I say the name… Bobby Sherman, who debuts with Easy Come Easy Go.  94 is a debut by Fleetwood Mac, pre- Nicks/Buckingham, with their first American single, Oh Well.  And waaaaay up at #76, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition come in with Something’s Burning.

All of which brings us to our birthday songs this week.  Turning thirty are Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ I Love Rock And Roll and Huey Lewis and the News’ Do You Believe In Love.  Reaching the age of 35 are Natalie Cole’s I’ve Got Love On My MInd, Jennifer Warnes’ Right Time Of The Night, and ELO’s redux of the old Move song Do Ya.  Hitting 40 are BJ Thomas’ Rock’n’Roll Lullabye, Yes’ Roundabout, and that song that in a few short years has went from song your mom won’t let you play to halftime marching band staple, Black Sabbath’s Iron Man.  Turning 45 are Herman’s Hermits’ version of There’s A Kind Of Hush and Leslie Gore’s California Nights.  And turning the big 5-0 is the very first Beach Boys single- Surfin’. 

One comedic (to me) moment on that last week was Bobby Rydell who debuted at 74 with a song called I’ve Got Bonnie; then, seemingly in response, debuted at 76 with one called Lose Her.  Well, I thought it was funny.

Our big dropper this week revisits our friends from last week, the Cuff Links (AKA Ron Dante), who fall (falls?) 53 spots from a peak at 31 all the way to 84 with When Julie Comes Around.  The high climber is a little less dramatic- the Chairmen of the Board climb 19 to #46 with Give Me Just A Little More Time (Brrdrrdrrdrrdrr…).

Our Where Are They Now contestants this week almost got double billing as the high climber, moving up 16 spots.  And that would be Simon And Garfunkel with Bridge Over Troubled Water.  The boys actually had a tour set up in 2010, starting in March; sadly, years of smoking led to Art getting a bad case of vocal paresis, and after several delays cancelled the tour altogether in June.  Art put away the smokes then; and he announced in November 2010 he was nearly well enough to go back on the road.  Paul of course didn’t let the grass grow under his feet; among his recent events was performing at Ground Zero on the 10th anniversary of 9-11.

Which brings us to our top 40 debuts this week.  Sly and the Family Stone, whom we’ll “hear” later with Thank You Fallettenme Be Mice Elf Again, hits with the flip side of that same 45, Everybody Is A Star.  It moves up 3 to lead off the top 40.  Up thirteen to #39 is Dutch band the Tee Set with Ma Belle Ami.  An international hit, they also hit #1 in their homeland with the follow-up  She Likes Weeds; this song, however, got banned in the US of A, for...er...drug references.  Guess we know which weeds she likes, eh? One notch ahead at 38 we have Johnny and June Carter Cash with one of the many versions of the song If I Were A Carpenter.  The Delfonics come in at 36, up 5 with Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time.  RB Greaves, best known for his Take A Letter Maria, comes in at 35, up a dozen, with Always Something There To Remind Me (Which I didn’t know was the song’s only top 40 appearance until the Naked Eyes version- I remembered it from Dionne Warwick, who cut it a a b-side and only got to #65).  And finally the highest debut, rising 11 spots to come in at 33, CCR with Who’ll Stop The Rain?

Our look back in time takes us back to the first decade of the 1900’s and the Denver Nightingale.  Billy Murray was a vaudevillian and a very popular recording artist of the day, with a slight comedy sound to his tenor.  He was not only an artist who recorded on most of the major labels of the day, but was a huge baseball fan, alleged to have played a game or two with his favorite team, the future New York Yankees (then known as the Highlanders).  From Wikipedia:

He also supposedly sometimes called in sick to recording sessions in order to go to the ballpark. Murray recorded "Tessie, You Are the Only, Only, Only", which became the unofficial theme of the 1903 World Series, when the words were changed from "Tessie, you know I love you madly," to "Honus, why do you hit so badly?" (A reference to Pirate shortstop and hall of famer Honus Wagner.)

Billy was at #1 this week in 1908 with Under Any Old Flag At All, and in 1905 with Come Take A Trip In My Air-Ship.  A neat song, but when a guy sings a girl’s lyrics and doesn’t switch genders, I get a little uncomfortable.

