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

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Friday, October 23, 2015

Time Machine week 46



Unless you want a digest of sporting events and obits, the best I can do you for as we land in October 23, 1965, was a proclamation by LBJ naming two peaks on the now-former Mount McKinley after Winston Churchill (wonder if they got changed by Obama as well), and the release of the classic Byrds song Turn! Turn! Turn!.  On the bright side, no planes crashed... but as they say on the Liberty Mutual ad, there will still be pain.

And we'll deal with that in just a minute.  But first, welcome to an unconventional Time Machine, as here at the start, I wanna talk Martin Ten.  This is week 9 of the M10, and I am very happy with how it has went.  Sometimes, though, you get surprised, and this week is one of those times.  Last week two songs in particular debuted, and I want to address what happened to them.

The one was the latest hit by the young lady from Australia calling herself WILSN.  When I researched the tune, called Walking For Days, I discovered, as I mentioned, that it was the second single for her.  So I went back to hear this first single- and it replaces Walking in the M10!  And the other story, which Bobby G got a sneak peak of on Saturday, involves the second song from Beach House on the M10.  The day after I did the post, Beach House released their second lp in just TWO MONTHS.  And the song I fell for on the new lp, which is called Thank Your Lucky Stars, roars- and I mean ROARS- into the M10 this week!  On top of that, thew M10 hit Space Song is not going quietly into that good night- I have already accepted the fact that this has become one of my all-timers, and when you reflect on my musical era, that is really saying something!  But with WILSN, the new Beach House single, and Jana Kramer charging up the charts, does Space Song- or Lisztomania- stand a chance?  Read on to find out!


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Tuesday we lost Corey Wells, one-third of the three headed music hydra we knew as Three Dog Night.  Corey was the lead singer on 8 of their 21 T40 hits, including 4 top tens- #1 Mama Told Me (Not To Come), #3 Shambala, #5 Never Been To Spain, and #10 Eli's Coming.  Chuck Negron had more of the top tens, including One, Easy To Be Hard, the decade's #1 Joy To The World, Old Fashioned Love Song, and The Show Must Go On, while Danny Hutton had the #1 Black And White and Liar.  Since the mid eighties, it's been just Wells and Hutton in official 3DN, after Negron was fired because of a drug problem he finally licked in 1991.   Corey was 74 years young.

That night just got a little colder.


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And we move on to our panel this week, which includes WIBG Philadelphia, KQV Pittsburgh, KFWB Los Angeles, WSAI Cincinnati, WKNR Detroit Rock City, WDRC Hartford, KYA San Francisco, WNVY Pensacola FL, WMCA New York, WHB Kansas City, WLS Chicago, and WOKY Milwaukee.  The magic dozen rolled up only 18 different songs, but gave us not only a tighter battle for  the top than we've seen in a while, but the very FIRST time we've had all the number one votes make the top four!  In fact all the number one votes made the TOP THREE!  So since I can't have some fun listing the other number one votes as I usually do, here's the list of Beatles songs that are on the national chart this week:

Kansas City debuts at #81;
Boys debuts at 75;
Act Naturally , the flip side of the panel's top pick (SHHH!), is at #36 after 6 weeks;
Help! is on it's way down, at #32 after 13 weeks;

And quite obviously, I've allowed the cat to get a whisker or two out of the bag.  But anyhow, here's the panel four:

The only one out of the running, and only one not to get a #1 vote, was the national #7, the Gentrys' Keep On Dancing.  It racked up 12 points to come in fourth.

At panel #3 with 30 points and the #1s of Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Detroit, the national #3 as well, the Stones and Get Off My Cloud.

At the runner up spot with 32 points- 9 behind the winner- and the top dog votes of Pittsburgh, Pensacola, New York, and Milwaukee, the national #1, the Toys and A Lover's Concerto (My favorite horse in the race).

And which Beatles tune is at #1?  If you are a music freak to the point of knowing b-sides, you already know.  For the rest of humanity, stay tuned.


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Just to break up the videos a bit, here is the M10's debut at #8- WILSN with Unmeet You:






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This week, a truncated Bottom's Up!

"Truncated"?  What the heck are you doing to me THIS time???


Well, I have made an executive decision (sokay, it's constitutional here) that henceforth, a requirement of BU is you CANNOT be in the top forty at the time!  Thus, we have a BU 8 this week!


The Turtles are slipping down the chart, hitting #43 in week #13 with It Ain't Me, Babe.

A song I know, not particularly in love with but I did burn it to CD once (SHHH!), The Sunrays' I Live For The Sun is at 45 after 12 weeks.

The Supremes vol. I debut all the way up at 59 with I Hear A Symphony.

A song I first learned when I did my Beatles Covers post back on TM vol. I week 64 (AKA April 19, 2013), the Silkie with You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is at 71 after 3 weeks.

Debuting at 74 this week, Little Jimmy Dickens with May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose.  Nuff said.

The Walker Brothers are at the #3 spot this week on BU, at 84 after 3 weeks with Make It Easy On Yourself.

Eddie Arnold's crossover Make The World Go Away is our runner up, sitting at 85 in its debut week.

And the top bottom?



Why its that song that just got released today... The Byrds with Turn! Turn! Turn!, debuting at #88!!!!!!!

