Time Machine co-ordinates VICXII59192764

Today we go to September 27th, 1964- and for a change, I didn't have to go far for our big news of the day.  Today, the Warren Commission released their report that claimed Lee Harvey Oswald was a "lone ranger" in his murder of JFK.  Let me just say this about this report- I have heard enough about lying politicians as I type this, on September 26th, 2019, to last me.  Ready to move on.

"But you still like me, right?  Say you still like me..."

Well, Justice Warren, my attorney Horace Bellbottom advises me not to comment.  That should tell you what you need to know there...

At any rate, let's get on with the decompressing atmosphere of the Musical Tardis, where this week we have yet again an all-time top ten M10 newbie (and another lined up right behind it), another pretty big Panel winner, Bobby Vinton as POTM, and an actual legit 6D!  And let's kick things off with this week's one M10 debut!

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Silversun Pickups have released two singles from their latest lp, called Widow's Weeds.  Neither the earlier M10 hit Simpatico nor their new debut are among those singles.  In this wonderful age of technology, I am my own A&R man!  Coming in at #8...






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Nice to see you again, Bobby!

Nice to be here again!

This is your third time as POTM- in fact, you were the very FIRST President of Time Machine, way back with My Melody Of Love!

But the first for Blue Velvet- which is convenient because I haven't done this other song you named yet...

Tis, true, tis true.  And this is without a doubt my personal favorite.

Yeah, it was first done by Tony Bennett in 1951, got to #12.  The writer, Bernie Wayne, actually suggested me doing it for my blue-themed album.

And I'm glad he did!  Anyway, we have 17 contestants from 56 stations, so you have a pretty big job here...

I'm ready, let me have the alphabetical list...

Uh, we don't do it alphabetical anymore.  I start you with the one-vote wonders, then give you the rest who don't make the finals, and then the finalists.

Lose your dictionary? (chuckles)

Listen, you try doing a show with Elvis, a fictional lawyer, and a leftover from the 2017 season of Doctor Who and see if you don't try to find easy ways out...

Yeah, I see your point!  Okay then, one vote wonders it is!  Before I get started, though, I wanted to say I'm really sorry about you losing your dog...

Thanks, man.

Have you figured out what you're going to do about not having him for the Beauty Contest?

Well, I'm kicking around a "Christmas with Bill Haley", post... maybe I'll just let him do the draw...

Y'know, maybe you could have Wayne Newton do it... you haven't had him on in a while, and he's kinda puppy dog-like...

"I sure am!"

Food for thought, I guess.  He has been sending a lot of letters to the staff...

"And I've been meaning to speak to you about that... perhaps a cease and desist order would suffice..."

Oh, let's not get litigious quite yet.  Bobby, would you mind...

Oh yes, right.  The one voters...

Newbeats, Bread And Butter, at #2 on Cashbox...
Hondells, Little Honda, #33...
Beatles, I Should Have Known Better, peaked last month at #53...
Honeycombs, Have I The Right, #70...
Chad and Jeremy, A Summer Song, #29...
Nashville Teens, Tobacco Road, #37....
Supremes, Where Did Our Love Go, #6...
Beatles, If I Fell, #66...

I should put in here since it IS 1964, that this week's Beatles total includes If I Fell at #66 as Bobby said, And I Love Her at #46, Slow Down at #36, Matchbox at #20, and A Hard Day's Night at #16.

Herman's Hermits, I'm Into Something Good, a stealth vote for a song that doesn't hit the US charts until the 10th of next month...
The Butterflies, which contained 2 of the original Crystals, and had Ellie Greenwich in the background, on Goodnight Baby at #74...
And the Kinks, just starting out at #130 with You Really Got Me.

Now the also-receiving votes group are just 2- The Shangri-Las with Remember (Walking In The Sand) at #7 with 3 votes, and Gale Garnet's We'll Sing In The Sunshine at # 15 with 2.

And now, your finalists!  Please choose from...

J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers and Last Kiss at #31 with a bullet...
Roy Orbison and Oh Pretty Woman at #1...
Martha and the Vandellas, Dancing In The Street at #8...
...and Manfred Mann, Doo Wah Diddy Diddy at #4!  All good choices!

Yes, they are!  Thanks a lot, Bobby!  Now, let's turn our attention to...

