Time Machine co-ordinates VIXCIII54151068

Today is May 10th, 1968, and we are coming in over Paris, and the "Night of the Barricades".  This was the culmination of weeks of communist-led protests against the DeGaulle/Pompidou government, and its ramifications led to DeGaulle finally allowing for the National Assembly to be dissolved and new elections held.  The results?  Despite his fears- which led him to leave the country for a day until assured of Army support- DeGaulle's party notched its widest margin of victory ever, once again proving that, while the left has bigger mouths, those mouths don't always coincide with popular support.  Politicians thinking they need to bow and scrape for Twitter hacks should keep that in mind.

"Naturellement, I knew I would win all along, ami..."

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Ready for a different kind of Time Machine?  This week, I'm going to do a reveal of one of the top two Panel contestants first...AND I'm going to reveal the M10 #1 first, as well!  Chaos?  Madness?  No, just a couple of really good reasons for both!   PLUS:  Two new M10 debuts- both of them from friend suggestions!So don't drag your furniture out in the streets to protest- drag 'em to the computer to tune in!


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Bobby Goldsboro- what's he doing here?  Well, we're at that time of 1968 where his massive hit Honey was charting- #1 this week on Cashbox.  In fact, there was a TITANIC struggle between this song and one other for the top spot on the Panel picks- the winner taking a 23-21 victory, decided on the last 2 votes!  So what we are going to do is have a double guess contest this week!  First, you'll pick from the Panel group just WHO that other contender is- and then, who won!  We'll be back with that in a minute, but first....


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But first, our first M10 debut at #9.  This was shared by a friend on Spotify, and was too catchy to leave out!  Plus, I found the video hilarious- with a surprise ending you won't expect!  Now, note to Bobby G- I'm guessing the song won't exactly trip your trigger, but you'll LOVE how the video ends!  For their first time on the M10, here's Skindred:





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And finally, at long last, I welcome Diana Ross to the TM mike!  Nice to have you here!

Thank you... I'm sorry about our previous, well, monetary issues... it's a contract thing, you know how Berry is...


Not as well as you do!  But its good to have you here from an era that I had a pretty significant crush on you...

Aw, how sweet!  how old were you?

3... 4...

Um...

Anyway, with the current game, you'll be actually doing the Panel choices for one of the 2 contenders this week, so you do get to be a part of Panel history.

Well, thank you!  I'll do my best... I guess...

Okay, so we start off with the one vote wonders- and thankfully we have just 20 songs from 79 stations this week, so instead of 20 1-v-w's, we have nine.

All right... so we start out with this year's Eurovision runner-up, Cliff Richard with Congratulations.  One of his rare times back then to chart here... it peaked at #99 on Billboard.

Then comes this week's #4 song on CB, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap with Young Girl.

I've been considering doing a "what would I have had at the top then" feature, basing the 'educated guess' on what I liked back then and where it was that week.  This would have likely been my number one this week.

Very interesting... next up is Paul Mariat's lovely instrumental Love Is Blue, which was actually in its second week of dropping from the top 40, at #51....

Which is why THAT wasn't my choice.

Next, we have South Africa's Four Jacks and a Jill with Master Jack at #55...

...or that one...

Sweetie, it's not polite to interrupt.  The Intruders with Cowboys To Girls- I'm sure another one you liked- was at #11.

Wilmer and the Dukes, a local band out of Geneva, New York, got a vote for their song Give Me One More Chance.  They were a few weeks from charting nationally, though, and would peak in early July at #78.

Ohh, Tom Jones, at #35 with Delilah...

And hot stuff from James Brown, I Got The Feeling, at #14.

Finally, we have Andy Kim at #75 with How'd We Get This Way at #75.  Chris?

Oh, joy, permission to speak...

Well, no need to be rude..

Yeah, well, my show.  So here's the 'also receiving votes' list...

DON'T throw it at me...

I didn't, I slid it to you...

You'd think that someone who paid premium price for a guest would be a little more appreciative of their presence...

Oh, I'm just basking in it...


Give me that list.  So here, with 2 votes we have the Troggs with Love Is All Around at #12; People with I Love You at #78; the Beatles and Lady Madonna at #3; with three votes we have Tommy James and the Shondells with Mony Mony at #30 and the Ohio Express and Yummy Yummy Yummy at #84; And with 4 votes, Hugo Montenegro and the Theme from The Good The Bad And The Ugly at #18.

Speaking of which... let's patch this up.  I apologize for being snippy.  Diana?

What, you think I have something to apologize for?

Nothing a less elitist attitude wouldn't fix...

How DARE you speak to me like that?

And we're back to that "my show" thing...

Well, you can just finish the show yourself, mister!  I am OUT...

Contract says you do the whole list, ma'am...

ARRRGH!  Fine, let me have the list.  Choose the song that battles Bobby Goldsboro from:  The Irish Rovers and The Unicorn at #7... Archie Bell and the Drells with Tighten Up at #5... The Rascals and Beautiful Morning at #6... and Simon and Garfunkel with Mrs. Robinson at #15, on its way down.  Are we satisfied now?

Yep, got my money's worth...

Well, don't expect me to do this show aga... who are you?

