Tmie Machine week three

Today is May 9th, 1972.  An Israeli strike force that included future Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu stormed a hijacked plane in Tel Aviv, saving all but one passenger and killing two out of four  Palestinian cretins.  In the meantime, further cretins at Mankato State University shut the entire city down for a day to protest the Vietnam War.  Funny how honor and privilege seem to part ways...

Welcome to yet another escapade in the new, slimmed down Time Machine, featuring the week that saw David Crosby and Graham Nash's Immigration Man and Jimmy Castor's Troglodyte (Cave Man) hit the charts.  This week, another humdrum top ten will be somewhat mollified by a look at the national charts, a four way battle for the "song I never knew" video, and "where do I gotta go to put up a picture at the end of the top ten?"   Hop in and let's find out!

Based on what is to come, I really think that I should start out with the top 40 debuts.  Annnnnd.... I have to fix a boo-boo there, as I left one off the list last week.  Back when Isaac Hayes and David Porter were running Stax Records, they had a hole to fill when top act Sam and Dave left them.  So they put together a group of 2 men and two women and christened them the Soul Children.  This group would sneak into the R&B top 10 three times, crossing over to the hot 100 each time.  Last week a song that peaked at 44 on Billboard made the Cashbox top 40- Hearsay, which moved 13 to come in at #36.  This was a song that got consideration for this week's video- but I thought them to be a lot like Sam and Dave (they did cover Hold On, I'm Coming) and went on to look for something a bit more unique.  They remain in the 40 this week (and thus won't be on You Peaked till at least next week!).

Now this week's 40 greets 5 songs...  At 40, up one, was another video contender.  Canadian-Cree Indian activist Buffy Sainte-Marie makes her one stand in the 40 with a song called Mister Can't You See.  Another pretty good contestant, but for me it was "Joan Baez with a tad more warble", so she too loses out.   Up ten spots to #38 is Dr Hook with Sylvia's Mother.  Sammy Davis cracks the 40 at 35, up 9, with Candy Man.  Up nine to 34 is another one I thought would have a video shot- until I heard it and said, Oh, yeah, I know this one!  That would be Run Run Run by Jo Jo Gunne, a band formed by future 50 Tracks judge Jay Ferguson and a bandmate after Spirit folded.  And the high debut, up 14 places, is the Rolling Stones with Tumbling Dice.

Is this what they meant in the line, "You've got to roll me?"


 

And all that neat fun sets the stage for my look at the local charts this week in 1972.  Now since we last did this three weeks ago on Volume Two's swan song, the consensus behind Roberta Flack and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face has broken up a bit.  She remains on top on LA's KHJ.  But among the top ten, I noticed one song not even in the main top 40- this week's #45 nationally, Todd Rundgren's I Saw The Light, was at #8.  And I thought, let's look and see how many other non t40s are in the local top tens. 

None of them at Chicago's WLS, where Roberta still holds the top spot.  But, across the street at WCFL, Jackson Browne's Doctor My Eyes is at the top.  And down the list is Buffy Ste. Marie (Technically in the top 40, but barely) at #9, and at #10 is the first single by Loggins and Messina- off what was supposed to be a Loggins solo record but ended up with the title Kenny Loggins With Jim Messina Sittin' In.  That single, # 89 nationally, is called Vahevala, and it gets the video this week.



Over in Minneapolis, WDGY has Joe Tex's I Gotcha at the top, closely followed by Hot Rod Lincoln.  That must be the station that played at Mankato State.  Cross town at KDWB- with the second to last chart I have access to there- Don McLean's Vincent sits atop the chart.  But whomever typed out the chart must have been a Mankato State grad as well- they have "East Blue" by Badfinger moving from 7 to 4, and "Tumbling Dices" from 16 to 10.

In Detroit, CKLW has Oh, Girl at the top, with a bit of an uncharted oddity at #10.  You see, once upon a time, there was this singer by the name (or sobriquet) of June Conquest.  While you make your jokes about "summer floozies", let me continue.  She first tried to make it in the music world in the early sixties, as a solo act once and once as a duet with a guy whose name is lost to posterity and went only by "The Demon".  Later, she signed with Curtis Mayfield's Windy C records in Chicago, where she had a local hit called What's This I See ( which was allegedly a hit in Chi-Town, but apparently not on WLS).  Finally, one day her manager tried to get her some recognition by singing a duet with Sam Cooke's brother L.C.- but he never showed.  In the studio was a background vocalist who'd never stepped to the forefront before.  They recorded the song in CLKW's top ten- called I Thank You- and while it didn't do much, it launched a new career.  Not for June, but for her partner that fateful day- Donny Hathaway.  I don't know if I Thank You- featuring June doing Amazing Grace in the second stanza as Donny sings between her lines- charted, but it hadn't hit on Cashbox the first month or so after this week.  Runner up on the video list, btw.  Donny sounds pretty good, June sounds... fair.

Donny and June

Finally, I check in at Pittsburgh's KQV.  Always the trend-buckers, they have Sammy Davis' Candy Man at the top.

This week's You Peaked is a paltry lot.  Gladys Knight's version of Help Me Make It Through The Night tumbles after stopping at 37... and after Sammi Smith had took it to #8.  And the inaugural video tune, Alice Cooper's Be My Lover, halted at 36 and has begun its fall, though still clinging to the 40 at #39.

Two songs enter the top ten... and that means that two take a dive.  Those are In The Rain (4 to 18) and Horse With No Name (8 to 20).

So three of the top four don't move... and all but one have gotten their picture posted.  According to Time Machine Law, each number one only gets the artist's picture put up one time.  Otherwise, come October and November of 1977, we'd be seeing a lot of this:

"You... light up my-yy life...."

and while the sight may not be terrible, after a while you'll curse me for the ear worm she brings.  So, once again, I'm going to mix up the top ten, just so's I can get the one who HASN'T been pictured in the top four to end the show.  Okay?  Let's do this!

Like a breath of fresh air in a stagnant room, Badfinger enters the top ten climbing from 14 to 9 with East Baby Blue.

Sonny and Cher, the epitome of "for better, for worse", climb one more spot to #6 with A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done.

Little Michael Jackson holds yet another week at #2 with Rockin' Robin.

Also up one spot, Aretha Franklin with Day Dreaming at 5.

The Staple Singers say, I'll Take You There, and they get two steps closer to doing just that, at #8.

I bet you probably guessed this... The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is STILL at #1.

Climbing a pair to #7, Al Green with Look What You've Done For Me.

The one mover in the top 4- The Stylistics' Betcha By Golly Wow, moving on up a notch to #4.

The other new debut, up just one, Three Dog Night's The Family Of Man at # 10.

And this week's picture winner- holding at #3 for a second week-

...Joe Tex with I Gotcha!!!


Hope you enjoyed the show!  See you next time!