Time Machine week 47

We just miss Halloween in 1975 this trip, and a look at what's happening brought up another plane crash, two famous murders- one a famous celebrity relative was the murderer (Ethel Kennedy's nephew) and the other the start of a serial spree (the Yorkshire Ripper).  But the most noteworthy thing for me was an image in the news I've remembered down the ages:

New York was headed for bankruptcy, and Gerald Ford told them to heal themselves.  And they did, a lesson that GW Bush and Obama might well have learned during their bailout debacles.  Always did like Jerry Baby!


And that brings us to the reason you are here:  Damn Bing misdirected me again for the latest installment of Time Machine! And as I mentioned here before, we are visiting my wheelhouse year of 1975.  And what does that mean?  Well, how about that 10 songs from my top 300 of the seventies (previously featured in the Time Machine "Great 70's Countdown" posts) got votes from this week's panel?  Also this week, the single best- and toughest to pick- Martin Ten thus far, and the murder of a beloved animal leads off the six degrees!  No need to call PETA on me, just sit back and enjoy!


______________________________________________


The panel this week brings us WCOL Columbus, WABC New York, WHEX (on Halloween eve, why not?) Lancaster PA, WIRB Enterprise AL (just a row up from the gulf), KISN Vancouver WA, CLKW Detroit, WKY Oklahoma City, WDRC Hartford, KTKT Tuscon, WHB Kansas City, KELP El Paso, and WKDA Nashville.  They teamed up for 24 tunes this week, including David Bowie's Fame, which got the #1 vote from Hartford (and that's all), and The Spinners with Games People Play (sometimes changed to They Just Can't Stop It to avoid confusion with the Joe South tune of a couple years back) which was tops in New York. 10 of those 24 appeared on that Martin top 300 of the seventies I mentioned before- and oddly enough, the three of those that made the panel four are the lowest on the M300.  And odder still, the member of the panel four that got the #1 spot was the one that DIDN'T make the M300!  So, who got votes from the M300?

The aforementioned Games People Play, which missed the panel four by 2 points with 14, was #75.

Getting 13 points from the panel was the #63 on the M300, The Four Seasons and Who Loves You.

A 7-pointer on the panel was the #41 on the M300, Morris Albert's Feelings.

Two songs got 4 panel points.  One was Orleans' Dance With Me, at #30.

The other, the Bee Gees' Nights On Broadway at #12, the highest on the M300.

Helen Reddy got 2 points with No Way To Treat A Lady, the #90 on the M300.

Simon and Garfunkel got just one panel point with My Little Town, #15 on the M300.

So who did the panel have?

At their #4, with 16 points and the #1 votes from Vancouver and KC, Elton John's Island Girl- sitting at #2 on Cashbox this week and 125 on the M300.

At the panel 2 and three slots we have a dead tie with 23 points- 9 back of our leader- and 2 number one votes each!  The one is Lyin' Eyes by the Eagles, who were #4 on CB, 150 on the M300, and had the number one love of Oklahoma City and Nashville.

Our other #2 is Jefferson Starship with Miracles, who were #5 on CB, 291 on the M300, and had the top spot in Alabama and Tuscon.

And at number one- also #1 nationally- but not on the M300?  I will admit it was a song I absolutely hated way back in '75, but actually kinda like now.  Stay tuned...

__________________________

I have enough new songs I like floating in my Martin Ten basket, I could easily do a top twenty.  And FOUR of them will debut this week!  But here, I'd like to intro you to a song that hit the countdown last week, and has a special significance for this program.  I give you DA Wallach:





You'll see if and where Wallach's broken Tardis lands in a little bit.


_________________________________

Cue the baby...

Yes, yes, "It's Bottoms Up time!"  Can't you get someone else to do this? Or do I work too cheap?

I don't know why little Skeezix is so grumpy, he's got a nice little BU to intro this week!

If you were there for my special Beatles' covers program (which you can see here ), you might have heard of a band called Katfish, whose Beatles cover Dear Prudence was at 69 this week, its 7th on the charts.

Our #9 is Hot Chocolate (always a plus on cold days like this) with You Sexy Thing at #75 after 3 weeks.

