Today, we go to February 1st, 1976- and we have yet another plane crash, this one killing 5 people and two light planes near Adelaide, Australia. Oh, and Werner Heisenberg may have died, but I am uncertain...
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| "Dat is the vurst science joke ov all time- and vun ov the oldest..." |
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Let's kick right off with the M10 song at #10- this one stars spanking-new indie acts Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, along with somewhat more experienced Lucy Dacus, in a new supertrio calling themselves boygenius (no, I did not forget to capitalize).
Might want to tell their mixers to punch up the live vocals... but this is what I got for now.
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It's a real honor for me to bring in Barry Manilow for the Panel picks this week. How are you, sir?
Just fine, yourself?
Great! I'm a long time fan, and actually, this is the second time you won the Panel Picks, and both times with Mandy! The last time was not quite a year ago, right after you were on the M10.
I remember like it was yesterday...
Yeah, that's that whole timey-whimey thing...
I was beginning to wonder if you were making me a regular guest...
Well, you do have a song ON the Panel this week that's sitting at #2 this week, so there's a STRONG possibility that you might be back next week!
Really? Has that ever happened before?
Not yet...
So it probably won't happen now...
We'll have to wait and see, won't we?
Aren't YOU being coy about this...
Well, if I let the cat out of the box, I'll have Schrodinger as well as Heisenberg mad at me, so...
Gotcha. Let me see the list.
All right, here are the one-vote wonders...
What, no alphabetically anymore?
It has been a year, things change...
Oh, yeah, forgot about that. Seems like yesterday to me! ANYhow, here we go!
Silver Convention's Fly Robin Fly is dropping, stopped at #62 this week.
The Eagles- say, this is a very bird-y post!- are at #14 with Take It To The Limit...
Nazareth has the old Roy Orbison cut Love Hurts at #22...
Rhythm Heritage- I see you still struggle spelling that word- is at #15 with Theme From SWAT. Is that like a movie about giant bugs?
No, a TV show about cops....
OOOkay... here's one from Australia, the Ted Mulry Gang with Jump In My Car. This says David Hasselhoff took it to #3 in the UK charts in 2006. 2006? And who's David Hasselhoff?
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| "Someone call me?" |
Let's not be so hasty...
Best be back to the list, Barry...
Oh, yeah, right. Looks like Queen is on the panel again this time with Bohemian Rhapsody, at #42 and climbing...
In fact, you have 7 repeaters from the last time you did the show- SWAT was one of them...
Hey, so was this one- Cletus Maggard's The White Knight, at #32...
Then we have Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby at #7.
And Aerosmith's Dream On at #44.
Okay, now here are the "also receiving votes" bunch.
Okay, with 2 votes we have Sweet with Fox On The Run at #18... and Diana Ross's Theme From Mahogany at #22 and dropping.
And with three votes, George Baker's Paloma Blanca at #23, and Hot Chocolate with another repeat, You Sexy Thing at #4.
Okay, bud, here's the final four that the fans get to choose from...
So, we have 3 repeaters- Paul Simon's 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover at #3; the Ohio Players and Love Rollercoaster at #5; CW McCall and Convoy at #1....
...and of course, yours truly with I Write The Songs at #2...
There you have it, gang! Vote for Rhymin' Simon, CW McCall, the OP, or...
...or me!
...or him! Just remember, while we've had guests be POTM multiple times, we've NEVER had one win two weeks in a row...
But you never had me with top tens a year apart before...
Actually, we did last time, but I Write The Songs didn't get ANY votes...
Oh, yeah...
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Anyhow, here's out next debut at #9- inspired by this dude's trip to the Louvre!
Second time for Carlos and the boys on the M10... here's Carlos on that inspiration, from an interview on PRNewswire:
As he recalls, "I heard her say to me, 'Hi.' It was stunning, and I didn't know what to say back, so I just said, 'Hi.' And then she said, 'Do you remember me? When we were lovers in another time?' It was the most incredible occurrence, and in a way, it was kind of perfect that I had never been to the Louvre before, because this might not have happened at another time. I had to be who I am now, knowing that God is everywhere and that He was saying, 'I love you,' by sending me this message of inspiration and visualization."
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Tony Macaulay is a songwriter that had 20 UK top tens, including the #1s Don't Give Up On Us and Silver Lady (love that song!) by David Soul, our recent UK topper You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me by the New Seekers, Let The Heartaches Begin by Long John Baldry, the Foundations and Baby Now That I Found You, and Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes. That last one was sung by the voice of the Lighthouse (along with White Plains, the Pipkins, the First Class, and the Brotherhood of Man), Tony Burrows. He comes into our story with his American cover (which barely broke the top 60) of a song called Melanie Makes Me Smile, a UK hit by (Hank) Marvin and (John) Farrar. They were instrumentalists who'd played on a couple of the UKs and Australia's biggest backing bands- Marvin on Cliff Richards' Shadows, Farrar on the Strangers. The lp the song came from had an interesting guest player on recorder- a guest who just happened to sing this week's 6D song! But before I give her away, let me step back and build up the suspense by giving you the biggest top 40 hits here written or co-written by our starting point Tony Macaulay:
9- 1984's comeback by Sergio Mendes, Alibis with Joe Pizzulo, #29
8- 1969's Baby Take Me In Your Arms by Jefferson (actually Geoff Turton), #23
7- 1971's Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again by the Fortunes, #15
6- 1967's Baby Now That I Found You from the Foundations, #11
5- 1972's Last Night (I Didn't Get To Sleep At All) by the 5th Dimension, #8
3T- 1970's Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes, Edison Lighthouse, #5
3T- 1969's Smile A Little Smile by Flying Machine, #5
2- 1968's Build Me Up Buttercup by the Foundations, #3
and the top, David Soul's Don't Give Up On Us, #1.
