Time Machine week # 65

Let me tell you a story about today.  Today is March 25, 1969, and last night a TV movie that would soon become a TV show premiered.  And the show was one which my brother John liked so much, the next year he would name his second son, and first with his current wife, after the main character, so the story goes.  But he didn't quite get the name right, and so his son Brandon was named after the lead character in Then Came Bronson...

Oh, and John and Yoko started their bed-in today.  Not sure which of them I would like less to observe in this, but as an old friend once sang in parody, "All we are saying... is look at my----"

Anyway, welcome to a Time Machine a tad on the odd side.  Why?  Because I cannot guarantee the song that I currently have at #1 on the M10 will be there when we get done!  After several weeks in which only 2 songs had a real shot at the top, this week no less than FIVE songs had a legit shot at the top!  Who on earth will it be?

The defending champ...

The red-headed harmony girls..

the Welsh power trio...

the dark horse....

...or the hot newbies?

  That, among other things will be revealed as we cruise 1969 for music and fun... but NOT nude Beatles!  Let's be at it!


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First off, how about the Panel for this week?  Well, that would be WAYS Charlotte, KQV Pittsburgh, WIRK West Palm Beach, WHOT Youngstown OH, KVOG Ogden UT, WIBG Philly, WIFE Indy, CHLO St Thomas, Ontario, KGB San Diego, KGRC Hannibal MO, WKMI Kalamazoo, and KJR Seattle.  They rounded up 27 different songs- I didn't hit a repeat until the fourth station I looked at- including a host of notables for the low charter list.  We had two songs that had dropped out the week before- Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers with a cover of I Only Have Eyes For You (#4 in San Diego) and Iron Butterfly with Soul Experience (#2 in Ogden)- we have a bottom charter this week at #95 nationally (Gary Lewis and the Playboys with Rhythm Of The Rain)- and in a moment, what has to be the lowest charting #1 a Panel chart ever had!  The list gave us a tight, low scoring race with 8 different #1s- including the Beach Boys' I Can Hear Music (Charlotte), Glen Campbell's Galveston (Youngstown), Steppenwolf's Rock Me (Ogden), You've Made Me So Very Happy by Blood Sweat and Tears (Indy), and Loving Things by the Grass Roots (Hannibal).

On the note of Glen Campbell, I saw last night that the family is asking prayers as Glen slides into the last stages of his battle with Alzheimer's.

Anyhow, the Panel Four:

Without a Panel #1 and 14 points, the national top dog, the Zombies and Time Of The Season.

With also 14 points (just like Woodrow Wilson) and the #1s from Pittsburgh and Seattle, the national # 3, Tommy Roe and Dizzy.

With 17 points and the #1s of WPB and K-zoo, the (new low) national # 57, The Cowsills and Hair.

And at the top with 23 points and 3 #1s, and with a special surprise record breaker for the Panel Four... stay tuned.

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Next up, here is the OTHER new debut this week.  And with this tune, Nada Surf becomes the third band to have two songs in the M10 at the same time.  This is actually the single from the lp.





This tune comes in at #9 this week.

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Last week, we had songs debut at #2 and #3 for the first time, and I wondered if this had ever happened on the Martin Era Cashbox charts.  The short answer- no.  The closest that it ever came to happening  was actually two times.  The first was when the New Vaudeville Band  spent its first week in the top ten at #3 with Winchester cathedral, while the Beach Boys went from 10 to 2 with Good Vibrations.  The second was when Let It Be went from 12 to 1, with the Jacksons' ABC moving from 10 to 2.

Those are not the only times, though, that A song spent its first week in the top ten in the top three.  It happened 34 times in the Martin Era, and TEN of those times were the Beatles- I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Penny Lane, All You Need Is Love, Hey Jude, Get Back, Something, and Let It Be.  A funny statistical anomaly is that while none of the 9 songs from the seventies jumped more than 14 notches to get there (that song being Chic's Le Freak which went from 17 to 3), there are seven songs from the sixties that jumped 20 places or more to get there- and two of those were jumping from outside the top forty!  The big Jumpers:

Paperback Writer, 47 spots from 50 to 3;
I Want To Hold Your Hand, 42 spots from 43 to 1;
Hey Jude, 37 spots from 38 to 1;
Herman's Hermits with Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter, 28 spots from 31 to 3;
All You Need Is Love, 24 spots from 27 to 3;
The For Seasons with Rag Doll, 22 spots from 25 to 3;
 and Paul and Paula's Hey Paula. from 23 to 3.