Our first Almost But Not Quite of the new show goes to Arnold Dorsey AKA Englebert Humperdink, who stops at #13 with Winter World Of Love.  And dropping from the top ten this week are :  Someday We’ll Be Together, from 5 to 21; and Jingle Jangle, falling from 8 to 16.

Vanity Fare brings its baroque stylings into the top ten with Early In The Morning moving up a notch to #10. The King slips from 6 to #9 with Don’t Cry Daddy.  Exploding into the top ten, jumping 7 spots to #8, the Guess Who and No Time.  Led Zep holds at 7 with Whole Lotta Love.  Dionne Warwick’s I’ll Never Fall In Love Again jumps 4 big notches to #6, as does Tom Jones with Without Love (There Is Nothing) at #5.  Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head slips grudgingly down a notch to #4 for BJ Thomas.  The Jackson Five also slip a notch to #3 with I Want You Back.  Climbing over them to #2 was the aforementioned Sly and the Family Stone and Thank You, etc.  Which brings us to the repeat #1 song and the six degrees victim- Shocking Blue’s Venus. 

When this song came out, it hit #1 in 5 nations:  the US of A, Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain (but curiously not in their own country).  It of course was covered in 1984 by Bananarama, who hit #1 in SIX countries- the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and Switzerland.  Curiously again, BOTH versions hit #8 on the UK charts.  The girls of Bananarama wanted to make it a dance song.  Their producers resisted, and so they switched to production/songwriting team of Mike Stock, Matt Aiken, and Pete Waterman, who also fought them before giving in.  Stock-Aiken-Waterman made their rep here on the single You Spin Me Round Like A Record by Dead Or Alive (Which hit #11 here in 1984).  DOA’s other accomplishment of note in the USA was a cover of KC and the Sunshine Band’s That’s The Way I Like It.  And percussionist for the Sunshine Band was one Ollie Brown, who had credits ranging from being a member of touring Rolling Stones in the mid ‘70s to drummer on the first Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio lp.

God, I made it!  Enjoy, my friends.  I’m going to take more good drugs and go back to bed.

Fun with Scrappy, fun with scammers.

Scrappy’s favorite thing to do- next to a walk- is begging.  No, not panhandling on the street corner, just table scraps (and no, that’s not how he got his name).  In fact, if we delay too long to eat our dinners after he has his, he’ll actually beg us to go make our dinners (me and Laurie are 99% self-serve at mealtime).

So tonight while I was reading and commenting on you all’s stories,  Laurie grabbed out the remainders of some deli sandwiches she bought last night while I was working an hour and a half’s OT.  She had, in fact, finished what she was going to eat by the time I got up to prepare my repast.  She had a couple of the sandwiches left, closed up in the original packaging, and the Miracle Whip nearby and open.  This became a continuous “Bark!”  “No!”  “Bark!” “No"!” conversation between the two of them, and she told him to”see what daddy’s doing” to get his mind off things.  I , as usual, told him, “What do you want?” and since I was in the remove the Salisbury steak from the box and put in the microwave point, he swiftly returned.  I stepped back into the living room and watched him return to Laurie.  She told him, “No”, and he turned on his heels and came up to me.  I, in turn, also said “No”, whereupon he returned to his mommy.  This went on for at least five or six cycles, until Laurie burst out laughing and I went to check on my meal.

When I re-emerged, he was back at it and I suggested putting MW on his nose.  When Laurie did so, his first- and first several- reactions were to remove the MW from his nose by LICKING HIS LEG.  He grew increasingly frustrated with this process’ lack of success, and finally barked/pleaded with his mom to help him get it off.

The final chapter of the story (all of which occurred during the eight minute of my meal cooking) came when all the sudden a verse from the song Spiders And Snakes came into my mind- the one where Jim Stafford picks up the frog and sticks it in his gal’s face, saying, “This frog’s for you!”  Naturally I had to act out, and with no frogs hopping about our living room, I grabbed his hollowed-out chew bone and used it.  While Laurie’s still trying to figure out on which of the many planets that I’ve visited frog=bone, Scrappy comes up, suddenly desperate for his bone.  He snatched it from me, crossed the living room, chewed for about a second and a half.  Then he came back to the thought of the remaining sandwiches and the MW, and ran back to mom- and then to the bone- and then to mom- and then to the bone- and back to mom.  He finally stayed at Laurie’s side for long enough that I retrieved the bone, did the whole “This frog’s for you” thing again, and again he snatched the bone away- and this time, after much deliberation, stayed with it.

