Step into my time machine week forty-eight

Before we get going this week, I'm going to pimp my son's new project. Deciding there should be a "Time Machine" type deal for new alternative music, he now does an every Monday column called Now Machine on his blog, Anything . He spotlights a likely bunch of up-and-comings and gives both the top ten this week from Purevolume.com and his own picks. If you like your music newer and noisier and enjoy a little misspelling along the way, check him out. I comment each week, giving him a rating on my "modified Dick Clark" scale.



Anyway, it's time to visit with such luminaries as Tom Scott, May Pang, and Fausto Leali (who had Italy's top song of 1967. Why do we care? You'll see.) Let's head out, my friends, to 1976!



We start as usual with our Hot 100 debuts. While there are 12 of those, I find good excuse to mention but three of them. At #80, we bow to the King, who hits with (I'm So) Hurt. This song was first a top ten R&B number for Roy Hamilton, and first hit the top 40 by Tino Yuro in 1961 (#4). In 1967, Fausto Leali had Italy's top song of the year with a version titled "A Chi". The best known version was Juice Newton's #1 country version in 1985. At 75, and notable merely because I have this medley on my Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits tape, is the man himself with the smushing together of Hamilton, Joe Frank, and the REAL Reynolds' Don't Pull Your Love and the Casinos' 1967 hit Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye. And at 72, a song that will really remind you where you were when- John Sebastian's tv theme song Welcome Back. Come on Mister Kaahhh-Terrrr!



The big dropper this week is Love To Love You Baby, falling 29 to #60. The big jumper, after snapping a three-way tie at 15 notches, awaits in the top 40.



We're in the 7s of our look at the #1s of other years this week. 1997, where Cashbox had already assumed room temperature, the Billboard #1 was the grammatically challenged former Puff Daddy with Can't Nobody Hold Me Down. No, I didn't sample it, not likely to. 1987 was another one that reminds me why I abandoned the pop charts, Club Noveau's mauling of the Bill Withers' classic Lean On Me. 1977 this week the top song was Hall And Oates' Rich Girl. In 1967 I was in kindergarten under the watchful eyes of the wonderful Mrs. Leaders and the #1 song was the Beatles' Penny Lane. Unlike the last time we featured a Beatles song in this segment (and half the top 10 were Beatles songs, the only other one on the top 100 at that time was Strawberry fields Forever at 11. In 1957 we have the two-headed hit Young Love. Tab Hunter had the stronger (just slightly) version. It swept the Billboard #1 categories of the day and convinced Warner Brothers, who had Hunter on contract, to form Warner Brothers records. The other version, which I know better, is by the country legend Sonny James, who was at #2 on most of those categories. This was the first of 23 country #1s for James, who also hit with country covers of songs such as Only The Lonely, Running Bear, and It's Just A Matter Of Time.



Coming into the top 40 this week are 5 tunes. Our big jumper comes up 16 to land at #40- Barry Manilow with his 5th top 40, Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again. A 13 notch climb to 39 for Styx, who notch their 2nd top 40 with Loreli. ABBA gets their 3rd top 40 with I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do climbing from 41 to 35. The O'Jays score their 7th top 40, climbing 7 to 34 with Livin' For The Weekend. And finally, the mainly album-blues act the Elvin Bishop Band scores their one and only top 40 when Fooled Around And Fell In Love leaps 14 to #33.



We continue to crawl our way through the gauntlet of one week wonders on our look at the #1 albums of the 70s. We're up to November of 1974, and the first week of that month is ruled by the greatest hits album So Far by Croby, Stills, Nash, And Young (which I not surprisingly had on vinyl). Despite the fact that this lp contained 11 of the 22 songs the quartet had actually ever recorded, a fact that Graham Nash said the group found ridiculous, it surged to the top spot. The 11 included the #22 Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, the #11 Woodstock, the #14 Ohio, the #16 Teach Your Children, and the #30 Our House, as well as Neil Young's Helpless (which I also have on Decade) and Stephen Stills' beautiful Helplessly Hoping.

The week of the 9th's flavor o' the week was Carole King's Wrap Around Joy. Joy featured the #2 Jazzman (lyrics by David Palmer, who was the lead singer for Steely Dan on Dirty Work, and sax by Tom Scott, who also was the blower on Wings' Listen To What The Man Said) and the #9 Nightengale, (also co-written by Palmer, with King's teenage daughters singing backup).

The next week, John Lennon claimed the top spot with Walls And Bridges. Recorded during his Yoko-inspired switch to mistress May Pang, it contained the #1 Whatever Gets You Through The Night (ironically his only #1 solo while still sucking air). This was the famous bet with Elton John song: John sat in on the tune, and told Lennon it would top the charts. Lennon told him if it did, he'd appear live with Sir Elton. As a consequence, Lennon joined him at a live concert for several songs including Elton's soon to be #1 cover of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Also on this lp was #9 Dream, which of course peaked at #9. May was the one doing the whispering in the verses, and the "Ah! Bawokawa Pousse Pousse" line in the chorus was just some nonsense phrase he dreamed up, well, in a dream.



A shout out to 2 almost but not quites this week. Waylon and Willie's Good Hearted Woman, a live version of a #3 1972 country hit. It would peak at 37 this week, while hitting the top over on the country chart. It was the first of 3 times Waylon Jennings would hit the pop top 40, the others being the Dukes Of Hazard Theme and another semi-duet with Willie Nelson, the great Lukenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love). Our other honoree is David Bowie's Golden Years. Actually reaching #10 on Billboard (who wants $19.95 a month to look up this stuff on THEIR site, cheap bastards), it featured David Sanborn on the sax. It peaks at 12 here on Cashbox, where you don't have to go bankrupt to look at stuff.



Two songs join the top ten two drop out. Falling are former top dog Love Machine (10 to 14) and Love Hurts (9 to 18).



TOP TEN: Coming in at 10, up three, are the Bellamy Brothers (boy, we're country heavy this week!) with Let Your Love Flow. Dropping 4 to #9 is former top dog Eric Carmen with All By Myself. #8, rising 3, is Maxine Nightengale with Right Back To Where We Started From; moving up one to #7 are the Bay City Rollers with Money Honey; and Aerosmith also moves up one with Dream On. Another one notch riser is Rufus featuring Chaka Khan with Sweet Thing, from 6 to 5.

The Four Seasons drop out of the top spot to #4 with December 1963 (Oh What A Night). Johnny Taylor moves a notch up to #3 with Disco Lady; and the Captain and Tenille also rise a notch to #2 with Lonely Night/Angel Face. Annnnnnd this week's number one tune...

Gary Wright's Dream Weaver!!!!

OK kids, that's it for another week! catch you next trip...