Time Machine week 20

Today the Musical Tardis lands (again) in 1963, April 17th to be exact. (Why 1963 again?  New list of random years, dude!)  And today was a day of things that didn't last as long as Pete Rose's ban from baseball. One of them was the suspension of several players, including Green Bay star Paul Hornung and Detroit Lion Alex Karras and five of his teammates for betting on NFL games.  Karras and Hornung (who admitted and was apologetic) missed the 1963 season, but were reinstated after ONE year.  Seems that commissioner Pete Rozelle realizes the difference between fitting punishment and a dead man's grudge.  The other short term deal was the almost uniting of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq in the United Arab Republic.  Syria and Egypt actually "consummated the union", and they "confederated" with Yemen, while Iraq knocked on the door but couldn't get in.  The deal lasted from 1958-61, and today they tried again... but the problems that caused Egypt's breakup with Syria in 1961 kept the nations from completing the transaction now.  Refusing to give up, Egypt would retain the UAR name until 1971, even though they weren't uniting anymore.

Egypt's Nasser and friends in happier times.

Welcome to this week's Time Machine, and a great show we have this week.  On tap: 4 debuts on the Bottom's Up; a big rout for the panel's #1- but a record 8 different #1 songs; a rather obscure shuffle ten, with no less than 4 album tracks- including the number two from the first 4-timer on the ten; a six degrees that somehow makes its way all the way to Eddie Money; and quite possibly the most bizarre unknown song story I may ever tell!  Put down that pen, light up a cigar (just kidding.  There's pop in the fridge, though), and away we go!



The panel this week includes repeat panelists WLS Chicago, KFWB Los Angeles, and WMCA New York, along with newbies WKBW Buffalo, WRAW Reading, WRIT Milwaukee, KJR Seattle, WWBD Bamberg SC (where ever THAT is), WIBM Jackson MI, WAAT Trenton, WEEZ Chester PA, and WJPS Evansville.

Oh.  That Bamberg...

As I mentioned, these 12 managed to put up 8 different #1 songs, a new record here.  They included The Rocky Fellers with Killer Joe (Jackson), Skeeter Davis' The End Of The World (Evansville), Jackie Wilson's Baby Workout (Trenton), and the Beach Boys' Surfin' USA (LA, natch).  The voting became uneven, though, in that the #1 vote-getter made 10 of the 12 charts, and rolled to a 40-26 victory with only a 3-2 margin in #1 votes.   The top four, then;

With 11 points and the #1 vote from WLS, the week's #10 nationally, the Chantays with Pipeline.

With 19 points and #1 votes from Chester and Reading (those whacky Pennsylvanians), Andy Williams with Can't Get Used To Losing You, the national #2.

With 26 points and the #1s of Seattle and New York, the Chiffons with the national #1, He's So Fine.


And at #1... you know the drill.


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This week we are going to start with the six degrees for a change.  And we start it out with everyone's favorite singing cop, Eddie Money.

Eddie's self-titled debut album was produced by Bruce Botnick.  Botnick was also involved with the Doors, and in the liner notes to LA Woman claimed the song Touch Me was originally about a blackjack game with a working title of Hit Me.  The keyboard riff of Touch Me was a direct use of the guitar riff on the Four Seasons hit C'mon Marianne.  That song was written by L. Russell Brown, as were some of Tony Orlando and Dawn's big hits, including Knock Three Times.  K3T was produced by Dave Appell.  Back in the day, Dave was a house writer and session guitarist for Cameo-Parkway records, and led the backing band behind Dee Dee Sharp, the "Mashed Potatoes" girl, on her hit Do The Bird- which was #12 nationally this week but got no love from the panel.

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And now, it's Bottoms Up Time!

And this week the best from the bottom of the national Cashbox chart include:

10- Andy Williams (again) with Days Of Wine And Roses, which falls to 34 in it's 5th week.

9- Lou Christie makes his second Bottoms Up with another round of Two Faces Have I, but this time it has climbed to 35 in its 3rd week.

8- After 14 weeks, Eydie Gorme drops to #40 with Blame It On The Bossa Nova.

7- Another 14-weeker and falling is the former top dog for the Four Seasons, Walk Like A Man, sitting at #48.

6- The Rivingtons with the quintessentially annoying The Bird's The Word, at #62 in 3 weeks.

5- Sam Cooke debuts at #70 with Another Saturday Night.

4- Double-dipping this week are the Four Seasons, with Ain't That A Shame debuting at #71.

3- The Beach Boys come in at 85 this week with Shut Down in it's 2nd week.

2- The Crystals, with a song made as annoying as The Bird years later by Shaun Cassidy, Da Doo Ron Ron- and this week, one of three songs Cashbox debuted at #100.  And one of the other ones:

1- Barbara Lewis with Hello Stranger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Okay, I've been saving this and I cannot save it no more- the unknown song story.  On perusing the Trenton chart, we find at #4 a song called Memory Lane, by the Tams.  So I go to check it against the national list, and what do I find?  It's there, sitting at #61- by a group called the Hippies.  So what's going on?  Well my first search led me here:

If you look close, the record says "The Hippies (Formerly the Tams)."  So they are one in the same.  But who were they?  Well an article on the etymology of the word Hippie claimed that the Hippies were actually a band called the Stereos.  So, off we go to look up the Stereos.  The story I found said that they started out in Steubenville OH as the Montereys- until they played a gig where there was another band called the Montereys.  So they told the MC, no prob, just introduce us as the Hi-Fis.  They finally get discovered, and get some recording studio time- but by this time they're calling themselves the Buckeyes.  The Bucks made some discs- but they were all labelled "Not for Sale", and were passed out to pimp the band.  Apparently it didn't work, and they became the Stereos, who had some minor R&B success hitting the hot hundred at least once.

