Time Machine week 33

We land this week in 1962, where we get a glimpse at the politics that laid the foundation for the sorry bastards that run our country today.  It was the first big push for Medicare, championed by John F. Kennedy.  He was facing heavy opposition by the AMA, for whom the only explanation I found for their opposing public health care was "They were there to serve the interests of the doctors, and anything that might make health care cheaper- like a public plan- they would oppose."  JFK had tried a two pronged attack to circumvent the AMA lobby- lobby Congress personally, and take the message to the American people.  It seems the second of these fell flat when he went off speech in a televised appearance, and the first got short circuited today.  With a 50-50 tie in the offing and VP Lyndon Johnson on the Senate floor to break the tie, the AMA got two promised JFK votes to switch, and the bill was tabled 52-48.  One source said it was two "liberal" senators that played Brutus, but I wasn't able to find names to go with them.  I find it funny though, that the liberals who accuse the GOP of wanting to destroy SSA and Medicare themselves delayed its passage in return for AMA contributions.  Look for that union label...


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And with that slice of "nothing new under the sun", we open up the musical Tardis to July 17th, 1962, and find the following headliners:  A new record with 5 songs getting panel #1s and not making the panel four; just missing a new record with our panel number one showing up on ten of twelve charts; the shuffle ten giving us five new acts, four songs from 1973, including the top 3;  Guy Lombardo leading off the six degrees; and the penultimate week of the summer 100 (IOW, all the songs we haven't hit that didn't make the top ten)!  How's that for a teaser?

Damnit, Brian, I told you your cameo on my blog was cancelled!

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This week's panel includes WHK Cleveland, WIBG Philly, WDRC Hartford, WGH Newport News VA, WNIA Buffalo, KRUX Phoenix, KTSA San Antonio, the ever-lovely KYA San Fran, KFWB Los Angeles, WIL St Louis, KOXR Oxnard CA, and WAMS Wilmington DE.  This group gave us a total of 21 different songs, and 43% of them were number one on one chart or another.  That list included Neil Sedaka's Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (Phoenix), Ray Stevens' Ahab The Arab ((San Antonio), The Isleys with Twist And Shout (St Louis), Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home To Me (Wilmington), and Ray Charles' I Can't Stop Loving You- which was #1 back in May when little Christopher Martin and little Laurie Easterday were born, and was still hanging in there, especially in San Francisco where it was at the top, while still at #2 nationally.  None of those songs made the top four, though- a top four that had a runaway #1 (36-21) with a song that was on every top five except Oxnard (#15) and Wilmington (#9).  And as for that top 4:

With 12 points and the #1 from Cleveland was this week's national #46 with a bullet, Little Eva's The Loco-Motion.  That may be the lowest national spot in the history of the panel four!

With 16 points and the #1 from Newport News, the national #3 this week, David Rose and The Stripper.

With 21 points and three #1 votes (Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Oxnard)- one more than the panel's #1 song- the national #4 this week, the Orlons and the Wah-Watusi.

And at #1... stay tuned.


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There were a lot of good candidates for unknown song this week.  Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford were on the Oxnard chart with I Need Your Lovin'.  James Brown was on the Wilmington list with Shout And Shimmy, which was described by "critic Douglas Wolk... as "a truly shameless ripoff of The Isley Brothers' 1959 hit "Shout"... basically the fast parts of "Shout" with the gospel inflections removed and the word 'shimmy' added." (from Wikipedia).  Ike Clanton- not the famous outlaw, but the somewhat less famous older brother of Jimmy "Venus In Blue Jeans" Clanton- was on the Cleveland chart with one of his two "charted in the 90's" solo records, Sugar Plum.  Also on that chart was Richard Chamberlain with a song I heard of but hadn't heard yet- Three Stars Will Shine Tonight, AKA the Dr. Kildare theme.

However, my choice comes from a name I've known since a wee lad.  Martin Denny has been mentioned here before in the Great Fifties Countdown, where he was at #13 with one of my Mom's instrumental favorites, Quiet Village.  So it was that I said, hey, there's Martin Denny when I saw this instrumental at #4 on the Phoenix list:







Herb Alpert would take this song into the top ten in a few years;  Denny was at 101 this week, on his way to a peak of #50.


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So, we have fourteen songs in the summer 100 left to mention outside the top ten.  Here are the first seven of those, in Bottom's Up style:

97- Freddie Cannon, Palisades Park.  Gotta admit I was never a big fan of this tune, but at least it didn't make the most-hated list...

95- Give Me Love, George Harrison.  The former Beatles scored decent on the 100.

81- Van McCoy's The Hustle.  We were all doing it back then.

75- One Of These Nights, the Eagles.  A perfect August song.

64- Easier Said Than Done, The Essex.  A surprise appearance for one of my son's favorite oldies.

63- The Byrds' version of Mr. Tambourine Man.  I love psychadelic Byrds.  Country Byrds, not so much.

