Time Machine week 9

This week we touch down just one year further up, in 1977.  Today, Roots premieres on ABC (I was likely on CBS watching Switch with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert), and Pink Floyd's Animals is released (and at this point, the only lp I own is Eagles Greatest Hits- I'm still a few weeks from buying Boston).  On the bright side, it seems to have been a catastrophe-free Sunday, so we can get on with Time Machine for the week that Boston's Long Time, Hall and Oates' Rich Girl, and ARS's So Into You first hit the charts.

Eddie was a retired cop and Wagner a former con man who form a detective agency to "out-con the cons".   Loved that show!

This week, not one, not two, but 3 videos- mostly because I have a "unknown song" that plays out like a six degrees, and a six degrees that plays out like an "unknown song"!  Plus, two instrumentals in the shuffle top ten, the next five of the Great Nineties Countdown, and more fun that you can pack into a much shorter post!  So let's have at it, shall we?  (BTW- sorry, guys, Neil Sedaka does NOT make it 3 six degrees in a row....of course, two is a record that should stand for a long time...)


This week, our panel consists of old favorites KTKT, Tuscon; WDRC, Hartford; WHYN, Springfield;  KROY, Sacramento; WPGC, out of D.C.; WLS, Chicago; CHUM; Toronto; WABC, NYC; CKLW, Detroit; and relative newbies WISM, Madison, WI; WYSL, Buffalo; and CFTR, also out of Toronto.  They combined for six different #1s, including the Jacksons with Enjoy Yourself (D.C.) and Mary McGregor's Torn Between Two Lovers (Buffalo).  Once again, it wasn't much of a battle- #1 (also the Cashbox #1 for a third week) won by a 39-25 margin, not as bad as last week, but pretty convincing.  The panel's selections...

Fourth, with the #1s of Madison and Chi-Town, Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Blinded By The Light;

Third, with the top spot in Springfield, Stevie Wonder's I Wish (one of those votes being for the entire Songs In The Key Of Life lp);

Second, with the #1s from CHUM and CLKW, Leo Sayer with a song I never did like then and, unlike most songs I didn't like then, STILL don't care for now, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.

And the number one, with the other five #1s, comes up later.

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Let's knock off the next buncha the Great 90s Countdown, shall we?  This week from 45-41:

45- Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, #22 pop and #2 alternative, 1995.  From one of my top lps of all time.

44- Metallica, Enter Sandman, #16, 1991.  The dude that ran karaoke at La Hacienda (back when I could sing) rocked on this one.

43- Love Rollercoaster, Red Hot Chili Peppers, #40 pop, #14 Alt, 1996.  A great funked-up remake from the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America soundtrack.

42- Dave Matthews Band, Ants Marching, #21 pop, #18 Alt, 1995.  Here's one you might like, Bobby!  "People in every direction/no words exchanged, no time to exchange them..."

And 41- Soundgarden, Black Hole Sun, #24 pop, #2 Alt, 1994.  The best imagery of any song on a great record- Superunknown.



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As Arlee Bird mentioned last week, this end of the Martin Era was a bit lackluster, and it shows in the charts not having those local surprises like you have in the early years.  And when I do find one, it's not one that I'm real wild about.  Take this week.  The best of the unknowns this week was a disco instrumental called Fighting On The Side Of Love, by the THP Orchestra, which was sitting at 13 on the CFTR chart.  These guys were a studio group, like so many of this genre, and one of the leaders was one Ian Geunther, who was a founding member of one of my favorite Canadian bands- Lighthouse.  He was one of the several "hired gun" classical artists brought into the band at the beginning.  He had more fame as featured violinist for a folk duo called Fraser and DeBolt.   Allan Fraser and Daisy DeBolt never made it big commercially, but developed a cult-like following that years later led a Canadian music trade paper to say of them,  "Fraser & DeBolt were the greatest Canadian band never to have made it."

And their big hit with Geunther in 1971 was a lot better unknown than the THP one.  Here, give a listen.






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And our six degrees this week starts in a very pleasant spot- with a recent beauty contestant, Melanie Safka.

Melanie was married to one Peter Schekeryk until his death in 2012.  Peter was a producer who worked back in 1967 with a band you never heard of likely, called Balloon Farm.  BF had a #37 hit that I thought deserved better called A Question Of Temperature.





These boys included a guitarist named Mike Appel- who would go on to fame as Bruce Springsteen's first producer/agent.  Appel was also known as a writer for the Partridge Family, co-writing Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted with Jim Cretecos and Wes Farrell.  And Wes was a writer/producer who gave Kenny Nolan his first job as a writer/producer with his label.  Nolan teamed with Bob Crewe of the Four Seasons to co-write a score of big hits, such as My Eyes Adored You, Lady Marmalade- and the one that Kenny recorded himself and had sitting at #13 this week- I Like Dreamin'.


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And that brings us to the shuffle top ten:


Pablo Cruise had one of their lesser hits in 1978 with the #21 song Don't Wanna Live Without It, and it spins in at #10 this week.

Rush's biographical hit Limelight from 1981 slips in at #9.  It peaked at #55 on the main chart, but #4 on MSR.

Since we've already brought up Boston twice, we might as well have them with their second trip into the shuffle ten.  Something About You was on the back side of that first lp, back in 1976-7, and comes in this week at #8.

I promised you two instrumentals in the shuffle ten, and you were probably thinking something from Percy Faith or Paul Mariat.  Truth is, both of them are in the later end of the ME, and the first one is the title track from the Alan Parsons Project's I Robot lp.  While it was released as the album's 4th single (the only one to really hit was I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You), it did not chart.  It takes our #7 slot.

And our country hit for the week falls at #6- Hank Williams, Jr, and Whiskey Bent And Hell Bound.  It made it to #2 C&W in '79.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers come in at #5 with the third single from their breakthrough lp Damn The Torpedoes.  That was Here Comes My Girl, and it peaked at #59 in 1980.  (It might have been a #1 MSR hit, but that chart wasn't started till March of the following year.)

Our Canadian stars for the week are the Stampeders with their #8 hit Sweet City Woman, at #4.

Blues Traveller, who were in last week's G90sC, are at #3 here with Hook.  It hooked it's way to #23 in 1995.

Poco comes in at the runner-up spot with their #20 hit, Heart Of The Night- which featured Phil Kenzie at sax, the same guy who played on Al Stewart's Year Of The Cat.


And at number one this week?  Survey says...

...Rose Royce with Car Wash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And shuffle says, here's our other instrumental...






... Another Heart Breaks by ELO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the lp Time, it was the b-side of yet another "shoulda done better" single, Rain Is Falling, which snuck up to #101 in 1981.


And that, dear friends, is a wrap!  See you next time!