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All right, my keyboard and Blogger just combined to make me very irritated. Let us hope I can recover as I start completely over from scratch yet again. BTW, for you computer geeks out there, how about inventing a keyboard in which all possible keys that can totally erase everything you do by accident are on the side, bottom, or somewhere where you CAN'T ACCIDENTALLY HIT THEM. Thank you.
So, today we are in February 28th, 1961- and it is the start of the Vietnam Era, according to the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. At least, if you served in-country- otherwise, get to the back of the line until May of '64 when LBJ escalated. So why today? I have no clue. The closest thing I could come to it was that tomorrow Dean Rusk tells our ambassador in Saigon that the conflict is now a top priority for newbie President JFK. Oh, and the NY Times claims to have an answer, but if you wanna read it, you have to sign up for a free account, and that ain't gonna happen.
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| "And look, the dumb b******s misquoted me!" |
And with that, we return to what I hope will be a further-incident-free Time Machine. This week, it's time for the monthly Song of February (well, the song of February isn't monthly, but you know what I mean), a fun Don and Phil story...
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| "Wow, you mean we're on the show again?" "No, dipstick, he's just gonna talk about us." "But can I go to the buffet?" |
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Debut #1 is in our number ten position, the second single from Agnes Obel's new lp Myopia...
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Really? I won this once before, and you never had me in...
Well, yeah, but you inspired me to do that big instrumental countdown that week, and...
I mean, by the letter of the law, you are in violation of your corporate rules...
"Corporate rules?"
HB: He's quite correct. You really should have guests sign a waiver if you do not have them on...
Bellbottom, don't I pay you to help ME...?
PF: Look, I'm sure it was just an oversight, and not that you dislike Canadian immigrants...
Canadian... look here, I have two of my top all time songs are from born Canadians- yours, and No Time by the Guess Who!
PF: And yet, they have NEVER been on your show...
Because they NEVER WON THE PANEL! What the heck, Bellbottom, get a waiver for this week's winner, and have Nardole get the Guess Who in here NEXT WEEK!
HB: That would require a substantial bending of the corporate...
BEND them. Anyhow, MISTER Faith, would you like to continue?
PF: Well, quite frankly, your attitude is a bit disappointing...
I do apologize. Bellbottom, take care of the man. Don, Phil, you're on!
Don: You mean it? We're on?
Why not? You're not Canadian, are you?
D: No, I think we're Episcopalian...
P: Don, you simpleton...
So this week, 17 contestants came from 39 stations, everything from this week's Cashbox #1, Lawrence Welk's Calcutta, to a future hit getting started at #129, Linda Scott's I've Told Every Little Star. And it was a tight race between four songs, one of which busted away at the end. Boys, let 'em know who are in the final four!
P: Wait, you don't go through the whole list anymore?
Nope, short and sweet and room to kibitz- and that has already been done by the legal eagles. So have at it!
P: Well, okay... so pick from these songs: Debuting on Cashbox at #37 this week, Elvis Presley and Surrender; Jorgen Immelman with Apache at #27...
D: No, pick from MY songs- Chubby Checker and Pony Time at #7, or Marty Robbins with Don't Worry at #13!
P: Say, the top ten didn't get much action...
No, outside of Pony Time, the top ten collected a total of 4 votes between the nine of 'em! Which means if we had time to do a 6D (which we don't), it would be Smoky and the Miracles with Shop Around at #2!
Now, let'a cue up the other debut at #8! I told Laurie this one may well be the third piece of a new Iron Ceiling- a new single from Beauty Contest reigning champ Brooke Annibale...
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Okay, hopefully you remember the deal with the Song of... list. Combining top fives from Billboard and Cashbox, blah blah blah... ties broken at MusicVF blah blah blah... And we present you what Elvis named the Dirty Dozen, although there's really nothing dirty about them. Here are the bottom 11 out of the Dirty Dozen for February...
12- A recent POTM, the Silhouettes with Get A Job, the winner of 1958.
11- Gene Chandler with Duke Of Earl, the winner of 1962.
10- Amazingly enough, the Osmonds with One Bad Apple, which won 1971.
9- Barbra Streisand, from back when I could stand her (read: prior to 'Theme From A Star Is Born'), with The Way We Were, the winner in 1974.
8- Mark Dinning and a joke song that no one took as a joke- Teen Angel, the winner in 1960.
7- The winner in 1976, Paul Simon's 50 Ways To Leave your Lover.
6- The Platters and The Great Pretender, the winner in 1956.
5- Elton John with Crocodile Rock, the winner of 1973.
4- The Righteous Brothers, You've Lost that Loving Feeling, the winner of 1965.
