Time Machine co-ordinates VILII48651164

Today we hit May 11th, 1964- Laurie's 2nd birthday!  The big story however, would come the next day.  Now, I usually don't just clip something off Wiki like this whole cloth, but the joke at the end is too hard to pass up:

The first of 507 people to be hospitalized, in the Scottish city of Aberdeen, for typhoid from food poisoning began when a student at the University of Aberdeen was admitted to the infirmary at her dormitory. Two days later, her roommate would become ill, and within a week, the number of admissions to City Hospital had risen to 12. By the end of the month, 238 patients would in isolation at the infectious disease ward. Health inspectors would eventually trace the origin to a supermarket on Aberdeen's Union Street, where many of the patients had purchased sliced corned beef or other cold meats. The origin had been a seven-pound can of corned beef, imported from Argentina, that had been contaminated with the bacterium Salmonella typhi; other meats cut afterward with the same slicing machine, and then stored in an uncooled display case in front of a window, were tainted with the same bacteria. The epidemic would abate by the end of July, though consumption of corned beef in the United Kingdom would fall by more than half for the rest of the year. Though only 50 supermarket customers were initially infected, the disease had spread by contact from there, leading to the joke that "Only in Aberdeen would you get 507 slices out of a can of corned beef."

Is it just me... or is that thing BULGING...

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

So now that you're sworn off corned beef for the nonce, welcome to Time Machine, where I give you not one, but two guessing games to go with your Panel picks; what our 6D song has to do with where The Battle Hymn Of The Republic- or Say, Brothers- came from;  and another easy Panel winner!  Any way you slice it, a good time is about to be had!


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

First, here's question # 1- it's spring 1964, just past the peak of Beatlemania.  How many Beatles songs are on the Hot 100 THIS WEEK?  One clue, if you like- it's fewer than the number of candidates for POTM this week (16 from 46 stations), but more than the number of candidates that are Cashbox top tens this week (8)...

"So, that means you're saying... it's between 9 and... say, 15?"

Yup, that's what I'm saying!

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

This week we bring in Little Peggy March!

Wow, wait!  You aren't so "little"...

I should say not!  I'm 26, and I gave up that "little" stuff years ago...

Crap!  I set the controls to 1973 instead of 1963 when I picked you up!  Oh, well, I can't truly say I'm disappointed...

Did I tell you I just found out I'm pregnant?

Hey, the Tardis ain't responsible for THAT...

No, silly, my husband Arnie is!

Whew.  In that case, congratulations!  So, are you ready to name off this week's contestants?

Sure, but first, I want to guess 13 on the Beatles...

Okay, got it.  You want to guess on the second one?

But you haven't asked the second one yet!

That's all right, it IS a Time Machine.  Here, look...

Oh.  Uh-huh... hmm...  All right, I'll take "B".  

B it is.  Okay, have at the list!

Okay... Peter and Gordon debut this week at #72 with A World Without Love. Does that count on the Beatles?

No.  It was originally written FOR them, but they turned it down.  Only songs they actually sang.

All right...oh, and this was also #4 in England. In the USA, The Dave Clark Five were at #4 with Bits And Pieces.

Oh, here's a Beatles song- Can't Buy Me Love, it was at the top!  Oh, and at #7 in England.

The Dixie Cups were at #36 with Chapel Of Love.

Jan and Dean were at #9 with Dead Man's Curve... that one always gave me chills!

Another Beatles! Do You Want To Know A Secret was at #3.

Louis Armstrong was #2 with Hello, Dolly!

Beatles again... Love Me Do at #7.  The flip side, PS I Love You, was at #37.

The Ray Charles Singers were at #18 with Love Me With All Your Heart.

Mary Wells was at #5 with My Guy.  What a sweet song...

Barbara Streisand was at # 51 with... are you all right?  You look like you're getting sick...

Fine.  Streisand allergy.

Oh... I see, I guess.  Anyway, she was at #51 with People.

The Four Seasons were at #8 with Ronnie.  That perked you up!

Indeed.

Terry Stafford has Suspicions at #11.  Whoo-ooo!

The Temptations were at #35 with The Way You Do The Things You Do.  Was that their first big hit?


Their first top 40, yes...

See, I'll bet I get both of my guesses right!  Finally Dionne Warwick's Walk On By was at #34... number nine in England.  Can I guess here, too?

No, because you saw the list!  Bit of a gambling problem?

No... I just wanted to make sure you got one of them right.  Did I?

If I told you, and you were right, everyone would guess with you- and if wrong, that would cut a 1-in-7 chance on the first to 1-in-6, and a 1-in-3 on the second to a coin flip!  Just go wait in the green room to find out.  I'm sure Elvis has a buffet back there or something...

Cool!

So anyway, before I forget (which of course I already had), here is your trimmed down list.  Choose from the 3-or-more vote group of Do You Want To Know A Secret, My Guy, Love Me Do, Hello, Dolly!, Bits And Pieces, Can't Buy Me Love, and PS I Love You...

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

Our one and only debut this week comes to us from a very surprising source.  From a new self titled lp coming out this summer- here's Gilbert O'Sullivan at #10...






