Time Machine week 19

The musical Tardis pulls this week into a new set of random years, and gets spat out at April 10th, 1975.  Today's big news (and some of you might want to change the channel briefly at this point) is a speech before a full session of Congress by new President, Jerry Baby, er, Gerald R Ford.  After a group of platitudes and conversational niceties, he then goes into the deteriorating Vietnam situation.  Bringing up what rats that the North is by totally ignoring the peace accords they signed with their fingers crossed, and what rats Congress is for passing laws that prevented the US of A from fulfilling their "if/then" promises to the South.  Then, just before dropping to his knees, he adds:

In my first public comment on this tragic development, I called for a new sense of national unity and purpose. I said I would not engage in recriminations or attempts to assess the blame. I reiterate that tonight.
In the same spirit, I welcome the statement of the distinguished majority leader of the United States Senate earlier this week, and I quote: "It is time for the Congress and the President to work together in the area of foreign as well as domestic policy."
So, let us start afresh.


In other words, "We all know it's Congress's fault.  But I didn't say that".  He then followed up by requesting that Congress appropriate $722 million in emergency aid so that South Vietnam can "stabilize the situation", an amount he got from his man on the ground, General Frederick C. Weyand.  And he follows that up by trying to get Congress to do an about face on cutting off all aid to Turkey in the wake of their invasion of Cyprus.  I'm Guessing the speech didn't fly very far...

Emphasis on the confusion...

Welcome to Time Machine for this week in 1975, and this week's fun includes:  the unusual case of the shuffle ten that only has 2 acts not making the ten for the first time- and they only on their second- AND they only have 7 songs out of the 2,100-odd songs on my shuffle list in the first place!  Also, Janis Joplin naked... or is she?  A new bottom's up with the week's 4 debuts, and a rout for the survey's #1 song!  So cue up Hail to the Chief and lets go!

I wonder if I'd be more popular with a neat tag-phrase... like, "Allons-y!"?

We'll kick things off as per usual with the panelists for this week's show.  In addition to semi-regulars WHYN Springfield MA, CKLW Detroit, WCFL Chicago, WDRC Hartford, WIXY Cleveland, WFIL Philly, and CHUM Toronto, we have relative newbies WNDE Indy, WBZ Boston, KDES Palm Springs, CA, CFRW Winnipeg, and KBEQ Kansas City.   They managed 20 different songs- including an oddity in how many low charting songs they threw up.  For example, WBZ's top five had slow-climbing Young Americans (40) and Magic (78), CKLW had the Doobies' dropping Black Water at 44, and Sugarloaf's dropping Don't Call Us, We'll Call You which fell to 37.  There are a couple of other low-riders, but one's coming up in the Bottom's Up, and another is the unknown song, also coming up.

The group had 4 songs net #1 votes, and only one didn't make the week's top 4- Leo Sayer's Long Tall Glasses (WBZ).  The top two were only separated 5-4 in number ones- but a whopping 48-26 in points!   The top four:

Labelle's Lady Marmalade, also #4 nationally, racked up only 15 points.

Ringo Starr's No No Song likewise was also #3 nationally, and collected 19 points and the #1 votes of CFRW and WFIL.

Minnie Ripperton- yes, the #2 nationally- had Lovin' You with 26 points, most of which came on the #1 votes of Indianapolis, Palm Springs, Hartford, and Chicago.

And at #1- stay tuned.

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It's Bottom's Up time, where I look at the 10 lowest charting songs I knew on this week's Cashbox charts.  The list includes four debuts for the week, and features:

10- Major Harris' Love Won't Let Me Wait, which is at 65 in its third week.

9- Linda Ronstadt's When Will I Be Loved, debuting highest at 69.

8- Led Zep's Trampled Under Foot, also debuting at 71,

7- Alice Cooper's Only Women, at 72 in its second week.

6- Jessie Colter's I'm Not Lisa, at 75 in its third week.

5- The aforementioned Magic by England's Pilot, charting for the second week at 78.

4- Debuting at 80, one of my classics, America and Sister Golden Hair.

3- After a month of climbing, Michael Murphy's Wildfire is at 85.

2- Debuting at 87, Ray Steven's Misty.

And at #1-

Roger Whitaker's The Last Farewell, after three weeks sitting at 89.

