Time Machine week 5

It's May 23rd, 1972.  Richard Nixon is one day into a historic visit to the Soviet Union, where he...uh, signed some environmental treaty with a Russian big shot you never heard of.  And Ceylon was one day into being Sri Lanka, which either means "Sacred Island" in Sanskrit or "pass me the arrack" in Dutch.

And a ginger beer chaser, please?

Welcome to this week's Time Machine- the week in which Luther Ingram's If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose's Too Late To Turn Back Now, and the Eagles' Take It Easy (yup, their first single!) first hit the charts.  Oh, and there's another one that makes it's first chart appearance this week, and I would be remiss as a Guess Who fan not to share...





Also this week, at last a new #1, a look at the foreign charts, a 45 at 45 and the interesting life of Mike Brant (?)  You be the red king, I'll be the other pawn, and let's go!


I guess the appropriate starting point would be those nifty foreign #1s, and what's been up since we were here last?  Well, after a couple native -language one shots, France has at #1 a song called Qui Saura (Who Knows) by our mystery man Mike Brant.  Born Mike Brand in Nicosia, Cyprus, he was the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland, and papa Fishel was a resistance fighter before his capture.  They became immigrants to Israel in 1947, settling in a kibbutz near Haifa, but Mike found his fortune in France as a pop star.  Sadly, he had developed chronic depression from something called Second Generation Syndrome that hits the children of survivors.  After one attempted suicide, he cut back his heavy touring schedule, and even managed to record again.  But the demon wouldn't die, and his second attempt at jumping to his death was successful on April 25th, 1975. (Listening as I type, a pretty, melancholy song.)

In Germany, Daniel Boone's Beautiful Sunday pushes its way to the top for the first of a 4-week-out-of-five run.  In the Netherlands, a group called Earth And Fire (No, not those guys without the wind) hits with a tune called Memories.  This band was led by brothers Chris (guitar) and Gerald (keyboards) Koerts, and fronted by another beauty contest possibility named Jerney Kaagman.

 

These guys built a name touring with Golden Earring back in the day.  Again, listening to the song (and watching, I think I'm in love again!)  If you enjoyed Shocking Blue and Venus, I think you'll like this:




And just when I thought the New Colony Six had the "song I wouldn't know except for Time Machine" locked up...

AHEM, back to the show.  Canada was a bit slow on the uptake this week- they have The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face in its second week at the top, and will keep it there into next month.  Ireland has, believe it or not, Johnny Cash at the top with his #2 C&W hit A Thing Called Love; and the Royal Scots Dragoons have been knocked off the UK top by T-Rex with their last big hit, Metal Guru.  Let's hear from band leader and writer Marc Bolan:

"Is a festival of life song. I relate 'Metal Guru' to all Gods around. I believe in a God, but I have no religion. With 'Metal Guru', it's like someone special, it must be a Godhead. I thought how God would be, he'd be all alone without a telephone. I don't answer the phone any more. I have codes where people ring me at certain times."

Uh-huh.  Australia, though, picks up the slack for the Scotsmen, as Amazing Grace is in the midst of a five-week run there; and New Zealand has just discovered Nilsson's Without You.  Everyone else, either has the same #1 as when we last saw them, or something I cannot pronounce.

 

 

Time for the 45 at 45, and it's nifty new logo!  For the newbies, "45 at 45" is the 45 rpm record at #45 on the Cashbox charts 45 years ago this week.  And this week lands in the New Colony Six, who were a huge name in the Chicago area in the late sixties.  Unfortunately, they got more airplay in Canada than they did in the rest of the US of A.  Their song on the hot seat was called I Could Never Lie To You, a song that was reaching it's peak.  The band, which wiki claims performed in Colonial uniforms like Paul Revere and the Raiders (though about half the pictures I saw had them without), hit the top 40 twice here and three times in Canada, with the biggest hit coming the year before (AKA 1968) with Things I'd Like To Say, which topped out at #16 here and top tenned its way to #6 up north.  And would have been our "song I didn't know" this week... save for Jerney Kaagman.

 

 

 

 

Our You Peaked list this week has four songs on it.  One, surprisingly was David Bowie's Changes, which began tumbling after stopping at a mere 59 (it reached 41 on Billboard).  Isaac Hayes' Lay-Away drops after climbing to 36; The Soul Children and Hearsay topped off at 22 and fall to 33; and Suavecito by Malo stopped at 12 and falls this week to 14.

 

 

Turn and face the strain...



Our top forty newbies start with Billy Preston's Outa-Space up nine to #40; Neil Young climbs 8 to #39 with Old Man; CCR hits at #36, up seven, with Someday Never Comes.  At 35, we have a song called Ask Me What You Want by Millie Jackson, singer and comedienne, who would hit #42 in a few years with the song Luther Ingram takes into the hot 100 this week, If Loving You Is Wrong, etc.  Bread reaches the top 40 yet again with the song Diary, climbing 7 pages... er, notches, to #34 for this week's high debut.

Three new top tens, so three fall out.  Dropping are Baby Blue (9 to 37), Betcha By Golly Wow (6 to 25), and A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done (7 to 17).


And now, for a change, the top ten in correct order!

Our first debut is the redoubtable Mr. Ringo Starr with Back Off Boogaloo, up a quartet to #10.

Number two debut is the J5 with Little Bitty Pretty One, up seven big to #9.

Third and final debut belongs to Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen with Hot Rod Lincoln, up nine to #8.

Paul Simon and his friend Julio are up to #7 this week, climbing three.

Joe Tex finally starts slipping, down a notch to #6 with I Gotcha.

And so does Michael Jackson and Rockin' Robin, down 3 to #5.

Jumping a big 4 to #4, the Chi-Lites and Oh, Girl.

Al Green slides into the 3-hole, up a spot with Look What You've Done For Me.

The First Time in a while we've seen Roberta Flack's Face out of the top spot, she falls back to #2.

And our new top dog(s)....

...the Staple Singers with I'll Take You There!


That's a wrap on another show, kids, see you next week!