Time Machine co-ordinates VILIX4947672

Today is July 6th, 1972, and guess what was happening in Music?

David Bowie's performance of Starman may not have changed anything, but it's still an extraordinary piece of television. On Thursday 6 July 1972, halfway through an edition of Top of the Pops, David Bowie performed his new single, Starman. Dressed in a multicoloured lycra jumpsuit, he put his arm languidly round his guitarist Mick Ronson and looked seductively into his eyes. 

That from Joe Moran's 2012 review of Dylan Jones' book When Ziggy Played Guitar.   While certainly (and unfortunately) not a big deal today- and not that big a deal in his concert performances, it was a shattering moment on live TV- or would have been, if not for...


In 1972, less than 5% of British homes had more than one television. Most teenagers avidly watched Top of the Pops, as the only chart music show on TV, but so did their parents, most of whom had grown up before rock'n'roll – and something unfolding unexpectedly on the living room set could uncover a troublesome issue that would ordinarily remain unspoken.

Uh, yeah, let me just stick to the CDs...

And we kick off Time Machine this week by announcing, since I totally forgot it last week, you get the last TWO installments of my top thirty Fourth of July #1s!  Here's the one you SHOULDA got last week...


20-  

George Harrison, Give Me Love!  the 1973 hit had 2 weeks on Cashbox and one on Billboard.

19-

Sheb Wooley, the Purple People Eater from 1958, 5 weeks on CB and 6 on BB!  Why is HE holding his ears, WE had to listen to it...

17 (tie)-

Elvis with 1969's In The Ghetto, with just the one week on CB, and...

...the Beach Boys and I Get Around, 2 BB weeks and 1 CB,  from 1964!

16-

Gary US Bonds with Quarter To Three from 1961, 3 on CB and 2 on BB!  Still good for my money!

15-  

The Jackson Five with The Love You Save, with 2 weeks each, from 1970!

14- 

The Byrds with Mr Tambourine Man, 1 CB week in 1965!

13-  

The Beatles with Paperback Writer, 2 Cashbox weeks in '66!

10 (three way tie)-

Connie Francis with Everybody's Somebody's Fool, 3 CB weeks and 2 BB in 1960...

...the Righteous Brothers with Unchained Melody, 7 Cashbox weeks ( their BB weeks didn't hit the Fourth) in 1955, and...

...Kyu Sakamoto's Sukiyaki, 4 CB and 3 BB in 1963!

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Yeesh, after all that, I simply don't have time for Carole King's guest shot (and had no idea what kinda bit to do anyway), so let me sweep through our 20 contestants from 59 stations the easy way!   First, let me eliminate some non-contenders:

With one vote apiece we have: The Hollies' Long Cool Woman (#38 this week), Donny Osmond's Puppy Love (which got a vote from a UK channel as it was the #1 UK tune this week, but peaked here in April), Alice Cooper's School's Out (#25), Judy Collins, who had a record breaking missed the memo moment with Someday Soon, a pretty song that peaked at #55 three years ago (!), Looking Glass's Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) at # 33, Crosby and Nash with Immigration Man (fell off last week after peaking at #31), The Chi-Lites and Oh Girl (#18), Eddie Kendricks with the imaginatively-named Eddie's Love (#89), Argent's Hold Your Head Up (#74), and a rare Panel appearance for the Eagles and Take It Easy (#14).

Also with one vote each are a couple of special mentions.  One is our Laurenco Marques song of the week, South African country Hall of Famer Alan Garrity with a sprightly little number called I Need Someone; and a tune by Climax (Precious and Few) that I had never heard before called Life And Breath- which IMHO was a far better tune that their big hit, but was mired at #50.

Before I get to the rest of the contestants, though, I have a pair of debuts for you on the M10 this week!  Our first is a new hit from a great classic alt band from the 90's, soon to be playing here at Headwaters Park!  From their new lp Mixed Reality, this is the Gin Blossoms at #9...

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Okay, now for some not-so-contenders but better than one vote:

Gallery's Nice To Be With You (#3) and Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue (the only other UK charter at their #17 and our #1- yep, number one does NOT contend) had 4 votes each, and Jimmy Castor's Troglodytes (# 5) had 2.

Now since I have this all goofed up anyway, how about we do some more of the Fourth of July #1s before giving you the ones to vote on?


