Time Machine co-ordinates VICXIV5527261956

All right, I'm back this week, and many thanks to the guys that filled in last week!  Um, Bellbottom mentions that it WAS him, up until the MAGS video that he never quite recovered from, so we thank Lite Beer and Rodney for that spectacular pinch hit performance to close out last week.  Anyway, we move on to July 26th, 1956- the day that Gamel Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.  Egypt would find their bank accounts in Britain frozen two days later, and the four cornered war between Britain, France, Israel, and Egypt would break out a couple of days before Halloween.  Nasser was (not) quoted as saying, "Let them freeze our assets.  I never did get those shillings and pounds and pence and so on.  Give me a good solid gold Dinar any day."

Nasser:  Prolly would have been less confused if the Euro had been around back then.

This week, the Panel was a bit 'poorly attended', so I'm doing a little finagling on the picks, and Ill be fleshing out ELO's 4-week accomplishment a bit.  Plus, a Supreme Court 6D with Robert Bork in a cameo, the new (yes, new) M10 #1, and a new hit by a former #1 act we haven't heard in a while!  And the Mythical Top Ten! Oh, yes, and Bill Haley!  So let's Shake, Rattle, and Roll!


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 So let me start out with this "Mythical Top Ten".  This is what I called my non-written top ten in my childhood- a list that fluctuated often, and had many songs have a seat at the table.  In fact, when I was considering doing this, I counted 22 songs that at least were "on the bubble" so to speak.  So, I'm going to give you the list in three chunks, alphabetically by song, not in order.  Some held onto that power and are still among my faves, others have drifted down a bit.  At a guess, I would say the MTT began in or around 1974 and it remained just an unofficial list until sometime in 1977.  Anyway, here's the first 8:

Best Of My Love, Eagles- Didn't we all grow up owning that 1st Eagles greatest hits  lp?

(They Want To Be) Close To You, Capenters- C'mon, you know I was in love with Karen back then...

Dance With Me, Orleans- One of maybe seven that were in most iterations of the list.

BONUS:  As I started typing this, I thought of 2 more that needed to be on this list!  One of them should have never been forgotten:  If, Bread.  Ever since the first time I heard it, being used as theme music in an ad for a long ago Miss Fort Wayne contest.

Love (Can Make You Happy), Mercy-  This one was more of a bubble candidate, but it does fit.  It takes me to some long ago morning that I only remember like deja vu when the world was young and right.

Love Is Blue, Paul Mariat- Just as good to me now as it was then.

Magic Town, the Vogues- Maybe the lowest charter on the list, but high on mine.

and  Mandy, Barry Manilow-  First record ever paid for with MY money.


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Bill Haley, nice to have you back again!

Always groovy, man!

This is the second time you've took POTM in 1955.  You ever gonna share the title?

Man, the summer was my gig, man!  You might wanna come back in December if you wanna hear them other cats!

Hmm...Christmas with Bill Haley, has a nice ring...

Yeah, why not?  So what's the gig today, daddio?

Well, the actual Panel produced 8 songs- which ain't bad- but only nine votes- which is.  I thought it might be pretty cheesy to give a two vote winner.  So I took those 8 songs, found where they charted on all 9 of the charts, threw in Cashbox and Billboard for that week for good measure, took an average, and it made a very nice two-horse race...

Man, you do some crazy stuff with statistics...

Yeah, what can I say?  So here's the list, you give out the song, and you can mention whether it was a Cashbox or Billboard top ten- but no more.  That should make it a good contest.

Okay, daddio, you're the man with the plan!  So here's the hot list for '56, you cats:

Doris Day, singing away with Whatever Will Be (Que Sera Sera), top ten on both charts.

Teresa Brewer kinda holds back with Sweet Old Fashioned Girl.  I'd like ta meet her!

The big man, Fats Domino, gets top ten on the C-Box with I'm In Love Again...

George Cates had the SECOND most popular version of this tune- Moonglow and Theme From Picnic-  top ten combined with Mo Staloff's disc on CB, but independent every where else.

Pat Boone almost lost his mind with I Almost Lost My Mind in both top tens...

...an' from the looks of THAT outfit, the 'almost' might be charitable...


The Platters were top ten on both with My Prayer...

The Jay Hawks- my note says, 'Not the guys you know from the M10'- had the second most popular version of a tune called Stranded In The Jungle.  The Cadets had a bigger hit.

An' finally, Miss Gogi Grant with The Wayward Wind, top ten on both.  There you go, da-dee-o!

Thanks Bill!  So come back in a bit for a clue- I'll give you the four that had the best average spot on the 11 different charts!  In the meantime, here's our M10 debut- the first appearance in just over two years for The Orwells...




Gotta love that dig at their FORMER label...


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Next on the Mythical Top Ten:

Misty, Ray Stevens- Another of the seven or so that were on most versions of the MTT.

My Special Angel, Bobby Helms- Which, as I recall, I have as my favorite song of the 50s.

Nights Are Forever Without You, England Dan and John Ford Coley- ever since watching them do it on Mike Douglas.

Nights On Broadway, Bee Gees- Both these last two would be among the 'almost always'ers.

