Time Machine week 66

So today is April Fool's Day.  What caused April Fools in the first place?  Frankly, I'll wait until Jo-Anne Meadows or Al "Geezer" Penwasser explain it on THEIR blogs.  I have enough research invested in this stuff!  However, in the spirit of the day, I tell you what I'll do.  I'll give you your choice of "this happened on _ 1st, 1963", and let you guess which one happened today!  No googling now- here are your choices:

1. Winston Churchill retired, having won his second consecutive World War.    He left the door open to returning if someone could possibly start WWIII before he goes senile.

"Hang in there, Winnie!  We got this!"

2- General Hospital has its TV debut today.  In that first episode, 16-year old Luke Spencer (Tony Geary) begins his on-again-off-again romance with 1-year old Laura Webber (Genie Francis).


3- A man visiting the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow set off a bomb and blew himself up.  Frankly, I would have went for his travel agent, but a bad vacation is a bad vacation.


4- Morocco invades Algeria to reclaim a few hundred square miles of litter box gifted to Algeria by France in what became known as the Sand War.  Again, I would have went for the travel agent.


5- Richard Nixon, who faced his loss for Governor of California with the exclamation, "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" last fall, solidified his non-political future by joining the law firm of Mudge, Stern, Ebbs, and Todd.


All right, one of these actually happened on April Fools Day 1963.  The rest happened on the first days of other months in '63- except for one which is a false statement.  Can you guess who is the truth, who is the lie, and who haven't happened yet?  Make your choices for A,B, C, D, or E and we'll give the answers in a bit.


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Welcome to Time Machine for this week in 1963, and beyond the quiz above, we also have a couple of funny stories about the low charters of the week, yet another M10 that disappeared from Spotify, the song that kept Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields out of the top spot in the UK, and why it tops the six degrees, and how one act sits at the top two spots of the UK ten!  Have a seat- but watch out for whoopie cushions...

Especially THAT one!

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The Panel this week consists of:  WHK Cleveland, KJR Seattle, WJET Erie, WBIX Muskogee, WSPR Springfield MA, WMCA New York, WCOL Columbus, KBOX Dallas, WQAM Miami, KDEO San Diego, WWHY Huntington, WV, and WKLO Louisville.  They combined for 28 different tunes, including number one votes for non-Panel Four tunes Young Lovers by Paul and Paula (Erie), Edie Gorme's Blame It On The Bossa Nova (Muskogee), Jimmy Soul's If You Wanna Be Happy (Springfield), and Jackie Wilson's Baby Workout (Columbus).

We had two songs that were only charted locally.  One was the #3 in Louisville, the Monarchs with This Old Heart.  The Monarchs had one big national hit called Over The Mountain.  NOT the Ozzie Osbourne version, but a tune subtitled And Across The Sea, which was actually on this week's Panel done by Bobby Vinton (#5 in Erie).  The other was by the Viceroys, a tune called Granny's Pad (#5 in Seattle).  They were led by one Jim Valley, who for one lp (Spirit of '67) was the lead guitar for Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Also this week, the Beach Boys were at #5 in Louisville with Shut Down, which was still a week away from the national charts.  But the lowest actual charter this week was an instrumental by the dartells, called Hot Pastrami, which sat this week at #143.

ANYway, the Panel Four this we-

WAIT!  A quiz announcement!  If you guessed C, you were wrong!  Because, the choices were NUMBERED, not lettered!  And if you guessed #3, you're still wrong.  The unhappy vacationer redecorated Lenin's tomb in September.

As I was saying:

With 13 points and the #1s from Huntington and Dallas, Ruby and the Romantics with Our day Will Come, the national #1. (Fooled you, it was #3.)

With 18 points and the #1 of Louisville, Skeeter Davis and The End Of The World, the national #1 (Got you again!  It was #2).

With 21 points and the #1s from Cleveland, Miami, and San Diego, the national # 22 (Fooled you!  It really was on the way up at #22), Little Peggy March and I Will Follow Him.

And at the top of both the Panel Four and the cashbox charts... Stay tuned.

