Tilting at Windmills: Time Machine co-ordinates VICX58991362

Well, here we are in the strangely familiar territory of September 13th, 1962- a familiarity I'll explain in just a little bit. However, for the moment, today a US District Court ordered the University of Mississippi to enroll negro James Meredith, an act the governor concluded was tantamount to genocide (thus proving the rationality of racism), the Cuban Missile Crisis was beginning to, er, blow up, and little Christopher Martin was just days from being 4 months old. Awww!

(I would scan in a picture of Baby Chris now, but none seem to exist. Perhaps in a couple of weeks when we hit "toddler Chris"...)

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This week, a former two-time M10 #1 returns to the countdown; an eerily familiar landslide in the Panel; Bobby Vee gets to play MC; and a bit of a look at where the M10 stands with the Martin Era 2.0 as far as acts having multiple #1s. And that story about the weird coincidence that almost made me SCRAP this year! Let's toddle along!

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Starting off, I have a debut of a new single by a band that calls themselves White Reaper. At #10....

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Welcome to the show, Mr Bobby Vee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My pleasure, sir!

"Sir"- I like that. Nice to get RESPECT for a change. So, you are a man who certainly had kind of a 'Forest Gump' career...

Um... afraid I don't get the reference...

No, but that's okay. What I am referring to is, well first, you started your career as the emergency replacement for Buddy Holly on the show he was killed flying to attend...

And scared stiff, and too stupid to know it at the time!

And your early band once had Bob Dylan for a member...

Bob who?

He was going under the name of "Elston Gunnn" with three 'n's'...

Oh, yeah... piano player... said he just came off the road with Conway Twitty, and played a weekend with us- till he found out we weren't making much bread...

And, you were in Dick Clark's Cavalcade of Stars show that got cancelled in Dallas the night John F Kennedy was assassinated...

Wait, what? The President was killed?

Nardole, make a note to go heavy with the "spoiler remover" on this one...

N: Yes sir. Perhaps I should have gotten him a little later on...

Don't worry it. Bobby, you got a grip now?

Man, I don't know... that's a lot of news to digest...

Okay, Bob, now listen, I need you to focus. Look over there on the wall. See that sign?

Yes... yes, I see it...

Well, there you go. Nothing to worry about. Do you think you can handle reading the Panel list now? It IS only 10 songs, from 49 stations...

Yeah, I got it. So you have the Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Picket and the Crypt-Kickers at #57 on it's 2nd week on Cashbox- what's this? 'on it's FIRST run...'

Well, that particular song hits the charts three different times. This was at the start of its first trip.

Okay. Then you got Tommy Roe and Sheila at #2...

The Four Seasons at #1 for the first of 6 weeks with Sherry....

Nat King Cole, a merry ol' soul, with Rambling Rose at #5...

The Springfields, which was Dusty and her brother Tom, at #30 with Silver Threads And Golden Needles...

The Beach Boys and Surfin' Safari at #36...

Elvis and She's Not You at #4...

Frank Ifield and I Remember You at #60...

Frankie Avalon and Venus In Blue Jeans at #29...

and Chris Montez and Let's Dance at #23!

Now the only ones to get multiple votes here are the top three. So guessers, pick from Sheila, Sherry, or the Monster Mash!

Nice job, Bobby! Now, if you would, kindly go with the little bald guy and we'll get you fixed right up...

I HAVE a name, sir....

See what I mean? Respect. Maybe I should do another Rodney thing....

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Four years ago yesterday, the randomly- travelling second volume of Time Machine was on episode # 40, doing this very SAME week. Back then we had a lot different look and features- for example, we didn't do the #62 in '62. Imagine my surprise when I saw this week's 62/62, and said, "I remember doing this! WTH!" I began to think I had done this whole thing a lot more recently than 4 years ago.

And I was right. And wrong.

11 months ago in this volume's 508th episode, I was also in 1962. But it had a different runaway winner (and this week's is a BIG runaway winner- it missed lapping the field TWICE by one vote), and that song at 62 this week in September- Chuck Jackson's I Keep Forgetting (the original by the singer later on of Bustin' Loose, covered by Michael McDonald even further on), was at 62 on the way UP this week- and would be at 62 going DOWN that week in October! So, having established that, I said, "Well, that's okay, carry on", and here we are!

