Time Machine week 92

So we have landed on the uneventful day of September 30th, 1969- so uneventful that I Googled for 20 pages and the best I got was the prototype Concorde broke the sound barrier for the first time, and the UK islands of Jersey and Guernsey issued their very first postage stamps.

And that is basically what they looked like.  I was disappointed, expecting something more on the lines of:

...but whadda I know?  Welcome to this week's Time Machine, where we get:  A dirty story in the UK 10;  a new hit by a band that has one #1 to their credit on the M10; and we ask the question: "Who are Chet and Jackie Powers, Dino Valenti (or Valente), and Jesse Orris (or Otis) Farrow, and what do he, she, or they have to do with Barbarella?"  We aren't mailing in this one- strap in and let's go!


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The gang this week includes KIRL St Charles MO, WSNY Schenectady NY, WPOP Hartford, WCOL Columbus OH, WGBA Columbus GA, WTRU Muskegon, WABC New York, WSGN Birmingham, WSRF Ft Lauderdale, KJR Seattle, WIXZ Pittsburgh, and KIMN Denver.  They racked up 29 different songs this week- including the Hot 100 low charter Evie Sands with Any Way That You Want Me (which Birmingham had at #1, despite sitting #77 nationally) and the even lower charter of Isaac Hayes' version of Walk On By (which Birmingham- again- had at #5 despite being #128 on Cashbox's national chart).  Others, like Ms Sands, who got #1 votes but missed the Panel 4 include the Rascals and Carry Me Back (St Charles), the Rugbys and You, I (Ohio), Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is (Georgia), and Nilsson's Everybody's Talking (Florida).


The race itself was tight 2/3s of the way through, with the eventual #2 having a 5-point lead- until the #2 song at the time hit #1 on the last three stations to win by 7!  The Panel picks:

At #4 with no #1s but 14 points, the national #2- the Stones and Honky Tonk Women.

At #3, with the #1 vote from Hartford and 21 points, the national #4... Shady, turn your head here... Bobby Sherman and Little Woman.

At #2, with the #1 from Muskegon and 24 points- but only three on those last three stations, a 15-3 collapse worthy of the '69 Cubs- the national #5, Oliver's Jean.

And playing the part of the New York Mets, with 5 #1s and 31 points, the national top dog as well... stay tuned.


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Oh, and the "how low can you go" crowd this week:

At #101, CSNY with Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.  Oh wait, scratch the Y, Neil was off on his own on that one.

At # 131, a song the Nuns taught us at St Louis Besancon in second or third grade- Original Castle with One Tin Soldier.

At #142, a song that's come up a few times around here, Crow's Evil Woman (Don't You Play Your Games With Me).

At #144- and on it's first, less successful attempt at the American charts- Jethro Tull's Living In The Past.

And the lowest of the low that I know (or at least have heard)- at #147, Rick Nelson and his Stone Canyon Band with She Belongs To Me.

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Okay, show of hands, all of you that knew Duran Duran got their name from the character Dr Durand Durand in the film Barbarella?

Okay, so Jane had ONE thing going for her...

One of the stars in this cult classic was Anita Pallenberg, lover to 40% of the Rolling Stones at one point and one of the "woo, woo" voices on their hit Sympathy For The Devil.  Another of those voices was piano man Nicky Hopkins, who in addition to doing time with both the Stones and the Kinks, was in the equally-cult band Quicksilver Messenger Service.  And here is where the crowd of names I mentioned at the beginning comes in.  Was it four people?  Six?  Actually just one- real name Chet Powers, the driving force of QMS as well as a former lifelong carny, who picked up musical talents from his Dad at a young age.  He even tried the Air Force once, but his psych exam noted while he had a lot of potential, he had little patience with the USAF not doing things his way, and was asked politely to leave.  Chet, who buddy David Crosby once said, "could write a song on the way to the bathroom," was the author of the song that sat at #11 on CB this week but got ignored by the Panel- the Youngbloods' hit Get Together.


