Time Machine co -ordinates VILXXXVIII5354563

Today we go to April 5th, 1963-

...the day the Soviets accepted the idea of a direct hotline between Washington and Moscow!  And if you think that was a great idea, how about this- today were are going to determine the Biggest Baby in the Martin Era 2.0!

"This better not be another jag on me, son..."

No siree, King!  I went through and found EVERY ME 2.0 song with baby of babe in the title that made the top 10, and we'll count off the top 25!  Also, I get some time with miss Shelley Fabares, and a new M10 debut this week.  Call Putin, he'll want to be here!

"Actually, no, I am being busy colluding with Piotr Booty-gig from Indiana on the next election in America..."
Ah, you mean South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg...
"What I said.  Booty-gig!"

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So actually, you get 27 songs* on the list (3-way tie for 25th) out of 55 total songs in the ME 2.0 that had the word "baby" or "babe" in the title.  Mind you I am going by the title ON Cashbox (so don't get mad if David Soul's Don't Give Up On Us missed the list because of not having that last "baby" on the label) and it had to be a top ten (so sorry to Buddy Holly and Maybe Baby).  And ranking them by the weeks at the top position they hit.  So here we go the first six songs:

(* I may have mislabeled around #14 or so, so there may be 28.  But they are in the right order, so...)

25 (tie)-Honey Babe, Art Mooney and orch., #5 in 1955.
     (tie)- (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone, Aretha Franklin, #5 in '68.  Aretha was one of three acts to hit more than once, AND was one of the only two acts to hit with the same song, which we will get to later.
     (tie)- Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, Marvin Gaye, #5 in '69.
21 (tie)- Baby Workout, Jackie Wilson, #4 in '63.
     (tie)- Cry Baby, Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, #4 in '63.
Finally this time, I'll be giving you the third of a four way tie with a week at #4, and saving the other for later.  These kind of ties I'm 'breaking' by putting them in chronological order.  Thus, the last member of the tie for this round is:
     (tie) Baby It's You, Smith, #4 in 1969.

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And here we are with 19-year old Shelley Fabares.  How are you today?

Just fine, thank you.  So this is a time machine?  

Yes, ma'am.

Then you have to tell me- do I become a star?

Well, there are rules about these things...

I DO become a star, don't I!  Am I as big as Bette Davis?

You're big enough that people know you...

So how do I end up on this show?

Now hang on a minute...

I was told I'd meet Elvis...

You will at the afterparty...

Afterparty!  Oh, this just all sounds so glamorous!  Let's get started, shall we?

Uh, yeah... we have a relatively short one-vote-wonder list...

All right, so Can't Get Used To Losing You by that dreamy Andy Williams is at #5 this week...

Otis Redding got a vote for These Arms Of Mine- and this says that while it peaked in the top twenty in March on Billboard, it never charted on Cashbox!  Poor Otis...

Paul and Paula were at #18 with Young Lovers.

Those groovy Chantays were at #25 with Pipeline...

Jimmy Soul's If You Wanna Be Happy- a perfectly ghastly song- not only got a vote, but was tied for the biggest jump on Cashbox, going up 23 spots from 79 to 56.  Ugly girl, indeed, he'll be lucky if he marries an ugly hound dog!

An Australian group called the Delltones had a vote with a song called Come A Little Bit Closer.  This says, that they are still together, all but five years since 1958.  But if this is 1963, and they got together in 19858, wouldn't five years mean they've never been together?

Where we're coming from, it means they've been around for all but five of the past 61 years...

But... but that would make ME... oh my God...

Don't worry, we'll put you right back when you were 19.

Oh... (waves herself)... thank you.  So then, the last song on this list is Eydie Gourme's Blame It On The Bossa Nova at #13,,,

And that brings us to the "also receiving votes" category...

All right.. we have, with 2 votes, Paul and Paula again, with Hey Paula at #41 and dropping...
and one of the 'baby' songs, Jackie Wilson and Baby Workout at #8.

