Time Machine co-ordinates VILI4855463

Today we wandered into May 4th, 1963- a not-so happy Saturday (unless you were Nelson Rockefeller or Carol Burnett, who each got married- no, not to each other!).  185 Muslims bypassed Mecca and went straight to Allah when their boat built for 80 sank with a loss of 185 passengers; a fire in a theater in Senegal killed 64; and protests in Birmingham led by MLK continued...

King had timed the protests to take advantage of the deadlines for the nightly news programs. Footage of kids crammed into paddy wagons and bombarded by fire hoses roused national outrage and attracted the attention of the federal government. President Kennedy admitted that a picture of a police dog biting a young man made him feel sick, and he directed the U.S. attorney general to send a negotiator to Birmingham.


On the bright side, tomorrow the Soviet Union will finally admit that they found Hitler's BBQed remains 18 years earlier.  Why Stalin didn't have his picture taken next to Adolf en flambe I'll never quite understand...

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So this is the week we get the 300th M10 song!!!  Plus, a 63 in 63 that involves a lady named Baby- or Justine- or is it Jeanette?  And a rather sizable Panel list For Mr Acker Bilk to wade through!  From here on in, it's the fun side of May 4th!

"Yeah?  Just wait'll I get Joe up to our room! Aaaaaah EYaaaaaaah AaAaAa aaaaaaaah!!!"

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So today, we greet our current POTM, Mr Acker Bilk?  How are you, sir?

Ay, just fine, lad.  Yourself?

Good.  So, how does one get the name "Acker"?

Well, back in the day, where I was a lad in Somerset, it meant "mate".  An' bein' an outdoorsy sort, I made a lot o' mates.

How does being outdoorsy lead you to the clarinet?

That came a lot later, bu' the tooth I lost in a row at recess made it so I was rather "built for it".

Gotcha.  Well, we have a big list today- 50 stations gave us 21 candidates- so I'm gonna slide over and let you have at it!

Righto.  Well, this starts out a bit odd... our first song is the Ballad Of Thunder Road by American cinema star Robert Mitchum.  But it says here that the song peaked at #62... in 1958??

Yup, that one has to be our all-time "didn't get the memo" winner!

Next is Andy Williams with Can't Get Used To Losing You at #2.  I say, this was #6 back home this week!

Ray Barletto was at # 46 with El Watusi...

The Shirelles were top 10 with Foolish Little Girl at #10.

The Crystals were at #4 with He's So Fine.  This was at #18 back home.

If You Wanna Be Happy by Jimmy Soul was our #8 this week.  Don't know that I quite agree, but it is a sprightly tune.

Al Martino was at #31 with I Love You Because.

Roy Orbison was #7 back in Somerset, but only #51 here, with In Dreams.

Leslie Gore was at #79- oh, I see, it was her debut week- with It's My Party.

Now here's another oddity- two of the same song, just slightly different.  Little Peggy March was at #1 with I Will Follow Him; while Georgia Gibbs' version, which she called I Will Follow YOU- had a vote, but apparently never charted on the regulation pop chart.

Dick Dale had a song with his group called King Of The Surf Guitars.  It wouldn't do much elsewhere- this says it will peak in June at #124.


Which also really stretches the definitions of "candidate" here.

I should imagine.  Now Miss Brenda Lee is pretty much in the same state on both sides of the pond- her song Losing You was #13 back home and #15 here.  And that concludes the contestants that charted in both of our great nations this week.

Puff The Magic Dragon- I do love that song- Peter Paul and Mary were at #3.

Skeeter Davis- is that right?- got a vote for Someone Loves You, which is the B-side for the much bigger The End Of The World, which was at #25.

Bill Anderson- "Whispering Bill", I'm told- was at #39 with a country and western song called Still.

Kyu Sakamoto- happy little chap- was at 92 in its own debut week with Sukiyaki.

The Beach Boys were at #6 with Surfin' USA.

And we close with two songs by Lou Christie.  Two Faces Have I was at #18; The Gypsy Cried had peaked in March.  That was certainly a robust list!



Yes, it was!  And before we whittle it down a bit, let me mention our winner took 30% of the vote and won quite decisively.  But was it:  the Beach Boys; Sukiyaki; Two Faced Lou; Peggy March; or Jimmy Soul, as they are the ones that got 3 or more votes.


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So songs 300 and 301 debut this week on the M10, and the higher gets the prize winner by my previously established rule.  But 301 is no slouch either, as it combines the talents of M10 regular The Knocks and the act that had last year's big summer hit Sit Next To Me, Foster The People.  Combined, they come in at #10:






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Just for fun, I thought I'd let you in on that Dixon, IL, had Surfin' USA on their ballot- but by "the Orlons".  Oops!