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


Which brings up quiz #2.  I went back, after last week's 300th M10 debut, to find out how long in the Martin Era 2.0- starting in May of 1955- it took the Cashbox chart to get its 300th song!  It wasn't easy- they had a real thing about songs just barely falling out of the chart, and coming back in.  So IF I didn't miss any, and IF I counted right, it took 157 weeks- till April 19th of '58- to get their #300.  Which, by the way, was the EXACT SAME NUMBER OF WEEKS it took the M10 to do it!  That was just fricking amazing to me!

But anyway, that week there were three debuts- and by Martin rules, the highest charting one is the winner!  So who was it?  Was it...

A) The Book Of Love by the Monotones...
B) Return To Me by Dean Martin...
or C) Witch Doctor by David Seville?

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

But now the answer to the first quiz- just how many places did the Beatles occupy on the Hot hundred this week?  Just for comparison, Can't Buy Me Love at #7 was the ONLY Beatles hit on the British chart this week.  But here, let's count 'em down:

Can't Buy Me Love at #1 makes one...
Do You Want To Know A Secret at #3 makes two...
Love Me Do at #7 makes three...
Twist And Shout at #20 makes four...
PS I Love You at #37 makes five...
Thank You Girl at #38 makes six...
All My Loving at #46 makes seven...
She Loves You at #48 makes eight...
And I Want To Hold Your Hand at #58 makes it nine Beatles songs in this week's Hot 100; down from 11 a week ago!  So sorry, Peggy, strike one...

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

Once upon a time there was a British sea chanty, perhaps stolen from an old Swedish drinking song.  It was a popular campground chorus, and at the start of the Civil War, it was being sung as, Say Brothers.  Well, one outfit changed the words to both salute a hero of Abolition and pick on a Captain in the outfit with the same name- and this idea was crafted into a song with lyrics by William Weston Patton called John Brown's Body.  He published these words in November of 1861- a month after Julia Ward Howe turned the same tune into the Battle Hymn Of The Republic.

The version by Patton was included by Pete Seeger on a protest's greatest hits record titled Dangerous!?  It also included another, less known protest song of sorts called Beans In My Ears...




...which the Serendipity Singers hit #30 with  later on this year... Right now, though, they were at #6 with no Panel love with Don't Let The Rain Come Down (The Crooked Little Man).

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

Stat Pack time!  And I knew 37 this week!

The #64 in '64 was by a band very similar to the Serendipity Singers- the New Christy Minstrels with Today.  This song was the swan song for founder Randy Sparks, bu the NCM had become a revolving large cast anyway, and among the later famous alums that were on the team this time around were Barry McGuire and future Byrd Gene Clark.


HEY, ELVIS!

Yeah, what'choo want, man?  I'm busy with this Peggy chick...

Just thought you'd like to know you were at #101 this week...

Yeah?  What song?

No foolin'?  That's burnt, man...


The biggest mover was a real contest.  First I thought it was going to Love Me Do, 25 to 7.  Then I saw Billy J Kramer's Little Children go 27 spots from 51 to 24.  Then, I thought for sure Chapel Of Love got it with a 43-spot jump from 79 to 46!

But I was wrong.  Because the big mover, at 49 spots from 92 to 43 was the DC5 with Do You Love Me!

And finally, the Searchers were at the top of the UK chart with Don't Throw Your Love Away, which had charted in the 50's chartwise for the Orlons a year before.


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

The rest of this week's M10 in a sec.  But first, the second answer!

Return To Me moved in from 16 to 10.
Witch Doctor had the biggest jump, from 29 to 8.

But the winner, with a move from 11 to 7, The Book Of Love!  So that would be an 0-fer-two for Peggy, how about you?

And the M10-

The Knocks/Foster The People team up goes up but one notch to 9 with Ride Or Die.

The Shacks slip another pair to #8 with My Name Is.

Melody's Echo Chamber must feel like Melody's Yo-yo, as they go from 7 to 8 and back to 7 with Breathe In Breathe Out.

Lucius takes a tumble after 8 weeks and two trips to the top with Eventually at #6.  It is 3 points away from being their biggest hit ever on the M10.

Neko Case picked the name of her song well- Bad Luck peaked at 4 and now has two weeks at #5.

Last week while I was asleep, Alvvays' then-number one Not My Baby became THEIR all time biggest hit.  They slip to #4 with last week's top dog.

Caroline Rose explodes up from 7 to 3 with Jeannie Becomes A Mom.

Eleanor Friedberger slides into the #2 slot- a 2 notch climb- with Make Me A Song.

And the new #1- their second- for...

...illuminati hotties and Paying Off The Happiness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel?  Well, you got 6.5% of the vote if you took Secret, Bits and Pieces, Dolly, or Can't Buy Me Love;

You got 8.7% if you went with My Guy...

And that leaves you two candidates- and for the first time, it's the a and b sides of the same record vying for the top!  So whether you took the b-side, PS I Love You, or the a-side, Love Me Do, the next POTM is... big surprise here...

The Beatles!  But as for which side of the record which combined for 41.3% of the vote actually WON- that would be, with 28.3% of the vote... Love Me Do!


Next week, we roll into 1965- and MY birthday week!