Time Machine Co-ordinates VILXXXI52821556

Today the Barry-less Tardis goes, not to 1955 as advertised, as the 1955 portion of the Martin Era 2.0 doesn't start until May.  Instead we go to 1956, where we run into this:

The full story I got from an earlier story in the Montana Standard.  Apparently both these teams, and a Brooklyn Dodgers-Milwaukee Braves set-to, were cancelled because two years previously the Birmingham city council passed an ordinance banning blacks and whites from playing baseball together- as well as dice, dominoes, checkers, and "a long list of other games".  This was apparently the first couple of times the rule had been tested, and the Dodgers weren't about to let Jackie Robinson take a back seat to anyone.  The A's GM, Parks Carolli (if I read the fine print right), told the press that "if Birmingham has a city ordinance to that effect, the A's won't play."  Good on my A's!  Makes me wonder though, whether the Red Sox cancelled their game with their minor league team there.  The Bosox- last team in MLB to integrate, surprise surprise- not only had no black players, they wouldn't have their FIRST one until midway through the third season AFTER Jackie Robinson retired.


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I would go on about this disgusting story, but you're here for the music, right!  This week we go back to '56, discuss the Cashbox policy of combining all versions of a song on their chart, shoot the breeze with an ADULT Mary MacGregor, play two new M10 debuts, speculate whether this is the week we get our 100th M10 #1, and tell another 6D that starts with a obscure Olivia Newton-John fact!  So let's hop in the musical Tardis, where ALL men were created equal!


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Our M10 debuts come in at #s 9 and 10, but it really is a David and Goliath situation between the two.  First, the "David" at #10, from Calgary, Alberta, here are the Fast Romantics:






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Let's see if we can bring in Mary MacGregor...

Hello, and it's nice to meet you as an adult this time!

Are you sure?  As I recall, you didn't really like my song...

Well, honestly, I don't believe a man can conceive of his woman loving both him AND another guy.  So yeah, a song like this without pots and pans crashing in the background seems a bit unfulfilling to me.  Nothing personal.

And in honesty, my former husband felt the same way about the song.  Not that I'd ever DO such a thing...

Yeah, I get that- but you're the hubby at home, and your wife thinks this is a proper song to make your name on...

I knew it was taking a risk.  But people whose opinions I respected told me to go ahead, it's just a song, and it was a big hit.

Regrets?

Ask me when the royalties run out.  You did grab me from 1977 this time.

As hard as that is to believe, we did get that right.  Anyway, because of the way the charts shake out, we have to do things a little different in the earlier years like this.  Anyone who got a top ten vote from Billboard, Cashbox, and the only two stations I had available, KTOP and WJR, makes the list, and I gave 'em points based on where they finished on ALL the charts.  That gives us a 20 song list, with two repeats by different artists.  So I'll have you go up the list until we hit the top 4, and they will be our audience choices.You good?

I'm ready.  Do you want me to read off the points?

Nah, just give the Billboard and/or Cashbox rankings, keeping in mind CB combined different versions where BB did not, and the list also has the top tens from the two "Panelists".

Okay.  So from the bottom up, we start with one of two versions of a song variously known as the Moritat, the Theme From The Three-Penny Opera, and one day Mack The Knife.  This first time of two in the picks, Louis Armstrong did it, titled by Three Penny Opera but sung as Mack The Knife.

That was one of the coolest tunes on the list...

But he only was in a tie for #60 on BB.  Next was Otis Williams "and his new band"- so it says on the label- and That's Your Mistake.  It was #39 on CB.

Then, we have Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers with Why Do Fools Fall In Love- it was the only version, but still CB had it up at #25 while BB was way down at #86.

Not that this had anything to do with it, but BB's was a top 100 (which I didn't always have access to all 100), while CB was a 50.

You're right, that wouldn't have a thing to do with it.

Gee, haven't changed much, have you?

Next we have the Blue Stars with an instrumental Lullabye of Birdland.  It was pretty close on both charts- 34 on BB, 31 on CB.

Then it's one of two versions of Tutti Fruitti, this time by Pat Boone.

I'd like to see him do THAT song wearing that leather get-up he had on on his metal album...

Oh, me too! Tee hee!   He was 23 on BB and a shared 15 on CB.  Anyway, next is Gale Storm's Teenage Prayer.  It was #9 on BB and a shared 17 on CB.

Then we have Don Cherry's Band Of Gold- not the Freda Payne song- at 6 on BB and 7 on CB.

The Dream Weavers had a tune It's Almost Tomorrow next.  It was 9 on BB and a shared 16 on CB.

Strange- you'd think that CB's placement would be higher on the shared songs since it combined two versions, but that's twice it didn't happen.

I know!  Eddie Fisher was next with Dungaree Doll, an 8 on BB and an 11 on CB.