At least, until my Salisbury steak was done.

------------------------------------------------------

Now, then, it’s time to revisit fun with scammers.  Some of this I’ve been sitting on for a while until I had a good body of material to work from.  The first one is all the way back from Dec. 8th, and is from Mr. Nicholas Brumley, financial mgr. at First Active Finance.  He informs me of a fund I need to claim because the auditors have tumbled upon it.  A major scam faux pas is committed by Mr. Brumley as he neglects to inform me of how BIG a fund it is; only that if I don’t claim it by one week, it would be “transferred into the suspense account of British financial governing as unclaimed”.

So what is a suspense account?  Is it set up by Alfred Hitchcock?  Should I let it build until it is unbearable?  I guess we’ll never know, as I let the 15th slip by without so much as a call.  Que Sera Sera.

Next up is one I got just Tuesday, from one Mr. David William.  He is, he says, “a registered staff” of DHL.  Not a staff MEMBER, mind you, but a whole staff unto himself.  He then explains that that makes him a “special agent” for DHL, which he has been for 8 years.  In all those years, though, DHL never required proper punctuation- he was 1-for-6 in capitalizing the word “I”.

So he goes on to say, “i have this little deal i want us to handle, but i will need to get your approval before we go ahead, it is 100% risk free, payment is 50/50.”  After telling me what he wants to know from me, he signs off, but not before adding just one more layer to his job description at DHL- “Delivery suppervissor”.  Need I add that both of these are marked on the e-mail header as “Cyrillic”, as in “translated from Russian”.

Today’s contestant is Mr. Williams Richard (continuing the theme of 2 first names), only adding the classy beginning of, “From the desk of” to the e-mail.  He goes on to say that he is giving me a message from the “Office of the Presidency”, though he neglects to tell me the presidency OF WHAT.  If you scroll down though, eventually you find it is the presidency of Benin, hated African rival of Nigeria in the scam business.

The good news is that the O-O-P has decided that they want to clear off outstanding funds, and to help encourage me to claim that pesky $2.7 million that’s just lying around in their way, they are dropping the amount they want to charge me to get it to an “affordable” $99.  Also, “The President Yayi Boni has gazette this payment and approved fund has been inputted into our secure e-transfer system “.  Wow!  How did he “gazette” the payment?  And does “imputted” mean he shot it into the system with a fart?

He goes on to request two sets of info.  The first is the standard personal data; the second, well, look at it, and pay close attention to the last line:

Bank name********
Address**************
Telephone***************
Account name************
Bank account number********
Your nest of king*************

Yeah, I have a whole nest of kings, doesn’t everyone?  But at least ol’ Bill Dick is a nice chap.  He ends with:
“ Once again, thank you very much for your understand.
I wish you good lucky. “


Finally, this was a spam comment on TAW I received back on December 18th.  Of course, anonymous.  Here’s just a sample:
“Quaint windup is wisecracking. Uprisen tactlessness is the myalism. Mobbish fibrosis the sandboy. Palestinian yells digitalizes during a pukeko. Record is the conciliar victual. Beseechingly remorseless heliogravure will havery painstakenly refreshed besides the unembarrassed flagon.”
This goes on for a full 31 nonsense sentences, including my favorite, “That is to say stoneground kestrel was mephitically hemolyzing with a cyberspace. “  At the end of which is a web address which I believe ends up being a site to buy black market Viagra.  Makes me wonder what Laurie’s been saying about me on Farmarama. 

So that wraps up our scam-stravganza for tonight.  Lessons learned: #1- Type it out in English, so windows live mail doesn’t let me know that you are a Russian posing as a Britisher (or a DHL delivery suppervissor). #2- let me know how much money I don’t really have you’re threatening to put into a suspense account.  #3, let me know who your boss is the president of, and for God’s sake, don’t be imputting money you want to send me.  #4- you’ll have more good lucky if you don’t ask about my nest of king. #5- PETA will get you if you don’t stop stonegrinding those poor kestrels.

