Time Machine week 94

It's November 15th, 1971.  Get ready for a nerdgasm, because today Intel introduced the 4004- the first one chip CPU.  The size of a little fingernail, it was as powerful as the room-sized first UNIVAC computer.

Yep, that was it.  Whoopie!

Welcome to Time Machine, where this week we have a six degrees that leads... well, I'm not really sure where it goes; where Quiet Riot got their material; and the subject of high debuts.  It's okay, it'll be better than it sounds.  Isn't it always?  Well, ISN'T IT???

We open with our look at the top of the charts elsewhere, and we do have a couple of international changes.  In Australia, Olivia Newton-John's Banks Of The Ohio takes over the top slot;  in Ireland, tenor Red Hurley tops the charts for a second time since we've been keeping track with a song called Kiss Me Goodbye.  And in the UK, the rockers known as Slade take the top for the first time with Cuz I Love You.  They would repeat this 5 times, twice with songs later covered by Quiet Riot:  Cum On Feel The Noize (#5) and Mama Weer All Crazee Now (# 51).  As you can see, Slade were not expert spellers.  Their one success in the US of A, Run Run Away, peaked at 20 here in 1984 ( it was top ten in the UK).

Well, they LOOK tamer than Quiet Riot...

Around the country, we find Detroit united behind Family Affair at the top; LA and WLS in Chicago pick the Shaft Theme;  WCFL in the Windy City has Peace Train; Minneapolis has Imagine at the top; and Pittsburgh holds out with Gypsies Tramps And Thieves.

The AC chart is still topped by Peace Train; R&B by Inner City Blues; and Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn top the Country charts for the second time ( both this year), with a tune called Lead Me On.

We had 12 debuts on the hot 100, but only two for the mention.  At 76, Jefferson Airplane hits with Pretty As You Feel; and at 84, Jonathon Edwards' Sunshine enters the chart.

That brings us- briefly- to the Birthday songs.  I say briefly because we have a song turning 35 this week that debuted all the way up in #27.  That song was the Bee Gees' Too Much Heaven.  And it got me thinking, and having thought, researched.  And from that, I give you the 25 highest debuting songs on Cashbox from 1962 to 1979!

T-23- Tusk, Fleetwood Mac, Oct. 6, '79, #36.
T-23-  Good Luck Charm, Elvis Presley, Mar. 17, '62, #36
T-23- Valleri, Monkees, Mar. 9, '68, #36
T-21- (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone, Aretha Franklin, Mar. 2, '68, #35
T-21- She'd Rather Be With Me, The Turtles, May 20, '67, #35.
20- Without Love (There Is Nothing), Tom Jones, Dec. 27, '68, #34.
T-18- Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John, July 5, '75, #33.
T-18- Winchester Cathedral, New Vaudeville Band, Oct. 29, '66, #33.
T-15- Tragedy, Bee Gees, Feb. 10, '79, #32.
T-15- Let It Be, Beatles, Mar. 14, '70, #32.
T-15- A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, Monkees, Mar. 25, '67, #32.
14- Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter, Herman's Hermits, Apr. 17, '65, #31.
13. Never Can Say Goodbye, Jackson Five, Apr. 3, '71, #29.
12- I'll Be There, Jackson Five, Sept. 19, '70, #28
T-10- Too Much Heaven, Bee Gees, Nov. 18, '78, #27.
T-10- All You Need Is Love, Beatles, July 29, '67, #27.
9- As Tears Go By, Rolling Stones, Christmas Day '65, #26.
8- 19th Nervous Breakdown, Rolling Stones, Feb. 26, '66, #24.
T-6- Heartache Tonight, Eagles, Oct. 6, '79, #23.
T-6- Nowhere Man, Beatles, Mar. 5, '66, #23.
T-4- Lady Madonna, Beatles, Mar. 23, '68, #21.
T-4- Can't Buy Me Love, Beatles, Mar. 28, '64, #21.
3- They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Ha, Napoleon XIV, July 23, '66, #20.
T-1- We Can Work It Out, Beatles, Dec. 18, '65, #18.
T-1- I'm Henry The VIII, I Am, Herman's Hermits, June 3, '65, #18.

A couple of notes:  Tusk and Heartache Tonight were the only members of the list to hit in the same week; six Beatles entries, while the Bee Gees, Stones, the Hermits,  and J5 had two each;  and talk about an anomaly- 8 of them from the month of March!   If you count back 9 months from March... uh, never mind.

You idiot! That's not where new songs come from!

Anyway, onto the rest of the birthday songs!  Turning thirty, The Stones' Undercover Of The Night; .38 Special's If I'd Been The One; and Kool and the Gang's Joanna.  Turning 35, besides Too Much Heaven:  Kenny Rogers' The Gambler; Earth Wind And Fire's September; Rose Royce's Love Don't Live Here Anymore; J. Geils Band's One Last Kiss; and Meat Loaf's You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth.  At 40, Jim Croce's Time In A Bottle; Wings' Helen Wheels; Cheech and Chong with Sister Mary Elephant (Shudd-up!); and The Who's Love Reign O'er Me.

