Time Machine's St Patrick's Day Party!

Wasn't that lovely!  Those were the Irish Rovers, to kick off the St Patrick's Day Party!  I' m your 'President of Time Machine' this week, Shelley Fabres, and here is the - oh excuse me, here are the stars of our show, Chris and Misty!

Thanks, Shelley, and welcome everyone to my spur of the moment St Patty's bash!  In a while, we'll be telling you some of the history of the charts on March 17th, along with a few other fun things, and our usual brand of mayhem.  Today we go to the charts of this day in 1963, and today in '63... well, who cares what happened?

Well, I'm curious, since I came from 1962...

Okay, well, how about this:  Yesterday, Lee Harvey Oswald bought a gun... and today, the man whose case gave us the Miranda rules was first arrested...

Wow... a lot of legal stuff.  Nothing musical?

Well... I see the Beatles performed as a 3-piece in York tonight, as John had a bad cold...

Good, I hope he had Corona!

King, that is NOT nice!  Think of how you sound in front of Ms Fabres!

Oh my... Elvis works here?

E:  Honey, I almost RUN the joint!

Depending on how far you stretch the concept of 'run'.  Anyway, I thought before we do the countdown, we might do one of our Irish-themed goodies... Shelley?

Thanks.  The M10 has had 4 Irish acts in its history.  They are...

Flogging Molly, who hit twice, with The Days We've Yet To Meet in May of ... good heavens, 2017? And The Hand Of John L Sullivan the month before...

Gilbert O'Sullivan, who hit with Where Did You Run To in May of 2018 and The Same The Whole World Over that July...

Little Green Cars with Harper Lee in December of 2016...

And 2 Door Cinema Club, with Are We Ready in July 2016, and Lavender in November!

So this is 2019?

2020, actually.  Let's get to the Panel picks for a moment before we lose track of things too badly.  17 contestants from 52 stations, and amazingly, all of them in Cashbox's Hot 100 this week- although George McCurn's I'm Just A Country Boy just snuck in at 100.  The winner came down to two very close songs, with the winner going on an ending streak to pull away.  But for your voting pleasure, you get 4 choices...

Yes, you do!  Choose from...

Skeeter Davis and End Of The World at #9...
The Rockin' Rebels with Wild Weekend at #8...
The Chiffons and He's So Fine at #26...
and The Cascades and Rhythm Of The Rain at #4!

And now, we have this week's M10 debut!  Not from Ireland, but the hubby of this husband-wife duo IS named Patrick, here's the second hit for Tennis, at #10...





**************************************

So last night I went digging through ALL the songs that were #1 on St Patty's Day- from 1936 to 2019- and learned some interesting details!

SF:  Like what?

Elvis:  Like he lives a boring life...

On the other hand, I LIVED to my 57th birthday, buddy.  Anyway, how about this one- on average the St Patty's Day #1 was a more successful #1.  The average time at #1 for all of these hits was 5.07 weeks, nearly double the average life posted for ALL #1s 1958-2019 of 2.92 weeks!

Wow, that's impressive!  Elvis, did you ever have a St Patrick's number one?

I'll answer that- he had one, and it's coming up among the list of ME 2.0 biggest SPD hits.  There were, however, five acts that hit multiple times- one of them hit 13 years apart, and two hit in consecutive years!  In 1964 and 1965...

Elvis:  Oh, boy... I know where THIS is ending up...

That's right, the Beatles did it in consecutive years with I Want To Hold Your Hand in '64 and 8 Days A Week in '65!  And the band that had the 13-year gap is next on our stage!  They did it with Walk Like A Man,  here in 1963... and again in '76 with this one... here are the Four Seasons!!!!!!!!!!





**************************************

The other acts to hit twice were 50 Cent (Candy Shop, w/Olivia, in 2005, and In Da Club in '03, combining for a record 18 weeks, 9 each) and Usher (with Lil John and Ludacris in '04 with Yeah, and in '08 with Young Jeezy with Love In This Club) after the Martin Era 2.0... and before the ME 2.0, Glenn Miller did it first, with Song Of The Volga Boatmen in 1941, and again in '42 with Moonlight Cocktail!

SF:  So, can we tell everyone the biggest St Patricks Day #1s for each decade, without giving to top ten for your Martin Era away?

I think so... just leave out the 60's and 70's for now...

All right... the biggest of the 1930's was Larry Clinton's Deep Purple,with vocals by Bea Wain,  in 1939...

In the 40's, it was Harry James with I've Heard That Song Before, in 1943...

In the 50's, we have Kay Starr's Wheel Of Fortune, 1952...

In the 80's it was Michael Jackson and Billie Jean, 1983...

In the 90's, Mariah Carey and BoyzIIMen with One Sweet Day in 1996...