The super game

No, not that one… although I will have some comments here in a bit.  My boys from Yaroslavl were at home in front of the usual packed house of 8,900 to face Dynamo Balashika, whom as I said earlier is not a real strong team.

The boys almost put it away in the first minute of the game. Dmitry Maltsev scored in a scramble just 26 seconds from the opening face-off, his 4th of the year; and off the face-off from that, two quick passes had Daniil Yerdakov out at the edge of the circle and he blasted one past beleaguered goalie Dmitry Voloshin for his fourth goal with Lokomotiv and 15th on the year, and it was 2-0 before the first minute was out.  Things settled down, relatively, until Emil Galimov scored his 8th, rolling nearly the length of the rink at 6:12 to make it 3-0; Forty-five seconds later, Oleg Yashin scored on a breakaway for his 10th of the year and a 4-0 margin.  Needless to say, at this point we bid farewell to Mr. Voloshin and greeted Alexandr Cherepenin in the Dynamo goal.  The period ended the same, with Lokomotiv scoring on 4 of 13 shots in the period- all 4 goals on just 5 shots against poor Voroshin.

In the second stanza, we upped the margin to 5-0 at 2:11 on a Rafael Akhmetov score, his 5th, on a power play.  But then with Lokomotiv a man down, Maxim Erokhin got a PP goal to put Dynamo on the board.  Then things suddenly got dicey;  Nikita Lohzkin was screened on a shot by Dmitry Goldenkov that made it 5-2, and then  Daniil Romantsev lost a pass out front and  Ivan Ivanov slammed it home to cut the margin to 5-3.  Dynamo had 16 second period shots, and what looked like a rout suddenly got scary…

…Until the third period.  Dynamo found itself getting just 5 shots on goal in the third, and Daniil Apelkov netted his 2nd with just 7 seconds left, and the boys had a 6-3 win.

After the game coach Vorobiev was interviewed.  One of the q/as was as follows:
Can I say that in VHL "Locomotive" can play at least on par with any competitor? - you can say anything. Another thing - as it happens. One game can beat any opponent, due to a crazy mood, for example, or luck. Also, any meeting can be and play - what if the opponent goalkeeper before the game something to eat. On what the team is able to show playoff games. Only they will answer the question - Does the team matured, we became man ...

The boys are off till Sunday, when they draw Kazzinc-Torpedo, with Donbass one of 2 non-Russian teams in the VHL.  The game will be played at Torpedo’s home in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere in the interview Vorobiev mentioned that the long road trip earlier in the year Left both goalies with “butterfly”.  The interviewer grilled him on bringing up a certain hot goaltender from the youth team, but Vorobiev said that it had been discussed and decided against.  Several times, in fact, as the interviewer seemed unwilling to let it go.  But this is my fourth season following Russian hockey, and one thing I learned early was that in Russian, goaltender and scapegoat tend to be interchangeable.

Next, my brief comments on the Giants’ SB win.  Once again, the officiating embarrassed itself in places.  The midfield official that looked right at that Patriot pass interference in the fourth and held his peace, if I were king of the world would have been immediately escorted from the stadium.  I thought Tom Coughlin was going to fly through the air after him!  Second, KC bugged me all day about Eli being a hall of famer.  I told him at the beginning of his late TD drive, “If he can get a TD here, I’ll agree with you.”  When Eli got them the TD, I said, “Okay, I said it, I’ll stand by it.”  Finally, my postgame post on Facebook- “Now New England goes from being ‘the team that won 4 super Bowls’ to ‘the team that got beat by Eli twice.’”

Congrats to Fumble, winner of Most Valuable Pup at Puppy Bowl VIII yesterday!  The best part of any Super Bowl Sunday is the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

Finally, and totally unrelated to sports in any way (except extreeeeeeeemly tenuously), I give you this late-breaking news story:

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (CN) - A college student claims he was injured when a fraternity member in a "drunken stupor" decided "that it would be a good idea to shoot bottle rockets out of his anus," and did so, "but instead of launching, the bottle rocket blew up in the defendant's rectum, and this startled the plaintiff and caused him to jump back," and fall off the fraternity's deck.
Louis Helmburg III sued The Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Inc., of Huntington, West Virginia, and Travis Hughes, a fraternity member, in Cabell County Court.
Helmburg claims - in a statement it would be difficult to deny - that "firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity," which exposes both defendants to strict liability.
Okay, the lawsuit is breaking, the incident happened last May.  Get your education at the U of West Virginia, where scientific tests have conclusively proven that “firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity”.

one day’s difference

Here’s Yesterday:

A day in the woods

You can every once and a while get Scrappy to pose the way you want!