And at 62- Three Times A Lady, the Commodores.    Sure seemed to me I heard a lot more Lionel Ritchie in the summertime than just this.


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Speaking of Bottom's Up...

10- Clyde McPhatter's Little Bitty Pretty One was at number 26- another record for the highest charting BU song- in its 5th week.

9- Gene Pitney's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, the song that made me the GP fan I am today, sat at 29 in its 11th week.

8- Claudine Clark sits at 38 with Party Lights after just two weeks.

7- The aforementioned Loco-Motion by Little Eva was at 46 in its third week.

6- Here's a nod to Laurie, my big Jimmy Dean fan- his hit Steel Men was at #60 this week, its fifth on the chart.

5- Dion was on his way down with Lovers Who Wander, at 67 after 13 weeks.

4- A song we mentioned just a couple short weeks ago, James Darren's Mary's Little Lamb, was at 71 in its second week.

3- Dee Dee Sharp's huge hit Mashed Potato Time was at 72 this week with a BU record 20 weeks on the chart.

2- Sam Cooke with Bring It On Home To Me, down at 80 after 3 weeks.

And the top bottom, and our sole debut on the list:

the Beach Boys with Surfin' Safari, coming in at #92!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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And now, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians!

Guy and his guys lead off our six degrees for their seven-weeks-at-#1 hit from 1927, Charmaine.  This tune would be recorded much later. in 1952, by arranger/instrumentalist Billy May.

No, not Billy MAYS!  Stop your shouting!

Billy had released Charmaine as one of a handful of solo singles, and it made #17.  He also arranged a gaggle of TV themes, including Batman and The Green Hornet.  The trumpet solo in the Green Hornet theme was by the legendary Al Hirt (who hit a whopping 126 on the charts with it), best known for his 1964 hit Java.  Al also played himself in a 1962 movie called Rome Adventure, starring Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette, and Angie Dickinson.

This movie featured our six degrees victim, a song I really love as performed here by Emilio Pericoli, a song that was #8 nationally but got nothing from the panel:





Someday I'll have to do a top ten of songs I learned from doing Time Machine.  This one will be near the top, I assure you.


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Ready for the other seven songs outside the top ten of the summer 100?

55- Want Ads by the Honey Cone- a song that my addled brain always wants to connect- and don't ask me why- with the next song:

50- Dixie Cups, Chapel Of Love.  Maybe they were both on some old Ronco lp.

41- Don't Pull Your Love, Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds.  Back when it was really Reynolds.

37- A surprise here- The Tymes with So Much In Love- a song I'll admit I learned when Timothy B Schmit did it as a solo from the Eagles.

33- Frankie Valli with Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, which as I recall was also essentially a Four Seasons record without the credit due.

32- Draggin' The Line, Tommy James sans Shondells.

And one more time...

19- Rag Doll, the Four Seasons.  As much as I love Sherry, few things stop my motion like those first six drumbeats.

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And that brings us to the shuffle ten!

Patsy Cline is one of the five acts making their first appearance here, with her #5 country/#44 pop hit from 1963, Sweet Dreams (Of You), at #10.

Elvis is in the house for the second time, with his #10 Cashbox (and only #16 on Billboard? Pleeeease...) from 1970, Kentucky Rain at our #9 spot.

The 13th Floor Elevators and their cult classic You're Gonna Miss Me (#55 in 1966) is our number eight.

Genesis picks up #6 on the S10 with their beautiful Steve Hackett-composed instrumental from Selling England By The Pound, After The Ordeal.  This is the first of our 1973 tunes in the S10, and it charts here at number seven.

Blondie picks up her/their 3rd S10 with their top dog from 1980, The Tide Is High, coming in at number six.

The Polish Prince, Bobby Vinton, nails his first S10 with one of my top two of his- Blue On Blue, which hit #3 in '63, here at number five.

And now, for the last song on the S10 NOT from 1973- actually from Urban Cowboy, Boz Scaggs with his #14 from 1980, Look What You've Done To Me, at number four.

Our number three was not released as a single here or in the UK, though it did chart at #7 in the Netherlands and #9 in New Zealand- from Band On The Run, Wings (their third time in the S10) with Mrs. Vanderbilt.

Paul Simon hit #2 then, hits #2 here with his hit Kodachrome.

And at number one?  Survey says:

...Bobby Vinton with my other top one of his, Roses Are Red!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, Shuffle says...

Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes with The Love I Lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The boys took this great tune to #7 back in 1973.


NEXT WEEK:  THE SUMMER 100 TOP TEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Featuring two songs mentioned in this very post!  Plus the greatest Fourth of July song, the Rolling Stones and the song I didn't mention, a former Panel #1, and a guy who got mentioned here this week as well!  Don't bother guessing- just tune in!  Tell your friends!  This is the BIG one!  And I have had too much Pepsi today!  That's a wrap!!