So who played the recorder on the Marvin and Farrar hit?
...why, it was Olivia Newton-John, who was at #6 without a vote, but WITH John Denver, on Fly Away!!!!
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Today's stat pack:
The Label game was a tight race with 11 qualifiers, but came down to two contenders just 0.9 of a position apart! Nosing out Warner Bros this week was...
...oh, and Rick Dees' Disco Duck at #4.
The big mover was on Barry's last Panel list but not this one- Elton John's Grow Some Funk Of Your Own, growing 22 from 51 to 29.
The #76 in '76 was Willie Nelson with Remember Me, a #2 country hit that only got to #67 pop.
The #101 was A Fool In Love by the Frankie Miller Band; Frankie was a Scottish rocker who was buds with Robin Trower.
I knew 58 of the Hot 100, and 15 of the UK 50, including Panelists Bohemian Rhapsody (6), Love To Love You Bay (4), and 50 Ways (27), along with the numero uno- Abba's Mama Mia, a tune that wouldn't debut here until the last week of May, and despite the musical and all that, would peak at #36 just after the 4th of July.
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The remaining M10:
Criminal Hygiene gets held at #8 with Greetings From A Postcard.
Roseanne Cash leapfrogs them 2 spots to #7 with The Only Thing Worth Fighting For.
REALLY leapfrogging them is the Essex Green, with Sloane Ranger moving from 10 to 6.
And then stuck again at 5 is Animal House and Heavy.
Castlecomer's first #1, She's So High , a cover of a hit by Canadian Tal Bachman (#3 in Canada and #14 here) in 1999, slides a notch to #4.
Last week's chart topper, the Decemberists and Travelling On, travels on down 2 to #3.
Stampeding into the runner-up slot is Liz Cooper and the Stampede with Outer Space.
And with their second #1 on the M10...
...the Beths and You Wouldn't Like Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And now for that Panel pick- and a tight race it was- the top four were 6-5-4-4!
Convoy and 50 Ways each get 10.5%...
The Ohio Players received 13.1%....
Which means the first 2-in-a-row winner, with 15.85....
I told you! It's me! It's ME!!!!!
Sigh, yes, it is Barry and I Write The Songs!!!!!!!
THREE-peat! THREE-peat!!!
Good God, man, calm down! Thing is, it could happen, because one year and one week from now, he IS in the top ten again! Which song is it? Can he do it? Find out next week, God willing!
I got stuck on David Soul and *that* song "Don't give up on us" (Wasn't there a "baby" in there, too?)
ReplyDeleteHaven't thought about him - or Starsky and Hutch - for donkey's years, so thanks for getting that song stuck in my head for today!!
"...wasn't there a baby in there?..." Same thing Laurie said...
DeleteIn t he mid 70's I was right into my music and this post was full of some great memories, thank you
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ReplyDeleteInteresting, as always! David Hasselhoff was very popular in Germany as a singer. I guess it didn't hurt to have a German name, either. ☺ He actually had a decent voice, but was not taken seriously, here. Loved the Santana/Mona Lisa bit. ☺ I never heard of Tony Macaulay but those songs are all familiar. Another win for Barry! He must be so proud.
ReplyDeleteYou know how bad I wanted to use the old Norm McDonald line from SNL, "because Germans LOVE David Hasselhoff!", but I just couldn't work it in...
DeleteChris:
ReplyDelete---Heisenberg...(nice touch)...heh.
---Boygenius - agreed. The mixer needs to crank up the vocals. Other than that - good song.
---Very good banter w/ Barry.
---Santana - another good song from him.
(like it a lot)
---Tony MacCaulay sounded rather familiar, but when you started naming ALL those hits he had his fingers into, it makes sense.
---Didn't know OLJ played the recorder...learn something every week here.
---I figured we'd hear from RSO records sooner or later...that ran a pack of hits (and that was from just the Bee Gees).
---It's hard to not see The Beths climbing to the top of the M10 with another hit. Good for them.
---YES! Nailed the panel pick 2 weeks in a row (and w/ Barry Manilow)...fantastic.
(I know Laurie had to have gotten it, too).
Lastly...remind me to show you my "Knight Rocker" (Hasselhoff) LP some day...
Excellent ride this week.
Keep those hits comin' up there, brother.