I almost have to put an asterisk on this one.  Not only is it the BIGGEST hit of the list, with 16 weeks at the top... but, the St Patty's week was the 16th and final week it WAS at #1!

In the 2000's, it was the one you mentioned before, Usher and Yeah...

And finally in the 2010's it was Mark Ronson with Bruno Mars with Uptown Funk!

*************************************************

So we actually get back to an original style Crazy Covers segment, and we had three songs on this week's CB chart to judge.  The first was a favorite of mine when done by Gogi Grant- The Wayward Wind.  This time, though, it was done by suspected yodeller Frank (I Remember You) Ifield, and was not actually a CB hit, but instead the UK #1!

Laurie:  It was okay, a thumbs up, but not a strong one.
Chris:  Better than what I figured, solid thumbs up, but... somehow, the style of instrumentation just seemed an odd match to the song.

Next was Richard Chamberlain (yes, that Richard Chamberlain) with an all timer for me when done by the Everlys, All I Have To Do Is Dream.  It was at #35 this week.

Laurie: I liked it.  Thumbs up.
Chris: Sideways.  The choral backup did a lot to keep it alive for me, but there were a couple of crucially placed flat spots that sunk it. 

Finally, at #83 after peaking at 82 the last two weeks, Barbara Lynn sang Elvis's Don't Be Cruel.

Laurie:  Down.  It was... bland.  Her vocal brought nothing to it.
Chris:  Up with reservations.  I like what they tried to do- turning the classic to Philly soul.  But her vocal was uninspired, and the bits that tried to 'soul it up' seemed copy-pasted into it.

In additional Stat Pack notes, the big move was Connie Francis's Follow The Boys, up 49 from 91-42.  And the yet-again ignored 6D victim was Bobby Darrin's You're The Reason I'm Living, #5 on Cashbox without a Panel vote.


***********************************************

And because I can't conceive of SPD without Flogging Molly, here they are, with the song that made me fall in love with Lucinda Williams...




********************************************

SF:  And now, for your entertainment, here are the ten- or so- biggest St Patrick's Day hits of the Martin Era 2.0!

Five songs spent 4 weeks at #4:
Nelson Riddle with 1956's Lisbon Antigua...
Tab Hunter with 1957's Young Love...
Otis Redding with 1968's Sitting At The Dock Of The Bay...
Tommy Roe with 1969's Dizzy... 
and Nilsson with 1972's Without You.

Then, you had four songs spend five weeks at the top...
Elvis in 1958 with Don't...
SSgt Barry Sadler with 1966's The Ballad Of The Green Berets... hmm, at least he wore green...
The Osmonds in 1971 with One Bad Apple...
And Roberta Flack in 1973 with Killing Me Softly With His Song.

That leaves the top three...

The biggest St Patrick's song of the 1970's, 1970's Bridge Over Troubled water by Simon and Garfinkel, with 6 weeks...

GarFUNKel, Shelley...

Oops, sorry!  At #2, the Beatles and I Want To Hold Your Hand, with 7 weeks...

And at #1, it is...

HB:  Just one minute.  This act has a cease and desist order on our enterprise...

SERIOUSLY?  Why don't you see if you can loosen 'this act' up enough to receive this honor, while I do the M10?

HB:  I will try.  Perhaps if you would join me, young lady?

SF:  Well....

It'll be okay.  You're safe with Bellbottom.  HE'S not the pervert...

An' it ain't me, either!

*************************************

Very quickly, the rest of the M10:

The Duprees remain at #9 with The Exodus Song...
Up 2 to 8 for Speaking In Squares with A Song For The Opossum...
Just up one for Agnes Obel at 7 with Camera's Rolling...
Dropping 3 to 6, Ozzy and Elton with Ordinary Man...
Fertile Crescent again at 5 with Onion Garden...
Shooting up 3 to 4, Best Coast and Everything Has Changed...
Brooke Annibale up one to 3 with I Will...
Holding at 2, Anna Burch and Party's Over...

And still at the top...

Real Estate and Paper Cup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys, did we get an agreement?

HB:  Yes, Ms Fabres was quite persuasive...
Elvis:  Steady, Bellbottom, you don' wanna fall off the wagon again...

SF:  Yes, the biggest St Patrick's Day song of the ME 2.0 is....

...Percy Faith and The Theme To A Summer Place, with 9 weeks!!!!!!

And that leaves you to close us out with the Panel winner!

Of course!  The Rebels only got 5.7%, the Cascades got 9.6%, the Chiffons got 19.2%, so the winner with 30.7%....

..is Skeeter Davis with The End Of The World!  Congratulations, dear!

And thank you, to my lovely co-host, Shelley Fabres!  God willing, next week we'll have Skeeter Davis and 1964!  Goodnight, everyone!  Hey, Elvis, clean up the party favors!