So today I thought I was going to have to bring down the mood by telling you of a grisly murder that happened on our target date- BUT I was off one day, so we missed it. Instead, on August 3rd, 1976, NOTHING happened. I defy you to find something that did. Put it in the comments and we'll vote on the best one. On the bright side- no plane crashes!
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Anyway, here we are for another Time Machine- just 2 more weeks until the big 500th-slash-M10 3rd anniversary celebration! This week, we have the Captain and Tennille, a surprise interview, and a bigger surprise debut on the M10! Yeah, I know, it sounds like another crash comin'...
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...and it don't stop there, because the Cashbox numbers I gathered are actually ONE WEEK AHEAD... but close enough for government work. The Panel numbers are a-okay, though, so just pretend you don't know what I told you, and
Anyhow, let me start off with our one M10 debut this week... and if I told you that their new lp is called Baby DON'T Come Back, would you be able to guess who it is? That's right, for the first time in many years- I give you... Player!
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This week, the Captain and Tennille are our guests! Hi, guys!
T: Hello!
C: ....
So I have to say, you guys are kinda hit and miss for me... I either LOVE your tunes or hate them, very little middle ground. Do you run into that a lot?
T: I really don't worry about it that much. Not every song is for everyone, so we just do good songs the best we can, right Daryl?
C: ...
Well put. So anyway, we have a short list of 13 songs from 38 stations- the numbers seem to drop as you get more into the "programmed music" era.
T: That's the real shame of what happened to music. The scene itself is as vibrant and alive as it ever was, but it's harder and harder to hear the variety of what's out there. Don't you think so?
C: (Nods...)
Okay, so basically, with this few songs, we'll go with two lists- the "one vote wonders" and everybody else. Cap, would you like to lead things off?
C: ....
T: Hon, you better let me handle this... First, we have Dr. Hook's A Little Bit More... it was #2 in England and #27 in the States. I like this kind of song... sensual...
And that's the kind of your songs that I don't care for- with the exception of The Way That I Want To Touch You...
T: I HOPE that wasn't implying anything... Daryl can be SO jealous, right?
C: (Looks down)
No, no implications. Just not a big fan of "bedroom" music. Not a big Barry White fan, either.
 |
| "Don't write checks with yo' mouth, honkey..." |
Simple opinion, guys. Can we get back to the list?
T: Oh, sure, where was... ah. Next is an Australian tune, by a band called Fox. It is called SSSSingle Bed, and it was a #1 in Australia, #4 in the UK, and #10 in the Netherlands...
...and about as entertaining as that song by Baccara...
T: Boy, you're certainly Mr Negative today! Next is The Bee Gees and You Should Be Dancing. It was #9 here, and #20 in the UK... and what's this number?
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that! Just save that for me, I
T: All right... The Beatles got one vote for Got To Get You Into My Life, #3 this week on Cashbox...
The Beach Boys, too, for Rock N Roll Music, #19...
And KC and the Sunshine Band with Shake Your Booty at #21 and 22 in the UK, Tavares with Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel at #20 and 6 in England, and Peter Frampton's Baby I Love Your Way at # 24. I suppose that one is too bedroom for you, too?
No, not at all. Frampton does bedroom right.
T: Well, it's nice to know you have some romance in your grumpy ol' soul... (Scoots over, bats eyes...)
Uh, yeah well, we better get to the big 5, right, Cap'n?
C: ....
T: Okay, the ones you get to choose from include... hey, you never said it was a tie...
A TIE? Holy crap, I missed that, too? Here, let me shift back in time for a sec... HEY! Don't grab that... ZZZZZIPP...
C: ....
AND we're back...
T: That was fun... (Grinning...)
Uh, yeah, let's not go into that... anyway, so yes, we do have a tie at the top, and there will be a run-off. So, uh, could you please give the final five...
T: You know I can... first, we have ... oh, look at this! Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band, #1 on Cashbox and #47 in the UK. Chris, do you...
DON'T say it...
T: All right then, MR Touchy... Then we have Elton John and Kiki Dee with the #2 here and #1 in the UK... (singing) Don't Go Breaking My Heart...
Ugggg....
C: ....
T: At #5 here and #7 there, the Manhattans and... Kiss And Say Goodbye...
(Whispering) Lord, let this end...
T: Wings are #4 here and # 28 there with Let 'Em In...
...and Wild Cherry with Play That Funky Music at #17. Anything else you need some... help with?
Nope, we're good. So choose from SVB, Elton and Kiki, the Manhattans, Wings, and Wild Cherry, and we'll be back in a bit to give you the run-off contestants.
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So in lieu of a 6D, we have a chunk of a local interview that one Mark H Stowers did with Bruce Blackman of Starbuck -whose Moonlight Feels Right was at #6 without any Panel love- to see the battle they had to get the record played...
With a new company to call on, Blackman hightailed it over and Private Stock signed the band and put out the record.
"But when the record came out, nothing happened."
He wasn't about to give up so he devised a plan with his bandmate Bo Wagner to split up and take the record to every possible radio station they could get to. In his estimation, Blackman visited every radio station in Mississippi personally, except the major ones in Jackson that already had music services and didn't take anything off the street. While on his "radio tour" Blackman got a taste of real radio in Meridian.