HB:  I am TM lawyer Horace Bellbottom, ma'am, and I thought I should point out to you that our contract with you and Motown call for a minimum of three appearances...

ARRRRGH!!!


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Now, the second reveal comes next, and that is that our new M10 #1 is...

Tame Impala with Eventually!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Which marks the second time this song has hit the top, with Lucius's cover hitting just over a year ago, or 30 number ones ago.  And naturally, that got me thinking about all the times that's happened on the official charts.

So I found a guy who used the Whitburn book to track down 81 times that that has happened in history.  Now, remembering our talk about that book, and how entries before 1940 aren't exactly official or reliable, I looked over the list and found that that restriction would have cut the list down to 22.

But let's just say we go with it, how many of these matchups had at least one of the pair in the Martin Era 2.0?  The answer is 15- 5 completely in the ME2.0 (1955-1977) and 10 with at least one leg in it.  So, ol' statistical me, I wanted to see the most time between pairs, since the one-week-short-of-13-months that Eventually did on the M10 isn't really that long.  So next, how these songs spread out- after our second debut.  Submitted by former boss Tim, played by the man/band/way of thinking known as King Leg, produced by Dwight Yoakum, here's the song at #8...





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And now that list, from closest to furthest.


1956 brings us Young Love, which by Sonny James hit #1 on one of the four Billboard charts (most played by DJs on the air), and after that Tab Hunter's version took over the next week, eventually hitting all four charts.

1957 gives us the former POTM winner Butterfly.  Andy Williams charted first, then Charlie Grace- overlapping subsequent weeks but never on the same chart.

So you can consider them a 14th place tie, and then we go to...

13- Go Away Little Girl, 104 months between Steve Lawrence in '63 and Donny Osmond in '71.

12- The Loco-Motion, 128 months between Little Eva in '62 and Grand Funk Railroad in '74.

11- Lean On Me, 144 months between Bill Withers in '72 and Club Noveau in '87.

10- Please Mr Postman, 147 months between Martha and the Vandellas in '61 and Karen and Richard Carpenter in '74.

9- There, I've Said It Again, 210 months between Vaughn Monroe in 1945 and Bobby Vinton in '63.

8- Venus, 221 months between Shocking Blue in '70 and Bananrama in 1986.

7- You Keep Me Hanging On, 245 months between the Supremes in '66 and Kim Wilde in '87.

6- I'll Be There, 260 months between the Jackson 5 in 1970 and Mariah Carey in '92.

5- When A Man Loves A Woman, 270 weeks between Percy Sledge in '66 and (ugh) Michael Bolton in '91.

4- Deep Purple, 296 months between Larry Clinton and Bea Wain in 1939 and Nino Temple and April Stevens in '63.

3- Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, 300 months between Paul Whiteman's big band in 1933 and the Platters in 1959.


And in the best race of the day, #'s 1 and 2 separated by 4 DAYS...

2- Lady Marmalade- 314 months 4 days between Labelle in '75 and Christina Aguillera et al in 2001.

And the winner... 

1- Blue Moon, 314 months, 8 days, between Glen Gray's band in '35 and the Marcels in '61!!!!!!!


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Okay, so here's how your 'Panel Primary' turns out:

If you went with The Unicorn, you got 6.3%...
Beautiful Morning gets you 8.8%...
Mrs Robinson nets 10.1%...

But moving to the final is Archie Bell and the Drells with Tighten Up!!! So who wins it all- Bobby or Archie?  Find out in a bit...


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A quick stat pack:

The Box Tops claimed what would have been the 6D spot, #2 without a vote for Cry Like A Baby.

Mrs Robinson claimed the big mover, 32 spots from 47 to 15...

Frank Sinatra claimed the #68 in '68 with I Can't Believe I'm Losing You...

Paul Mariat was at #101 with the follow up to his big hit, Love In Every Room.

I had thought to start doing significant debuts this week, so howsabout Gene Pitney's She's A Heartbreaker at 93, Merilee Rush and Angel Of The Morning at 91, and Richard Harris with McArthur Park at 76?

And somehow I forgot about the UK #1, so let's see... and it's Satchmo and What A Wonderful World!  From the Panel, Young Girl was #7, Honey was #9, Congratulations, surprisingly, was on the way down at #11, Delilah at #15, Love Is Blue at #32, Lady Madonna at #35.


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The rest of the M10:

Kelley Stoltz stayed at 10 with Empty Kicks.

J Mascis hangs in at #7 with See You At The Movies.

Idlewild gets an 8th week, falling one to #6 with Dream Variations.

ELO takes a leap to #5 with Long Black Road at #5- Criminal Hygiene takes that same 3-spot jump to 4 with Hardly News. 

As you already know, Maybird has conceded the top spot, going to 3 with Don't Keep Me Around.

And The Dig moves into the second slot with Moonlight Baby- and it might be a while before the top 2 changes....

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Okay, have you got your pick?  Who got 26.58% and who got 29.11%?

Are you SURE????


Okay, the winner of the POTM is.....

....sigh... Bobby Goldsboro and Honey....


So tune in next week to see if I can get along with Bobby better than I did "Lady Di"!  Oh, and 1969!