Time Machine co-ordinates VILXXII515113068

As we return to our Musical Tardis after the Thanksgiving break, we happen upon our second straight disaster- or rather the aftermath...

10 days ago, the coal mine in Farmington, WV, exploded with force that was felt 12 miles away.  Miners who were off duty and felt the blast ran to the site, only to find flames shooting 150 feet in the air.  21 miners escaped that day, but the flames burned on for a week, and official rescue operations were shut down today.  Almost a year later, they would re-open the mine to begin recovering bodies- they brought out 59 in a 9-year period before the remainder of the 78 men left behind were sealed in with the mine.  30 years after that, a memo came to light that the mine's chief electrician (on company orders) had disabled the safety alarm on a methane ventilation fan, thus allowing methane to build up without warning.


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Welcome to Time Machine, and in our usual timey-whimey way, we are presenting what should have been last week's Panel picks this week- so for those of you who are sticklers for perfection, let me refer you to the close of the 500th anniversary post-, and also giving you not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new M10 debuts!  Plus a MHOF drummer you prolly don't even know about, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock make an appearance!  It'll be a blast!  Ugh, that was in bad taste...


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I have a lot of songs to share this week, so let's start with the one that debuts at #10!  With their first time on the M10 list, here are- The Beths...




The New Zealand band gives us Beauty Contestant #80, leader Elizabeth Stokes.


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So, today, I have with us from the Strawberry Alarm Clock organist Mark Weitz, guitarist Ed King, and flute dude Steve Bartek!  Nice to meet you all!

M:  Nice to be here.  So this is the future?

For you it is, for me it's kind of a week in the past, but that's neither here nor there.

S: So do we make it big?

Well, not as SAC... individually, you had some success...

E:  Hey, let us in on it!

I can't- spoilers, you know...

S: Oh, come on!  You know you're gonna erase our memories or whatever anyway...

Well... Steve, you become a pretty big composer and orchestrator for TV themes, and you play lead guitar in a band called Oingo Boingo...

S:  Were they a thing?

Sorta- more of a cult thing...

E:  What about me?

Ed, you made it the biggest- you become a guitarist for iconic southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd...

M:  Oingo Boingo?  Lynyrd Skynrd?  Where did I end up? Rooty Tooty?

Um... you kinda faded out... though you have been working with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins...

E: (Giggles)

Now, be nice.  Anyway, we have 27 contestants from 79 stations, so we best get at it.  Here's the one-vote wonders...

S:  Kinda like you, eh, Mark?

M: Put a sock in it, Bartek!  Let's get this going... We have Steve Miller's Band with Living In the USA at #80... The Ventures and the Hawaii 5-0 theme, which was getting an early start as it wouldn't hit the charts till next March...

E:  Here, let me have some!  Marvin Gaye got one vote for I heard It Through The Grapevine at #55... some outfit called Peggy and Jo Jo had Picking Wild Mountain Berries at #31- sounds right up our alley!

S:  My turn! "A garage band from Arkansas" called 5X5 covered Jimi Hendrix on Fire at #42... and the Bee Gees peaked last month with I've Got To Get A Message To You...

M:  Next up, Cream had White Room at #5... Joe Cocker was covering the Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends at #69....

E:  Johnny Nash's Hold Me Tight was at #7... and Johnny Taylor's Who's Making Love at #6!  Say, the top ten didn't have much luck!

S:  Kinda like...

M:  DON'T go there...

S: Okay...  The Grass Roots had Midnight Confessions at #16... a girl group called the Goodies would debut in December and peak at #46 with Condition Red...

M: Finally a bit of famous and a bit of obscure- The Beatles had Revolution, which peaked at #11 last month, and this radio station had their house group, the CKXL Happy Feeling with their "Happy Feeling" jingle.  Wow.

Good job, fellas!  Here's the "also receiving votes" list.

E: Here, I'm up next!  So, Mary Hopkin got 4 votes for Those Were The Days at #3... The Beatles only got three for Hey Jude?  It was at #2.  Boy, the top ten DID get clobbered...

S:  I've got the Ohio Express with Chewy Chewy at #10... and Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman at #21 with 2 votes...

M: Then we have- oh, what the heck, I get the foreign titled stuff?  Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero, is that right? By Rene and Rene at #76... and Stevie Wonder's For Once In My Life at #14...

E:  Nice Spanish lingo, Mark!  I got Both Sides Now by Judy Collins at #28... and I Love How You Love Me by Bobby Vinton at #26...

S:  Hey!  I only got one left!

But at least you get to add a story...

S: Oh!  Yeah!  Anyway, the dude went by Leapy Lee, because his real name was... (chuckle) Graham Pullyblank!

Group: (Laughter)

S: Hee, hee!  So anyway, his song was written by Albert Hammond, who I guess will be famous later on, and was called Little Arrows...

E:  How sweeeet...

S: ...and it got to #18 this week, and was #11 country.  There you go, boss!

