Time Machine week 51

It's January 18th, 1971.  Today, Canadian music achieved its independance from the US of A with the launching of the CanCon law.  From this point on, from 6 AM to midnight, 30% of all songs played had to have 2 of the following four qualifications:

-Music composed entirely by Canadian(s);
-Artist is Canadian;
-Record is produced in Canada;
-Lyrics are entirely by a Canadian(s).


This allowed Canadian artists who would have otherwise been overwhelmed by US products to blossom, enriching both sides of the fence.  Ironically I found this info on a site called Censorship in Music.  Makes you wonder how much our music landscape would have been changed by such a law if it where enacted in January of 1964....


In any event, this is a slightly less irritating Time Machine- and next week will bring us to the end of TM vol. 2's first year!  I'm not sure how I'll celebrate... how about another round of the Time Machine Beauty Contest?  Let me know what you think.  This week though, we have 4 top forty debuts, 3 new top ten songs, 2 hot 100 debut mentions, and a messed up Where Are They Now! (Do that to the tune of Twelve Days Of Christmas and it's much catchier!)  Also, a cameo by one of my favorite 80's heroes, another cameo by a star (kinda) from the early days of M*A*S*H, and the war that was Fleetwood Mac.  Plus, a new top dog!  Hop in, you hosers!

While there were 16 hot 100 debuts, I had to reeeealy stretch to find a couple to mention.  Coming in at 95 was Henry Mancini's theme from Love Story, and at 93 was a tune called Mixed Up Guy by a dude named Joey Scarbury.  Remember him?  Let me help- he hit #1 with Believe It Or Not, the theme to the TV show The Greatest American Hero!

And he thought he was mixed up back then.... (Connie Selleca, William Katt, and Robert Culp.  She made any show worthwhile... I was a Hotel fan, too!)

 

Our Birthday song segment is almost back to normal, at least.  Turning 30 this week are Lionel Ritchie's You Are and m'man Joe Jackson with Breaking Up In Two.  Rita Coolidge's cover of The Way You Do The Things You Do lead off the tunes turning 35, along with Lou Rawls' Lady Love, a cover of What A Wonderful World by Art Garfunkel with Paul Simon and James Taylor, and Van Halen's cover of You Really Got Me.  Turning 40 are the incredible Moody Blues with I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band), Roberta Flack's ode to Don McLean, Killing Me Softly, Sweet's Little Willy, Gladys Knight und der Pipsters with Neither One Of Us.... and occasional M*A*S*Her Loudon Wainwright III (Cpt. Calvin Spaulding) with his lovely sonnet, Dead Skunk.

Ol' dead skunk in the middle of the road... stinkin to HIGH heaven...

Turning 45 this week are the theme from The Valley Of The Dolls by Dionne Warwick, and the Bee Gees with Words.  Hitting the big 5-0 are the Four Seasons with Walk Like A Man, Eydie Gorme's Blame It On The Bossa Nova, and a young lady who had a major feature here a few short weeks ago- Skeeter Davis' The End Of The World.  And turning 55 are the Silhouettes with a song that will be sung to me now (My assignment with Vera Bradley ended tonight), Get A Job, along with Paul Anka's You Are My Destiny.  Blow out the candles...

We have a double whammy this week- both the big climber and big dropper are in the top 40.  Sigh...

And if that wasn't bad enough, we have a repeater in the Where Are They Now slot- Candi Staton with He Called Me Baby at #50.  Oh well, just think, in 5 months we'll be switching to #51.  Why?  Because some idiot decided to tie the feature song to my age! So, in 2063, the WATN song will become the #1 song!  Only by then I'll probably be more busy doing Where Am I Now?

 

 

 

Thus we move on to the look back feature, and this week we shed light on a fellow by the name of Vaughn Monroe.  Vaughn was a New Englander who was voted Most Likely To Succeed in high school, and graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology.  He simultaniously launched his band leading and running a restaurant/nightclub called The Meadows near Boston in 1940, and by 1946 he was hosting a show we've mentioned before- the Camel Caravan- from the Meadows.

