Time Machine co-ordinates VILXXX5272877

Hello, everybody, and welcome to 1977!  This is Barry Manilow, and on my Time Machine this week, we will get to see if I can complete the three-peat on the POTM Panel Picks!  Meanwhile, Chris will be doing things a little differently this week with several otherwise unrelated stories combining in close association with the 180th week of the M10!  Also...

Barry...

Yeah, oh, hi Chris!  I was just warming up the crowd for you, and...

Um, Barry?  "YOUR" Time Machine?  You think this thing MIGHT be going a tiny bit to your head?

Well, I AM the first person ever to hit the POTM two weeks in a row, and...

Barry, you're worth an estimated $100 million.  I don't break 30K a year.  You really need this to be all about you?

Well, when you put it that way...

Just so long as we're clear...

Yes, sir...

Okay, finish the monologue, and I'll set us up for what's next.

Okay... anyway, Chris is also gonna throw in a trip down his personal Memory Lane, we have a new M10 debut, and I'll be back for the Panel Picks!  We'll be hoppin, we'll be hoppin' today, when things are poppin', the Philadelphia way...

BARRY!!

Oh, uh, back to you, Chris...

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As Barry was just trying to let out of the bag, we have a couple of really unique occurrences this week- BESIDES his attempt at three-in-a-row... and those items led me to discover that this is, in fact, the 180th edition of the weekly M10 countdown!  And as such, I also discovered a tie in, however frivolous, between the unique M10 situations and the top of this week's 6D.  And so, I'm going to let you in on where two of this week's M10s are, followed by the 6D before we get back to a semblance of normalcy.  The first of those situations involves the fact that a VERY fluid chart this week has led to last week's #1, the Beths with You Wouldn't Like Me...

"Uh-oh, I bet we wouldn't like this..."

...dropping all the way to #7 this week!  The only other drop of this magnitude or lower was when Strawberry Runners went 1-to-9 with When We Were Good in the first week of June 2016.  The other thing is a bit more common, but still a 1-in-30 occurrence... for just the 6th time,  and the first since Dinosaur Jr's Hold Unknown in March last year, a song holds for a second week at #10.  That would be last week's debut from boygenius, Bite The Hand.  And here's where the tenuous 6D connection comes in.

You see, the FIRST time that happened was to Angel Deradoorian...

"Oh, yeah, NOW you remember me..."

... when her Expanding Flower Planet spent its second week at 10 in the second week of the M10 chart!  That week, NRBQ was #1 with Riding In My Car, from 1977.  And NRBQ, much later, was managed briefly by Lou Albano- you know, the wrestler that played Cyndi Lauper's dad on the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun video.  Now Cyndi comes into the story because the last song on that debut lp of hers, She's So Unusual, was the #1 Time After Time.  She co-wrote that with one Rob Hyman, who would gain fame as keyboardist for Philly band The Hooters, who had late 80's early 90's hits with All You Zombies (#11 mainstream rock), Johnny B (#3 MSR), Day By Day (#18 pop), and my favorite, And We Danced (#21 pop, 3 MSR).  As a Philly act they had deep roots in local music, and drummer David Uosikinnen organized an annual show called In The Pocket: Essential Songs Of Philadelphia, starring both the other Hooters and several other Philly acts, like Richie and Charlie Ingui from the Soul Survivors and Patti Smyth from Scandal.

Another addition to that grouping was one TJ Tindall, a session guitarist who's been on a ton of stuff, basically helping form the "Philly sound" with the Gamble-Huff songwriting combine.  In fact, a fellow session hand claims that despite the Gamble/Huff credit on the song, it was Tindall that should get credit for the infectious riff on our 6D victim, the first time this act had a hit outside of the Motown label-

Yep, the Jacksons with Enjoy Yourself, #4 on Cashbox without a Panel vote.

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Is it my turn yet?

No, Barry.  Now it's time for our one debut, at #9.  Another new act to the M10, I introduce to you Emile Mosseri and her band, The Dig...





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Okay, Barry, your moment has come.  37 stations, 13 contestants, and one of the tightest final fours ever!  Have at it, starting with the one-vote wonders!

Thanks, Chris!  We lead off with Bob Seger's Night Moves at #10 on Cashbox- boy, the competition IS gonna be tight!

Stevie Wonder has I Wish at #6...

The number one song this week in England, Julie Covington doing Don't Cry For Me Argentina, from Evita, was not on the American charts.

Boney M's version of  Daddy Cool, which was at #99 after peaking at #90...

And David Dundas was dropping at #27 with Jeans On.

Okay, buddy, here's the also-receiving-votes list...

Oboyoboy!  We have an English duo, who hit in Australia because the BBC banned the song for "suggestive nature"... Pussyfoot was the duo, The Way You Do It was the tune.

