Time Machine co-ordinates VIXXXIII461121566

So today we go to December 15th, 1966- the day Walt Disney died...

"Yes, and I've been spinning in my grave almost ever since..."

Well, Walt, you can spin with us on Time Machine this week, and among the things that will make you spin are:  so how many times DID the Beatles enter the Bubbling unders; a record gets tied on the M10- and what the record for the category is on Cashbox; and a carton full of silly named songs on that same chart this week!  Plus another mammoth Panel list- 31 songs from 112 stations!  Buckle up, and let's get spinning right into it!


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First I have shocking news- I made a mistake last week!

I'm sorry but it is true- I told you Tom Jones was #1 on the British charts with The Green Green Grass Of Home.  But I think Bobby Vinton was fooling with the controls, as that tune was #1 this week in 1966, not '65!  Panel contestant the Seekers with The Carnival Is Over was actually last week's top dog in the UK...

"And I'm still a bit cross about it..."

Look at it this way, Judith, it got me a chance to sneak you into the beauty contest at the last minute!  Which reminds me:  next week we'll still be on schedule, but the week betwixt Christmas and New Years will be but an M10 update, and the week following will be the top 50 countdown interspersed throughout the week, and the week following that will be the Beauty Contest 2018!  So be here on the 22nd for 1967, the 29th for that week's M10, the 2nd through the sixth or seventh for the Top 50, and the 12th for the Beauty Contest- God willing.


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So this week the Byrds are POTMs, and Roger McGuinn is here, and in a tip of the hat to the Mamas and Papas, we brought Barry McGuire along too!

Of course, we siphoned you two off from a little bit before that picture...

R;  God, I HOPE so...

B: Man, you aged... well...

R:  Yeah, sure Barry...

Okay, so you guys got your work cut out for you this week, so why don't we get started!

R:  Okay, Bill, can I call you Bill?  Our first song is Little Stevie Wonder with A Place In The Sun, at #16 on Cashbox...

Uh, My name isn't..

B:  Then you got those whacky English guys- Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich with Bend It.  It peaked over here at #110.

R:  You knew those guys?
B: Didn't everyone?

Roger didn't even know me...

B:  Heck, he don't even know his own right name!  Next comes Roger Williams and his elevator version of Born Free at #7...

R: Wait, I do too know my right name!  It's... wait a minute, I got it around here somewhere...
B:  Then we have Mitch Ryder and the Dee-troit Wheels with Devil With A Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly at #4...
R:  Hey, let me read some a' these!
B:  You're too busy looking for your 1962 ID.  Then comes The Seekers and Georgie Girl at #61 and tumbling.
R:  I got it now- it's Jim.  Jim McGuinn...

And you forgot that?

R: Say listen, Bill, settle down.  At #2 was the Beach Boys and Good Vibrations.  Back off, Barry, I'm doing the next few.
The Yardbirds were at #40 with Happenings Ten Years Time Ago.
The Temptations were doing I Know I'm Losing You at #15.
And the Monkees were on the list FOUR flipping times!  The first was I'm A Believer at #10; the second was I'm Not Your Stepping Stone at #26.

B:  Then comes... well, the Monkees again with I Wanna Be Free, which was an airplay album cut.
Peter and Gordon were next with that lovely little Lady Godiva at #5.
R: Puts me back in mind of that Mamas and Papas thing... boy Cass woulda made a horrible Lady G!
B: Yeah, but Michelle would've done fine...
R:  Yep, shame her old man was such a freak...
Um, guys...
R: Right.  Next comes a local band from Florida who barely bumped the charts, thanks to opening for the Beach Boys.  They were called the Nightcrawlers, and the song at #106 was Little Black Egg.
B:  Sounds like you coulda used that one in your weird titles skit.

I thought about it.  Believe me, they get worse.