With three votes, we have the other big move song, the Beach Boys with Surfin' USA at 47, up from #70...
Ruby and the Romantics with Our Day Will Come at #3...
Skeeter Davis and The End Of The World at #2... oh!  That's it!

That gives us a final group of 3 to choose from.

All right, please choose from Peter Paul and Mary's Puff The Magic Dragon at #4, that's so adorable...
This week's #1 song, the Chiffons and He's So Fine...
And Little Peggy March and I Will Follow Him at #12.

Excellent job, Shelley!

My pleasure!  (Gives a peck on the cheek and a hug)

Now, THAT makes it all worthwhile...

Wait, I still want to know if I'm going to be a star!

Shelley, sweetie, if I told you, 'no', you'd get all depressed and wouldn't ever try... if I told you 'yes', you'd get all cocky and mess it up!

I suppose you're right...

Then you understand why I can't...

But surely you can tell me, do I find that one true love?  Do I get married? Do I have children?  Do I have a little girl that looks just like me and...

OOOOOOKay, time to listen to that new M10 debut, friends!  Returning for the first time since June of '16, here's Michael Benjamin Lerner, better known as Telekinesis....





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The next six songs on the 'baby' list are next!

21 (tie)- I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little Bit More Baby, Barry White, who like Aretha has two songs on the list, this one was #4 in 1973.
19 (tie)- Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadows?, Rolling Stones, 2 weeks at #4 in 1966. Between them and Barry, my typing finger is taking a lot of abuse...
19 (tie)- Sock It To Me, Baby!, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, #4 for 2 weeks in '67.
18- Beach Baby, The First Class, #3 in 1974.
17- Baby I'm-A Want You, Bread, #3 for 2 weeks in 1971.
And finishing out this set of songs:
16- Baby I Love You, Aretha Franklin with her second song on the list, hitting #3 for 3 weeks in 1967.  This song also made the top ten for Andy Kim, hitting #6 in 1969, making it the only song to make the list by 2 different acts.


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So a slam-bang 6D here.  We start with Neil Sedaka, who got a professional start with an act called the Linc-Tones, before going on to solo success.  He was okay either way- after he left, the Linc-Tones became the Tokens and hit #1 with The Lion Sleeps Tonight.  One of the remaining Tokens was Hank Medress.  Hank later became co-producer for the big hits by Tony Orlando and Dawn.  His partner was Dave Appel, whose instrumental band, the Applejacks, were the Cameo-Parkway version of the Wrecking Crew, playing behind acts like Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Dee Dee Sharp, the Dovells, and their Philly neighbors, the Orlons.  He also wrote songs, including our 6D victim -the song at #4 on CB with no Panel love- the aforementioned Orlons with South Street.


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Here's the next report from the nursery:

15- Ruby Baby, Dion, #4 for 4 weeks in 1963.
14 (tie)- Cry Like A Baby, the Box Tops, #2 in 1968. Oddly enough, there was also a Cried Like A Baby by Bobby Sherman which snuck in at #10 in 1971.
14 (Tie)- Baby You Got What It Takes, Dinah Washington and Brook Benton, #2 in 1960.  Now Brook also had a solo song on the list, so actually there were three acts that had 2 on the list of top tens.  This is important for when we hit the act that had THREE songs, just a bit further upstream.
13- In fact, here's that act now:  Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), Cher, #2 for 2 weeks in 1966.  I bet you can't guess who she partners with for the other two...
6 (tie)- Here we begin the first 2 of a six-way tie for sixth: Be My Baby, the Ronettes, 1 week at the top in 1963.
6 (tie)- Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me- Mac Davis, 1 for a week in 1972.

