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

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Friday, May 22, 2015

Time Machine week 25



Today, the Tardis seems to be flying correctly, and we slide in to May 22, 1969.  Today, Apollo 10 cruises to within 8.4 miles of the lunar surface, in prep for the upcoming lunar landing.  And apparently that was about all that occurred.

In addition to being mascot, Snoopy was also the name of the ascent module.


Welcome to this week's Time Machine, where we get to the bottom of Terry Cashman once and for all- and why; the Beatles roll to another victory; NO debuts on the Bottom's up (another benchmark established); and a six degrees that ropes in a connection between the Brady Bunch and the Beverly Hillbillies!  So set a spell... take your shoes off, y'all go back in time now, heah?

What do ya reckon it is?  Says, "Po- lice box" all over it!


So let's introduce ourselves to the panel for this week in 1969.  In addition to regulars WLS Chicago, CKLW Detroit, KGB San Diego, WMCA New York, WRKO Boston, WNHC New Haven, and semi-regulars WKMI Kalamazoo, KPOI Honolulu, and WSGN Birmingham, we throw in KREO Indeo CA, WIXZ Pittsburgh, and KGRC Hannibal, MO.  They collected 24 different tunes, including 6 number ones- and those included Henry Mancini's Romeo And Juliet (Detroit) and Good Morning Starshine by Oliver (New York).  And this week's race wasn't a close one- the number one tune had a 48-23 point lead and 7 number one votes!  This week's top 4:

CCR pulls in with 12 points and no #1 love with the national 24 with a bullet, Bad Moon Rising.

The Guess Who, who are making a habit of being on Time Machine somewhere, pull up at number three with 20 points and the #1 vote from Alabama with These Eyes, the week's national #5.

The runner up and national #2, with 23 points and the #1s of Honolulu and Pittsburgh, Mercy and Love Can Make You Happy.

And at #1... The Beatles with... stay tuned.

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And now- Bottoms Up!



There were 16 debuts this week, but only two of the songs did I know, one not by the artist in question, and the other I've heard but once- the Strawberry Alarm Clock version of Good Morning Starshine.  So it's a BU with no debut:

10- Blood, Sweat, and Tears with You've Made Me So Very Happy, at #31 after 13 weeks and a peak of #2.

9-  Andy Williams with a song I forgot to put in my recent "soundtrack" post under the category "misheard as a child", Happy Heart is at 33 after 8 weeks.

8- The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, peaked at 29 with My Way, and is headed back down at 36 after 13 weeks.

7- Five weeks into its run, One by Three Dog Night is at 39.

6- Desmond Dekker hits with the reggae-flavored The Israelites, at 41 after 3 weeks.

5- Perry Como's Seattle (which was used as the theme to Bobby Sherman's TV vehicle Here Come The Brides) is at 48 after seven weeks.

4- A song that tried to get in on the Shuffle Ten (but got bounced because the act was in it just 4 weeks ago), the Vogues are at the fourth spot with Earth Angel, which peaked at 30 for them and is now at 51 after seven weeks.  Bound and determined, weren't you?

3- Good Morning Starshine- the Oliver version, toast of NYC- is at 55 in its second week.

2- Junior Walker and the All-Stars are at #65 after 2 weeks with What Does It Take (To Win Your Love).

And the top bottom: (You girls who were teenyboppers back then will probably love THAT line)



Andy Kim with Baby I Love You, at 79 after 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Our unknown song is a double dipper, by two different acts with the same lead singer.  The Buchanan Brothers, who were at #3 in both Indeo and Kalamazoo with Medicine Man (the #42 song this week), were led by one Dennis Minogue.  Do you know that name?  No, but you'll know the man behind it.  First, though, here are the Buchanan Brothers, who were neither Buchanans nor Brothers.