In case you hadn't noticed, for a change, these songs all won their years. Only four yearly winners didn't make the top 20, a record for this feature!
3- The previously mentioned Lawrence Welk and Calcutta, the 1961 winner.
2- Paul and Paula, Hey Paula, winning 1963.
Now, I'm saving the winner for the end (which we're almost to), but I will tell you this- it won by a whopping 12 points, the biggest margin we've had yet!
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| "An' we all know who that means the winner will be..." |
I'd argue with ya, King, but I'll just say, the year is 1964. You can do the math.
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So while playing some of the week's songs last Saturday, I looked up one of them- the Everly's Walk Right back- and got this interesting story on its composition from the man who wrote it, Sonny Curtis (from an interview with Jim Liddane of the International Songwriters Association):
Well, I wrote most of that one Sunday afternoon, while I was doing my basic training in California, just after I went in the army, although I had the guitar riff for a while, and then, Lady Luck stepped in. I never was much for guns, and still am not really into them, but out of 250 men in our unit in basic training, six of us fired expert, and I was one of the six!
Anyway, for firing expert, they gave me a three-day pass, and I went straight down to Hollywood, and the Crickets were there, and so were Don and Phil, who were doing some acting classes for movies — they had just signed for Warner Brothers. So, J.I. (Jerry Allison of the Crickets) told me to sing the song for Don — actually I had only one verse written — and Don called Phil down, and they worked out a gorgeous harmony part. So, they said, 'If you write another verse. we'll record it'.
Anyway, I went back to base, and wrote a second verse, and put it in the mail to them, and next morning, I got a letter from J.I. to tell me that the Everlys had already recorded the song before they got my letter — they had simply recorded the first verse twice! And that's the version that was released, and that's the version that was the hit!
The joke is that Perry Como and Andy Williams and a whole bunch of others including myself, recorded the song with the second verse included, but when Anne Murray did it in 1978, she just did the same as the Everlys, just the one verse — and that was a big hit all over again — so maybe the second verse was never meant to be!
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A quick reconnoiter of the stats and it's off to the M10! Bill Black's Combo make the TM for a second week by grabbing big mover for Heart Of Stone, moving 32 from 97 to 65. The UK top dog is Petula Clark's Sailor, a song first written in German, and was a hit in French and English for Petula.
And, we have 5/6ths of an instrumental battle on this week's
First, the Theme from Exodus, which was charting by Ferrente and Teicher, with Montovanni also on the charts this week (this is that combined deal on CB), plus, I threw in a later cover with lyrics by the Duprees, subtitled This Land Is Mine.
Laurie: The instrumentals were both nice, but there was more emphasis on the pianos by F and T.
Chris. (My reaction listening to the Duprees version) "Wow. Just Wow."
BTW: I hadn't noticed it when I cued up our contest, but the version by the Duprees had lyrics by none other than Pat Boone- and HIS version was on this week's chart at #74!
Second up is a tune that was SUPPOSED to be called Tell The World- but the record company (in what's getting to be a common theme on TM) put the labels on the wrong sides, and so it charted as Wheels. Here too, we have the charting versions- both of which were Panel contestants! The main hit was by the String-A-longs at #6; the secondary was Billy Vaughn's crew at Billboard's #43; and I kicked in for fun a later cover by the Ventures.
Laurie: a hard pick, the song doesn't do much for me. 3-way tie.
Chris: One of the things I hate is that 'rubber band' sounding stuff, like what Stevie Wonder does on Higher Ground and others. Annoys the crap out of me. The older two both do it, the Ventures do not, so I vote for them. Otherwise, I have to go with Laurie on it not doing much.
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Rest of the M10:
Agnes Obel had a twofer, with former #1 Broken Sleep at #9.
Then come the 'parade of droppers': i don't wanna by Pet Shop Boys, 3 to #7; White Reaper's Might be Right, 3 to #6; and Caroline Rose from the top to #5 with Feel The Way I Want.
Caught in the upwelling is Fertile Crescent's Onion Garden, up 3 to #4.
Then come the other two legs of the possible Iron Ceiling in the make, Anna Burch from 10 to 3 with Party's Over, and Real Estate from 9 to 2 with Paper Cup.
And the new, if perhaps temporary, #1....
Ozzy and EJ with Ordinary Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our song of February? Of course it's....
The Beatles, with I Want To Hold Your Hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And this week's Panel race?
Marty Robbins got you 10.2%...
Both Elvis and Jorgen got you 12.8%...
But the winner, taking the last 4 votes to ring up 23.07%.......
....Chubby Checker and Pony Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So of course that means next week we'll have the Guess Who on, 2 years before they had a Canadian OR American hit, in 1962! Be here!
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