Turning 45, the Temptations with Cloud Nine; The Vogues' version of Till; Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through The Grapevine; and the Bob Seger System with Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.  Blow out the candles...


So let's take a look at the 45 at 45 tune this week- and this time the song is on the way down.  Jeannie C. Riley's Harper Valley PTA, as you remember from last week, was the song Hey Jude knocked out of #1- and it was also #1 Country, making her the only woman to pull that feat until Dolly Parton did it with 9 To 5 in 1981.  The song was written by Tom T. Hall, and his first choice to do it was Skeeter Davis.  She turned it down- probably not a good idea since she only made the country top 40 three more times afterwards.  But Jeannie wasn't alone; she had to rush it to print because two other ladies had already recorded it.  One was Billie Jo Spears, whose biggest hit was a #4 country song, Mr. Walker It's All Over.  The other was Margie Singleton, who had her biggest success in duets with Faron Young.  Spears released hers the same week as Riley; Riley's became the hit, and Spears' failed to chart.

Jeannie looked better in the skirt, IMHO.

The big dropper was Stagger Lee, dropping 28 spots to #56; the big mover awaits in the top 40.  But before we get there, a handful of Almost But Not Quite shout-outs:  to Birds Of A Feather by the Raiders- their last big hit peaking at 13 last week; Trapped By A Thing Called Love, which has managed to sneak a mention about every other week, also peaked at 13 a couple weeks back and now sits at 25; and Lighthouse's One Fine Morning has halted at 16.

Seven new songs grace the top 40 this week.  Moving up three spots to the leadoff position are the Bee Gees with Don't Want To Live Inside Myself (As I recall, it didn't work out well for Gino Vanelli, either).  Moving two to #39, Lou Rawls with A Natural Man.  A sixteen notch climb for the variety-show fueled tandem of Sonny and Cher with All I Ever Need Is You.  Our big mover for the week belongs to the Temptations with their parting shot at David Ruffin, Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are), climbing 36 slots to #33.  David Cassidy, on a break from the Family, comes in at 31, up 27 spots, with a cover of the Association's Cherish.  The new toast of Detroit, Sly and the Family Stone's Family Affair, makes a 33 notch climb to land at #23.   And the Jackson Five cut the distance to the top in half, going from 42 to 21 with Got To Be There.


One song enters the top ten, thus one falls.  The dropper this week is Al Green's Tired Of Being Alone (9 to 18).

The Carpenters slide three spots to 10 with Superstar.

Bread cracks the top ten again with Baby I'm-A Want You, up 3 to #9.

And at #8, the six degrees victim.

The Free Movement, who drop 2 spots to 8 with their big hit I've Found Someone Of My Own, were led by a gentleman by the name of Godoy Colbert.  On the wiki article for the Free Movement, it mentions that he was a member of the Pharoahs (an LA soul group, not Sam the Sham's backup boys); though his obituary  (he died in 2002) also says he was a founding member, the wiki article on the Pharoahs does not mention him.  At some point, another member of the Pharoahs was future Earth Wind and Fire founder Maurice White.  At least, so says the article on the Pharoahs, though neither the wiki articles on White or EWF mention this.  What they do say is that he became a member of the Ramsey Lewis Trio (who did the hit instrumental of The In Crowd) when Eldee Young and Red Holt left to do their own thing.  Their own thing was to form what was eventually called Young-Holt Unlimited (with pianist Don Walker), who had a #3 hit in 1968 with the instrumental Soulful Strut.  But here, things get a bit fuzzy.

Remember last week, when our 45 at 45 involved a young lady named Barbara Acklin?  Well, in 1968, she released a song called Am I The Same Girl... it charted at #79.  But Producer Carl Davis stripped the recording of Barbara's vocals, dubbed in a piano lead by one Floyd Morris, and released it as Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited.  But there's a problem here, and it's more than just Floyd Morris is not Don Walker.  You see, the backing track thus used was credited on Barbara's recording as the Brunswick Studio Band- and neither Eldee Young or Red Holt were members or even played ON the record.  So there was no Young, no Holt, and the Unlimited was very limited, on their one big hit.

Boy, if ever a title was appropriate...

Cat Stevens moves up one to #7 with Peace Train.

Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler) climbs 4 to #6.

When is a Yo-Yo not a yo-yo?  When it stays in one spot, as the Osmonds do at #5.

Maggie May, and Rod Stewart move down a pair to #4.

John Lennon edges up a notch to 3 with Imagine.

Cher slides down from her perch at the top, dropping to #2 with Gypsies Tramps And Thieves.

And that means the new top dog is...

 

 

...Isaac Hayes and the Theme From Shaft!!!!!

That's a wrap for this week!  Don't take any wooden 4004's, hear?