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 Debut #1 on the M10 this week gives The Knocks a third M10 hit.  Classic drops out, but this one, featuring the band Walk The Moon (who had a big hit last year with Shut Up And Dance) comes in at #10:





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And now these words from Winston Churchill, who actually retired in May (thus, if you took A or 1 you were wrong):

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.


(This quote will come in handy with the highest debut- stay tuned)  And with that, let's...

10- Gerry and the Pacemakers land here with the song that was given- and refused- by the Beatles first, How Do You Do It?  They didn't figure it out here until September of '64.

9- The Cascades were also at #5 here with Rhythm Of The Rain.

8- The next song is by Joe Brown- not the judge, but a singer whose daughter Sam sang with Pink Floyd on their Division Bell tour, with That's What Love Will Do.

7- A sneak peek at the Beatles, as Please Please Me was here this week.

6- Another non charter here was the Bachelors, with Charmaine- a song written way back in 1926.\

5- The Springfields- two brothers and sister Dusty- were at #129 this week in the US of A with Island Of Dreams.

4- Ned Miller's big hit from last year, From A Jack To A King, is two spots higher this week than it got in America.

3- Billy Fury was in the three-hole with Like I've Never Been Gone.  For US audiences, more like Like I Never Got Here.

2- Cliff Richard with his band, the Shadows, were at the runner-up position with Summer Holiday.

And the top dog in the UK-

...there's those darn Shadows again, on their own with the instrumental Foot Tapper!!!

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Before we forget, here's that tenuous connect between the Churchill quote and the high debut this week- from Danish band Lukas Graham:






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QUIZ Update:  The Sand War actually did happen- but it started in October.  Some people will do anything for a date.

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And that song that kept the Beatles out of the top a few years later?  Why that would be Engelbert Humperdink's Release Me.  And this leads to a bit of a April Fools six degrees.  Because, the question is, what does that song and these songs have in common:

Under Your Spell Again, which Buck Owens took to #4 Country in 1959;

Hank Locklin's Please Help Me I'm Falling, which was a #8 pop hit in 1960;

Johnny Tillotson's It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin', #3 in 1962;

I Hear That Lonesome Whistle, kind of a prototype of Folsom Prison Blues, which Hank Williams Sr took into the country top ten in 1951;

and Don Gibson's Oh Lonesome Me, #7 pop back in 1957.

Give up?  Well, they were all covered by Bobby Darin on the lp You're The Reason I'm Living- whose title track was the highest charter this week (#7) with no Panel Love.

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So the totally false event was the Dick Nixon hiring- he joined Mudge, Stern, BALDWIN (not Ebbs), and Todd, and he did so in May.  Which means if you picked the General Hospital debut, you are correct!  (And no, the part about Luke and Laura came when they were much older.

And now, the M10!

You've heard #s 10 and 8.  In between them comes a song that now makes it four acts- and two this week- to have two songs in the 10 at the same time!  When I first heard Lucius, it wasn't Madness, but THIS tasty cover:

Best Coast slide a pair to #7 with Feeling Ok.

Nada Surf, who became the third act with 2 songs in the ten last week, drop to #6 with the first of those, Believe You're Mine.

Eleanor Friedberger slips a pair as well, to #5 with the former #1 Two Versions Of Tomorrow.

The other Nada Surf tune, Cold To Be Clear, leaps 5 spots to #4.

The Jayhawks soar to #3 with Quiet Corners And Empty Spaces.

Once again, Spotify lets me down, pulling The Joy Formidable's Liana from their list- in fact, the video has been pulled from YouTube, just as the lp Hitch was released on the 27th.  On their FB page, the band says it will return to Spotify "soon", but that's kind of a slap in the face to cheap bastards new fans like me.  Nonetheless, it is on the M10 at #2.


And the #1s this week?  M10 says...

...Lucius with Madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And on top of the Panel Four....

...the Chiffons with He's So Fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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That wraps today's April Fools edition.  Tune in next week when spotify removes all my songs, Luke and Laura break all marriage age restrictions, and Winston Churchill pushes the button.... no wait, let's just do 1968 instead!