Time Machine co-ordinates VICXXXI61121459

You know, I'm thinking that going to Valentines' day 1959, I might get a sappy love story or a celebrity marriage or something.  What did I get?  A $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York, and a German-born PhD at the National Weather Service noticed a warming trend that may have been the start of "global warming".  However, Dr Helmut Landsberg did go on to say in 1970 that he "was skeptical of the risks of man-made global warming, arguing that computer models were unreliable and that the impacts of projected warming would be minor." (from Wiki, in an article in Science magazine).

"Vas, you don't tink global varming is romantic? You must be French."

Anyway, welcome to this week's Time Machine, with Rick Lewis and Bill Horton from the Silhouettes, two new debuts- one a band's first original single, the other a two-time number one lady, how to get from Tommy James to Mitch Miller in our 6D, and all the usual fun and games.  Bundle up, kids, spring ain't here yet!


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That first debut I mentioned was at #10, and is a new stand-alone from the owner of the biggest hit in M10 history- here's Mo Kenney...




So for those as unenlightened (as I was), Cat Power is a female singer in much the same vein as this song, from what I can tell, and Willie Deadwilder is an 18 minute-and-change song by Cat Power, which I might listen to a bit later, but I do want to get the post done sometime tonight.

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So welcome to Rick and Bill from the Silhouettes!

R:  Good day, nice to meet you!

You guys became a big touring act, despite what becomes basically a one-hit-wonder status...

B:  That's all we get?  But we toured with all the stars!

R:  Yeah!  With  Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, the Royal Teens, Paul Anka, Lavern Baker, Jimmy Reed, the Everly Brothers, Roy Hamilton, Frankie Avalon, the Crescendos...

I know, but the story goes that you guys kinda got done out of an even bigger chance by your manager...

B:  You got that right!

R:  Yeah, our manager got us scheduled to sing it on “Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beechnut Show” and, at the same time, receive a gold record award for “Get A Job.” Unfortunately, right before the show, Kae Williams got into some kind of fight with Dick Clark and that, as they say, was the end of that! (Modified from Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook)

Dick was certainly a kingmaker back then... fortunately, he had a good ear for music, somewhat unlike our 6D victim coming up.

R:  Mitch really wasn't much our thing.

B:  Yeah, little kiddie stuff an' all.  

Well, anyway, your list is 10 songs from 21 stations, and it ended up being a tight two-way race.  And there was some pretty big one vote wonders on the list.

B:  You got The Coasters on that one-vote list with Charlie Brown?

R:  Yeah, but look here, they got the Big Move- they went from 62 to #19- 43 spots!

B:  An' the Platters with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, too!

Number 2 and number three- The Platters, along with the Crests and 16 Candles- were both classics. Just not their week.

B:  So if the vote was a two song race, why come you got 4 songs in the final?

R:  To drum up suspense, Bill... right, Chris?

You bet, give the masses a little more to guess about.

B:  Okay, Rick, here, you give the finalists.  I'm gonna hit the BUH-fay!

R:  I hear that they got some kinda good casserole down there, get me a plate!

Ummm...

R: So here are your final four this week!  Choose from...

Richie Valens and Donna at #4...
Lloyd Price and good ol' Stagger Lee at the top...
Bill Parsons and All American Boy at #10...
An Petite Fleur, the Little Flower, by Chris Barber at #9.

A note here I WAS gonna have Bill read, on that song at #10... it was co-wrote and performed by Parsons and Bobby Bare... but when the label put the packaging together, they somehow credited it to Parsons when it was actually Bobby's single!  Anyway, thanks, Rick, and thank Bill for me... but you might want to think twice about that casserole...

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That there is known as an Ondioline, and it was basically a sort-of 'moog before the moog', and made the surreal keyboard sounds on songs like Tommy James and the Shondells' I Think We're Alone Now ( and the reversed track Mirage).  It was invented by one Georges Jenny, and was perfected in the later fifties.  He was doing a radio interview about it one day when an aspiring keyboardist named Jean-Jacques Perrey heard it and pretty much begged for Jenny's phone number.  He offered to be Jenny's 'demonstrater' for the machine in return for it's free use (as it was a bit expensive even then).  Perrey wowed the inventor so much, he became Jenny's 'presenter' at trade shows and the like- as well as becoming a star session man on records that featured it.

