Time Machine co-ordinates VIXXX458112463

Today we go to November 24, 1963- just in time to see Jack Ruby blow away Lee Harvey Oswald...

That don't look like it felt too good... and sorry to say, my sympathies are minimal.  Whether he was the killer of a good man or not, he was yet another brainless animal that thought a godless, monolithic, you-make-no-choices society was better than the one we have.  Happy Thanksgiving, Lee!


A-HEM... now that I have that out of my system, let's move onto the music shall we?  And I did a little "holiday research" on the Martin Era 2.0 the other day, and we'll be bringing you those results, along with not one but TWO live videos for two M10 debuts, and the Four Seasons come on to do a BIG list of contestants!  Let's fire away!


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First up this week is the first of our two debuts- from an act posting their FOURTH M10 hit!  This one actually goes back in time (imagine that) to before the first hits- I was listening to another potential's song when I clicked on their personal Spotify list, and found this!  Anyway, at #10- POWERS....






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So, I was thinking of some imaginative ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in song, and the first one was, "What is the biggest hit of Thanksgiving week, on the ME2.0?"  So I came up with a quite arcane point system trying to take in all factors, blah blah blah... and what I got was this:

(Note: this first list only includes songs that were #1 Thanksgiving week.  But by a combo of weeks at #1 before and after, how many weeks it was on when it hit, the size of the song it knocked out, and how far it jumped to get there, this was the ten biggest #1 Thanksgiving songs from 1955-76:)

TIED FOR 8TH:  Supremes and Baby Love (1964), the New Vaudeville Band and Winchester Cathedral ('66), and Isaac Hayes with the Theme From Shaft ('71).

7- Rod Stewart, Tonight's The Night ('76).
6- Tennessee Ernie Ford, Sixteen Tons ('55).
5- Elvis, Jailhouse Rock ('57).
4- Our guests the Four Seasons, with Big Girls Don't Cry ('62).
3- Jimmy Dean, Big Bad John (61).
2- Elvis again with Are You Lonesome To-Nite? ('60).
1- And why not, Elvis once more with Love Me Tender ('56)!

So if nothing else, we know Elvis and Thanksgiving go hand in hand!


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Today, the Four Seasons come in to help out with the Panel Picks!  An honor, gentlemen!

Bob:  Our pleasure.

Nick:  Where's the buffet?  Elvis said there's a buffet....

Elvis is like the Doctor- he lies.  So anyway, we have this week 50 stations and a whopping 19 candidates, so let's get started.

Frankie:  Okay, so let's just take three at a time guys.  I'll go first...

Tommy:  Don't you always...

F: ...and we start with the Beach Boys and Be True To Your School, Cashbox's #26 this week.

Then, The Secrets, a girl group outta Cleveland, with The Boy Next Door at #78. This, I am told, is not the same as the Spandells later chart hit that made the M10.

And Nino Tempo and April Stevens with Deep Purple at #2.  Bob?

B: I've got The Singing Nun at #5 with Dominique...

Tommy Roe's Everybody at #9...
\...and Bobby Rydell's Forget Him at #64 and rising.  Nicky?

Nick:  Gotcha, Roberto, I gots Dale and Grace I'm Leaving It All Up To You at Numero Uno this week...

Then, the Impressions with It's All Right at #4....

...and The Kingsmen with Loo-ieee Loo-ieee at #32.  Okay Tommy.

T:  Yeah, sure last again.  Anyway, I got Los Indios Trabajaros with Maria Elena at #8.

And I got the Dixiebelles, another girl group out of Tennessee, with (Down at) Papa Joe's at #14.

And last for me, the Murmaids at # 88 in their first week with Popsicles and Icicles.  Back to you, o lord and master.


F:  Just kiss the ring and geddouddahere.  Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs were at #3 with Sugar Shack...

Leslie Gore with She's A Fool at #6...

...and Lenny Welch's Since I Fell For You at #20.  Bob?

B:  Thanks, Frank.  Boys, each take one of these last three.  I got Rufus Thomas' Walking The Dog at #11.

N:  I gots Robin Ward and Wonderful Summer at #24.  Tommy?

T:  No.  I don't want to.

B:  Oh, don't be a pip, Tom, just read the damn card.

T:  Why don't you just have the Boss read it?

F: Well, give me the card and I...

T: GIT YER HANDS OFF THE CARD!

N: Geez Tom...

T: That's it, I quit!

B:  You don't quit for another nine years!

N: Hell, I quit before you do!

F:  Would you PLEASE just read the card?

T:  Well, since you ask nicely... last one is the Caravelles with You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry at #18.

F:  How appropriate.

Okay, well, we survived that...

