What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

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Friday, June 6, 2014

Time Machine week 7

It's June the 6th, back in good ol' 1972.  George McGovern has just won the Democratic primary in California to virtually seal the presidential nomination- and David Bowie has just released The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.  Coincidence?  Or all part of an evil master plan...


Ziggy and George... separated at birth?
Uh, yeah, welcome back to Time Machine '72, where I have to make up for last week's side jaunt into 1968 by mashing together two weeks worth of fun and useless trivia.  And I will cap it off with not one, but two (or two attempts thereof) of Six degrees!  Welcome to the weeks when our radios first played Procol Harum's Conquistador, Alice Cooper's School's Out, Bobby Vinton's Sealed With A Kiss, Argent's Hold Your Head Up, Harry Nilsson's Coconut, and Donna Fargo's Happiest Girl In The Whole USA (at least on pop stations; it's halfway through its run at the top on the country charts!).


First up, we had a total of ten songs make there first appearance in the top 40 the last two weeks.  Last week, James Brown's There It Is (you can recognize it because it sounds like all the other JB hits), I've Been Lonely For So Long by international one-hit wonder Frederick Knight, Wayne Newton's Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast, Jimmy Castor's Troglodyte (Caveman), Elton John's Rocket Man, and America's I Need You (who pulled off the biggest jump, 21 spots to #32) came into the chart.  This week, the newbies are Nash/Crosby's Immigration Man (up 6 to #38), Cher's Living In A House Divided (up #11 to #33), along with a couple you can listen to.  The lower one doesn't qualify as a "song I first heard because of TM" because I do know it from the ending chorus, but I think you Michael Jackson fans out there won't mind:




I Wanna Be Where You Are climbs 17 to #37 this week.  Now one that I didn't know before this was another of the nicely done covers by David Cassidy, this one coming in at #35 (up 13):




How about that?  Double the videos, too!

One idea I considered was to do a spot on twins in music.  But the Martin Era of 1962-1979, on a cursory examination, yielded only four sets of twins.  I'll let you see if you can pick them off for a little bit, but I'll give you this much of a clue:  One had a #1 near the beginning of the Martin Era, one had a top dog at the end of the Martin Era, and one would have 9 number ones, all within the Martin Era!


This week's You Peaked netted us 5 peakers, all but one of them last week.  Doctor My Eyes topped off at 12, Vincent at 11; Taxi, amazingly enough, let its fare out at #20, and Run Run Run by JoJo Gunne topped off at 31.  Which reminds me of a story I forgot to tell the first time Jay Ferguson's old band got mentioned.  The story I get was that their second lp, Jumping The Gunne, had a disastrous showing mainly because of their choice of cover art.  It was a picture of the band in a bed, with a naked fat lady "jumping " over them.  Tasteful, it was not.

Yeah, I can see this as a selling point...
Returning to propriety, War's Slipping Into Darkness peaked out this week at #12.


Ready for those twins yet?  The last to chart (and technically they didn't make top forty noise until 1980, but had been around long before) are The Whispers (And The Beat Goes On, It's A Love Thing), with twins Wallace and Walter Scott. Makes you wonder what the next kid got named, don't it? The ones with the early #1 are the Shangri-Las, with identical twins Marge and Maryann Ganser, who topped the charts in 1964 with Leader Of The Pack.  The late charting act was Styx, with twins, Chuck and John Panozzo, who didn't top the charts until 1979's sell-out hit Babe. And in-between, with the nine #1s, the Bee Gees with Robin and Maurice being the far-from-identical twins.

The Shangri-Las... and I bet I don't have to tell you Maryann and Marge are in the middle.


And now, let's crash and bash out that top ten!


TEN- The first week, Back Off Boogaloo held that spot for a second week; this week, Ringo drops from 10 to 34, with the Stones' Tumbling Dice (Note:  Not dices.  Dice is already plural.) moving up one to take the spot.

NINE- Last week, Love Unlimited leapt 7 spots to land here with Walking In The Rain With The One I Love.  This week, Commander Cody loses some ground with Hot Rod Lincoln.

EIGHT- Last week, Paul Simon was with Me And Julio Down By number nine.  He drops all the way to 30 this week, and Love Unlimited moves up a notch to take his place.

SEVEN- Hot Rod Lincoln pulled in at its high water mark of 7 last week.  With it falling back, the spot was taken by another newbie, Gallery and Nice To Be With You, which came all the way from #19.

