Time Machine co-ordinates VIXXXVIII47112672

So today we go to January 26, 1972, and boy do I have a story for you.

Meet Vesna Vulovic, who was a stewardess on a Yugoslav Airways flight from Copenhagen to Zagreb- and was the only survivor when a briefcase bomb planted by a Croatian terrorist exploded SIX MILES UP, ripping the plane in two.  Somehow, a baggage cart pinned her in the fuselage when everyone else was getting sucked out;  her low blood pressure (which she covered up when hired by "drinking a lot of coffee") kept her heart from bursting when the plane depressurized; and a former WWII medic found her screaming in the wreckage when it landed in Czechoslovakia and kept her alive, having landed part in and part out of the wreckage.  Which makes here Guinness's record holder for longest fall survived without a parachute.   A month-long coma, finding out what happened two weeks later, 16 months of therapy to walk again- and she went right back to stewardessing, right up until the airline fired her in the '90's  for speaking out against Slobodan Milosevic!  She lost her husband and job over this, but gained a cause, and despite declining health, died only 2 years ago!

Man, all I can say, we have a hero in the lineup for next year's Beauty Contest...


***************************************

And welcome to this week's Time Machine, where I'll be adding something new to the Stat Pack;  introduce you to the top poker player in the M10;  do a quick salute to the musical talents of Martin Era 2.0 that we lost last year; and I'll even throw in a REAL 6D!  Plus, after not doing it since August, three debuts in the M10 for the second week in a row!  Buckle up, grab a food cart just in case, and away we go!


****************************************

All three newbies to the M10 this week are acts that have been here before, and have new albums coming out!  The one at #10 released their album last Friday- and we have already heard one song from it- Moon Taxi's Two High!  And now, the just released title track to the lp Let The Record Play comes in at #10:





***********************************

So this week, we have Tony Orlando as the guest.  Tony, I'm a little disappointed you didn't bring the ladies...

Well, you kinda grabbed me in-between girls.  I haven't gotten around to picking out who's going on tour with me yet...

Oh, crap.  Guess I didn't set the controls precisely enough.

So, like, could you help me pick out the ones I'm gonna pick?  I mean you know who...

Yeah, and then I'll be the guy that created Tony Orlando and Dawn!  No, that would be a bad precedent...

"Tony Orlando and Dawn"?  Say, that sounds better than "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", lot less clunky.

Geez, can you forget I said that?

Not likely.  In fact, I'm gonna write it on my hand so you can't do any timey-whimey hocus pocus...

Okay, well then, the REST of you forget I said that, and let's move on.  Here's your list... 13 candidates from 48 stations, and the big winner came close to lapping the field!

Wow!  So the first tune is American Pie by Don McLean, which was #1 on Cashbox this week.

Then comes Led Zeppelin with Black Dog.  Which one is that?

The "Hey hey mama, the way you move" one.

Ah, yes.  It was at #30.

Melanie's Brand New Key was at #2 this week.  Say, her winning this would be a great way to get her back in the Beauty Contest...

Oh, you've read the blog?

I've looked at the pictures.  Anyway, David Cassidy was at #12 with Cherish.

A pirate station from Lorenzo Marquez had a dude named Mike Holm- a German who did what they called Schlager music- got a vote for a song called Dancing In The Sun.

"And it's not Mike HOLMES, either.  I don't sing!"

Badfinger's Day After Day was at #6.

Rare Earth was at #24 with Hey Big Brother.

Joe Tex was ahead of the game, somewhere- he got a vote for I Gotcha which JUST made the charts at #108, and wouldn't peak until around May...

The Reverend Al Green was at #3 with Let's Stay Together.

Three Dog Night is at #15 with Never Been To Spain.

Dennis Coffey had Scorpio at #4.

Nilsson's Without You was at #27.

And lastly, The Stylistics were at #10 with You Are Everything.  There you go, boss!

Thanks, Tony, and be sure to bring- oops, about did it again- bring the girls next time!  Anyhow, like I said we have a really big winner this week- 45.8% of the vote!  But YOU don't know which one that was, so pick from Don McLean, Melanie, Al Green, Badfinger, and Dennis Coffey.


***************************************

Debut #2 comes in at #9, and their lp comes out in March- the Decemberists:







A world of difference between this one and their M10 #1 The Wrong Year back in December 2015...