But, no connecting it in the story to the Tams or the Hippies.  So I dug some more.  And this is where the story takes a bizarre turn.

I found a blogger's interview of the Hippies/Tams lead singer.  And this blogger was a name I knew, because though we never interacted, he comments on roughly half the same blogs I do.  His name is Shady Dell Knight, and if you click the link, you'll find his wonderful blog AND the exact interview I found.  And in the story, you'll find the Stereos/Hippies/Tams connection... but no Buckeyes?!?  However, you WILL find that this singer, one Carole "Chi Chi" Devine, tells us that the band started out as The Impalas (?).  So me and Shady got commenting back and forth, and with his help, I unravelled MOST of the mystery.

First off, the Montereys/Buckeyes/Stereos were a totally different group, that as I said, were from Steubenville and did hit the charts in 1961 with a #29 called I Really Love You.

The band WE wanted started as the Impalas- until another band called the Impalas made it big with the 1959 #2 Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home).

They then changed to the Stereos briefly, originally releasing Memory Lane in 1959.  But later that same year, the song was either re-released or re-labeled as the Tams.

Another R&B act took the name, and hit the R&B charts first in 1962, landing a top ten on the pop charts in '64 with What Kind Of Fool (Do You Think I Am).  It would be their only pop top 40.  Still, enough to get the Tams to become the Hippies.  Billboard peaked them at 63 after 5 weeks, Cashbox at 57 after 8 weeks, with Memory Lane '63.





Now I'm a big doo-wop sucker, and I think they got short changed... except, thankfully, in Trenton.


BTW, I should throw in that that article on hippie etymology mentioned that the first song that mentioned the word, to their best knowledge, was the Orlons' hit South Street, which was dropping from #6 nationally and just missed our top four.  Of course, they also mention that most people think it says "where do all the HIPPEST meet", rather than "hippies"



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Really didn't have a glaring whacky station like the last two weeks, although Evansville popped in with it's number two, Ned Miller's From A Jack To A King, a country tune which had already dropped off the charts elsewhere, and was one of only two of our panel to give some love to the national #5 song, Puff The Magic Dragon.


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And now, the shuffle ten!


At #10 is the reggae flavored Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc, which peaked here at #44 in 1978, but was top ten in the UK.  It is allegedly based on a somewhat true story, which happened to band member Eric Stewart and the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward.  From the Justin Hayward forum:

"The song was written about a number of holiday experiences, including one of my own and Eric's. Y'see, we used to go on holiday, um, to the Caribbean and one day Eric decided he wanted to go parasailing. And so we headed off to the middle of the ocean to this parasail raft. And Eric was very, very painfully parasailed up into the sky by a very fast speedboat and I was left on this raft with these three boys. Then one of the boys said to me, 'Hey, I really like those chains around your wrist', y'know, and he said, 'I'll give you a dollar for them'. So I said, 'Well... no, I don't think so'. And, he said, 'Oh, well, in that case, I'll cut your hand off and take them'. So, then, I started to go into this ludicrous explanation about how I got them, and they were a present from me mum, and all of this, and it was a case really of dark and mysterious meets white and pale and getting paler every minute in the middle of the Caribbean." 


Well he looked down at my silver chain
He said I'll give you one dollar
I said you've got to be jokin' man
It was a present from me Mother
He said I like it I want it
I'll take it off your hands
And you'll be sorry you crossed me
You'd better understand that you're alone

A long way from home....



Number nine is the classic instrumental that hardly seems like it was a #3 WAAAAY back in 1962- Booker T and the MGs' Green Onions.

#8 was basically a tribute to Roy Orbison's Only The Lonely, a song I grew up with thanks to my mom.  In 1979, JD Souther hit #7 with his song, You're Only Lonely.  And yes, I had the single.

Dr. Hook comes in at #7 with a song that did one notch better in 1972, The Cover Of The Rolling Stone.

Next is a song most of you don't know, but should go find.  If I told you it was co-written by Dennis Lambert, who's other scores included One Tin Soldier, Don't Pull Your Love, Two Divided By Love, Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got), and It Only Takes A Minute, would that entice you?  Well, then, look up Glen Campbell's  1975 lp Rhinestone Cowboy, and listen to the track Comeback.  It takes the #6 spot this week.

By this time, you know I fell in love with a Scottish band that never made it over here- Middle Of The Road.  A cut from their 1971 record Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep makes it at #5, their 3rd time in the shuffle ten- I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top.

Dear, sweet, Sally Carr- I never had that problem...

The New Colony Six seem to be getting a lot of airtime around here lately- their lp cut from their debut Breakthrough comes in at #4- At The River's Edge.

This song hit #3 in 1970, as well as on this week's shuffle ten- Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime.

Well, wonder no more- our first four-timer in the shuffle ten (and not a big surprise- if you saw my playlist, you knew it'd be them or ELO) is Genesis- and for the second time it's a Mike Rutherford comp from the lp And Then There Were Three.  This time, the tune is called Snowbound.


And here they come to play their magic games
Carving names upon your frozen hand.
Here in a world of your own,
Like a sleeper whose eyes
Sees the pain with surprise
As it smothers your cries
They'll never never know.

Hey there's a Snowman
Hey, Hey what a Snowman
Pray for the Snowman...


And, the number one tunes?   Survey says....

Little Peggy March and I Will Follow Him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was at #3 on CB this week, trailing the Chiffons and Andy Williams.

And, Shuffle says....

Leon Russell with Tightrope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leon took this song to #11 in 1972.  Back then, I woulda never guessed it was the same guy who later hit with Lady Blue...


That's it for this week!  Come back next week for- 1968!