Across the river is IPFW's "Tree Walk"

They're finally beginning to tear out some of the scrub between the river and the IPFW soccer fields.  Beginning, but sure not finished!

Can you say, beavers in the area?

One of the usually dry stream beds in the woods.  It's still very wet!

This just seemed so poignant to me. they grew up together, and now the living tree supports the nearly-dead one.  Just like marriage should be...

  And now, today:

WTF?

Do Do Do, looking out my back door...

Dug Laurie a path to the car- what a good boy am I!

Now THIS is February!

The great seventies countdown week 10

"I'm glad you could brave the snow to make it here, "  The Host tells the lighter-than-usual audience.  "They tell me that much will be melted off by the time we are done... but they told me less than an inch of accumulation and now they say 3 to 5.  They don't know about weather... but we know about good music."


150- Another Park Another Sunday, the Doobie Brothers, 1974, #32.  One of the saddest songs on the countdown- and originally the A-side to Black Water.  Took a hit apparently because radio stations didn't like the line "...and the radio just seems to bring me down..."  Oversensitive much?

149- The Grand Illusion, Styx, 1977, unreleased.  I always thought that this title track was the best on the album.

148- I Go Crazy, Paul Davis, 1977, #7.  So here are two of the regrets I have about the new Time Machine- these last two get missed.  This song set the then-record for slow climbing, staying on the Billboard charts for an incredible 40 weeks.

147- Summer And Lightning, Electric Light Orchestra, 1977, unreleased.  It was claimed that this lp was "full of singles".  This is one of the un released ones.  Great memories of our high school parties here.




146- 5-7-0-5, City Boy, 1978, #27.  Definitely one of my more obscure favorites.  A top ten in the UK, though.



145- No Matter What, Badfinger, 1971, #8.  Badfinger, the original hard-luck boys, were often aided by doing compositions by former Beatles, as they were the first act signed to their Apple Records.  This was the first single they wrote themselves- and to me, it sounds the most like the Beatles.

144- Let It Ride, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, 1974, #23.  How did this one not make top ten here?  It hit #3 in Canada.

143- Surf's Up, the Beach Boys, 1971, Non-charting.  The Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks composition was started on the unfinished Smile lp, finished up and put on the 1971 lp of the same name, which also featured the original verion of the Captain and Tenille's Disney Girls.  Not your typical Beach Boys song, but one of his best.  He finally finished it his way on his 2004 completion of Smile.

142- Radar Love, Golden Earring, 1973, #13.  Another one of the "cool" songs that everyone liked.  A very definitely underrated band.

141- Why Can't We Be Friends, War, 1975, #6.  My nephew had a little mini-bike when we were kids.  I remember lots of summer days tearing down the side of Lortie Road singing this at the top of our lungs.

140- 18 With A Bullet, Pete Wingfield, 1975, #15.  A great seventies doo-wop tune.



139- The Boys Are Back In Town, Thin Lizzie, 1976, #12.  "The nights are getting warmer and it won't be long... won't be long till summer comes..."

138- Oh, Girl, the Chi-Lites, 1972, #1.  Our first #1 of the day, and it's a classic.  Tell me this song doesn't get to you.

137- Love's Theme, Love Unlimited Orchestra, 1973, #1. This was Barry White's 40-piece backup orchestra.  What can I say, Mom watched a lot of golf. (You old timers will get that reference.)

136- Sing, the Carpenters, 1973, #3.  Just in case you haven't figured it out, you'll see a LOT of the Carpenters on this countdown.

135- I Write The Songs, Barry Manilow, 1976, #1. Just in case you hadn't... oh, I already said that?

134- Can't Get It Out Of My Head, Electric Light Orchestra, 1974, #9.  No, I won't use the same gag three times in a row.  I will tell you that if you've never listened to the lp Eldorado, treat yourself.  This album was meant to be heard in its entirety.  ".. Robin Hood and William Tell, Ivanhoe and Lancelot, they don't envy me.../Sitting till the sun goes down/ In dreams, the world keeps going 'round and 'round..."

