Time Machine co-ordinates VIXLIII4763277

Today we break ice in March 2nd of 1977- and I mean that literally, to wit:

On Wednesday, March 2, 1977 a ten ton truck hauling a 20 ton trailer and townhouse over a freshly plowed ice road broke through 16 inches of ice. It happened only 1 mile from its destination near the Pub on Madeline Island (off the northnmost point of Wisconsin, BTW). The story made international news.  (From the Island Gazette).

And it wasn't the only thing I found.  Imagine my surprise at this headline:

Happy 40th Birthday to Chris Martin, Born March 2, 1977

And here I thought I was going on 15 then!  Of course, this was actually about the Chris Martin who leads the band Coldplay, which has "fished off the coast" of the M10 a couple of times.  And yes, it was a year-old article, hence the math.

Welcome to this week's last stop before we head back to the 50s!  This week, a rather instrumental Stat Pack; a 'tragedy' barely averted on the UK #1; a special guest fill in on the Panel picks; 2 new M10 debuts; and Bob Seger on the 6D!  Didn't you just blow the surprise, dipstick?  Why no, just wait and see.  So lace up the ol' ice skates and away we shall pop!


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So let's kick things off with our first of 2 debuts this week, the 285th and 286th songs in the M10's 2 1/2 year history!  Coming at you with her amazing harp-playing (yes, harp playing) skills, here is 25-y-o Mikaela Davis at #7....





(Also know as, "I'm in love again, part one...)

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So Paul Simon was supposed to be here, but I guess he was a bit miffed when he saw a file on the Musical Tardis workdesk with his single (that didn't chart) from 1987, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", on a prospective list of "dumbest song names", so graciously stepping in for him is...

...Art Garfunkel!  A pleasure to have you here!

Thanks.  But you could be a bit nicer to Paul.  He's a nice guy when you get to know him...

I imagine so.  I just wasn't real looking to the prospect of him bring his wife Edie with him.

Well, Edie Brickell is... an acquired taste.  Soooo....

Yeah, let's get to the list.  12 contestants from 26 stations...

Okay, and it looks like there were two main contenders this week!  Our first song is Manfred Mann's Earth Band with Blinded By The Light, which was dropping at #21 this week on Cashbox.

This week was about a month into the first time I kept a top ten every week, and a lot of these were big hits on it, like that one!  And there were a couple of (IMHO) stinkers, too...

So, you were like in high school then?

Spring of my freshman year, and... wait?  Are you interviewing me?

Maybe your fans would like to know a little bit more about this side of you...

Well, I was a typical lonely, angst-y teenager... Mom had passed over the summer... and I was in the second half of my first year in a school where you couldn't count off your classmates one two hands and one foot (as I had been able to the previous eight).  My first experiences at facing prejudice... in being bullied... and wondering what a girlfriend would be like.  In other words, not my favorite time of life.

Wow, maybe we better move on to happier stuff.  Or maybe I should sing a song for you!  When you're weary... feeling small.. 

Uh, I do appreciate the thought, but maybe another time...

Oh, right.  Next is ABBA with Dancing Queen, it was at #7.

Thelma Houston was at #12- and #13 in the UK- with Don't Leave Me This Way.

Evergreen, also known as the Theme From A Star Is Born, by Barbara Streisand, was at number one...

Steve Miller Band was #3 with Fly Like An Eagle.

Kenny Nolan's I Like Dreamin' was at #4.  My kind of song!

Stevie Wonder was at 32 on the way down with I Wish...

The Eagles were at #13 with New Kid In Town- and this was the week Hotel California debuted...

Boy, that's a memory.  We had this old Victrola with a sometimes-working FM radio that had GREAT bass, and the first time me and my friends got a a peek at HC, we turned it on just in time to hear the closing guitar duel.

Yeah, just like that...

Daryl Hall and John  Oates were at #8 with Rich Girl.

From Australia, we have a vote for the band Pussyfoot, who basically were an Australian one-hit-wonder with a song called The Way You Do It.

At #2 here, number 12 in the UK, Mary MacGregor and Torn Between Two Lovers.

And finally, #5 here and debuting at #48 in the UK, Al Stewart's Year Of The Cat.  There you go!

Thanks Art!  So this week, a lot of my favorites- and for me, two absolute stinkers that ended up being 1-2 in the Panel poll!  So since we actually have the entire top 5 in here for a change, let's have them be your short list.  So choose from Evergreen, Torn Between Two Lovers, Fly Like An Eagle, I Like Dreamin', and Year Of The Cat.  Which 2 were my stinkers?  Take your guess and I'll let you know if you're in the ballpark in a wee bit!