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In the meantime, here's the stat-pack.  Our #63 in '63 has an intriguing credit- Boss Guitar by Duane Eddy and the Rebel-ETTES.  Why the Rebelettes instead of the usual Rebels?  Because there was a vocal by the "Rebelettes", actually Darlene Love and the Blossoms.  This tune was at #50 on the UK chart as well, joining Hey Paula (12), Can't Get Used To Losing You (28), Our Day Will Come (39), and The End Of The World (26) from the Panel, as well as not only the #63 in '63, but our #101 song.  That one was Brenda Lee's Losing You in its first week- it would eventually peak here at #6, and was currently #35 in the UK.

So the #63/'63 and the #101 were both on the UK chart for the first time, and both ends of a Biggest Mover tie were on the Panel for the first time...

Oh, and by the way, it was a 50-station Panel, and if you didn't count, there were 15 contenders.

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Returning to the big logjam at #6 of the Baby list:

6 (tie)- Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?, Hurricane Smith, 1 week at the top in 1973.
6 (tie)- Rock Your Baby, George McCrae, 1 week at the top in 1974.
6 (tie)- You're Having My Baby, Paul Anka and Odia Coates, #1 for a week in 1974, along with:
6 (tie)- Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe, Barry White for the deuce, and the really fun fact is:  On the week of September 21st, 1974, there were a record FOUR 'baby' songs in the top ten on Cashbox at the same time.  These last two mentioned by Messrs Anka and White, plus the aforementioned Beach Baby and Hang On In There Baby by Johnny Bristol, which spent two weeks at #8 at this same point.

4 (tie)- Baby Love, The Supremes, #1 for 2 weeks in 1964.
4 (tie)- I Got You Babe, Sonny and, oh yes, Cher- the second of the 2 that make our top 20-something-close-to-5; and they also made the overall list with Baby Don't Go, which spent 2 weeks at #10 in 1965, making Cher the only act with three top ten 'baby' songs.

This leaves us three to go...

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The rest of the M10- and this was a hard act to figure up.  I fought and fought and still wasn't very happy, but this was the best I could do...

Pure Bathing Culture drops from 4 to 9 with Devotion in week #6.
You're Not Alone by The Dig forced me to keep them on for week #9, slipping from 7 to 8.
Squeezed down to #7 were the Black Keys and Lo/Hi.
J Mascis moves up a less-than-I-wanted 2 spots to 6 with See You At The Movies.
Anna Burch drops a more-than-I-wanted #1 to #5 with St Adalbert.
Lily and Madeline almost went much higher, but settle for a 10-to-4 climb with Can't Help The Way I Feel.

(Which reminds me, Bobby G was asking after the 10-to-3 jump by Idlewild last week, how it compared all-time.  Well, sir, that jump tied Phantogram's Fall In Love, Kidsmoke's And Mine Alone, Dorothy's Ain't Our Time To Die, and Leon Bridges' Beyond;  but beating that were a 9-2 jump for Eleanor Friedburger's Two Versions Of Tomorrow, and three songs that went 10-2.  Two of them were the two #1s by the Beths: Future Me Hates Me and You Wouldn't Like Me.  The third, you ask?

Dent May and Frankie Cosmos with Across The Multiverse!)

Weezer pulls up 2 to #3 with High As A Kite.
And The Japanese House is stuck for a third week at #2 with You Seemed So Happy, which means your new top dog:

...Idlewild and Dream Variations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And your Panel winner?  With a grand total of 38% of the vote-

...the Chiffons and He's So Fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And what about those last three baby songs?  Well...


FIRST- HOT UPDATE:  Please insert Helen Reddy's Angie Baby into the #6 logjam, as I somehow missed it in my notes.  And one last bit of trivia- the final 117 weeks between Angie Baby and the nether end of the ME 2.0 had NO baby songs...


2 (tie)- There Goes My Baby, the Drifters, 3 weeks at the top in 1959.
2 (tie)- Take Good Care Of My Baby, Bobby Vee, 3 weeks at the top in 1961.


And the Biggest Baby of Martin Era 2.0, with 4 weeks at the top in 1962....

...the baby faced Bruce Channel with Hey Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, that one was a workout!  Tune in next week for 1964- it's Beatle time....