Now, Dennis Minogue was the son of a NYC Irish cop, who's partner was Joe Torre's father!  So Minogue was interested in Baseball as well, and played in 1960 for a couple of teams in Class D (approximate to our Rookie Leagues).  He had six games as a pitcher, for which no stats survived, but he did manage 4 hitless at bats.  So he went into music, and that same year was the leader of The Chevrons, on this tune:





This tune hit #87 on CB while not charting on Billboard, while the Buchanans made it to 22 in 1969.  Somewhere in between the two, Dennis Minogue had co-written the far bigger hit Sunday Will Never Be The Same, and since he was signed on at ABC as a promotions guy and didn't want to be seen promoing his own stuff, changed his name- to Terry Cashman, who has been on Time Machine twice recently for his classic solo Talkin' Baseball and his hit with Cashman and West, American City Suite.


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As you might have noticed, we have a lot of room for a six degrees victim, as our top four are numbers 1, 2, 5, and 24.  Our victim, in fact, was at number 3- the highest charting song with no love from the panel in our 25-week history!  And to get there, we have to check in with- the Beverly Hillbillies!  And this guest shot, on the episode Robin Hood Of Griffith Park:






The Peppermint Trolley Company were a bubblegum band built around brothers Jim and Danny Faragher, who later recorded as the Faragher Brothers.  The PTC had as their biggest record a song called Baby You Come Rolling Across My Mind, which peaked at 59 in 1968.  But they were known better as the group behind the original theme to The Brady Bunch.  Which brings us to Greg Brady aka Barry Williams, who in the years since annoying his sisters and boffing his TV mom, put together an oldies show called Barry Williams' Original Idols Live, which toured in 2007.  Among the acts that performed at least once on the Idols tour, the Archies, 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express, Leif Garrett, Merrill Osmond, and four regular acts- the Bay City Rollers, Rex Smith, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, and our intended victims- the Cowsills, whose #3 this week, Hair, got no love from the panel.

The modern-day Cowsills- Susan is not pleased with the panel....
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And now, the Shuffle Ten:

The Steve Miller Band puts hit #3 onto the Shuffle Ten at #10, with a tune that was only released as a single in the UK, but got plenty of airplay- 1977's Serenade.

Gogi Grant enters the count at #9 with her 8-week number one from 1956, The Wayward Wind.

Another non-released tune that got tons of airplay comes in at #8- Donovan's 1966 Season Of The Witch.

Night Ranger  makes three straight rookies on the shuffle with the song at 7- their 1984 #5 Sister Christian.

Rosanne Cash makes her third appearance here, with a little help from dad Johnny- a song that didn't chart, but will move you like no other- 2003's September When It Comes.

Johnny: I plan to crawl outside these walls, close my eyes and see
And fall into the heart and arms of those who wait for me
I cannot move a mountain now, I can no longer run
I cannot be who I was then;
 in a way, I never was

Roseanne: Watch the clouds go sailing, I watch the clock and sun
Oh, I watch myself, depending on, September, when it comes

R: When the shadows lengthen and burn away the past
J: They will fly me, like an angel, to a place where I can rest
R:When this begins, I'll let you in,  Both: September, when it comes



ELO hits the ten for the fourth time with a track from Out Of The Blue's Concerto For A Rainy Day, Big Wheels from 1978.

Save it for a rainy day
For when the cold wind blows
Just to see how they run
I thought they'd know
I tried my best, all I could do
But somehow it was not enough for you.

Big wheels turning
Baby I know....


At number four, Bread claims its 3rd Shuffle Ten with their 1970 #4, Make It With You, which David Gates' mishearing mother told a local reporter was called Naked With You.

Bruce Hornsby and the Range hit #1 back in '86 with  The Way It Is.  Today, he makes 3 on the Ten.

Runner up this week, from 1982, Thomas Dolby's #5 She Blinded Me With Science.

And at #1?

Survey says...



...the Beatles with Get Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They missed just two of the dozen panel charts, and were only lower than #2 on the ten they hit twice.

And, shuffle says....




...Heart and Dreamboat Annie!

I don't remember for sure if I have anything else by Ann and Nancy on the shuffle, but I have all three versions they did of THIS one!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That is it for 1969!  Tune in next week when we land in... 1976!

