Time Machine: Coordinates VV41312769

Well, if you pay attention to my closings and have learned to translate the co-ordinates, you realize yet again we have not gone where I promised.  What my wonderful scheduling didn't take into account was that, while we hadn't been to January 1967 recently, we HAD been to December 1966 just a few weeks back... GRRR!  So I have done the only sane thing possible:  We are going back to January of 1969- which I promised you LAST time- and I am going to excuse it by giving you a highly technical timey-whimey explanation- later.  Today, we are one day after Elvis went into the recording studio to start work on his huge comeback- and 3 days before the Beatles give their last public performance.  Nothing says ending of an era quite like those two items...

Hey, wait!  We had a comeback in 1976...

And I didn't... uh, "retire".. till '77!

That's true, fellas, but still an end of an era was coming.  But here at Time Machine, it keeps rolling on!  In addition to our usual hijinx, we have Paul McCartney's brother, Reg Dwight, Roger Miller's wife, Karen Carpenter, and 4 new M10 debuts!  So how about we kick things off with debut #1.  Gospel and CC fans know well the name Steven Curtis Chapman; they might not know the names Caleb and Will Chapman.  They are SCC's sons, and the leaders of a band called Colony House.  The third single from their lp Only The Lonely finally hits the charm and makes the list at #10... NOTE:  If you don't want to hear an interview with Caleb stuck to the beginning, scroll up to the 2:00 mark...






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We have a 51-station panel this week, giving us 13 candidates for next week's President.  They are:

The national #16 by Cashbox this week, the Foundations and Build Me Up, Buttercup;
Tyrone Davis and Can I Change My Mind, #20;
Tommy James and the Shondells with Crimson And Clover, the national runner-up;
Sly Stone's Everyday People, the CB #8;
Canned Heat's Going Up The Country, #15;
Booker T and the MGs with Hang 'Em High, #36;
Marvin Gaye and Heard It Through The Grapevine, #4;
Former M10 song If I Can Dream by Elvis, #9;
The Supremes and the Temptations tag-teaming on I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, the CB top dog;
Neil Sedaka's Star Crossed Lovers, which only charted in Australia (hint hint...);
The Doors and Touch Me, #3;
Brooklyn Bridge with Worst That Could Happen, #7;
Annnnnnd The Turtles with You Showed Me, #14.

Make yer picks, and we'll move right along with- another debut!  My boys from Australia, Castlecomer, have their fourth M10 hit with their new single, coming in at #8...





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All right, Paul, how about you explain about your brother being on our show today?

Righto.  Well, me brother Peter, who was not out trying to live off my fame, performed under the name Mike McGear.  He was more commedian than singer, but fate chanced him into a deal with a poet by the name of Roger McGough.  They and another lad took their act on the road as the Scaffolds, I guess because they were always expecting to be hung after a bad set.  But they ended up on the top ten (over here, anyway), with a song that was a do-up of an old folk song.  Not much into the musicianship end of things, they had some help in the form of Graham Nash, and a lad named Dwight something, I don't know, he was a bit more John's buddy than mine.  Oh, yeah, Reg.  I think he changed his name and has gotten along quite well.  Anyway, they also got Cream's Jack Bruce on the bass, and had quite the hit of it, in fact they were in the top ten this week.  Chris is going to play their tune, but he asked me to close with, um, ahem:  The number one song in the UK this week was Marmalade's cover of one of my silly tunes, Obla Dee, Obla Da.  The highest UK charter on the US charts was Stevie Wonder, a good friend of mine, with For Once In My Life, which was #3 here and #30 with you lot in the Colonies.  And the highest song in the US that was on our charts was Build Me Up Buttercup, which you had at #16 and we had at #6.  And now, the Scaffolds...






Thanks, Sir Paul, and thank the guys for me...

Going to be a bit of a poser with John and George, you know...

Yeah, yeah, just do what you can.  Anyhow, it's time to move onto the 6D, where I ask the question:  What about the other two verses to Whiter Shade Of Pale?

Do you mind?  It's a secret...

Not anymore it ain't!  There always existed four verses to Procul Harem's great classic, but unless you went to a concert and they were obliging, you never heard 'em because they never recorded 'em!  But here they are...

She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'

though in truth we were at sea

so I took her by the looking glass

and forced her to agree

saying, 'You must be the mermaid

who took Neptune for a ride.'

But she smiled at me so sadly

that my anger straightway died

If music be the food of love 

then laughter is its queen

and likewise if behind is in front

then dirt in truth is clean

My mouth by then like cardboard

seemed to slip straight through my head

So we crash-dived straightway quickly

and attacked the ocean bed  

In addition to being a great song at any length (a YT video has the whole song coming in at 9 minutes and change), it was also covered by Willie Nelson, along with another great classic Bridge Over Troubled Water on his lp (named after his own great classic) Always On My Mind.  That title tune was also part of the big Elvis comeback mentioned earlier, a #20 b-side.  It was written, along with other comeback hits like Suspicious Minds, by one Mark James.  And Mark James wrote the song that made #5 on CB this week but got no Panel love- Hooked On A Feeling, sung by BJ Thomas.

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Debut the third:  Black Francis is the non de guerre of Frank Black, who was leader of the influential alt rock pioneers the Pixies.  The Orwells, a newer band, paid tribute to him in song, as their leader explained in an interview with Consequence Of Sound:

“Felt long overdue that we paid him some direct respect,” guitarist Matt O’Keefe explained in a press release. “We’ve been ripping him off for years, hopefully this chips away at the massive debt we’ve got to him.”

And their tribute comes in at my #7...

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Ready for your helping hand?  Only three candidates managed more than 2 votes- so if you voted for Sly Stone, Tommy James, or the Doors, exhale, you're still in it.

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This week we have a 69 in '69 from Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.  They had stalled after the psychedelic Just Dropped In a while back, and were looking to change things up with a country-plus-brass tune called But You Know I Love You.  It was 69 this week on its way to #19, and springboarded them back into the arena.  But that made them a bit too big for member Thelma Comacho, who left to pursue other interests.  After an audition process that just bounced a young Karen Carpenter, they selected Mary Arnold, who became famous as the third and till death wife of the great Roger Miller a couple years before.  Mary would make her FE debut on the single Reuben James.

Wow... that close to it being "Karen and Kenny"...

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And now, what's left of the M10...


The Knocks and friends move up one notch to #9 with Trouble.

Black Joe Lewis slides 3 spots to #6 in week six with PTP.


And at #5, the high debut- a combo of Jagger like vocals with Philly Soul soundtrack- here is Foxygen:





POWERS powers their way up to #4- a four notch climb- with Dance.

Sweet twists up 2 places to #3 with the Peppermint Twist.

Hidden Cameras stay at #2 with Day I Left Home.

And the number ones?  M10 says...

Yep, Puddle of Mudd stays at the top with Gimme Shelter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That puts us at 14 weeks without a single-week #1.  (Strange Boy's single combines with the three previous.)  But this is not a record yet...at the very start of the M10, Island In The Sun, Space Song, Lisztomania, Traveller, Nightlight, Archie Marry Me, and The Wrong Year spent 17 weeks from September 11, 2015, to December 30th.

And the President for next week?  Why, that would be...

Tommy James and the Shondells!  Crimson And Clover had 47% of the vote, against the Doors with 19.6 and the Family Stone with 5.9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next week?  Well, the schedule SAYS 1970... but I'm making no promises!