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Now, our 6D victim at #6 was Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band with Night Moves.  Man, talk about an lp we played over and over!  But it was his first taste of widespread success.  The summer before, Bob went from a June show at Detroit that saw a crowd of 80,000- to a show the next night in Chicago that drew less than 1,000.  Needless to say, Bob wasn't getting dissed because he sucked, because he had a lot of great stuff that never really got the attention it deserved.  So this week, I'm going to give you- My Top 6 Bob Seger songs that DIDN'T crack the top 40:

#6- 2+2 = ?, from 1968.  While it didn't chart- except in Buffalo, oddly enough- it was followed up by Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, which actually made top 20.

#5- Nutbush City Limits from 1976's Live Bullet.  A cover of a tune Ike and Tina took into the top 25 (their last appearance there), it peaked for Bob at #69.

#4- Rock And Roll Never Forgets from 1977.  One of the many great tunes on that Night Moves lp, it just missed the 40 at #41.

#3- Turn The Page, originally from 1972.  AOR plays the live version from Live Bullet a lot, but its studio release failed to chart.  I had an old workmate- can't remember the name other than the Mexicans called him borrego (goat head) because his hair and beard made him look like Wolfman Jack and Kenny Rodgers' love child- who absolutely nailed this at karaoke one night.

#2- Katmandu from 1975.  This one, which also just missed at #43, brings back another great memory.  It was a trip to see the Indians play the Yankees in Cleveland, and with two day games Saturday and Sunday, the three of us kids were left to fend for ourselves that night.  We spent most of that time riding up and down the elevator.  Along the way, we ran across a black guy with that "cool swagger" that kinda made you think of Rudy on the Fat Albert cartoon...

..along with a young and VERY well endowed young blonde (whom we saw the next morning at breakfast with "Rudy" and their FOUR little kids), and a party on the 8th floor that had blaring through the door.... you guessed it, Katmandu.  The games?  Indians won two (Sunday was a doubleheader), Bobby (not Barry) Bonds hit a long home run off Ray Burris, and my sister's bro-in-law Dave (the lone "adult" and Yankee fan) got so mad at the 2 losses, he made us leave before the nightcap.  The local radio passed out "Beat The Yankees" hankies, and mine was pinned on my bedroom wall for about ten years until the "linen" finally started to rot away.

And my #1 low charting Seger hit?

#1- Beautiful Loser, originally from 1975.  The title track to the lp Katmandu came from, it bubbled under at 103, but got significantly more AOR airplay paired with Travellin' Man on Live Bullet.


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Debut #2 is at #6 on this week's M10- and it is the latest from Sunflower Bean...




It becomes the second single from the upcoming lp Twenty Two In Blue...

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Stat Pack Time!

I knew 61 on this week's hot 100- expect that number to drop like a rock next week...

Our #77 in '77 was Quincy Jones' instrumental Roots Medley from his miniseries score.

Without a bubbling under this time, we go to the #100 song, which was another instrumental- Spring Rain by a chap named Silvatti.  Born in Argentina, living in Mexico, he was big on the jazz side of things, as well as scoring some 600 songs and 200 tv and radio ads.

The big mover was William Bell's Trying To Love Two (what the heck was in the water with all these three-way songs this year?), which climbed from 65 to 42- a 23-spot leap.

And the "tragedy" on the UK chart?  Well, I looked up and found to my surprise, the UK #1 was Tragedy by the Bee Gees.  Without turning my mental calculator on, I went merrily down the list and came to the realization that NONE of the US hot 100 were on the British chart!  Then I looked up- and saw my fat finger had sent me to 1979 rather than 1977.  So quickly hopping back a couple of years, I found that the ACTUAL top song in the UK was Leo Sayer's When I Need You- which was #87 here, two weeks into its own slog to the top of the charts here.

And that clue?  If you thought Barbara Streisand and Mary MacGregor were my stinkers, you know me well!  Advance to the final round!

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And the rest of the M10:

illuminatti hotties finally descend, from 4 to 10 on their 8th week- with (You're Better) Than Ever.

Moondoggies up one to #9 with Easy Coming; Frankie Cosmos likewise to #8 with Jesse.

Shilpa Ray nudges up one to #5 with Rockaway Blues- and with the two ladies roaring up behind her, that might be all she wrote for chart advancement.

Roaring ahead of her is Beach House with Lemon Glow, up 4 TO #4.

Also in the "I might have got higher if only" pile is the Decemberists' Severed, holding at #3.

Lucius, content with two weeks at the top, slides to #2 with Neighbors.

And the new number one....

...the Voodoo Children with Tangerines And Daffodils!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the winner by a 7-5 margin, or 27% of the vote...

...torn-up stinker Mary MacGregor with Torn Between Two Lovers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Which makes me happy because it gets me out of sharing air with Streisand!  So tune in next week where we go to 1956, when Mary is a blushing almost 8 and I have yet to debut, and we'll start all over again!