One such tune is one of my all time favorite instrumentals- Kai Winding's More (from Mondo Cane).  Which is where our story goes to Sesame Street...

Bob from Sesame Street was Bob McGrath, and back before Big Bird, he was an aspiring 'teen idol' who was tremendously popular... in Japan.  While much of what he did in Japan were traditional Japanese tunes- in Japanese, including a command performance in front of the Prime Minister, Eisaku Satō, and his daughter, accompanied only by a bamboo flute!  There were even fan clubs, known as “Bobu Magulas”!  And he enters OUR story because his boss and mentor helped him put out an lp in which he sang More (yes, there were lyrics), along with a lot of other tracks.



Awesome job, Bob!


The name of the lp gives away the name of that boss- Mitch Miller Presents Bob McGrath.  And it was Mitch Miller and his Gang- with Bob McGrath in the chorus- that was at #5 without a Panel vote, with The Children's Marching Song- better known as Knick Knack Paddy Whack.

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The other debut on the M10 belongs to a west coast, formerly 12 man- now down to 8- ensemble calling themselves Fertile Crescent.  Their very first original song comes in at #9...







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So this week we did a three headed Crazy Cover, featuring a current week hit, along with a version from 18 years before, and one from 6 years later!  The original belonged to the Andrews Sisters...

...who took their Apple Blossom Time to #5 in 1941.  Competing with them is recent POTM Battle of the Century Year Week contestant, Tab Hunter...

...who sat at #41 this week on his way to #31.  And finally, with a performance of #52 in 1965, our own... Wayne Newton!

"YAY, It's ME!  I'm back and... wait?  Only #52??"

Sorry about it, buddy, let's see what our expert panel says...

Laurie:  I have to go with Tab, because of the tempo.  The girls were too slow for me.

Chris:  C'mon, you gotta ask?  Of course the Andrews, but I will say that Tab did a FAR FAR FAR better job on this than on Young Love, IMHO.

W:  Hey, what about me!  My tempo was up, just like Tab's!

L:  Yes, his tempo WAS fast...

C:  Truth is, buddy, the recording we heard, you were kinda slurring your words...  every time I tried to get into it, I'd hear, "I'll Be WISHH you..." and I couldn't do it.

"I told you, ya gotta lay off that sauce, man..."

W:  Just a doggone minute!  I was NOT slurring my words!  That's called stylizing, it was my style...

E:  Well, you learned that style from Foster Brooks...

Okay, guys, let me get in the only other two notes I have before we hit the rest of the M10.  One of them you'll like, King- your One Night/I Got Stung two sider was #1 in the UK...

E:  That's burnt, man!  LOVE YOU, ENGLAND...

And the other is that, despite it being Valentine's day, two Christmas songs were still charting!  David Seville and his little rodents with The Chipmunk Song were still at #32, and the Harry Simeon Chorale's The Little Drummer Boy was at #80, though each took sizable falls this week (Seville 13, the Chorale 34).

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The rest of the M10:

Nada Surf slips another spot to #8 with So Much Love.
Eleven weeks now for Tennis, as Runner drops from 4 to 7, putting the duo now at a tie for 5th all time in the M10...
Huey Lewis spends week #8 at the 6 spot, down one with While We're Young.
Ozzy and Elton move up 4 to #5 with Ordinary Man.
The Pet Shop Boys are up 2 to #4 with i don't wanna...
Agnes Obel slips from the top to #3 with Broken Sleep...
Up one to runner-up for White Reaper's Might Be Right...

And the new #1- her third...

...Caroline Rose with Feel The Way I Want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And the Panel pick?

Well, 9.5% each for the designated cannon fodder, Bill Parsons and Chris Bender...

23.8% for the runner up, Lloyd Price...

And winning with 28.6%...

....Richie Valens and Donna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So tune in next time to see Richie Valens do something he's never done before... make it to 1960!  Be there!