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

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Friday, October 13, 2017

Time Machine Co-ordinates VIXXIV452101357



So today, October 13, 1957, we get a front row seat for The Edsel Show, a musical variety show on CBS, sponsored by Ford to promote their new titular car.  The show went much better than the product; it starred Bing Crosby in a break that opened up television for him to conquer.  The set list included himself and Louis Armstrong reprising their song, Now You Has Jazz, from the film High Society, followed by the first of two medleys Bing did with Frank Sinatra that included Swinging On A Star and Paris In The Spring; Bob Hope joining the pair on The Road To Morocco; Rosemary Clooney; the Four Preps, joined by Bing's son Lindsay on one tune; and a ton more.  As I said, show was great- the product? Well, let Rosemary tell it:

The show was built around the newest Ford offering, the 1958 Edsel. A new vista of motoring pleasure, unlike any other car you've ever seen. The only Edsel I ever saw was one they gave me to drive while I was rehearsing. I came out of the CBS Building, up those little steps to the street where my purple Edsel was waiting, like the Normandie in drydock. Mr. Ford was right behind me, heading for his Edsel. I opened the door of my car and the handle came off. I turned to him, holding it out to him. "About your car . . ."





The show is said to be the oldest videotape in existence....


***********************************

And welcome to a non-Edsel Time Machine, in which we finish my tour through the Billboard #1 lps; discover who wrote the Auburn fight song (?); mention a little detail I left out on last week's show; kibbitz with Elvis; and announce a new member of the M10 top ten- and a new member of the multiple #1s club!  All that and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, coming up- now!


*******************************************

Two debuts this week, and the first belongs to the familiar faces of Nothing But Thieves, with the title cut from their latest coming in at #10:






**************************************


So here we are with the King, Elvis Presley, talking Panel Picks.  How many POTMs does this make for you now?

I dunno, man.  five, ten...

Well, maybe not that many, but you and the Beatles, not surprisingly make very frequent appearances.

Uh, yeah, you grabbed me from '57, I dunno nothin' 'bout no beetles...

Oh, yeah, sorry, sir.  Anyway, you have an easy list this week.  Just like last week, a low amount of stations- 11- gave us a low amount of candidates- four.

Yeah, I got this.  Now, first alphabeticalized is Jimmie Rodgers an' Honeycomb, which was at #2 on Cashbox.

Then comes myself, whom you should all vote for, with Jailhouse Rock, which was at... HEY!  This says I was at number ELEVEN???

That's right, but you were also the biggest mover- you went from #50 to #11 on your second week on the chart.

Well, that's okay then, I guess.  The Bobbettes were at #10 with Mr. Lee.

And finally, The Everly Boys were at #5 with Wake Up Li'l Susie.  Hey, what happened to the number uno?


Funny you should mention that, and I'll get to it in a bit.  There were a lot of really good songs that got no votes this week, and we'll take on that topic in a bit.

An' he ain't givin' y'all no clues this week, so get at it and pick ME!


*********************************************


So let's do our first big reveal on the Martin Era 2.0 list of Billboard #1 albums- who had the most weeks at the top with a single lp?

First off, there was a 4-way tie for seventh with 15 weeks.  Those four were:

The My Fair Lady soundtrack
At Large by the Kingston Trio
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the beetl... er, the Beatles
and Carole King's Tapestry.

At #6 with 16 weeks was Andy Williams' Days Of Wine And Roses.

#5 with 18 weeks was More Of The Monkees, their second disc.

#4 ...

Hey, let me get that.  #4 is the wonderful, handsome Elvis Aaron Presley with the Blue Hawaii soundtrack at 20 weeks.

Thanks, bubba.  You might as well stick around for the other album list here in a bit.  #3 with 20 weeks...

Waitaminit!  Why isn't it Blue Hawaii in third with 20 weeks?

Because, Elvis, the #3 record wasn't DONE with 20 weeks- it just ran out of Martin Era 2.0 to fit the rest of its time in!  And that would be Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which would have tied for #1 instead, had I counted the 11 weeks on the other side of  the ME2.0 barrier!

At #2 we have Doris Day and the Love Me Or Leave Me soundtrack at 28 weeks.

And #1, with an incredible 31 weeks at the top- hee hee hee, stay tuned for the end reveals!

*******************************************************

So this was really unusual in the voting this week, as big hits at #3 (Holly and the Crickets with That'll Be The Day), #4 (Paul Anka's Diana), #6 (Debbie Reynolds and Tammy, which was in its second week of descending after 7 weeks at the top), and #8 (Jerry Lee Lewis and Whole Lotta Shakin').  But the most unusual is the fact that, for the first time, Cashbox's #1 song is our 6D victim!  And for that, we go to the fight song of the University of Auburn, called War Eagle.  Al Stillman and Robert Allen were the prolific songwriters who penned that tune, as well as a few others you may know.  They wrote two BB #2s for the Four Lads- Moments To Remember and No, Not Much.  They did the tune And That Reminds Me, which Della Reese had at #15 a couple weeks ago and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons would get shafted with a mere #45 in the latter 60's.  they even penned a #5 for the guy that got the Panel kiss of death this week- a tune called It's Not For Me To Say.  That's right, our six degrees victim this week is...