SIX- The Jackson Five moved up 3 last week with Little Bitty Pretty One.  They move on up, and the reigning top dog, I'll Take You There by the Staple Singers, falls to this spot this week.

FIVE- a song that poked around for 8 weeks before going 28 to 15 to 5 is our first six degrees victim.

That meteoric riser is Sammy Davis, Jr, with The Candy Man.  Panned by both the singer ("Too saccharine") and reviewers ("...about the closest music has ever come to being pure excrement"), it was produced by Mike Curb (of the Mike Curb Congregation), who Sammy liked about as much as the song.  Taken from the Willie Wonka movie, Sammy recorded it on his album Sammy Davis, Jr, Now- an lp so bad that the reviewer said that the only song that was even listenable was a cover of MacArthur Park (and having listened to it, all I can say is, I liked Candy Man much better.  And I liked his Hawaii 5-0 theme better.  But given a choice between Sammy Now and Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits, well....)

Wait... what are you saying?
The # 5 for this week was Little Bitty Pretty One, moving up a notch.

FOUR- The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face slid from 2 to 4 last week, and fell to #13 this week.  Which reminds me, last week's drop outs were Rockin' Robin (5 to 20) and I Gotcha (6 to 24).  The song at #4 this week, climbing 11 spots from #15, is our second six degrees.

Dr. Hook's Sylvia's Mother was a composition by the multi-talented Shel Silverstein (which is actually the second time today I've had his name mentioned, ironically).  In addition to the MANY other things this man achieved, in addition to the other Dr Hook songs he wrote (like Cover Of The Rolling Stone), in addition to writing Loretta Lynn's recent country chart topper One On The Way, he is also the writer of Johnny Cash's smash A Boy Named Sue.  Johnny, amazingly, sang that song in public the first time when he did his At San Quentin lp- in the film, you can see him checking a piece of paper for the words.  Another song that was a first timer for Johnny on the San Quentin lp was the first cut, a song called Wanted Man.  Now this song has a bit of a story, and you can read the whole thing here.  But the gist of it is- he and Bob Dylan were mutual admirers and became good friends, and, well:

Dylan and Cash were huge mutual inspirations, each covering the other's songs accordingly. The first nod came in 1965, when Cash recorded his version of “It Ain't Me, Babe” for his album Orange Blossom Special. Then, following his 1966 motorcycle accident, Dylan and The Band spent a good portion of the next year in Saugerties, NY, recording over 100 tracks for what became The Basement Tapes. Among the cover songs stuffed on the reels, Cash's presence looms large with Dylan doing “Belshazzar,” “Big River” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”


Dylan recorded most of his first all-country record, Nashville Skyline, on February 13-14, 1969 in Nashville. At the wrap-up sessions on February 17-18, Cash—who'd been recording at the studio next door—dropped in to visit, and ended up spending two days there, recording what's become known as the Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash Sessions. The 23 duets the label-mates laid down included everything from Cash's “Big River” to Dylan's “One Too Many Mornings,” along with covers of Jimmie Roger's “Blues Yodel #1,” plus “That's All Right Mama” and “You Are My Sunshine.”
Although this session was a bootlegger's wet dream, few of the songs were strong enough for an official album release. However, the crème of the session, a duet of “Girl from the North Country,” was included as the opening track to Nashville Skyline, which also featured liner notes written by Cash. During his stay in Nashville, Dylan also ended up writing “Wanted Man” for Cash—a song the Man in Black would debut live to a cafeteria full of California inmates a week later at San Quentin penitentiary.


(From "Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash: Two Songwriting Titans Make History "
By )


THREE- Both weeks, same as the one before- the stalled-out Look What You've Done For Me by All Green.

TWO- Oh, Girl by the Chi-Lites climbed here from #4 last week;  Sammy and Candy Man climb here from #5 this week.


And at number ONE:

Last week, a repeat of I'll Take You There.  And this week......




...the Chi-Lites with Oh, Girl!!!!!



Whooo, we made it!  Are you seeing double yet?  I'll be if I don't get some eye rest here soon.  Catch you next week!

16 comments:

  1. This is only somewhat related to your post... and I apologize for that... but I was in the car yesterday flipping around the dial on the radio when I landed on The Eagle. The Eagle plays Classic Rock. I always thought of classic rock as being music from the 60s and 70s. Well, now it is the 70s and 80s.

    I found that insulting.