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And because it's gonna be key to the next feature's genesis, let's go ahead and play the brand new single coming in at #9! A tasty tribute cover of the Walker Brothers' hit, here for the first time since November of 2016, The Explorer's Club....

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The Explorers Club had two #1 M10 songs in 2016- California's Calling Ya and Quietly. Which got me thinking, how many acts have had multiple #1s over the now 4 year-and-two weeks of the M10, and how does that compare to the national charts of the Martin Era 2.0? You know me with researching such oddities, so here we go...

The M10 has had with this week 114 #1s by 82 different acts. That includes 2 acts that have hit 4 times (Beach House and Lucius), 6 that hit 3 times (the Decemberists, Dent May, Melody's Echo Chamber, illuminatti hotties, ELO, and Anna Burch), and another fifteen (look 'em up yerself!) that did it twice, for a total of 23 multiple acts- accounting for 28% of the total # of acts. On the side, it also gives us an average of 2.56 weeks per #1.

Now the ME2.0's first four years and two weeks would take us from May 14th of '55 to May 30th of '59. And I decided to run the numbers for both Cashbox and Billboard. Here's what we come up with.

Cashbox logged 63 #1s over the period, by 46 different acts. They had a total of 6 acts hit the top multiple times for 13% of the acts. The top dog, not surprisingly, was...

...Elvis, with 9 #1s, followed by the Platters with 4, the Everly Brothers with 3, and Les Baxter, David Seville, and Pat Boone chipping in 2 each. That gave CB an average of 3.33 weeks per #1.

Billboard was pretty similar; they had 55 #1s by 40 acts, but only five multiple #1s: Elvis with 10 or 11, depending on the way you count the double-A-sides, the Platters with three, and and Boone, the Everlys, and Seville with two each for 12.5%. Billboard averages out to 3.82 weeks per song.

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Now here's an oddity: We're going to start AND end the 6D with a song that hit the top ten in 3 different versions each! I don't know as these are the only two examples, but it's gotta be pretty close. The first one of these is You Keep Me Hanging ON. Shortly after the Supremes took it to the top in '66, Vanilla Fudge peaked at 6 in '67- and then Kim Wilde took it to the top again in 1986!

Kim is the daughter of Marty Wilde and Joy Baker (who once had a trio with pre-Moody Blues Justin Heyward called the Wilde Three). Joy was a member of a 16-girl vocal ensemble called the Vernon's Girls, who were popular in the UK. And they covered our other three-timer, a song that hit #3 for Kylie Minogue in 1987, and #1 for Grand Funk Railroad in '74, as well as #1 a few weeks back for our 6D victim- Little Eva's The Loco-Motion, which sat at #3 without a vote this week.

BTW, The Vernon's Girls and Little Eva went head to head with this in '62; Little Eva wins in a knockout, peaking hers at #2 while TVG stalled at #47. Sometimes more isn't better.

The Vernon's Girls- Joy Baker "front row left". I have no idea who the guy in the inset is. Could be Clark Kent, in which case I'd question him about using that x-ray vision...

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Stat Pack time...

The Big Mover was Dickie Lee and Patches, from #49-19 for 30 spots.

The legendary Bo Diddley was our #101 this week with You Can Judge A Book By Its Cover. It would climb to #48.

My would-have-been-favorite... well. let's just say it's the Panel winner and leave it at that. (If you know me, you know I just gave the winner away.)

The only 'big-name' debut this week was Chubby Checker's Popeye The Hitchhiker at #97, although around this house we would add Jimmy Dean's Little Black Book at #75.

And the UK #1 is the Panelist at #4- Elvis and She's Got You.

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And the rest of the M10:

The Rubinoos move up 2 with January.

Status Quo takes their name too literally, with Liberty Lane stuck at 7 for a third week.

Mikaela Davis slips from 4 to 6 with Other Lover.

Springtime Carnivore spends another week at 5 with Name On A Matchbook.

Climbing 2 to #4 before hitting what might be a new Iron Ceiling is Saint Asonia with The Hunted.

The Orwells slip one to #3 in week #8 for them with Last Days In August.

At least for the moment, Geowulf slips to #2 with He's 31 in their 7th week.

And the new #1 is....

...Joy Downer with Stranger Places!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel? Well if you took... heck, if you took EVERYBODY else, you got your butt whipped, much less anybody else! The winner this week in '62, my favorite of the week- and one of the top 2 all time- and moving this week from #12 to #1, with 65.3% of the vote...