Time Machine week 2

Today is May 2nd, 1972- the day J Edgar Hoover died.

No word on whether he was singing, "bye, bye, Miss American Pie" when his heart attack struck.


Welcome to week two of the leaner, meaner Time Machine-  the week that Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond, Old Man by Neil Young, Rocket Man by Elton John, Lean On Me by Bill Withers, and How Do You Do by Mouth and McNeil, and this one, enter the hot 100. 





This would be CCR's last top 40 single.


This week, a six degrees attaches a horse without a name to an Eskimo with a name, we get to play a little guessing game, and the top ten is out of order- literally!

I have to say I'm a little disappointed in our top ten this week- none of them are songs that would really grab me.  So I thought this week I'd do one of the "rotating features" in which I trip back in my mind's eye and try to guess off what I would have had as a top ten if I were doing a top ten back then.  What you get to do- if you want- is guess off which of these charted the highest THIS WEEK.  I will help you (if you have a good memory of last week's show or if you want to cheat) by saying that there IS one Cashbox top ten in my list.  Without further doo-doo, here's how I THINK I would have ranked 'em:

1- Baby Blue, Badfinger
2- Oh, Girl, Chi-Lites
3- Roundabout, Yes
4- Vincent, Don McLean
5- Suavecito, Malo
6- Doctor My Eyes, Jackson Browne
7- Heart Of Gold, Neil Young
8- Betcha By Golly Wow, Stylistics
9- You Could've Been A Lady, April Wine
10- Last Night (I Didn't Get To Sleep At All), 5th Dimension

Okay, so which one is the top tenner on both charts?  Guess now, because we'll very shortly be picking them off.

Next up, "You Peaked!"  And this week's songs on the way down include Dennis Coffey's Taurus (stopping at 13 last week), Honey Cone's The Day I Found Myself at 15- and for you AOR people out there, Led Zep's Rock And Roll at 42.

42?  That blows, dudes...

This week, we have six top 40 debuts.  Gallery, a soft-rock band out of Detroit, hits with a song arranged by the aforementioned Dennis Coffey- Nice To Be With You, which takes a 5 notch jump to 39.  Next up, the Song I Didn't Know Before, courtesy of the Isley Brothers:






IDK about you, but I kept hearing Want Ads in my mind.  The brothers land at 38, also up 5.

At 35, up 6 spots, the Canadian group April Wine with You Could've Been A Lady (and there goes one of your choices!).  Cat Stevens moves up 11 to # 34 with Morning Has Broken; At 31, up 17, is Love Unlimited (AKA Barry White's backup vocalists) with a BJ Thomas-like title- Walking In The Rain With The One I Love.  And finally, up 18 to the high debut of 29, the Jackson 5 with Little Bitty Pretty One.

Two songs will enter the top ten, so 2 bail out.  Falling are Heart Of Gold (there goes #2, falling from 9 to 12) and Roundabout (and there goes a third one, from 10 to 21).

So you have seven left to pick from.  Who will it be?  I will tell you this- it's the # 5 song.  So just to keep you guessing, what's say we scramble the top ten?

We'll start with the song at #8, since it is the six degrees victim this week.  America recorded A Horse With No Name (which drops from 5 to 8) at the Dorset home studio of Arthur Brown, whose Crazy World brought you- FIRE!!  (Ahem)  Anyway, before founding the Crazy World, Brown became the substitute lead singer for a band at the time called The Ramong Sound.  It was named after the former lead singer, Raymond "Ramong" Morrison, who was looking at a six-month engagement in prison.  He left after just a few weeks, and the Ramong Sound morphed eventually into the Foundations, whom you know for their big hits Baby Now That I Found You (#11, 1967) and Build Me Up, Buttercup (#3, 1968).  One of the co-writers on those hits was Mike d'Abo- the lead singer for Manfred Mann, on most of their big hits including- Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)!

So, a horse with no name, an Eskimo named Quinn... can this be far behind?

The Dramatics fall one notch to #4 with In The Rain.

Aretha climbs one to #6 with Day Dreaming.

Roberta Flack holds on to #1 with The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (see how cleverly I get out of putting her picture up twice?)

The Staple Singers come in at 10, up four spots, with I'll Take You There.

Up a notch to #7, a couple in need of a horse- Sonny and Cher with A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done.

Joe Tex moves a notch upwards to #3 with I Gotcha.

The second debut this week is Al Green's Look What You've Done For Me, sliding up 3 to land at #9.

And then there were two.  Have your guess in hand?

The #2 song again this week was Michael Jackson's Rockin' Robin.

And the winnah?  Well, Last Night was at 33, Doctor My Eyes at 19, Suavecito at 17, Vincent at 15, Oh, Girl at 13, Baby Blue at 14...

And at #5 on Cashbox, it's the song at #8 on my top ten....

...the Stylistics, up a notch to #5 with Betcha By Golly Wow!!!!!!


Did ya win? Oh, well, better luck next week- not that I'm going to confuse y'all THIS bad again....