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Now that puts me in mind of this week's version of the truly odd station.  CKLW has the onus fall on them this round.  Despite being one of the ones that voted for this week's #1 song (which will remain nameless), they had, as I said earlier, the Doobies' Black Water at 2 (and it just dropped out of the national top 40), Olivia Newton-John's Have You Never Been Mellow (which just missed the #4 slot, and was 7 nationally), The Last Farewell, the lowest of the Bottom's Up crew, was their #4, and their fifth song was a tune at #27 on Cashbox- Freddie Fender's Before The Next Teardrop Falls.


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The Unknown Song for this week is a song that would eventually rise to #15 nationally- but was #53 this week.  But it made #5 in Chicago despite it's 7-minute playtime.  It was the last top forty for the Jackson Five- they would move soon after from Motown to Epic, where they would mature into the Jacksons.  Here is a shorter version from Cher's variety show:






As the Jackson 5, they charted 13 songs in the top 20... as the Jacksons, they had five.  Conversely, Michael had 4 top 20s before the switch solo... and 27 after.

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Our six degrees begins with the possibility of Janis Joplin naked.  Interested?

She, and the rest of Big Brother and the Holding Company had planned on being naked on the cover of their lp Cheap Thrills.  Needless to say, the record company nixed that, along with a couple of other things on the album.  One thing they didn't nix was the big hit Piece Of My Heart.  This song had something in common with several older hits- Twist And Shout, Under The Boardwalk, and A Little Bit Of Soap.  They were all written by one Bert Russell- also known as Bert Burns.  Russell/Burns also wrote a song called Cry To Me, which the Rolling Stones covered on their lp Out Of Our Heads.  This was basically a compilation lp in the US of A, where the big hits Satisfaction and The Last Time were added (they were non-lp singles in the UK).  While they were just starting to write their own stuff (with comps by all five members being credited to "Nanker Phelge"), this lp had a lot of covers, including Sam Cooke's Good Times.  Sam hit #11 in 1964, and after the Stones, Phoebe Snow covered it on her debut album.  Also on that lp was our six degrees victim, the song that charted the highest on CB but got no love on the panel- the #5 Poetry Man.


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And now, the shuffle ten!


Leading off is a #1 from 1962, Gene Chandler's classic Duke Of Earl.

Twenty years later, Billy Squier hit #32 (#1 AOR) with Everybody Wants You, which comes in #9 here.

We have another top dog at #8 this week.  Herb Alpert's This Guy's In Love With You (the first song I TRIED to dedicate to Laurie, back in the day) was a chart topper in 1968.

We go back to 1963 for a #2 hit for our shuffle #7- Peter Paul and Mary with the Dylan-penned Blowing In The Wind.

At #6 we have the first act to have multiple shuffle hits in this week's countdown- and that means both their songs on my shuffle have made it!  I've shared it before, but if you haven't tried it yet, catch it on YouTube- the Stampeders, with a little help from Wolfman Jack (and some imaginary help from Ray Charles), and Hit The Road, Jack.  Their cover hit #40 here but #6 in their native Canada in 1975.

I was always a sucker for the Hall and Oates hits that didn't make the heights of the charts- and their first shuffle ten hit, coming in at #5, fits that bill.  It's called Back Together Again, and it peaked at #28 in 1977.

The second hit from an act with multiples in the shuffle ten is one of five on my shuffle from the Buckinghams, and their second on the shuffle ten.  Their 1967 song Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song) was a #12 hit, and it's at #4 here.

Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes are at #3 with their #16 song from '68, Journey To The Center Of Your Mind.

Jackson Browne's first time in the shuffle ten is in the runner up spot is one of his early hits, which hit #48 in 1972- Rock Me On The water.

And at #1?   Survey says....

...Sir Elton Duck with Philadelphia Freedom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, shuffle says...

.... Country legend George Strait with Amarillo By Morning!  


With over 42 country #1s... this one peaked at #4??????  That's frustrating!

They took my saddle in Houston, broke my leg in Santa Fe.
Lost my wife and a girlfriend somewhere along the way.
Well I'll be looking for eight when they pull that gate,
And I'm hoping that judge ain't blind.
Amarillo by morning, Amarillo's on my mind.

That's a wrap!  Until next time....