Then comes the Crew Cuts with Angel In The Sky, 13th on both charts!

Wow, how'd that happen?

The other version of the Moritat- an instrumental by the Dick Hyman Trio- was 19 on BB but all the way up at #9 on CB!

Les Baxter's Poor People Of Paris made #14 on CB but way down at 46 on BB.

Tennessee Ernie Ford was at 4 on BB and 8 on CB with 16 Tons.

The other Tutti Fruitti- by Little Richard- was 27 on BB.  Curious about him doing this in leather?

There are probably pictures out there, knowing him...

Dean Martin was at #1 BB and #4 CB with Memories Are Made Of This. Wow, you'd think this wold be higher on your list...

Problem was, WJR only had a 12-song list, and they boned him.  If I'd have done it by average, he might have won.

Hmmm.  Last one on the non-finalists then is Bill Haley and his Comets with See Ya Later Alligator, with a 7 from BB and a 6 from CB.


And that brings us to the final four- a group that split 595 of the 1794 points I gave out!  Here, Mary, let us in on the finalists...

Okay, we have the Platters and The Great Pretender, #2 on BB and #1 on CB...

Kay Starr and her Rock And Roll Waltz, 3 and 2...

Nelson Riddle and his orchestra with Lisbon Antigua, 4 and 3...

...and finally  the Four Lads with No Not Much, 13 (tied with the Crew Cuts) on BB and #5 on CB!

All right, thanks for the help, Mary!  So you have the Platters, Kay Starr, Nelson Riddle, and the Lads to pick from!


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So what do the singles Let It Shine by ONJ and One Bad Apple by the Osmonds have in common?  (Besides three word titles, same era, hated by rockers...) Well, both of them had the same song for a b-side... He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.  Made a hit by the Hollies, they actually had it in the UK charts twice.  Originally it hit #3 back in '69, and after being part of a Miller Lite ad, charted again and hit #1 in 1988.  It was co-written by Bob Russell (who died just 5 months after the Hollies release) and our 6D victim... a man so talented he was a professional musician at the age of 11, could play piano, vibraphone, accordion, cello, clarinet, and double bass, as well as sing- and the song he sang, not the same as the Sam Cooke song, was Chain Gang, it was at CB's #10 ( which means I did an oopsie and somehow missed him- but hey, bigger moment of fame, buddy!), and he was Bobby Scott.

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Eerily, we have a debut at #9 by another gentleman who died barely two weeks after the song in question was released, in the fall of 2016.  I heard it on one of the Battle Of The Bands posts two weeks ago, and it just caught me.  Debuting this week is 82-year-old Leonard Cohen...






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So I had to puff up Stat Pack this week, since for the time being we lose the #56 at '56 because the chart only goes to #50, and that also kills our #101 song.  But what I did do was delve into the phenomenon of CB's combining songs together in one chart position.  Just in our Panel picks, we had the two Tutti Fruittis, as well as Jo Stafford sharing It's Almost Tomorrow with the Dream Weavers, and Gloria Mann sharing with Gale Storm on Teenage Prayer.  In fact, 12 of CB's 50 had more than one artist combined- one of them had 4 competing versions! (of course, only two of them charted on BB- but the biggest of those was the only chart hit for Green Acres' Eddie Albert! ) So given those numbers, you had a chance that as many as 66 acts could have been on one 50-song chart!  But the number was actually "just" 53- the Platters, the 4 Lads, Bill Haley, Tennessee Ernie, Pat Boone, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Al Hibbert, and Gale Storm each had two hits- and the Crew Cuts and the Four Aces had three each!

In the remaining stats, we had Why Do Fools Fall In Love as the big mover, a whopping dozen spots from 37 to 25; I knew 14 of the US 50 and five of the UK 20, which included Panelists Memories Are Made Of This (4), Band Of Gold (19), It's Almost Tomorrow (16), and the #1, 16 Tons.


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The remaining M10:

boygenius moves out of that 10-hole to #8 with Bite The Hand.

Castlecomer spends week 9 in #7, down 5, with She's So High.

The Dig dig up 3 spots to 6 with You're Not Alone.

Two songs get stuck, two others leapfrog them.  The stickers:  Santana and In Search Of Mona Lisa in #5, The Essex Green and Sloane Ranger in #3; the froggies, Criminal Hygiene's Greetings From A Postcard (6 to 4), and Roseanne Cash's The Only Thing Worth Fighting For (4 to 2)- both of them having gone farther than I thought when I started them on their journeys.

And this week's top dog is last week's top dog-

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


And the winner of the Panel?  It was a tight race, with just 0.6 % between the four!  The Lads got 141 points, the Platters and Kay each got 150, but the winner with 154....

Nelson Riddle and his merry men with Lisbon Antigua!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tune in next week as we join Nelson and crew in 1957!