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I would be remiss with all the talk of that original M10 chart back in 2015, what with both Status Quo and Saint Asonia returning recently for the first time since then, to not mention the song that really made me decide to do an M10, the song oddly enough at #2 that week.  That was NRBQs Riding In My Car, from 1977.  The next week, it would become the 2nd M10 #1.  Now that song, from their lp All Hopped Up, was on Red Rooster records- a label that was their own, which they used when they weren't trying to get on a big label.  They founded it after Columbia dropped them, came back to it when Mercury dropped them, and again after their one effort on Bearsville (best known for Todd Rundgren and Utopia).  Bearsville was founded by one Albert Grossman, a promoter who first put together Peter Paul and Mary.  They almost were not the Biblically sounding PP&M; they were almost Peter Dave and Mary, with a folk star by the name of Dave Van Ronk.  Dave's voice was found to be to "idiosyncratic" to flow smoothly into that act.  Dave however, was a budding star, and had created a progression for a certain well known and old folk-blues tune.    Let Dave tell this story...


I put a different spin on it by altering the chords and using a bass line that descended in half steps—a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers. By the early 1960s, the song had become one of my signature pieces, and I could hardly get off the stage without doing it.

Then, one evening in 1962, I was sitting at my usual table in the back of the Kettle of Fish, and Dylan came slouching in. He had been up at the Columbia studios with John Hammond, doing his first album. He was being very mysterioso about the whole thing, and nobody I knew had been to any of the sessions except Suze, his lady. I pumped him for information, but he was vague. Everything was going fine and, "Hey, would it be okay for me to record your arrangement of (REDACTED)" Oh, shit. "Jeez, Bobby, I'm going into the studio to do that myself in a few weeks. Can't it wait until your next album?" A long pause. "Uh-oh". I did not like the sound of that. "What exactly do you mean, 'Uh-oh'?" "Well", he said sheepishly, "I've already recorded it". (from his book, The Mayor Of McDougal Street)


The song in question?  Why that would be the song at Cashbox's #3 this week without a Panel Vote- the Animals' version of House Of The Rising Sun.


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Stat Pack time!

Brian Poole and the Tremeloes- a band that didn't really make it here until Poole left- had our #64 in '64 with Someone, Someone.

Dean Martin had a hit in the making at #101 this week- The Door Is Still Open, which would eventually go top ten.

Little Honda nailed the big hole-shot, going up 38 spots from 71 to 33.

And since that "stealth vote" for I'm Into Something Good was from the UK, no surprise that it was also tops on the UK official charts.

And my favorite, had I been doing a top ten back then (which, at 2 years old, I may well have been, knowing me), would have been this week's Cashbox #10- Gene Pitney's It Hurts To Be In Love.


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Well, here's the news I haven't touched on yet- the Iron Ceiling 2.0 has been broken up.  The original, back in March of '18, spent 7 weeks with at least one of them in the top 3, 5 of those weeks with at least 2, and 4 weeks with all three; the new one also had a seven week run- still going- with at least one, 5 of those with at least two, and 3 weeks with all three, so pretty comparable.  And just like then, that means some places on the all-time list get changed.  We'll hit that as we go.

#s 10 and 9 switch places this week- Dolly Parton and For King And Country go to #9 with God Only Knows, and the Rubinoos go to #10 with January.

The Orwells drop 4 to #7 with Last Days In August- and into a 6th-place tie all time.

White Reaper sneaks up another spot to #6 with 1F.

Geowulf drops from 2 to 5 with He's 31- and if it holds that spot next week, it will join the 6th place all-time tie.  They also climb 2 spots to #4 with Lonely.

Saint Asonia batters its way into the #3 slot with The Hunted.

The lone survivor of the fall of IC2.0 is Joy Downer's Stranger Places, slipping to #2.

In June of 1966, the Walker Brothers took this song to #14 on the Cashbox charts.  In March, the UK chart saw it leap from #10 to #1 and stay there for 4 weeks.  And here, a version of that same song hits the top, shattering the IC 2.0 with a 5-to-1 leap.  The new #1...

The Explorer's Club with The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Your Panel winner:

Last Kiss and Dancing In The Street netted 7.1% each...

Manfred Mann cobbled together 10.7%...

But our winner, with a whopping 46.4%...

...the Big O with Oh Pretty Woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, anybody notice we're a mere 9 weeks from the TM empire's 600th post?  That would put it right around the Thanksgiving episode...hmmm...  Do we give thanks (easily done), or come up with a "biggest turkeys" list (also, easily done)?  Ah, a worry for another week.  Next week is 1965!  God willing, see you then!