Thanks, guys!  So here are your main contestants this week:  Choose from the Classics IV with Stormy at #17; the Supremes and Love Child at #1; Dion's Abraham Martin And John at #8; and Steppenwolf with Magic Carpet Ride at #4!  And now, let's fit in the next new M10 song!  Here is Juanita Stein at #9...





And we are definitely racking up the Beauty Contestants this week!

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So I finally got around to alphabetizing the label list, and one thing that struck me was how many were named after girls!  The biggest was Laurie Records (how about that?) with at least 15 top tens that I could find, including #1s Runaround Sue and He's So Fine, and Panel finalist Abraham Martin And John.  Others included Amy, who claimed Joey Powers' hit Midnight Mary;  Donna, which was best known for R&B star Brenda Holloway; Jamie, which had a lot of success with Duane Eddy's band; Karen, one of 4 labels owned by Ollie McLaughlin (all named after his daughters, with Moira, Carla, and Ruth), which claimed the Capitols' Cool Jerk; Paula, which was mainly a blues/country label but talked John Fred and his Playboy Band into popping it up with Judy In Disguise; Sandy, which was only notable for launching the career of Dr Hook frontman Ray Sawyer; and Sue, which is where Ike and Tina Turner (who apparently set some sort of record in how many labels they recorded on) got their start.


That said, while Atlantic grabbed the most hits this week with 9, it was once again a 4-hit label that won the battle for best average position-

Buddah!  They were riding the Bubblegum craze, and hit with the Lemon Pipers and Green Tambourine at #8 for the year, the Ohio Express with Yummy Yummy Yummy at 11, and the 1910 Fruitgum Company scoring twice with Simon Says at #24 and 1 2 3 Red Light at #39!

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Third debut at #8 is a band with a #1 already under their belt- here's Foster The People...






This should be a theme song for me...


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So once again the 6D victim leads us to an artist list rather than an actual 6D.  That winner/victim was yet another of this week's battered top ten- the Archies at #9 with Bang Shang-A-Lang.  It was at #9 on Cashbox this week, despite never getting past #22 on Billboard, go figure.  And as you may know, the Archies were a studio group, and on this single, Jughead was played by on Gary Chester.  Gary was a session drummer who played on an amazing array of hits, from 1958's Charlie Brown by the Coasters to 1974's Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce!  He piled up 59 top 40's, 47 of them top tens, and 10 #1s, which I have tried to rank by using both CB and BB weeks at the top and position on the year end charts when that failed.  So here are the top ten #1s that Gary Chester was drummer on:

10- Mr Lonely, Bobby Vinton (1 week on BB, #2 on CB)
9- Time In A Bottle, Jim Croce (2 on BB, 1 on CB)
8- Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (1962 version), Neil Sedaka (2/1)
7- Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Jim Croce (2/1)
6- It's My Party, Leslie Gore (2 each)
5- Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Shirelles (2 each)
4- Roses Are Red, Bobby Vinton (4 each)
3- He's So Fine, Chiffons (4 each)
2- Sugar Sugar, the Archies (4 each)

And at #1...

Save The Last Dance For Me by The Drifters, with 3 weeks out of four on BB and 6 on Cashbox!


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Final debut this week, at #6, belongs to a recent #1 act- Anna Burch:





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A quick Stat pack roundup:

Big mover was Neil Diamond's Sunday Sun, leaping from 95 to 58.  From there it would stall, peaking at #42 before falling out of the chart.

The #68 in '68 was Gary Lewis and the Playboys with Main Street.  It was done climbing this week, though, and never cracked the top 100 on BB.

At #101 was a lady named Patty Drew.  An R&B singer, she would peak at #93 with Hard To Handle, and her five charting songs all ended up peaking between #s 62 and 119.

I knew 49 here, and 17 in the UK, including the #9 Those Were The Days, #41 Love Child, #24 Hey Jude, and #48 Hold Me Tight.  I can't claim to know Panelist Little Arrows (UK #13), but I did know their #1- Hugo Montenegro's The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly theme.


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Rest of the M10:

ELO hasn't surrendered yet, but Surrender moves down 3 to #7.

Lucius moves up one to #5 with Ghosting.

Sade rolls up 3 to #4 with The Big Unknown.

Blackberry Smoke stays a third week at #3 with You Got Lucky.

And something happens this week that has only happened once before in the 3 years and change of the M10- both the top two songs have at least 7 weeks on the chart.  The first time was back at the beginning of May with Lucius's Eventually at the top and Alvvays's Not My Baby right behind.

This time, it is Alkonost's Paporotnik at #2.

And a third week at #1 for...

...Roseanne Cash with Not Many Miles To Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel?  Well, if you took the Classics IV, you got 8.8 %...

Steppenwolf got you 7.6%...

Dion got you 13.9 %...

But the winner with 25.3 %...

Yet again the Supremes with Love Child!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems like it was only 5 weeks ago that they combined with Elvis as POTM!  Hopefully, I can negotiate a better deal with Diana Ross next week, as we head to 1969!