Time Machine co-ordinates VILX49571373

Today is a Time Machine rarity- You are reading on Friday the 13th of July 2018, and we are travelling in Friday the 13th, 1973!  No bad luck here, though.  Today, Queen released their first (self-titled) album.  The lead single was a rocking number you might remember- Keep Yourself Alive.  The BBC kept it off their playlists because " the record "took too long to happen". "  After the failure to chart here and in the UK (the only Queen single NOT to chart in the UK), it was re-released in 1975- getting a #89 peak on Cashbox.  Then Bohemian Rhapsody followed- and this too was a song eventually re-released.  In 1975, it got a #9 on Billboard and a #6 on CB;  in 1991, following Wayne's World, it got a #2 Billboard and #1 Cashbox.

This snap for the single is the first known picture of the band, I'm told

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Welcome to this week's trip through music, where we will chill a bit after the 4th of July celebration last week (and prior to the big anniversary episode in 5 weeks).  We have Bill Withers, a new debut on the M10, and how the 1.57 %  became the 1.88% this week- and no, it has nothing to do with politics or rich people!  So let's do the Freddie and get on with it!


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Let's give a big hello to Bill Withers!

How are you today, sir?

Man, I feel 45 years younger!  This is one great ship!

But, Bill, you are only 35 where I got you from...

35 and 9 days!  I don' know man, I just feel like I was a lot older a while ago...

Hmmm... must have a circuit going bad.  Anyway, you know why you're here, right?

Man, I don' know WHY I'm here, just glad to be here...

Okay, well, I'm gonna give you the list of songs that were local #1s this week back in 1973, with little tidbits here and there.  You read them off, and later the folks out there will vote on them, and...

Out where?  Here?

Bill, no! Don't open thaWHOOOOOOOSHSLAM damn it all to... er... Bill Withers, ladies and gentlemen!  You'll never know WHERE he might pop up next.  Anyway, it looks like you're stuck with me doing the list yet again, and I think I'll do it like I did last time.  18 contestants from 48 stations- and we have a run-off between the early leader and a dark horse that knotted things up late in the vote!

So, let me lead off with the One Vote Wonders:

We start with Barry White, where many couples end up, and I'm Gonna Love You A Little Bit More, which was at #58 on Cashbox this week.

Then it's Wings and My Love, our Laurenco Marques song, charting at #11.

One of the things I never quite got about music was the idea of re-releasing Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Monster Mash in the middle of summer.  But they did, and it sits at #25 this week.

The Doobies were at #10 with Long Train Running.

Next comes our "missed the memo" song for the week- Gunhill Road's Back When My Hair Was Short, which had dropped off after peaking at #37 in June.

Coven had just come in with One Tin Soldier at #97.

South African teen star Lauren Copley had a vote with, surprisingly, Kentucky Blues.  In researching this, I see she released her first new recordings in 40 years back in 2015.  That has to be some kind of record...

Bloodstone's soul hit Natural High was at #6.

Three Dog Night was all the way up at #3 with Shambala- but got boned on the voting.

And finally, Lobo with How Can I Tell Her at #45.

In the "better but not good enough" crowd, we have with 2 votes:

Paul Simon's Kodachrome- which puts the week's #2 song out of contention...
and the Stories with Brother Louie at #44.

Then, with 4 votes:

Jim Croce and Bad Bad Leroy Brown at #7... and the Carpenters with Yesterday Once More at #8.


That leaves us four songs, two of which went to a run-off.  Vote from amongst:  Billy Preston's Will It Go 'Round In Circles (#1), Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water (#9), George Harrison's Give Me Love (#4), and Clint Holmes' Playground In My Mind (#5).  I'll be back in a bit to let you in on the Big Two.


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New debut this week comes in at #7.  Since I started the M10, I've often thought of some new to me group as the M10's version of (fill in the blank).  Like, the Explorers Club are my Beach Boys, Redspencer was my Strawberry Alarm Clock, Monster Truck was my Steppenwolf, the Derevs are (kinda) my Archies, POWERS are my KC and the Sunshine Band, and the Monkees... well, they play themselves.  This act, with 2 songs in this week's ten, are kinda like my Eagles.  With the latest from their new lp, here are the Jayhawks:





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We start our journey to the 6D victim this week with one Kenny O'Dell.  No, that's not what you get when you mix Alan O'Day with Kenny Loggins, thanks for asking.  He is actually a fairly successful country songwriter, who penned Charlie Rich's Behind Closed Doors and the Judds' Mama He's Crazy.  Another hit was Tanya Tucker's Lizzie And The Rainman, which she took into the top 40 (#37) as well as #1 on the country charts.  Tanya also had the first hit with Delta Dawn, charting #6 on country but only #72 on the Hot 100.  Funny you should mention that song, because Delta Dawn was only a hit by two days.  Wait, what?  Well, Helen Reddy, who hit #1 on all appropriate charts with that song, released her version just two days before another singer released hers... the other singer got no traction with her version, so the record company flipped the single, and the b-side became just as big a hit as it had been originally for the Andrews Sisters back in the 40's.  The position, #6.  The singer?  Bette Midler.  And that's how she got her first big hit- Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, which sat at #12 this week without any Panel Love.

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Did you make it into the run-off?  If you took Billy Preston and/or George Harrison... you did not.  If you however took Deep Purple or Clint Holmes, you got the two that split 16.7% of the vote each, and move onto the run-off.

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Our stat pack:

I knew 52 songs out of the 100 this week.  On an unrelated note, I knew 13 of the top 50 in the UK.

Johnny Taylor's I Believe In You (You Believe In Me) was the big mover, 27 notches from 66 to 39.

The #73 in '73 was Elton John's Daniel, on its way back out of the chart.

And at #101 was Joe Simon's Theme from the movie Cleopatra Jones. 

Believe it or not, I knew this "blacksploitation" flick because, a long time ago, I wrote a story in the genre of League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, using this Bond-ish character, along with Mr Roarke and Tattoo from Fantasy Island, Gilligan, Rooster Cogburn, and a few more characters that slip my mind right now.  Joe Simon would make it to #18 with this one.


Since I forgot to mention it before, our only Panelists who made it onto the UK charts were Give Me Love (#10), and Yesterday Once More (#34).

And the Brit #1?  Why that was Slade with Skweeze Me Pleeze Me ... another of their 13 trips into the UK top 3 that I will never quite fathom...  I thought about putting up this video, but considered a) I want you to come back next week, and b) I want you to come back with your hearing intact.


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The remaining M10:

Wet slips back down a pair to 10 with You're Not Wrong.

Gin Blossoms hold at 9 with Here Again.

Shilpa Ray is in her 8th week, at #8 with Shoot This Dying Horse.

The Derevs slip to #6 with Now You Know My Name.

Another 8-weeker, Phantogram's Saturday is far and away the biggest hit that peaked 4 or lower on the M10.  They are at #5, in a battle for 3-4-5 that almost was flipped the other direction.

The two hottest songs of the week are three notch jumpers- Geowulf's Sunday at 4 and Black Jow Lewis's Nature's Natural at 3.


The "Eagles of the M10" the Jayhawks, hold at #2 with Everybody Knows.

So coming into this week, we had the 1.57%- the percent of M10 songs who spent 4 weeks at the top.  This week, that percentage goes up to 1.88%.  With the 6th 4-week #1...

...Caroline Rose with More Of The Same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And the winner of the run-off by a 4-2 count...

Deep Purple and Smoke On The Water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Next week we'll be in 1974... IF I have figured out where Bill Withers ended up by then!