In 1941 he recorded (but never released) what became his signature song- Racing With The Moon.  A trumpeteer and baritone, he had various nicknames over his powerful voice, of which my favorite was "the voice with hair on its chest".  He chalked up 55 charting hits, with 24 top tens and 5 #1s.  His peak might have been 1949, when he released his biggest #1, (Ghost) Riders In The Sky in April and his second biggest, Someday, back-to-back in August.  He was offered Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer but turned it down.  Gene Autry took it to #1, which Vaughn thought was appropriate since his version of Ghost Riders had buried Autry's version.

At one point in 1944, he had to replace his trombone player and ended up teaching himself to play.  It was shortly after the two big hits that the big band era began to dry up, and he broke up the band in 1953.  He was a licenced pilot, and claimed that the only time he was ever late to a job was when he was blown 50 miles off course one time and had to land in a cabbage patch.,  Vaughn Died in 1973 after a stomach surgery.

 

 

Four top 40 debuts this week, but first, let's get our big dropper- Tears Of A Clown, falling from 17 to 34. A recent WATN feature, Joe Simon, moves up 1 spot to 40 with Your Time To Cry.  Moving up 3 to 39 is James Brown with Get Up, Get Involved.  At 36 is our big mover, Bobby Goldsboro with Watching Scotty Grow, and he grew 26 notches from #62.  And our highest debut- and almost our big mover- is John Lennon, who shoots from 56 to 35 with Mother.


An almost but not quite shoutout to Three Dog Night, who hold at 13 this week with One Man Band.

Three songs join the top 10, three fall out.  The droppers are: I Think I Love You (7 to 15); Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is (5 to 16); and after a one week stay, Domino (9 to 22).

Climbing 5 to lead off the top ten, The Chairmen Of The Board with Pay To The Piper.

Up a pair to #9, Elton John with Your Song.

Led Zep's Immigrant Song holds at #8.

The Bee Gees get their second mention today, with Lonely Days blasting in from 12 to 7.

And dropping 2 to #6, our six degrees victim.

And once again, it's not exactly a six degrees that awaits Santana and Black Magic Woman.  I was a bit surprised to find that it was written by Peter Green, and Fleetwood Mac took it to #37 in the UK in 1968.  When Green's mental problems pushed him out of the group, the song was sung on tour by his young protege/rival, Danny Kirwan.  An 18-year-old guitar virtuoso with a huge drinking problem and temper to go with it, it was his talent that inspired Green to compose Fleetwood Mac's #1 UK instrumental Albatross.  But Kirwan's temper and rivalry inflamed things to the point where it virtually became a him-or-me situation; and to everyone's surprise, Green left.  Kirwan had it no easier in a year-and-a-half sharing the band with replacement Bob Welch.  This time though, it was Kirwan who went when the only remaing bandmate speaking to him, Mick Fleetwood, said two words:  You're fired.

Kirwan did a handfull of solo albums before the drinking turned him into a homeless wretch, one of which had a very interesting back-up band.   Shortly after Kirwan left, it looked like the band was going to dissolve.  Their manager talked Mick into fulfilling a touring contract by playing with a completely new band he labeled Fleetwood Mac (since the manager claimed he had the rights to the name).  At the last minute, the manager said, Mick backed out and subsequently claimed he never heard of the other FM.  The tour collapsed, and the fake FM continued on (sans success) as Stretch.  And it was Stretch that backed Kirwan on his lp Midnight In San Juan.  One member of Stretch was Dave Terry.  Terry pre-Stretch was "Elmer Gantry" (complete with preacher's hat and cape) in the band "Elmer Gantry's" Velvet Opera.  Terry post-Stretch was with the Alan Parsons Project, singing lead on songs such as Psychobabble.

Terry AKA Elmer Gantry on the left.  This is almost a Sinclair Lewis cameo!

 

The Supremes climb one to #5 with Stoned Love.

King Floyd dashes up 6 spots to #4 with Groove Me.

Holding at 3 yet again, the 5Ds with One Less Bell To Answer.

George Harrison finally lets someone else play, dropping a spot to 2 with My Sweet Lord.

And the #1 song, moving up a notch...

 

Dawn with Knock Three Times!!!!!!

See, there's a couple candidates for a beauty contest- and I DON'T mean the one in the middle!  Be sure to put your 2 cents in in the comments, and we'll see you next week!