******************************************

This week I wanted to find a way to salute our fallen of 2017, but had a real dilemma in how to go about it.  Well, one of my sources is a UK-USA chart combiner which ranks acts not only by decade, but all-time- and when I say all time, I mean since 1900!  So they have a top 1000 all time acts, that they rank by a point system I am not privy to.  I CAN tell you that the top acts are in 5-figures of points, and the top 1000 requires at least 830 of those points.  So I decided to let you in on how our fallen "heroes" ranked on this chart.  But not all of them made the top 1000, so let's start with the top acts by points before 1000:

Charles Bradley (who due to the nature of today's music, did not chart)
Robert Knight (pretty much Everlasting Love was his one song)
The Smithereens (who lost singer Pat DiNizio)
The Allman Brothers (who lost both Greg Allman and Butch Trucks)
Della Reese
Al Jarreau
Mel Tillis
Soundgarden (who lost lead singer Chris Cornell)
and Montgomery Gentry (who lost Thom Gentry in that plane crash)

Now, the others, with where they ranked:

Boston (lost drummer Sib Hashian), 955
Steely Dan (lost Walter Becker), 939
Don Williams, 930
AC/DC (lost Malcolm Young), 764
The aforementioned David Cassidy, 740
Tom Petty, 409
Chuck Berry, 299
Linkin Park (lost leader Chester Bennington), 234
Glen Campbell, 197
And the highest ranked of the dear departed, Fats Domino at #95.

****************************************

An unusual spot to start the 6D would have to be with the TV movie Tonya And Nancy, about the famous Olympic skater scandal between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.  Nancy was played by one Heather Langenkamp, whose claim to fame outside of acting was that she was briefly married to one Alan Pasqua, who composed the CBS News theme!  Also on Al's resume was was keyboard work on Eddie Money's debut lp.  And also on that lp was a drummer named Gary Mallaber.  Mallaber had been around a while, playing on Van Morrison's Moondance.  There he was joined by another keyboardist named Jeff Labes.  And Labes was also involved in a song that, years before, was put on this singer's lp because the song they WANTED to put on, got accidentally erased by a (soon to be former) engineer, and the song that would become a hit replaced it.  The singer was Jonathan Edwards, the song was Sunshine (Go Away), and that was the song at #5 that got no Panel love.

BONUS:  The song that got erased, that they searched the tapes in vain to recover?  It was called Please Find Me.  I can't make this stuff up!

*****************************************

And the high debut- all the way up at #6, comes from an act with 2 M10 #1's under their belts.  It comes from their upcoming acoustic lp Nude- and it is Lucius:






*********************************

Stat Pack time!

One thing I found in researching that ranking deal is that I have access to this sites' top acts for every year!  So, for the next few weeks, I will be letting you know what act won the year we are on by their point system.  Some of the results are surprising to say the least.  1972 isn't so much surprising by who won, but by who came in second.  The winner in 1972 was Gilbert O'Sullivan- and the act he beat was some 14-year-old named Michael Jackson.

The #72 in '72 belonged to Edgar Winter's White Trash, featuring vocals by Rick Derringer, and a tune called Keep Playing That Rock And Roll.

At #101 this week was a lesser hit- it peaked on BB at 100- by Freda Payne, called The Road We Didn't Take.  It got lost in the controversy over her antiwar hit Bring The Boys Home.

Our big mover belonged to "The American Band,"  Grand Funk Railroad's Footstompin' Music, moving 26 from 100 to #74.

And on top in the UK was a song with a split personality in the US of A.  That song, which you old timers remember from the Coke ad based on it, was I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing.  The New Seekers had it at the top over there, while here they were at #11- while the commercial's version by the Hillside Singers was at #16.

Speaking of the UK, I thought it might be fun to include where our contestants placed on the UK charts.  This week, American Pie was at 27, Brand New Key was #5, Let's Stay Together was at #10, and Day After Day was at #45.

********************************************************

And by my count, that leaves us with the rest of the M10.

Sunflower Bean tumbles 2 in its fifth week with I Was A Fool.

BØRNS nudges up a spot to 7 with We Don't Care.

Back to back Shacks- the former top dog Audrey slips a pair to #5, and newbie Follow Me moves up 3 to #4.

Mo gets her week at the top, and falls back to #3 with On The Roof.  With this song and Audrey in their 6th week, this is the first time since August 2nd that the oldest songs in the count were only 6 weeks on.

And now, the best poker player in M10 history- he now has a full house with 2 #1s and 3 #2s- and Dent May completes the house with Take Me To Heaven going up a pair to #2.

And the new #1?

The illuminati hottie, Sarah Tudzin, with (You're Better) Than Ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And that Panel beast?  Well, with Melanie, Al Green, Badfinger, and Dennis Coffey combining for just 13 votes (27%), our winnah and new champeen is...

...Don McLean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back next week, God willing, with 1973!