Time Machine week 63

This week, we sail into March 4th, 1974- the day that the UK told Edward Heath to step down and replaced him with Harold Wilson at 10 Downing, and the very first People Magazine hit the shelves!

This week, we hit 1974 with:  yet another runaway panel winner; that list of songs Billboard had at #1, but not Cashbox; a six degrees that kicks off with Old Blue Eyes (but has nothing to do with his two year marriage to Mia); the Wombles (?); and we'll get to see if Flo and Eddie can tie the mark for most weeks at #1 on the M10!  Hop in, and let's keep it warm!


__________________________________

I have notes all over the place for this week, and I have to do a little flipping to find... ah, the Panel List!  Here are the stations to blame for this week's 49-22 runaway:

WTAC, Flint MI (home of water you can make bullets from), KSFX San Francisco, WHYI Ft Lauderdale, WLS Chicago (who'll use those bullets), KDES Palm Springs, KMEL from Wenatchee, WA, CHUM Toronto, WMYQ Miami, WPTR ( the Big Ptr) Albany, WHB Kansas City, KCPX Salt Lake City (surprisingly Osmond-free), and WWDJ Hackensack.  They piled up a mere 18 different tunes, including Jim Stafford's Spiders And Snakes ( KC and Toronto) and Elton John's Bennie And The Jets (Flint) which were three of the only four #1 votes that didn't go to our big winner.  The low charter this week belonged to WHB's # 5 tune, the DeFranco Family's Abra Ca Dabra which peaked at 23 2 weeks ago nationally, and was now at #58.  But the panel's big picks:

A tie for third, with 0 number ones and 20 points, part one:  David Essex with the week's #6 on Cashbox, Rock On.

Part two: the national #7, Cher with Dark Lady.

At #2, with the remaining #1 vote (Wenatchee) and 22 points, the national # 5, Barbara Streisand and The Way We Were.

And the #1, also the national top dog, with 8 #1s... stay tuned.

________________________________________

The first M10 debut is at #10, and it is from a pair of familiar faces.  They sell real estate, remodel homes, write books, do martial arts, have a Las Vegas magic show (well, one of them does), have come out with a DIY book (presumably because they don't have time to do it for you, and now they are putting together a musical career.  And they're darn good at that, too!  You might know them better as HGTV's Property Brothers, here are Drew and Jonathan Scott:






___________________________________

On another sheet somewhere around here, I have my notes on the 21 (not 24) songs that hit Billboard's top spot and not Cashbox's.  And like all good lists, I'll let you have them a bit at a time, arranged by how far away from Cashbox's top they were.

The farthest spent three weeks at #4 but no higher, M's Pop Muzik.

Four tunes spent one week at #3- The Buckinghams' Kind Of A Drag;  Maureen McGovern with The Morning After; the Temptations (who made the list twice) and I Can't Get Next To You; and the Doobies and Black Water.

One song, Otis Redding's Dock Of The Bay, spent 2 non-consecutive weeks at #3, while three tunes made it 2 weeks in a row at three-  Steam and Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye; Janis Joplin's Me And Bobby McGee; and Barry Manilow's Looks Like We Made It.


_________________________________

So let's hear from former PM Edward Heath:

I have no interest in sailing around the world. Not that there is any lack of requests for me to do so.

Speaking of requests, how about we...

10- The UK has at 10 the song we have at #9- McCartney and Wings and Jet.

9- Our old friend, Flamin' Charlie Rich, is at #9 with a tune that peaked here last December, The Most Beautiful Girl.

8- The original of Billy Don't Be A Hero, recorded by Paper Lace, would graze our charts in May, because American audiences prefered the Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods version.

7- If you were a kid in England, you apparently loved the Wombles:

And the Wombles were at #7 with, what else, The Wombling Song.

6- The Bay City Rollers had quite a few hits there that we didn't get here, and one of them was here- called Remember (Sha-La-La).

5- David Bowie sat at the halfway point with Rebel Rebel, which would hit in the US of A in June.

4- The man with the best average of getting songs in the top ten, Ringo Starr, was 4 in the UK and 14 and climbing in America, with You're 16.