10 comments:

  1. "Dreamboat Annie." Had that album (vinyl). Great, great set of tunes.
    Although, to this day, I can never keep track of which was Ann and which was Nancy. Of them played the guitar and the other was the singer. I could Google the difference, but what fun would that be?
    Ignorance is bliss.
    I'm a happy man.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I won't spoil it for you... that's why I didn't post a recent picture of them.

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  2. Hi, Chris! Thanks for taking my request seriously and entering Granny Clampett into your TM Beauty Contest. If you allow early voting, Granny is my Pick to Click! :)

    I remember 1969 as a very good year for music and several of your selections from May of that year bring back some of my happiest memories. "These Eyes," Love Can Make You Happy," "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "One" and "The Israelites" all remind me of finishing up my sophomore year at Penn State and taking day trips out to a man made lake where college kids went to sun themselves and swim. Those songs played often on the trips out and back. Back home on summer vacation I took a job laying sewer pipe, steam cleaning heavy equipment and painting barns. I had a transistor radio along and "Good Morning Starshine" and "What Does It Take To Win Your Love" kept me company on those jobs.

    What a great doo-wop sound they laid down on that Chevrons record. I loved it! I also love to play Six Degrees on my blog and I enjoyed learning the back stories that connected The Brady Bunch with The Beverly Hillbillies.

    Thanks so much for a very entertaining post, Chris. Have a great holiday weekend, good buddy!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. First up, I'm glad I wasn't drinking when I read that first paragraph. So now I know you're Sam Drucker in disguise.

      One of the great things about Unknown Song is finding gems that really should have charted higher but by accident of taste, promo, lazy record companies, economics got the shaft. Penn Stater, huh? Did you meet Joe Pa? No matter what came after, he was a legend.

      BTW, a note from Scrappy- he says, "Hey, back off! There is no vote, I pick the winner! And if Granny wants a shot, she better have a pretty good treat lined up under the paper with her name on it!"

      Note from me- While she will qualify as a contestant- even Marcie from Peanuts and Mrs. Miller did that- there is no, repeat NO chance she will make it past me into even the semi-finals.


      Without a hefty bribe. Hey, she can afford it!

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    2. I didn't meet Paterno but saw him and his teams in action many times at Beaver Stadium. Paterno was only in his second year of coaching at PSU when I began my college career. I got to see future pro greats like Franco Harris and Jack Ham play there.

      Word has it that Granny is whippin' up a mess of possum gizzards for Scrappy. That should be enough to tip the scale in her favor and enable her to clinch the title of Miss TM. :)

      Delete
    3. She's still gotta get past me, and possum gizzards won't cut it!

      Delete
  3. Chris:
    First up...LOVE the "intro" w/ the TARDIS and the Beverly Hillbillies...BRILLIANT!

    Love that theme from Here Come The Brides.
    (one actor in that show went on to a VERY "paternal" role in Star Trek..).
    Always DID like The Israelites, too.
    LOL...just saw the original Back To The Future...and (at the prom) the and sings Earth Angel...!
    (good timing)

    Never heard of DENNIS Minogue (just Kylie - "The Locomotion" - who later starred in a Doctor Who special:l Voyage of the Damned)

    That Griffith Park/Robin Hood (where's my OAF?) ep is a great one...They filmed there a FEW times - once with Jethro playing "Patton" in a real TANK and Drysdale as Otto Von Bismarck...ROFL!

    Great shuffle...hard to choose between Dreamboat Annie and Get Back...both excellent in their respective styles.

    Fantastic trip this week.

    Keep on rockin', & we''ll catch 'ya on the flip side up there, brother.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Von Bismark? Jethro had his time frames messed up, I see.

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  4. Strawberry Alarm Clock? "Good Morning Starshine"? What's wrong with this picture?

    Seems like I've that "Medicine Man" song before--or something very much similar to it. Or maybe a lot of things similar to it.

    Gogi Grant with "Wayward Wind"--I loved that song when I was a kid. My parents even took me to see her perform in Las Vegas maybe about 1961 or so. I was so thrilled to hear her sing that song live.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Road trippin' with A to Z
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAC did the original, Oliver covered. I thought it was a logical thing for them.

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