N:  Can we get the buffet now?

F,B, T:  THERE IS NO BUFFET!!!


Sigh... so let me whittle this down a bit for everyone, while my assistant gets them the address for Golden Corral.  Choose from Tommy Roe, Dale and Grace, Jimmy and the Fireballs, The Singing Nun, the Kingsmen, and Leslie Gore.  That's #s 9,1,3,5, 32, and 6.


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The second thing I did for our holiday fest was to take the weeks between the third week of November and the end of the year- encompassing Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, and said, "Who has the most holiday weeks at #1?  And the list we get THERE is:

Four tunes grabbed 4 of those weeks:  Sly and the Family Stone's Family Affair, The Monkees and Daydream Believer, Big Girls Don't Cry (but Tommy does), and the Tokens and The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Three songs wracked up 5 weeks for the holidays: Guy Mitchell with Singing The Blues, Dominique, and Tonight's The Night.

And two songs logged six holiday #1 weeks- Sixteen Tons and Are You Lonesome To-Nite.


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And now, our second live debut.  Stone Temple Pilots have seen two former lead singers -Scott Weiland and Chester Bennington- die in the last few years.  So it might be understandable if no one wanted the job.  But they got a guy, and just in time for a new studio lp coming out I believe in February.  And that guy is former X-Factor runner-up Jeff Gutt.  And their first single with Jeff comes in at #9 this week!




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Stat Pack Time!

I knew 27 this week.

The #63 in '63 was none other than Richard Chamberlain, with a tune called Blue Guitar- not the same as the Moody Blues song.  The flip was the FIRST recording of a song the Carpenters would take to the top- (They Long To Be) Close To You.

#101 was Joan Baez live from Miles College in Birmingham, recorded during the massive police actions in the civil rights struggle, with We Shall Overcome.

We had a three way tie for the biggest mover!  One was the Chiffons with I Have A Boyfriend, which moved their 24 spots from 96 to 72.  It would crap out at 37 for two weeks.

Second we have Shirley (The Name Game) Ellis with The Nitty Gritty, which peaked at #7.  It's 24 was from 85 to 61.

And lastly, from 66 to 42, we have Dion's Drip Drop, which peaked at #5.

In the UK, You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers was at #1.  The Beatles were just breaking there, with She Loves You at #2.


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Remember talking about Tony Hatch last time?  He was in a band called the Searchers,  not best known here for the undercharting #44 Sugar And Spice, which also crapped out for a Chicago band that deserved better from the nation as a whole, the Cryan Shames.  The Searchers had their big hit with the #3 cover of Love Potion #9, which was originally a top 25 for the Clovers 5 years before, in 1959.  The Clovers had been around a while, and were on their 3rd lead singer, Roosevelt "Tippy" Hubbard when they were known as Tippy and the Clovers and first did the Leiber-Stoller song that was our 6D victim (highest charting w/o a Panel vote)- oh, boy... Elvis with Bossa Nova Baby.

You are really pissing me off today, Martin...

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And I have one last thing for the Holiday Row.  How about, "What acts had the most top tens during Thanksgiving week?"  Why certainly!  There were 185 different acts to have a top ten during Thanksgiving week in ME2.0, and the top ones are:

Fourteen had two hits: Roger Williams, Guy Mitchell, Ricky Nelson, The Rolling Stones, Dion, Jerry Butler, Brenda Lee, Chubby Checker, The Tijuana Brass, Johnny Nash, the Fifth Dimension, the Carpenters, the Spinners, and Elton John.

Three had 3 hits:  Pat Boone, the Four Seasons, and the Beatles- with an asterisk, because two of them were the double-a-side Come Together/Something.

One act had four- the Supremes.

And of course, one act had SEVEN....

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And now the rest of the M10:

Escondido moves up one with Darkness.

Down 2 to #7 for the Undercover Dream Lovers and Rewind.

Alvvays up 4 to #6 with Dreams Tonite.

The Shacks get crowded down a notch to 5 with Fly Fishing.

Plume Of Feathers does the crowding, up a pair to # 4 with Rhyl Love.

"#1C" this week is the Derevolutions with Something Good.

"#1B" is now Dent May with Picture On A Screen.

And number one for a third week....

...Mo Kenney, doing okay for a while now with Unglued!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel Picks?

Leslie Gore, the Kingsmen, and Tommy Roe all got 6% of the vote.

Jimmy Gilmer got 8%.

Dale and Grace got 18%.

But winning with 22%....

...Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeannine" Deckers AKA Sœur Sourire, AKA the Singing Nun with Dominique!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next week, we'll see how I deal with a non-English speaker as a panel guest, and see what other holiday minutiae I can dig up for 1964!