Another song featured on a past TM trip (which got mentioned three different times, most notably here )was the group with the unsavory name the Road Apples with Let's Live Together, at #79 in week #5.

The O'Jays take the seventh slot here with I Love Music, 82 in its second week.

Wings take the #6 with their Venus And Mars/Rock Show, debuting at 84.

Diana Ross's beautiful Theme From Mahogany takes our 5th spot by debuting at 88.

Head East is next, with their song Never Been Any Reason in its second week at 91.

A song discussed not long ago, Al Martino's discoed-up Volare is at 92 in its debut week.

The runner-up here is Ambrosia's Nice Nice Very Nice, at 96 in week #2.

And the top bottom?

...the Marshall Tucker Band with Fire On The Mountain, at 100 in its first week!!!!!!!!!!!!

________________________________________

On February 13, 1982, Tom Tom, the Lincoln Mercury cougar was killed when a 9-year old ran past him at a show and bumped the cat.  The cat attacked, and the trainer was forced to shoot him. (The cat, not the kid!)  Thank goodness that wasn't the fate of unruly Cougar Girls, who posed with him in commercials.  One such was a young Rachel Ward, before she moved on to bigger and better things such as starring in the film Against All Odds.  Session man and arranger Rob Mounsey played all the keyboards and piano on Phil Collins' #1 theme to that movie.  He also scored Carly Simon's music on the soundtrack of Working Girl.  Working Girl was turned into a TV show for a brief time- viewers didn't know what they were missing (I certainly didn't, as I have no memory of watching it) as it starred pre-big-name Melanie Griffith and Sandra Bullock.  Is this coming back to music anytime soon, you ask?  Be patient!  So years later, Sandra B.  became concerned, like a good liberal, over the lack of Hispanic shows on TV, so she recruited George Lopez to do a show.  According to Wiki it wasn't a big hit- I certainly remember differently, it was usually a riot!  And unless you never saw it, you prolly know that the song that charted the highest with no love from the panel this week was the nation's #6 song (and the show's theme song), War with Low Rider.

"I thought it was a pretty good show..."

____________________________________________________________

And now, the Martin Ten, in its tenth week!


We have a whopping four songs debuting this week!  One of them belongs to a group I found on my weekly "discover" list on Spotify.  It was an English act who never charted here called the Housemartins.  Their song from 1986 was a number #3 hit there, and we'll likely hear it here soon.  It's called Happy Hour, and it debuts in the 10 hole.

This next song I had the hardest time placing, up and down and back and forth until I finally stuck it at #9, up one from last week.  That would be the song you listened to a while back, DA Wallach's Time Machine.

Another one on my "discover" list came out just this last June, but sounds like it came hot off the Motown racks in 1967!  The singer is "retro-soul" act Leon Bridges, sounding as our friend Shady suggested like a young Marvin Gaye, with a tune called Coming Home.

Next up is our second act to put a third song in the countdown.  The act is Family Of The Year, with another song from their self-titled latest lp:






Our final debut is at #6.  It actually hit #1 alternative last year, but since Fort Wayne has only had a alternative station again for about the last two months, it is new to me.  It is from a band called Cage The Elephant, and the song is called Cigarette Daydreams.

Hunker down folks, the Dynamic Duo are on the way down!  Our three-time #1 from last week, Phoenix's Lisztomania, drops from the top to #5.  I told Laurie that a sign that this M10 thing is working (at least for me) is when you drop a favorite song and it makes you feel like it did when Casey Kasem dropped it on American Top 40 back in the day.

The second half of the DD, Beach House's Space Song, drops a pair to #4.  But it did that once before....

Replacing the DD are the Titanic Three.  And the first member of that club roars up from #8 to #3- WILSN with Unmeet You.

The second member edges up a notch to #2- Jana Kramer with Boomerang.

And at the top of the pops?  Survey says...

...Neil Sedaka (with a little help from Elton John) and Bad Blood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And on the M10...

The first act to have a second #1- Beach House with Traveller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tune in next week, one year from now, where we hit the hits of 1976!  Be there or be square!