Kenny Nolan's I Like Dreamin' was at #7...

Barbara Streisand was at #11 with Evergreen, the theme from A Star Is Born...

And... and... 

Barry, you okay?

But... I'm on this list...

Yep, I'm afraid Weekend In New England, at #9 this week, got a 27, a 22, a 21, two 20s, an 18, a 17, a 16, two 15s, a 13, three 11s, two 10s, four 9s, an 8, a 7, a 6, two 5s, and missed the chart 6 times- but only 2 #1s.

But, I was supposed to win... I was supposed to WIN!  Nobody could've TOUCHED me then!  I...

Barry, chill!  You wouldn't have gotten any farther anyway, since we go back to 1955 next week!  And that reminds me, I'll have to start putting up with this crap from Elvis again...

"Hey, watch how you talk about me, son..."

Hey, as long as you're here, maybe you could escort Mr Manilow down to the commissary, to compose himself...

E:  Sure thing.  C'mon, kid...

B:  But I almost had it all... I was gonna be a star...

E: Sure ya were, kid.  Come along with me, I'll fix ya right up with some Balogna Casserole...

OKAY then.  That just leaves me and the Final Four- a voting list that went 8-6-5-5 this week!  Choose from...

The week's #2, Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann...
the #3, the Eagles and New Kid In Town...
25 and dropping, with a lot of "didn't get the memos", Rose Royce's Car Wash...
...and the #1 this week, little Mary MacGregor's Torn Between Two Lovers.  Boy, please let it not be her, she was a little brat last time...

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So before his breakdown, Barry mentioned a trip down memory lane.  You see, it was in January of '77 I started my FIRST top ten countdown, one I kept for about 5 years or so, so the M10 is closing on catching it in weeks!  (Don't worry, I lost those charts eons ago, right about the time Madonna and her ilk were making pop unlistenable for me.)  And I noticed on the Hot 100 were several tunes I had put at #1 at one point or another!  So, in the interests of fun, and with the caveat that with my memory not being as good as it was back then, I compiled the list of songs I am 98% certain hit #1 on those old charts of mine (and one I'll give a 50/50 chance peaked at #2)... and here they are!

Climax Blues Band, Couldn't Get It Right, at #96
Atlanta Rhythm Section, So Into You (the 50/50) at #60
The topic of conversation last week, David Soul's Don't Give Up On Us (Baby, for you who have to have that thrown in) at #39
ELO at #38 with Livin' Thing
Hall and Oates with Rich Girl at #29
10cc's The Things We Do For Love (which I think was the very first one) at 17
Bread's Lost Without Your Love at 12
Weekend comes in at 9, of course (and it might have been the first one too, I can't recall for sure)
Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle at #5
The Eagles' New Kid at 3
 And Blinded at #2- though, as I think about it, this might have been a "right before I started writing them down" #1...


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Let's hit the stat pack!

I knew a whopping 70 of the 100- might be my best score ever!

The #77 in '77 was LTD's Love Ballad, which I kind of remember...

There was no bubbling under on CB this week, so we go to 100 with one I definitely remember (especially waking up on the way home from my first MLB game in Detroit, passing through the one horse bar town of Townley at 2 AM, and hearing it for the first time) , Hot's Angel In Your Arms.

ELO gets a second shout-out this week- they had the big mover, with Do Ya going up 21, from 80 to 59.

I knew 13 on the UK chart, including New Kid at 20, Car Wash at 9, I Wish at 14, and not so much Daddy Cool at #7, and Argentina at the top.

Finally, the label game draws to a conclusion this week, and the last win goes to...

Atlantic!  Their strong suit was Foreigner's debut lp, with Feels Like The First Time at #34 for the year and Cold As Ice at #42.  Preceded by ABBAs Dancing Queen at #3 and Crosby Stills and Nash with Just A Song Before I Go at #67.

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And now, the remaining M10 version #180...


The Decemberists take a mighty tumble as well, with Travelling On falling from 3 to 8 in week #9.

Criminal Hygiene's Greetings From A Postcard gets unstuck and moves 2 to #6.

Then come the three main movers:  Santana from 9 to 5 with In Search Of Mona Lisa, Roseanne Cash from 7 to 4 with The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, and The Essex Green from 6 to 3 with Sloane Ranger.

Also, returning to an upward motion in week #8 from 4 to #2, Castlecomer's She's So High.

And the new #1- the 99th all time M10 #1...

...Liz Cooper and the Stampede with Outer Space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And your Panel winner, with 21.6% (beating Barry by a mere 16.2%)...

...dast, it's Mary MacGregor again!  Oh well, maybe we'll get the ADULT Mary this time...  Find out next week, Lord willing, as we return to 1955!