9-

The dapper Herb Alpert with This Guy's In Love With You from '68, with 4 weeks each...

8- 

The lovely Gogi Grant with The Wayward Wind from '56, 4 CB weeks and 6 BB...

6 (tie)-

The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, with Strangers In The Night from 1966, 1 BB week...

...and Johnny Horton's Battle Of New Orleans from 1814, er, 1959, with 9 weeks CB and 6 BB...

4 (tie)-

From 1957, Pat Boone's Love Letters In The Sand, 6 CB and 5 BB... and...

Wings and Silly Love Songs from 1976, 4 BB weeks...

3-

Carole King, our POTM, with her winning song, It's Too Late, 4 CB weeks and 5 BB...

2- 

Perez Prado with 1955's Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White, with 10 BB weeks..

...and howsabout I just save the winner for the end reveals?

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And at long last, your voting choices for this week- pick from The Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose with Too Late To Turn Back Now (#8), Bill Withers and Lean On Me (#4), Sammy Davis Jr and The Candy Man (#7), Billy Preston's Outa-Space (#2), and Gilbert O'Sullivan with Alone Again Naturally (believe it or not, from clear down at #45 and climbing!)

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Our second debut gives us three pairs of deuces on this week's M10- two songs from 2016 lps, two songs named for days of the week, and two songs debuting from acts who start with the letter G!  From the 2016 lp Great Big Blue, the second M10 for- Geowulf!  Debuting at #7...





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Good grief, where am I now?  Oh, yes, 6 degrees.  Well, remember that great seventies trivia question which 5 groups were actually the same one guy?  Answer: First Class, the Brotherhood Of Man, White Plains, and the Pipkins, all of which charted at roughly the same time with their hits (in order) Beach Baby, United We Stand, My Baby Loves Loving, and Gimme Dat Ding.  Oh, yes, I left off Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes- all sung by one Tony Burrows.  This last one was #1 in the UK, giving his first #1 to expert songwriter Tony Macauley.  It was after hearing the Carpenters do We've Only Just Begun that Tony wanted to put together a song for them.  And he wrote a classic, which the Carpenters accepted- and then turned down 24 hours later, because of a drug reference in the midst of the lyric. 

That lyric?  "The sleeping pill I took was just a waste of time..."

Soon later it was taken by the 5th Dimension, who scored big with this week's 6D victim, Last Night (I Didn't Get To Sleep At All), which sat at #6 on CB this week without a Panel vote.

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Stat pack:  Our 101 this week was from the Stampeders with a non-hit I haven't heard yet (but will listen to shortly) called Wild Eyes. NOTE:  Have now listened.  Noot a real viable single, but a great b-side IMHO.

Our #72 in '72 was Harry Nilsson's novelty hit Coconut.  I say, DOCTOR...

Donny Osmond scores a second mention as his Too Young was the big mover, from 59 to 36, 23 places.  And, like I said, Puppy Love was the UK #1.

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The rest of the M10:

Family Of The Year catches one more week- their 8th- with Let Her Go at #10.

Wet's You're Not Wrong slips up a pair to #8.

Black Joe Lewis pounds his way up 2 to #6 with Nature's Natural, the other 2016 song.

2 songs in their seventh week, going in opposite directions.  The one at #5 is Shilpa Ray and Shoot This Dying Horse, down from 3.  The one at #4- amazingly climbing after dropping two spots two weeks ago, is our other day song, Phantogram's Saturday, up one notch.

The top three I told Laurie was, to me, mild surprise, BIG surprise, and no surprise.  #3 is the Derevs' Now You Know My Name, falling a spot to #3;  the big surprise was the Jayhawks climbing 2 to #2 with Everybody Knows.  And we start off the reveals with no surprise at all-

...a third week at the top for Caroline Rose and More Of The Same!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And the winner of the Fourth of July #1s countdown is- and he shoulda seen it coming-

Ray Charles with I Can't Stop Loving You, with 6 CB and 5 BB weeks in 1962!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And the Panel winner?  None other than... 

...Bill Withers and Lean On Me, with a comfortable 23.7% win!

Oh, and one last reveal before I head for 1973- another surprise for the anniversary show will be Laurie's Reverse Beauty Contest- her top ten music guys, in no particular order, at least at this point!

"Well, she better not expect ME to pick the winner..."