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And speaking of the Byrds, Bob Dylan once said to Roger McGuinn, "Man, they beat you!"  Why?  Because Cher's cover of Dylan's All I Really Want To Do clobbered the Byrds cover on the charts, going top 20 while the Byrds barely sniffed top 40.  As Sonny and Cher, it was the fourth name under which Cher would record a single, along with Cherilyn, Cesar and Cleo ( with Sonny) and her first single as Barbara Jo Mason. She recorded that one under the guiding hand of Phil Spector, who used her also as background vocals on a number of his famous tunes, including the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Loving Feeling.  A quick bunny trail here-  Bobby Hatfield was a bit cheesed that Spector didn't want him to harmonize until the chorus, leaving him just standing there much of the song.  "What am I supposed to do?  " he sniped at Spector, and with true Spector charm, Phil answered, "You can go straight to the f***ing bank."  Which, of course, he eventually did.  Now that song was arranged by Gene Page, whose brother Billy was a co-writer on the song that ranked highest nationally, without any love from the panel, this week- the Ramsey Lewis Trio's cover of The In Crowd at #8.


The ever lovely Phil Spector...


And now, the rest of the Martin Ten...

D.A Wallach is the "artist in residence" at Spotify, and he's more than just the token musical act/administrator.  He has a new single called (appropriately enough) Time Machine, and it comes in at #10.

Jeff Lynne's ELO slips from 5 to 9 with When I Was A Boy.

Having listened to #8 (you did listen, right?), we move to #7, which is another dropper- Family Of The Year's Make You Mine, falling three to the spot.

The Knocks keep sneaking up, with I Wish (My Taylor Swift) up a notch to #6.

And now, one week old, a song that may well shake the foundations of my personal all time list- I give you the debut of Beach House's newest:





When I come home
You're just lying there
Face against the wall
Never had a care

I am just a traveller
There's no light in this room
And the body's aching at night

Would I be acting up
If i said it's not enough

Who knows who else who is with
No one is with the traveller
There's a light in my eyes
And a future invisible now

Heard it's your birthday
Candles in a row
Better blow them quick
Before they're melting on the floor

You were never a traveller
There's no light in your room
And the bodies don't ache in the night

Would I be acting up
If i said not that much

Who else would do anything for the traveller
There's a light in her eyes
And a future visible touch

I was looking out of the window at the sky
Starless vigil of a life that has gone by
Saturn turning and I feel there's not much more
For a vision of the night turn off your light



Duran Duran falls a pair to #4 with Pressure Off.

And as promised, Jana Kramer slams up 3 to #3 with Boomerang.

Two weeks ago, Space Song fell from the top spot to #4.  Since then, it's been back up a notch a week, and it spends a third week at #2 this time, moving up the spot for Beach House.

And at #1?  M10 says....




...hanging by a thread, Phoenix with a third week at the top for Lisztomania!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And which Beatles tune did the panel have at #1 this week?  Why, it was....





...Yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the mighty Martin wheelhouse year of 1975 next time!  Be there or be square!

2 comments:

  1. Hi, Chris! I'm tied up with family big time again this week but, as always, I try to get over here for your Time Machine. In October 1965 I was a month away from turning age 16. It was also around this time, H-ween 1965, that I first set foot inside the Shady Dell. The rest is Shadistory.

    It was a jolt to read about the death of Corey Wells earlier in the week. One by one all the greats from my youth and early adulthood are departing. I am happy to see "Wibbage" on the panel this week. The Philadelphia station was home to some of the great DJs of my youth and I have blogged about them many times over the years. "Boys" is one of my favorites by The Beatles and by Pete Best.

    I will have that Walker Brothers' cover coming up in a future installment of my Echos series. I also have young Cher in the spotlight a few weeks from now. I enjoyed your anecdote about Bobby Hatfield's tiff with Spector.

    I am listening to your tuneage on a borrowed laptop today, but I still managed to enjoy your WILSN and Beach House offerings.

    Thanks, Chris! You and Scrappy have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris:
    Alright, then - WIBG - Radio 99 on the AM dial!
    (that brings back some memories by itself)
    --Sorry to see Corey go. (with 3DN, I liked Wells' vocals better than Negron's, but I did prefer the SONGS Negron fronted...sounds crazy, I know.)
    --I DO like that WILSN song (she's a cutie and sounds like a higher-pitched Chrisse Hyde with her phrasing).
    --Supremes I Hear A Symphony - nice.(when they were GOOD)
    --I think that ANYTHING from the Beatles soundtrack HELP! was great. And the movie is still a fave of mine.
    --Mom used to sing along w/ Eddy Arnold when that song came on the radio.
    --Turn Turn Turn was one of those 'Nam-era songs we always heard...good one, too.
    --Ahh, Phil Spector - a man of REAL duplicity. A professional success with a private life train-wreck!
    --Wallach's Time Machine is a pretty good song (imho)
    --Beatles YESTERDAY...good run at the #1 spot.
    One of the timeless classics.
    And Jana Kramer keeps on rising...you GO, girl!

    Excellent ride this week.

    Keep the DeLorean fueled, the TARDIS doors open, and all those hits comin' from Fortress Martin.

    Stay safe up there, brother.

    ReplyDelete