Other than the Beatles, only the Four Seasons (with Sherry going 12 to 1) and Herman's Hermits (I'm Henry The VII, I Am from 18 to 3) did it more than once.  And 6 songs total did the jump to #1- including the four already mentioned, plus Napoleon the XVII with They're Coming To Take Me Away (from 20) and KC and the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight ( from 12).


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And now, the late producer George Martin with a few words.


And everybody is smiling and happy and butterflies flitting around and it was that kind of image that, it was like a dream world, really.


Why, he must be talking about...

The UK top ten this week!

This week, we have a lot of pretty songs, unlike last week when I uncovered some real stinkers.  The Sex Pistols' tune I told Laurie, "Imagine someone decided to write their idea of a bawdy sea chanty, stuck in a few dozen of the dirtiest limericks they could find, and then said, say, I can make this MORE disgusting"- that was Friggin' In The Riggin'.  And the Lene Lovich song I described as "something found on Nikki Minaj's cutting room floor."  This week, though, they are mostly sweet ballads, like:

10- The Righteous Brothers with a re-release of You've Lost That Loving Feeling.  It hit #1 the first time, 10 this time.

9- The Bee Gees with a song of theirs I never quite grasped, First Of May.  It was at #39 this week back home.

8- Again with Glen Campbell, this time with a song he'd peaked in January in the US of A- Wichita Lineman.

7- Sandie Shaw hits here with a non-charter in America, the playful Monsieur Dupont.

6- Cilla Black- and doesn't she seem to be here every other week?- is at this position with Surround Yourself In Sorrow.

5- Another old Glen Campbell song, this time done by Dean Martin- a swinging uptempo version of Gentle On My Mind- which had a Billboard peak here of #93.

4- Donald Peers, a 61-year old star making a comeback, was at this spot with Please Don't Go.

3- Engelbert Humperdink was rocketing up the US of A charts with the song at #3 in the UK- The Way It Used To Be, which just went from 60 to 41 this week.

2- Another January peaker here, Marvin Gaye's #1 I Heard It Through The Grapevine.

And at the "top of the pops":

...Peter Sarstedt, who peaked this week at #70 here with Where Did You Go (My Lovely)!!!!!


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Okay, so here's the second debut, and I toyed with it at the top last night.  I won't tell you (yet) where it landed, but it is a band some of you may remember from their 90's debut- the Jayhawks.  They have a brand new lp out called Paging Mr Proust.  And here is the single that my spotify recommendations sent me:





(BTW, listening to it right now, and the game may NOT be over...)

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This is a Jack Russell...

...and so is this...

That's Jack Russell from arena rockers Great White, who made it big back when with Once Bitten Twice Shy- a song they covered from Ian Hunter.  Who's that, you ask?  He's the former leader of Mott The Hoople, who did the Bowie comp All The Young Dudes.  Now the song itself was also covered in 2000 by none other than Status Quo, on their universally panned covers lp Famous In The Last Century.  They also did Mony Mony on that record, which was also covered by Billy Idol, but originally done (and done best) by Tommy James and the Shondells.  Tommy was one of four people who got writing credits on that one.  Another was Bobby Bloom, later famous for his one-hit-wonder Montego Bay.  Bloom was a contract writer at the time ( his contribution to MM was the "I love you Mony Mon mon mon" section supposedly), and he also had a hand in the highest charting song this week that got no panel love- 1910 Fruitgum Company's Indian Giver, ignored at #6.

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And now... and in stone... the M10.

Lily And Madeleine hold at 10 with Hourglass.

You heard Nada Surf with their new one on the M10- Cold To Be Clear at #9.

Flo and Eddie do what only Beach House has done before- they spend a 9th week on the countdown, dropping 2 to #8 with Keep It Warm.

The Knocks and friends are stuck at #7 again this week with Classic.

And here, at #6- but not for long- are the Jayhawks with Quiet Corners And Empty Spaces.

Best Coast was up against the numbers this week, dropping to #5 with Feeling OK.

At #4, we have the dark horse- Nada Surf with Believe You're Mine, up one spot.

The king is dead- Eleanor Friedberger falls to #3 with the three-time #1 Two Versions Of Tomorrow.

And to be quite honest with you, I have a rule that once I have recorded the week's M10 in its file on my computer, it is done.  Set in stone.  This week, I almost changed it an hour after saving it.  THAT is how close we are this week.

At #2- Lucius with Madness.

And at the top:

...Ritsy Bryan and The Joy Formidable with Liana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And at the Panel #1.................

The Fifth Dimension with Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That, of course, was also from the musical Hair, which means we have the Panel's #1 and #2 both from the same lp for the first time!

That is it for now... but see me next week, one hair pulling later, to see who will be at M10's top spot, plus- 1963!