No Time, the Guess Who- What a surprise, one of my top two or three all-timers...

Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Steely Dan- another bubbler, but worth the mention, eh?

Roundabout, Yes- Dominated the very early versions.

and Sherry, the Four Seasons- What a surprise, one of my top two or three all-timers... (Hmm, heard that somewhere before....

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"All things considered, this is a pretty feeble cameo..."

Sorry, Justice Bork, but actually the tale turns on the man who got "Borked" right after you- Douglas Ginsberg, who withdrew his nomination to the SCOTUS after Nina Totenberg tattled how he smoked dope as a Harvard professor (which explains a lot).  Perhaps he was smoking it in 1965 with three undergrads when they invented the first computer dating service, called Operation Match.  One of those matches kinda tangentially fits into our marijuana-tinted storyline- actress Mimi Kennedy, who played Dharma's hippie mom on Dharma and Greg, and her husband Larry Dilg.  They were matched in 1966- but took 12 years sweet time to get hitched.  And it was Mimi Kennedy, who while acting in Jim Steiman's musical Rheingold, said these immortal words to Jim, who was wondering why his works weren't flying:


"Well Steiny, your stuff is so complicated. Can't you write something simple?" (And while she was saying that the oldies station was on the radio and it was playing that old Elvis song,  'I Want You, I Need You, I Love You') "Why don't you write something simple like that, 'I want you, I need you, I love you'?"


And that inspired him eventually to the tune Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad; but it is the song that inspired it, Elvis and I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, that is our 6D victim, #3 on both charts without a Panel vote...


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Hey, I almost forgot to give you your hint!  The best averages belong to Doris Day, Pat Boone, Fats Domino, and the Platters.  You take it from there....

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And the rest of that Mythical Top Ten...

Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John- definitely one of those consistent seven...

Strange Magic, ELO-  What a surprise, one of my top two or three all-timers... (Is there an echo in here?)

Summer Breeze, Seals and Crofts- a song that sends me smiling to a place I've never been...

Surfer Girl, Beach Boys- a bit of a bubbler here, too...

Theme From A Summer Place, Percy Faith- What a surpr- oh, you've heard that one...

BONUS:  one I forgot that DEFINITELY belongs, though I must admit it hasn't worn as well as some- Top Of The World, Carpenters.  That was more for the crush on the girl I sat next to than the one on Karen by that time.

We've Only Just Begun, Carpenters- Yes, them again!  I swear the only way you got me to the doctor's office back then was the fact he played the easy listening station in the waiting room and I usually heard either this or Close To You.

and finally, Working My Way Back To You, Four Seasons- this song has NEVER lost its 'new car smell' for me, 53 years later...


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And speaking of ELO, last week they became the 7th M10 song to get a 4th week at the top with Mama.  Just to fill that in, ELO joins, in point order low to high, Foster The People's Sit Next To Me, Tangerine's You'll Always Be Lonely (7th all time), Beach House's The Traveller (5th all time), the Jayhawks  Quiet Corners And Empty Spaces (2nd), Mo Kenney's Unglued (#1), and the Shacks with the El Michaels Affair and Strange Boy (3rd), which had 3 weeks at the top, three at second, and then a fourth at the top.

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Stat pack time!

This time around, I knew eight of the top 50 before I started Time Machine- Elvis's I Want You etc, Heartbreak Hotel, and Hound Dog, the big debut at #50; Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula; Patti Page's Allegheny Moon; Panelists Que Sera and Sweet Old Fashioned Girl; and the one I pick as my favorite of the lot, The Wayward Wind.

Eddie Heywood had the big mover with Soft Summer Breeze, 12 spots from 36-24.

And y'know, I looked it up, even played it for Laurie, and forgot to write it down- the UK #1 was Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers with Why Do Fools Fall In Love.


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And speaking of the M10:

Alkonost starts a parade of songs moving down, with Ribbon In The Wind falling 2 to 9.

Beach Bunny gets a 2-spot rise to 8 with Prom Queen.

Maybird's Keep In Line falls after peaking at 3, to #7.

Foster The People slips one to 6 with Imagination;  Silversun Pickups pick up that one spot to #5 with Simpatico.

Agnes Obel begins her descent after 9 weeks with Riverside falling 2 to #4.

And the once and future king, ELO's Mama, slides 2 to #3.

The big move was MAGS and Drugs, up from 9 to 2.

And the new #1- his second-

...King Leg and Running Scared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Finally, here how the averages fell out.

Those who didn't make the top four:  Sweet Old Fashioned Girl, 9.4; Moonglow, 12.2; Stranded In The Jungle, 14.5; and The Wayward Wind was indeed wayward at 10.0.

And now your choices:

Fats and I'm In Love Again averaged 6.7...

Doris and Que Sera got 5.0...

and the winner with a half-spot between them, 2.1 to 2.6....

...Pat Boone, and I Almost Lost My Mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be back next week when I, and a more appropriately dressed Pat, tour 1957....


(Oh, BTW, the song that got the original two votes?  My Prayer.  Don't hate on me, Platters...)