Time Machine week 4

It's May 16th 1972.  And other than watching myself celebrate my tenth birthday, I'm not sure what happened.  But I do know that despite HistoryOrb.Com saying it happened, this definitely did NOT happen:

Today in History for 16th May 1972

Historical Events Events 1 - 3 of 3
- "Don't Play Us Cheap" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 164 perfs
- Greg Luzinski's 500' HR hits Liberty Bell monument in Phila Vet ...

Yes, Greg Luzinski DID hit a home run on this day.  It was the NINTH home run of a major league career that saw him hit 307 home runs in all.  He did not hit his 500th home run on this nor ANY OTHER day.  I guess HO.Com needs to check their submissions from Philadelphia sports fans.

Sorry dude... come back in another 491 homers...  

UPDATE:  That may be a mark indicating distance on that 500 up there... but if so, it is a "yard" mark, not a "foot" mark, and Greg never hit a 1,500 foot home run either.


And welcome to Time Machine, where I'm looking at doing a number of little things that will add up to a satisfactory feature, and have probably the ultimate surprise guest on the "I never knew that song" video.  All that and the last top ten from KDWB in Minneapolis!  And here we go, into the week that saw Godspell's Day By Day, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' Amazing Grace, and America's I Need You enter the US charts for the first time.


In keeping with doing things a little different, I'm going to do this week's top ten NOW (because it's not very good), and save the ending for the KDWB chart (which rocks!).

Paul Simon sneaks up a couple of spots to #10 with Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard.

Baby Blue holds at #9 for Badfinger.

The Chi-Lites crack the top ten, up three to #8, with Oh, Girl.

Finally beginning to ride into the sunset, Sonny and Cher slip a notch to 7 with A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done.

Also slipping are the Stylistics, down a pair to 6 with Betcha By Golly Wow.

Joe Tex is also a tumbleweed, slipping 2 to #5 with I Gotcha.

(Isn't it funny that spellcheck likes Gotcha but redlines Betcha?)

Al Green moves up 3 to #4 with Look What You've Done For Me.

The Staple Singers rocket from 8 to 3 with I'll Take You There (and at this pace, I'm not gonna argue!)

Once again... Rockin' Robin at #2.

Once again... The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face at #1.

Now here's your Guess Which for the week- guess which of these will be on the KDWB chart!  Clue:  Two of 'em.
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Next up, let's look who's turned fifty since the last time we did birthdays.  2 weeks ago, the Beatles' PS I Love You and the Dixie Cups' Chapel Of Love turned 50; last week, it was Peter and Gordon with A World Without Love and the Rolling Stones with their first American chart hit, Not Fade Away; and this week, Elvis' Viva Las Vegas and Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop (AKA Rush Limbaugh's Barney Frank update theme) reach the age of 50.  Blow Out The Candles...


Another of my new experimental features I haven't tried yet is Wheel Of Fortune, where I use a random number generator to pick out a song to feature.  This week the spin gives us 1978... March... 4th week... and the #77 song.  And the winnah is...

Leif Garrett with Put Your Head On My Shoulder.  This cover, which peaked at 66 on Cashbox a week earlier, was released right between his top 40 maulings of Surfin' USA and Runaround Sue.  Right around this time, he signed with Scotti Brothers records, which is of note because of brother Tony Scotti of Valley Of The Dolls and Heaven Bound fame.  It was there he recorded his only original hit, I Was Made For Dancing (well, original in the sense that he was the first one to record it).  Garrett now spend his time trying to explain that the heroin in his pocket isn't REALLY drugs...or, maybe it is...


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And now, the top 40 debuts this week.  The Moody Blues come in at 39, up nine, with Isn't Life Strange, a song with one of my favorite choruses-

Wished I could be in your heart
To be one with your love
Wished I could be in your eyes
Looking back there you were, and here we are.

At 38, here's the one you won't believe.  Show of hands, who's old enough to remember when they had the bright idea of putting cheap 45s on the back of cereal boxes?  Here's an example:

 

Yes, that's Sugar Bear from what was then Super Sugar Crisp (now Super Golden Crisp since you can't say "sugar" on a cereal box anymore).  The band that was put together to give the suave bruin and his friends in the Sugar Bears their sound was a bit hard to track down, but included "a former member of the First Edition, a songwriter who had songs recorded by Sinatra and Rick Nelson", and a young female singer just starting our named Kim Carnes! So without further ado, listen to the Sugar Bears with their top 40 hit, climbing 4 to #38 (peaked at 51 on Billboard), You Are The One:






Whaddya think, Kim looks good as a bear?

Anyway, Todd Rundgren makes it into the 40 at 37, up eight, with I Saw The Light; Sly and the Family Stone move up nine to #35 with (You Caught Me) Smilin'; Neil Diamond moves to #34, up thirteen, with Song Sung Blue, or as my 2 year old niece at the time sang it, Song Song Boo; Speak Softly Love, AKA theme to The Godfather, comes in at 33, up ten for Andy Williams; and the big jumper, up 17 spots to land at #24, the Carpenters with It's Going To Take Some Time.


Which brings us to this week's You Peaked, and we have three formerly top forty songs that plunged out of the top 40.  The lowest peak belonged to the Partridge Family who stopped at 31 with Am I Losing You;  next was Bobby Vinton who hit 24 with Every Day Of My Life; highest perch fallen from belongs to Harry Nilsson's Jump In The Fire, which made it to 22.  Which reminds me, I never mentioned who fell out of the top ten to make room for Mr. Simon and the Chi-Lites.  And they would be Aretha Franklin's Day Dreaming (5 to 18) and Three Dog Night's Family Of Man (10 to 20).

And now, for the last time- the KDWB Minneapolis top ten!

10 (29 on CB)- April Wine, Could Have Been A Lady;

9 (42 on CB)- Bread, Diary;

8 (26 on CB)- The Rolling Stones, Tumbling "Dices" (Yep, misspelled it again this week);

7 (Your first winnah, 10 on CB)- Paul Simon, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard;

6 (last week's #1, 11 on CB)- Don McLean, Vincent;

5 (30 on CB)- Dr Hook, Sylvia's Mother;

4 (Your other winnah, 9 on CB and spelled right this week)- Badfinger, Baby Blue;

3 (33 on CB)- Andy Williams, Speak Softly Love;

2 (15 on CB)- Jackson Browne, Doctor My Eyes;

And the LAST #1 on KDWB...

...Cat Stevens and Morning Has Broken!!!!!


At least KDWB didn't go the way of WKNR (Easy listening)... but there just aren't any more charts for them.

Next week, more of the same!  So tune, turn on... oops, wrong decade.  I thought I was in drive...