"We probably went around to 300 or 400 radio stations each," Blackman said. "I went in and they guy said he'd listen to my record if I'd read the farm report."
Not one to look a gift horse of any sort in the mouth, the red light came on and Blackman was the new "Les Nessman" of Meridian.
"He said 'go' and the report was about the agriculture minister from Russia. And his name was unreadable and unpronounceable. So when I got to his name in the report I said 'his name looks like the alphabet backwards' and then I kept reading. They just died laughing and they took the record. They didn't hear it until they played it on the air."
His "tour" paid off as WERC program director Mike St. John in Birmingham, Ala., loved the song but told him it wasn't a fall song but a spring song and he'd start playing it in the spring. He did and the requests for it hit 25,000 in one week.
"In late March, he added the song in Birmingham. Then we call from our publisher and he said y'all have to stop calling WERC and requesting the song and jamming up their request line. But we figured out later that none of us had done that."
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So about those numbers that Ms Tennille mentioned- Ft Wayne station WMEE was actually on the Panel this week! And here in River City, the top ten looked like this:
1- Afternoon Delight
2- John Travolta's Let Her In...
3- Gary Wright's Love Is Alive...
4- You know who with Shop Around...
5- Seals and Crofts' Get Closer...
6- America's Today Is The Day...
7- Dorothy Moore's Misty Blue...
8- Elton and Kiki...
9- The Manhattans...
10- The Beatles.
Other panel picks on the list were Let 'Em In (21), You Should Be Dancing (22), Play That Funky Music (20), and Shake Your Booty (28).
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Stat Pack:
Certainly a new record with 8 of 13 Panel picks on the current British chart, including Elton and Kiki with the current #1. And I knew 20 of their 50, along with 53 of our 100.
Our #101 is the correctly named Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Dennison, with a tune that would make #67 on Billboard called Light Up The World With Sunshine...
The #76 in '76 was Chicago's If You Leave Me Now. Originally the b-side of Another Rainy Day In New York City, which stalled last week at #33. The b-side would make it 32 notches higher, becoming the band's first number one.
Oh, and the big mover was Orleans and Still The One, going from #61 to 43, an 18-spot jump. And last week, they were the #75 in '75, so they've gotten a lot of press here lately...
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So who goes onto the run off? Why, that would be Afternoon Delight and Kiss And Say Goodbye. Geez, good thing Tennille is back home where she belongs now...
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The rest of the M10:
The Jayhawks have a mixed week. Everybody Knows drops 5 to #9 in week #8 for them... Backwards Women goes forwards to #2.
Also 8 weeks for Caroline Rose, whose More Of The Same slides down 3 to #8, and into a 3-way tie for 13th all time.
Gilbert O'Sullivan, who is 44 years older than Miss Rose (but amazingly 6 years younger than Toni Tennille) moves up 3 to #7 with The Same The Whole World Over.
Baywaves moves up a pair to #6 with 1954 Egyptian Drama.
Kidsmoke puts on the big move, rising from 9 to 5 with Patterns.
Jim Croce is up 3 to #4 with Lover's Cross.
(knock knock knock) What in the world... oh, never mind. Black Joe Lewis is out of the top after a 2-week reign, down to #3 with Nature's Natural.
And that leaves as the #1 song....
(knock knock knock)
...Geowulf with Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the winner of the run-off, by a 5-3 margin, is...
....Starland Vocal band with Afternoon Delight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tune in nex... (knock knock knock) ...NARDOLE! What is that infernal knocking?
Some old lady... says her name's Toni...
Engine Room... get us OUT OF HERE!!!
Chris:
ReplyDelete---How about THIS for 8/3/76?
https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/diary/pdd760803.pdf
I mean...it IS something that happened.
---Captain Daryl was never one for verbal intercourse, was he?
Toni, on the other hand was quite the talker (and a good looker in her day).
---Have NO bloody idea who tops the charts this week (stab-in-the-dark time)
---Player...not a bad song.
---Got a kick outta that Blackman interview...you never know until 'ya try...heh.
---Fort Wayne's WMEE was one of the stations this week? Is that a first? Can't recall the last time FTW radio had mention here.
---Hamilton, Joe, etc...excellent song. Really liked it.
---Knew it...my pick didn't even make the finals.
---Gilbert and Jim keep moving up!
---Geowulf at the top again...doesn't surprise me. Good sound.
---Afternoon Delight...didn't choose it because I was never a fan of SVB...and that's why I missed by a mile.
(maybe next week)
Very good ride this week.
Keep those hits comin' up there, brother.
You know, I have thought about going to those Presidential diaries in extremis. No real entertainment value, though.
DeleteWMEE: Not a first but darn rare...
Player: There has been a lot of "new stuff by old acts" out there this year, including McCartney, Sir Elton, even the Guess Who. But 99% is crap. Player did good, Gildert O sounds like his old self, and if you can hit the song that isn't over-the-top bluesy, Boz hasn't done bad.