Johnny Mathis, and his big hit Chances Are!!!!!!!!!!


*********************************************

Before I get to the next debut, I wanted to insert something I left out last week.  Remember that the UK #1 was the nearly-banned Lay Down Your Arms by Anne Shelton? Well, over here it was a hit by the Chordettes- and it was last week's fastest mover, jumping 14 places from 50 to 36!


******************************************************

And now, I don't recall how much detail I went into on my Tom Petty obit about the song I mentioned being his last hit on CB.  It was called Walls (Circus), and it was from the soundtrack to the movie She's The One with Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz.  This was a fast paced song with a cool message.  But I stumbled on later on the lp a more acoustic version called Walls (No. 3) that I liked better.  And that version comes in at#8...






*****************************************


Okay, since you can't see what's going on here, I have had not one, but to glaring screw ups attributable either to my lazy hand or my idiot keyboard, so let's try to wrap up before I accidentally delete this post!  The final stat from the lp list is, who had the most #1s?  And here we go!


A three way tie at #9 with 4 lps for Frank Sinatra, the Monkees, and Led Zeppelin...

A three way tie for #6 at 5 for Chicago, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and the Kingston Trio...

A 2-way at #4 with 6 for the Rolling Stones and the various iterations of McCartney and Wings...

At #3, Elton John with 7...


And you ALL know who the next two are, so let's keep you in suspense just a little longer and give out who ended where with how many for the big reveal.

WHAT??  Man, I got places to be...

Dude, you're in a time machine, you got time!

******************************************


Stat pack:  Well, we were up to a 60-song chart, of which I knew 15 ( and for some reason wrote 50 in my notes, which didn't even fool ME), so we actually have a #57 in '57- Jimmy Dean with Deep Blue Sea.  This was his first charting single on the pop charts, and BB had it stopping at #67, while #57 was not only this week but its high water mark on CB.

Three of our CB top tens were top ten in the UK this week, which may well be a TM record.  That'll Be The Day was #9 there, Tammy was #3, and the top dog across the pond was Diana.


************************************

The remainder of the M10:

Saw You In A Dream (which nearly fell victim to the THIRD keyboard f-up) moves up a spot to #9, and gives us 3 title cuts, which may also be a record.

Darius Rucker moves up two places to #7 with Don't.

Alvvays loses one song this week, but the other, Your Type, moves one to #6.

Refusing to go away easy, Lucinda Williams moves back UP one spot to #5 in her 8th week- and pulls into the #10 all time spot, with Six Blocks Away.

Jana Kramer has done #4, and she does it again with I've Done Love.

Squeeze slips out of the top spot (aren't you glad I didn't say they were "squeezed" out?  Oh, wait, just ignore that) with Innocence In Paradise falling to #3. 


Dent 'n' Frankie remain at #2 with that other title cut, Across The Multiverse.

And the number ones? 

First off, the most weeks at the top for an lp goes to...




...Harry Belafonte with Calypso- and if you guessed this is the lp from which came the Banana Boat Song (Day-o!), you'd be right!  31 weeks for Harry.

The top two of the most albums at #1 list are:

#2 with 8 lps...





....Elvis Presley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's burnt, man.  I'm out!


And at #1, with not 9, not ten, but FIFTEEN #1 albums...




...The Beatles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the top of the M10 list, becoming the 8th act to make multiple trips to the top...




...Ducktails and Light A Candle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel winner, with 5 of the 11 votes, and ready to make my live interesting yet again next week....





....The Everlys and Wake Up Little Susie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Made it without deleting everything, thank God!  Be here for 1958 next week with the Eve

2 comments:

  1. Chris:
    ---The Edsel wasn't AS bad a car as many people thought. It just had that UGLY horse-collar grill and suffered from production oversights...i.e. QUALITY CONTROL!.
    It shared much of the SAME features as the Mercury Monterey and Ford Fairlane (not The "Diceman"...lol)
    ---Nothing But Thieves...wasn't good until 1:43 into the song...then it got decent.
    ---I do believe I STILL have that Monkees vinyl around...get back to me on that one.
    ---Johnny Mathis got caught in the 6D??? Wow!
    ---Petty song Walls #3 - excellent (never saw that movie, btw). Classic tune, and YES, a good message.
    ---Didn't think Zep or Chicago would be THAT far down for #1s, but they did have some very good competition from other era icons.
    ---Maybe your TM has some fans across the pond? Sure seems that way...heh.
    It IS a TARDIS, right?
    ---Figured Darius would be a'climbin'.
    ---Lucinda AND Jana still making a go of it!-----Belafonte??? Okay, I guess.
    ---Man, the Beatles blew the King outta the water with THAT total...15!!!
    (I don't even OWN that many of their LPS...lol)
    ---Would not have thought the Everlys would be back...and so soon, too.

    Very good ride this week.
    (and hope that the TARDIS doesn't materialize in the shape of an...EDSEL - HA!)
    Gotcha.

    Keep those hits comin' up there, brother.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, you know the fifties... Elvis and the Everlys...

      Delete