133- Don't Cry Daddy, Elvis Presley, 1970, #6.  The ultimate crying song.  I heard this first sitting out in Dad's truck while he made an appearance at a funeral.  I hear it in that same spot every time.

132- Life In The Bloodstream, The Guess Who, 1971, unreleased. More fun with the eight tracks at the lake.


131- Hurts So Bad, Linda Ronstadt, 1979, #8.  That guitar solo always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  So emotional, just chills me.

"Shovels will be provided at the door for those who need them,"  The Host informs everyone as the lights go up.  "Here's a little something to warm you up, thoughts of summer days at the lake, as you head on home.  See you all next week!"

And now… the NEW time machine week 1

Guess what?  I was trying to come up with a filler for time machine by using the site that first led me to Cashbox, Alaska Jim.  Well, Jim apparently got tired of waiting around for CB as well, and found a dude going by Tropical Glen (Oh, what irony!) who has the charts on his site.  So with a little extra work, we can get back to where we were.

Except…

I’ve been debating a change for a while.  We’ve reached on Time Machine the point where A) I was keeping my own top ten, and thus it was becoming less of an exploration for me to do; B) I was in High School, with attendant bad memories; and C) let’s face it, music was going a bit downhill- the really good songs were getting fewer and farther between, and disco was about to rear its ugly head.  Therefore, we are resetting the dials and starting anew.

Welcome, my friends to the 5th week of 1970.  Today we get a visit from Mr. Pina Colada, Ruppert Holmes; a buttpile of birthdays; and the third number one of the decade.  Plus the same features you’ve come to know and love.  Watch your step, here we go!

Ten songs debuted on the hot hundred this week in 1970, and we’ll look at 3 of them.  At #84 was the Polish Prince, Bobby Vinton, with his rendition of My Elusive Dreams.  At #64 came Santana with Evil Ways; and the high debut was the classic Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel.

Now these songs are celebrating their 42nd birthdays; lets check out the other birthdays this week, and there’s quite a few.  Turning 35 this week are David Soul’s Don’t Give Up On Us, George Harrison’s autobiographical Crackerbox Palace, and Jackson Browne’s Here Come Those Tears Again.  Turning forty is Neil Young’s Heart Of Gold; turning 45 are Sock It To Me Baby from Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, The Disadvantages Of You by the Brass Ring (hands up those who remember the theme to the old Benson and Hedges 100s cigarette commercials), and Johnny Rivers’ cut of Baby I Need Your Lovin’.  Hitting the big 5-0 are Sam Cooke’s Twisting The Night Away and the doo-wop classic by Don and Juan, What’s Your Name?

I almost forgot our big movers for the week.  Coming down, Tommy James and the Shondells She falls 18 to #40; going up, the Delfonics with Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time zipping up 32 to #46.  And we have a whole set of people in the grandpa chair at a paltry 15 weeks- however, they are all in the top 40, so we’ll get them later.

Today’s look back in time had me catching my eye on an instrumental big-band hit called Wabash Blues, which hit the top in 1922 for a bandleader named Isham Jones.  Isham was born in the southern Ohio mining town of Coalton and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan.  He was just getting started out when he met music teacher and fellow saxaphonist Joseph Edgar Maddy.  Maddy had been playing a piece he called The Trombone Jazz; Jones revised it put in a “dueling saxes” bit between himself on alto and Maddy on tenor, and soon later the re-christened Wabash Blues was in the midst of six weeks at the top, the first of his 6 chart-toppers.

That brings us to #50 and the Where Are They Now segment.  I didn’t recognize the name Lenny Welch at first, who was at the magic number with a cover of Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.  But, I soon remembered the voice which had a #4 smash in 1963 with Since I Fell For You- which was also a name I didn’t recognize until I heard “You-oooo… made me leave my happy ho-ooome…”  Lenny was an old timey crooner who was on his way to becoming the next Johnny Mathis until A) the owner of Cadence Records abruptly closed up shop in 1964, leaving him without a contract; B) he got drafted and served a hitch in the military; and C) then took some time off to get his head together and polish his image.  Timing is everything, and though he’s still a popular “Vegas and Love Boat” act, he never again really caught fire.  His website says he branched into acting, making several appearances on General Hospital, but I could not confirm that on IMDB.