3- A song that will peak in August sits here- The Hollies and The Air That I Breathe.

2- Two songs that didn't make it here take the top two spots.  One of them is a lady that did eventually hit here- Suzi Quatro- with Devil Gate Drive at #2.

1- And the other, at #1, and a good example why glam was never big here...

...one of the two different people who recorded as Alvin Stardust (good grief) with the tune Jealous Mind.


_______________________________________________

Here's some more of the Billboard but not Cashbox #1s...

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta were stuck at #3 for 4 weeks with You're The One That I Want.

Only one song flamed out for just one week at #2- and it was on this week's panel list too- Cher's Dark Lady.

The Temps strike again with two non-consecutive weeks at #2 with My Girl.

And five of them had two straight weeks at #2:  The Crystals and He's A Rebel; Bobby Vinton and Mr Lonely; Petula Clark's My Love; the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar; and the Eagles' New Kid In Town.

__________________________________

One of Frank Sinatra's big breaks was singing for Tommy Dorsey's band back in the 30's.  Frank sang on at least 32 of the band's 132 charting hits, including four of the top five (one was an instrumental).  One of those tunes was We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, And Me).  That tune was covered by HOF act the Ink Spots, who collected 6 #1s between 1939-52 (though the one in question peaked at #3 in 1940).  Member Charlie Fuqua was the uncle of one Harvey Fuqua...

I remember him!  It was the Gilligan's Island episode where the Skipper wore blackface..

Anyway, Harvey married Berry Gordy's sister Gwen, and both became influential in the music industry.  One of Gwen's credits was discovering the band High Inergy, who hit with You Can't Turn Me Off (In The Middle Of Turning Me On), which hit #12 back in 1977.  Now that song was one of many co-written by Mike Masser.  And Mike, who co-wrote many of Diana Ross and the Supremes' tunes, like Love Child, co-wrote the song that charted the highest without getting Panel love, Diana Ross' Last Time I Saw Him at #11.

________________________________________

One last group of "not CB" #1s...

The Tymes' Too Much In Love parked at #2 for three non-consecutive weeks- and each of those three times they were at #1, a different song kept them out!  They were behind Essex' Easier Said Than Done, dropped to 3, pulled up behind Jan and Dean's Surf City, dropped to 3, and saddled up behind Little Stevie Wonder and Fingertips before falling away.

Two songs held #2 for three straight weeks- Tommy Roe's Sheila, and Johnny Mathis and Denise Williams' Too Much Too Little Too Late.

And that leaves one...


______________________________

And now, the M10!

You heard #10;  the 9th spot goes to Santana's Anywhere You Want To Go, slipping three spots.

And at # 8, I give you the band Best Coast:




Our young lady of the duo is named Bethany Cosentino, and apparently did Little Caesar's commercials as a kid.  They should try her now...

Monster Truck holds at #7 with Why Are You Not Rocking.

The six spot gave me a fit this week- because Spotify pulled it after just two weeks!  I have know idea why, but it doesn't matter because I'm still lifting Mo Kenney and Telephones four spots to #6.

Brian Fallon gets pushed down a pair to #5 with Nobody Wins.

Built To Spill pounds at the bottom of what be another Titanic Three in the making, moving but one spot to 4 with Living Zoo.

Brook Annibale reverses course and moves back up one notch to #3 with Remind Me.


And now, that phrase we've avoided for the last two weeks- "the King is dead"-  Because Flo and Eddie (despite taking over as the year's biggest hit) drop a notch to #2 with Keep It Warm.

And that leaves the number ones!


The M10 says...

... Eleanor Friedburger and Two Versions Of Tomorrow becomes the 15th M10 number one!!!!!!

And the Panel says...

...Terry Jacks and Seasons In The Sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the song that made the biggest dent in Cashbox without hitting #1 like it did on Billboard...

...the Bee Gees with Too Much Heaven, which spent 4 weeks at #2, behind Chic's Le Freak!!!!!!!!!!!


And that's it!  Tune in next week for...1973!