B: So anyway, another low charter by another band your crack research team could find nothing about was an outfit called the Kit Kats with Lost On A Country Road, which peaked at #119.
Donovan was at #3 with Mellow Yellow..
R: Quite rightly... then comes the Monkees again, with that silly theme song of theirs, which was also an airplay album cut.
Then it's the Seekers again with Morningtown Ride, which would stop just outside the top 40 in March.
B: Kinda neat how we can look ahead here and see how stuff would do later... I wonder how I did after Eve Of Destruction?
R: I can tell you that without looking- you got Bupkis.  Next up, Herman's Hermits get No Milk Today, and they won't get any until April of next year.  
Then it's time for the Normie Rowe Aussie special of the week- this week's tune was the hit, er, Ooo La La.

B: Frankie Valli was soloing at #100 with The Proud One.
The Royal Guardsmen with their Christmas-themed Snoopy And The Red Baron was at #57.
Spyder Turner's cover of Stand By Me was at -well, it was on its way, and would peak in February.
The Hollies were at # 8 with Stop Stop Stop.

R:  That brings us to sweet Nancy Sinatra with Sugar Town at #13.
The Music Machine was at #29 with Talk Talk.
Aaron Neville was at #21 with Tell It Like It Is.
And Nancy's papa Frank was at #9 with That's Life.

B:Bobby Moore and the Rhythm Aces were awaiting a late December Billboard peak of #97 with Try My Love Again.
Another song for the funny titles bit is...

Hey, let me save that one for the bit later.

B: Well... okay, I guess it's your show. So skipping that one, we have the New Vaudeville Band and Winchester Cathedral at Numero Uno, oh, and I about missed the Supremes at #6 with You Keep Me Hanging On.

R:  You did miss it.  He just did that Timey whimey stuff and fixed it!

 B: ...and that wraps it up for us!

Thanks guys!

R:  No problem, Bill...

Sigh... anyhow, let's thin the herd, so to speak.  Choose from this week's #1 (Winchester Cathedral), #3 (Mellow Yellow), #6 (You Keep Me Hanging On), #10 (I'm A Believer), and #57 (Snoopy And The Red Baron).  I will tell you this much- the top two had a classic back and forth battle that gave them 46% of the vote between them! And those five collected about 69% of the total vote!


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So how many times did the Beatles pass through the Bubbling Under Charts on Cashbox?  Well, if you guessed 10, you'd be right!  (Although I don't know why you would guess that, unless you've been peaking at my notes...)  They did it with the following songs:

I Saw Her Standing There: the b-side of I Want To Hold Your Hand, it spent three weeks in triple digits- 128 to 124 to 100- before falling.

Please Please Me:  It did a pass-through at #144 before moving up 71 notches the next week.

From Me To You: yet another charting backside, it came in at #111 before jumping to #74 the next week.

Roll Over Beethoven:  Stopped in at 110 before going up 35 spots.

You Can't Do That:  The flip of Can't Buy Me Love, it spent a first week at 127 before clearing the bar- barely- at #97.

PS I Love You: this one left the biggest skid marks, starting at 140 before an 83-spot leap to #57.

Why (with Tony Sheridan):  How this got in there IDK, but it got one week at 135.

Yes It Is:  The back of Ticket To Ride, it came in at 112, and peaked at 107.

I'm Down: the b-side of Help!, it spent one week at 126.

And the one that got us asking about this, We Can Work It Out.  It came in at 108, moved to 101 (where we found it last week), and then cleared 81 spots to #18.


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And this week's lone debut is no stranger- Brian Fallon hit a while back with the big hit Nobody Wins.  His new lp, Sleepwalkers, is due in February, and the lead single comes in at #10.






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Stat Pack:

I knew 38 this week, including the big mover- contestant Aaron Neville's Tell It Like It Is, which made a 32-notch jump from 53 to 21.