Four songs work their way into the top forty this week. A bubble gum tune called Jennifer Tompkins by an “act” called Street People comes in at 38, up 8.  The force behind this song was Ron Dante, better known as “the Cuff Links” and “The Archies.” Dante as the Cuff Links had the big hit Tracy, and then had to throw together an album.  The lp was all him, but he put together a touring band (which he was NOT in) and sent them on their way.  In the meantime, Dante as the Archies had just signed a new contract that made him exclusive- thus no more Cuff Links.  Unfortunately for the multi-talented multi-personality, the Cuff Links label demanded one more lp- one he could not be in.  He did the lp, the other label said, “Not so fast, my friend”. They erased his vocals and added those of neophyte producer Ruppert Holmes to most of the album, including Jennifer Tompkins.  For whatever reason, they decided not to release it as a Cuff Links single, therefore, Holmes released it on his own as Street People.  Thus the Street People single and the Cuff Links album track are “virtually identical”.

Where were we?  Oh, yes, the other debuts.  And these are by no means as obscure.  At #34, up 8, the legend, the man BB King with The Thrill Is Gone; at 33, blasting up 17 spots, Brook Benton’s Rainy Night In Georgia; and at 32, up an even dozen, CCR with Travellin’ Band.  Coolest thing in that song is “state militia” rather than “national guard”. Different name, amazing results.

One song joins the top ten this week, one drops out.  Falling from 7 to 19 is Tommy Roe’s Jam Up Jelly Tight.

Our first top ten in the new format (TA-DAHH!) Leads off with 3 songs holding their positions.  The first at #10 is Miss Dionne Warwick with I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.  The second at #9 is Tom Jones’ cover of Without Love (There Is Nothing).  And the third at #8 is Ron Dante as the Archies with Jingle Jangle.  After peaking at #2, Led Zeppelin drops from #4 to 7 with Whole Lotta Love.  Then we have 2 more frozen in place; at #6, the King, Elvis Aaron Presley, with the heartbreaking Don’t Cry Daddy (I don’t know if he could do it, but I can’t); and at #5 the former top dog Someday We’ll Be Together by Diana Ross and (nod, nod, wink, wink) the Supremes.  Slamming up 9 notches from #13 all the way to #4, Sly and the Family Stone with Thank You (Fallettenme Be Mice Elf Again).  At #3 and holding, the first #1 of the decade- BJ Thomas’ Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, which is one of the three in the grandpa chair (the others being Peter Paul and Mary’s Leaving On A Jet Plane at #22 and She Belongs To Me by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band at #30).  That brings us to #2, and our six degrees victim of the week.

Slipping a notch to the runner-up spot was I Want You Back, the first #1 for the Jackson 5.  The quintet were discovered by Gladys Knight while on tour with her Pips in support of the Diana Ross and the Supremes farewell tour ( though Berry Gordy, always trying to find new ways to kiss Diana’s butt, made it seem that Diana had found them).  That farewell tour ended on January 14th of 1970 in a show in which Berry introed Jean Terrell as the new Supreme.  He then had second, or possibly fourth, thoughts, and went back to first choice Syreeta Wright to join Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, but Mary vetoed it.  Suddenly Gordy “washed his hands” of the group, Mary, Cindy, and Jean slogged on alone, and Syreeta met up with rising star Stevie Wonder.  Stevie was approaching his 21st birthday, and in order to get more artistic freedom (a battle Gordy was already losing with the Supremes and Marvin Gaye), he was going to exercise the clause in his contract that let him void it on reaching majority.  He encouraged Syreeta to start writing, and her first fruits were their collaboration on It’s A Shame, which would soon be the Spinner’s swan song with Motown.  Stevie put together an lp that Berry had no choice but to release (as it was the last one he’d get from Wonder) called Where I’m Coming From, and it’s big single was another collaboration- this time both writing and singing- called If You Really Love Me.  The pair were married soon later.

And that leaves us with the new number one song.  And that is…


Mariska Veres and Shocking Blue with Venus!

Well, what do ya think of the new TM?  Let me know, and tune in tomorrow for the 70’s countdown!