Anyway, our somewhat mangled 6D has a lot to do with the Panel list and a few friends.  The song which starts us out- the song that got NO Panel votes- was the Chantays with their big instrumental Pipeline.  Notable in the Chantays' bio are that they were the only rock act ever seen in the 31 year history of...

The Lawrence Welk Show!  Not only that, but the little ol' bubble maker covered Pipeline on an lp he did called Scarlett O'Hara.  Other songs on that lp included this week's contestants Can't Get Used To Losing You, Puff The Magic Dragon, I Love You Because, and Sukiyaki- along with our #101 for the week, Nat King Cole's Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer;  Rolf Harris' Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport; Tony Bennett's The Good Life; Bobby Darin's top ten 18 Yellow Roses; Tips Of My Fingers, which Whispering Bill Anderson, Roy Clark, AND Eddy Arnold all took into the country top ten (with Roy and Eddie just missing the pop top 40 at 43 and 45 respectively); as well as the two singles.  One was the title track, a song which Jet Harris and Tony Meehan of the Shadows took top 3 in the UK; the other was a tune called Breakwater, which was kind of a Pipeline meets Hot Rod Lincoln with some Partridge Family thrown in..

Now I know, you're saying, Lawrence Welk did pop singles?  Yes he did.  From 1938-1960, he hit the top 40 25 times, with 7 top tens.  The only #1 was his 1960 top dog Calcutta; but that was the kiss of death, as he never charted above 48 again.  And these singles were a part of that; Scarlett peaked at #89, Breakwater spent 2 weeks at #100.


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Stat Pack Time gives us in addition to NKC at 101, a #63 in '63 called That's How Heartaches Are Made.  This was recorded by Baby Washington...

...no, no, not GEORGE Washington, BABY Washington...

...who was born named Justine, and later recorded at least once as Jeanette "Baby" Washington.

I knew 34 this time!  Big step up!  Speaking of big steps up, the big mover belonged to the Crystal's OTHER song on the countdown- Da Doo Ron Ron, which had lept from 100 to 77 (23) last week, and topped that with a 28-place move to 49 THIS week!

And just to get you warmed up for NEXT week- the UK was topped this week by the Beatles with From Me To You.  This would be their first #1 on the "official" UK chart, Record Retailer; although Please Please Me had hit other charts at #1, but only #2 on RR.  Altogether, the next year would see the Beatles top the British charts 4 times for 14 weeks;  they would match those 14 the next year in the USA in CONSECUTIVE weeks with 3 songs.



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So one thing Spotify does is, when your playlist is done playing, it plays other songs that match the feel of your list.  Every now and again I hear a bit of that when occupied with something else.  Early this week, I was trying to figure out which of the songs floating around the shuffle would be #300.  The list ran out; then THIS played, and I said, "THERE it is."  This girl's first two lps were tagged "Americana" or "bluegrass"; but miss Caroline Rose is a genre bender, and I think you'll agree that the new single off the upcoming third lp LONER doesn't hit either of those candidates.  What it does do is make a tight top seven battle for the top even tighter.  Presenting at #7, Caroline Rose, and the 300th M10 song...






Makes me wanna go roller skating at Bells...


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Wow, now I guess I'm down to this week's M10, and three songs really goofed everything into something that more resembles a pot of boiling water than an orderly music chart!  That was one... the other ones await.

Roseanne Cash walks down to #9 with The Walking Wounded.

Also walking down was Melody's Echo Chamber, one notch to #8 with Breathe In, Breathe Out.  Guess the string of #1s is over...

Also taking an even more stunning drop from #2 to #6 are the Shacks with My Name Is...

Neko Case also gets spun around, dropping a step to #5 with Bad Luck.

Eleanor Friedberger is the second goofer, blowing up 5 spots to #4 with Make Me A Song.

illuminatti hotties, saving me on the "capital letter" bill with Paying Off The Happiness up a pair to #3.

Alvvays slips a notch to #2 with Not My Baby.

And who was the big goofer?  Meet the new boss- same as the old boss...

...Lucius returns to the top with Eventually!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And that leaves the POTM race!  If you took Sukiyaki or Two Faces Have I, congrats, you got 6%!

If you took Surfin' USA, you got 10%...

Or if you took Jimmy Soul, you got 12%!  But If You Wanna Be Happy with the #1 vote getter, you took...

...Little Peggy March with I Will Follow Him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Next week, into the teeth of the Beatles Storm, in 1964!