The #66 in '66 belongs to a band who couldn't make up their minds who they were.  In 1960, as the Videls, they made the hot 100 with Mr Lonely, which was a doo-wop record and not the same as the Bobby Vinton hit.  Then as the Trade Winds, they made the top 40 with New York Is A Lonely Town.  This week, they are the Innocence, and their hit was There's Got To Be A Word!  which also snuck into the 40.  All told, their various names had 5 hot 100s.

And since I gave out the UK #1 already (twice already, in fact), we wrap up with Lou Christie at #101 with the old classic Since I Don't Have You- which IMHO the Skyliners and Don McLain both did better.


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So the contestant we left out was an act whose main claim to fame was apparently that they once opened for the Stones- an act called the Bush with a tune called Who Killed The Ice-Cream Man?  Now in my experience, if you find one such silly titled song, you are apt to find more that week.  And actually this one never charted- but here are some that did this week.

Other than this first one and one I played for the fun of it, I didn't know any of these- but this one I love.  At #28 sat the Association with Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies.

The rest collected anywhere from the mid-70's on down into the BU chart.  We start with Dr West's Medicine Show and Junk Band with The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.

The comes Slim Harpo with I'm Your Bread Maker Baby.  Slim better watch out, moulding buns is a felony these days.

Howard Tate (No relation to Larry) had Look At Granny Run Run.

Howard Tate, singer

Larry Tate, bewitched ad exec.  Not related.

Ian Whitcomb, who actually had a hit with his band Bluesville with You Turn Me On, had one with his band the Seaside Syncopators this week called Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On A Saturday Night.

"Hmm, looks like you might have to re-name that BJ Thomas longest song title award you used to give out."

Back off, Billy Joe, he only beat you by one word.

And we top it off with a tune from Detroit folk rockers the Spike Drivers, called Baby Won't You Let Me Tell You How I Lost My Mind.  And yes, BJ, they beat you by two words, but you cleared them by three syllables.*

*BJ and I are of course debating his Hey Won't You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.


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Oh, and no six degrees, but the highest without a Panel vote was Martha and the Vandellas and I'm Ready For Love at #11.  That said, let's look at the rest of the M10.

#9 and only budging up a notch is neophyte longest title contestant Shilpa Ray and Shilpa Ray's Got A Heart Full Of Dirt.

#8 -brace yourselves- Dent May's Picture On A Screen.  Losing his bid for #1, he says, screw you, Bill, and starts to fall in week #8.

#7 leads us to one of many anomalous pseudo-records I'm going to note this week.  9 weeks on the chart, the Derevs' Something Good falls one notch to #7.  But that makes 6 weeks SINCE having been #1- a longevity record matched on the M10 only by Radiation City's big hit Come And Go from last year.  Now the way music went back then, it's no surprise that Cashbox's Martin Era 2.0 record in this category came fairly early- 1956, in fact.  The Platters held it at 9 weeks for My Prayer- until Elvis beat it 2 weeks later when Love Me Tender spent a 10th week in the top ten after leaving the top.

5 and 6 are a pair of two-spots-up songs- the Foo Fighters' Sunday Rain at 6 and Strawberry Runners at 5 with Garden Hose.

Mo Kenney becomes the biggest hit of the year so far and 6th all time with Unglued moving down just one spot to #4.

Last week's number one is this week's #3. And that would be Plume Of Feathers with Rhyl Love.

Shilpa Ray's other hit, Manhattanoid Creepazoids, moves into the runner up spot.


Now, this week's new number one makes it three straight #1s from acts getting their first M10 #1 after a previous charting hit.  But what makes it different is that this act charted on the M10 3 times- and darn near a fourth- before hitting #1.  Moving from #5 to the top:

POWERS with Beat Of My Drum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel pics?

Well, the Supremes got just 4.5 %...

Snoopy and the Baron just cleared 7%...

The NVB got 10.7%...

Donovan got 22.3%, enough to win most other weeks...

But the winner with 24.1%, your POTMs for next week...

...the Monkees and I'm A Believer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, next week, Kindergarten year 1967, leading into the holiday specials thereafter!  Party on!