    Not because I don't love 80s music. I do. It is MY music (like the stuff you feature here is yours.) But it isn't classic. I am NOT classic. And then it occurred to me how my parents and grandparents must have felt when the music of their youth became "Oldies." Wow. That is a sucker punch to the gut.

    When 80s become Oldies I will probably cry. Or maybe I will be on those old folks who relishes being old because I can say any darn thing and get away with it. Who knows?

    Once again, I recognized a few of these by name.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Technically, "classic rock" is anything that played on what we used to call "album-oriented rock" stations. Now, classic HITS can sometimes be oldies, but our "oldies" station is about .0001 % 60s, 15% 70's, and the rest eighties and even later. They even dropped the oldies for classic on their latest billboard. I think the new definition of "classic" is "What we call your era while we go ahead and play newer junk you really could care less about."


      You really should google yourself up some Mrs. Miller.... (JK)

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  2. As much as I loved the Partridge Family, especially Keith, I never followed David Cassidy's music. My crush on his bro, Sean, was stronger. And though I've heard "How Can I Be Sure?" countless times, I didn't know he sang it. It's very nice.

    Have a great Friday and weekend, CW.

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  3. 1972 was one of my favorite years. Don't remember exactly why, but it seemed like a good year for me. I remember so much great music from that time, but judging from the songs you've mentioned there must have been a lot of kind of bad music too.

    Is "Lime in the Coconut" one of the most annoying songs ever or what?

    The fat lady flying over the bed? How did I miss that one? It must have been banned in Tennessee.

    And re: classic radio. Our local classic station used to play 50's and 60's. Last time I listened they were even playing 90's and that does not seem classic at all. That's okay though since I normally don't listen to that station anyway.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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    Replies
    1. You might slap me, but for me most annoying is Hey Jude.

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    2. "Hey Jude" kind of starts off in a good direction, but there are way too many "na-na-na-nah's" for me to want to hear that song very often.

      Lee
      Wrote By Rote

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  4. I always liked the band America. And that song "I NeedYou."

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  5. Chris:
    Well, I got ONE set of twins right (the Brothers Gibb) and I did NOT know about Cash & Dylan...verrrrrrry interesting.
    --Hot Rod Lincoln taking the slide down?
    (sob)
    --Sorry, never got into JoJo Gunne or Doctor Hook...but now, if you're talking the CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN...
    (that I used to be able to do...lol)

    Very good ride this week.

    Keep on rockin' up there.

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  6. Hey CW:

    Back in '56, when my high school (located in the WV panhandle) held its prom, we hired a band that hailed from somewhere is the Pittsburgh area. The band leader was a short guy wearing (of course) a white sports coat and a pink carnation whose name was Bobby Vinton. That encounter with the soon-to-be famous Polish Prince and a conversation with Andy Williams in a hotel elevator in Madison, WI in 1976 are my only claims to face-to-face meetings with famous singers.

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  7. BROTHER MARTIN ~
    I liked your comparison of George and Ziggy. Who knew?

    >>... Jumping The Gunne, had a disastrous showing mainly because of their choice of cover art.

    OK, I'm going to say it. I never saw that one before but... worst... cover... ever! (Even worse than Dylan's 'Planet Waves'.)

    And "for the record", in Los Angeles and here in Phoenix, "CLASSIC ROCK" stations play nothing but late 1960s music and music recorded throughout the 1970s. THAT is what I have always understood "Classic Rock" to be - that and almost NOTHING else (very little '80s - maybe a few songs from the early '80s, mostly by bands who were also big in the '70s - and certainly NO '90s).

    In other words, Hendrix is Classic Rock; Van Morrison is Classic Rock (even his stuffs from the early '80s); Dylan is Classic Rock, and so is David & David's 'Welcome To The Boomtown' from 1986, even though it never gets any airplay anymore ...unfortunately.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    Replies
    1. That definition is pretty much the same here... they just have to play "the big three" all the damn time, though.

      I'll have to check out Planet Waves, though I doubt they'd be as destructive as THOSE waves...

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    2. StMc-- Which "Classic Rock" stations in L.A. are you talking about? KeaRTH mostly plays 80's as far as I know. I don't listen to the station, but I turned over for a while and heard hits by The Police, Cyndi Lauper, Men At Work, and some other 80's songs. They did play a 1976 disco song by the BeeGees and a song by the Four Tops, but everything else was classic 80's.

      Lee
      Tossing It Out

      Delete