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And coming into the M10 at #9 this week- new Lucius!!!!!!!!!!!!






In all honesty, I have my work cut out for me in the next few weeks, as I can see no less than four songs on the M10 with a shot at number one- and (he said with a smirk) oddly enough, they sit at #s 9, 7, 5, and 3 this week!


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Okay, well he may be Scottish, but that's close enough, so let's have Peter Capaldi give us a bit of inspiration this week:

"Shouting at people keeps you alive, healthy, young, fresh. "

I'll have to remember to use that one at work!  In the meantime, let's...

10- Here it was a 4-week number one in August- Zager and Evans and In The Year 2525.

9- Sitting at #23 back home, Bob Dylan and Lay Lady Lay.

8- It peaked in the top 40 just a few weeks back- Mama Cass covering the Beatles on It's Getting Better.

7- Cliff Richard, along with former Shadow guitarist Hank Marvin, and Throw Down A Line, which didn't chart here.

6- Here, Oliver was in the top ten with a different tune- Good Morning Starshine, which had already made the top 3 back in July.

5- Two weeks ago, the Bee Gees peaked at #63 in the states with the unheeded warning Don't Forget To Remember.

4- It was at #13 this week back home- Johnny Cash and A Boy Named Sue.

3- Here comes our dirty story.  This song was sung in French by Jane Birkin (for whom the Birkin Bag was named- no, seriously) and Serge Gainsbourg- a song he wrote for then girlfriend Brigitte Bardot, but then dedicated and sang with Jane when they became an item.  It was called Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus, which translates to I Love You... Me Neither.  Now the dirty part comes in when people started figuring out the lyrics.  One of the first was the original record company, Fortuna, which yanked the single from further production.  But another label called MajorMinor picked it up- but as a result, it found itself competing with itself, thus peaking here at #3 for MajorMinor while simultaneously charting at #16 for Fortuna- even though the only thing that changed was the label.

So, being me, I had to find out what the offensive lyric was.  Well, the first "translation" I found had a line that went something like "lying between your back".  Curious, I dug deeper to a blog that actually took the time to analyse what Serge was trying to say.  The word the crap translation took as "back" has a plethora of meanings centered around, shall we say, the female genitalia- ovaries, kidneys, and groin were all acceptable translations- and thus, why the record got banned to a certain extent.

2- The funny thing, we have a version of this song by Tom Jones in the US of A at #6 this week, and the definitive version was Dionne Warwick which also hit number 6

******* MISTAKE ALERT***** MISTAKE ALERT*********

(This is an interruption by the Idiocy Prevention Bureau, who notes that Jones' hit was a completely different song.  We now return you to your UK top ten.)


*******MISTAKE ALERT******MISTAKE ALERT*********


(Couldn't just tell me so I could erase it, could you?)  Ah, yes, well the version in question- which is the Bacharach/David comp that Dionne did, I'll Never Fall In Love Again- is at #2 in the UK for Bobbie Gentry.

And Tops of the Pops?

CCR, with a song that peaked here in June, Bad Moon Rising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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And now, the M10.

Dinosaur Jr hangs on for one more week, slipping to #10 with Tiny.

The Monkees with Davy Jones singing Love To Love rise a pair to #8.

Agnes Obel and Golden Green move 2 to #7.

At #6-

Shakes slips from 1 to 6 with Strange Tides.  Laurie asked if that was the steepest fall from #1 on the M10.  Answer, no- tied for second.

The Explorers Club up 2 (a pattern develops) to #5 with their second hit, Quietly.

Castlecomer holds at #4 with Judy- one point away from being the biggest hit of their 4 M10 songs.

Shakes again, moving up (you guessed it) 2 spots to #3 with Tranquilize.

Keane may end up being the 11th song on the M10 to peak at #2, but they are enjoying it there- moving back up a spot to make it three weeks out of four.

And the #1s?  M10 Says:

...Dent May with Face Down In The Gutter Of Your Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, Panel says...

The Archies and Sugar Sugar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Next time, meet me in October 1962- for real this time!