Time Machine co-ordinates VICXXXIX61941067

Bill Withers left us last week... but this week, in his honor, he becomes here on our show, a Righteous Brother!  We go to April 10th, 1967- where the 'excitement' was that a strike by theatrical performers almost cancelled the Academy Awards show.  A Man For All Seasons was the big winner;  Dionne Warwicke did her hit Alfie, Roger William's band did Born Free, and Mitzi Gaynor covered Georgie Girl, among the musical acts.  Born Free also copped best song and best original score.

This week, our 6D is going to lead to a two week feature on a star of the 60's; we feature 2 ways to do the thumbs segment; and 2 new M10 debuts!  So grab some popcorn and Goobers and let's go!

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Well, it's kinda ironic to have all three of you here together this week, seeing's as some of the history you have...

Bill Medley:  Yeah, we sort of got adopted for our 'blue eyed soul' by black marines at a base near where we started, calling our songs 'righteous', and giving us our name...

Bill Withers:  Me, I had the opposite problem... One Sunday morning I was at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. These church ladies were sitting in the booth next to mine. They were talking about this Bill Withers song they sang in church that morning. I got up on my elbow, leaned into their booth and said, ‘Ladies, it’s odd you should mention that because I’m Bill Withers.’ This lady said, ‘You ain’t no Bill Withers. You’re too light-skinned to be Bill Withers!’ *

* From a 2015 interview with James Minchen III for Rolling Stone

And your styles are a lot the same, from an era where the vocals meant more than the flash.

Bobby Hatfield:  Yeah, I mean, I know we had some slick production, what with Spector and the tricks we learned from him.  But it wasn't like later, when it was ALL production and no substance...

BW:  Yeah, these days, I wouldn’t know a pop chart from a Pop-Tart.*

Funny you should bring that up, because our debuts on my M10 this week are kinda at either end of that very spectrum.  Before we get to business, here's an example of the music being more than just production, from a band that my son clued me into called Adelitas Way, coming in at #10...





BH:  Well, that's a rocker!  Not quite our style, but...

No, not quite.  But you all are here for the Panel list from this week in 1967, and we had a whopping 29 contestants from 117 stations!  Among the oddities of such a big list are the items on the cards I just passed you...

BW:  Yeah, let me see... says here, the Royal Guardsmen got an Australian vote for Snoopy Vs the Red Baron- while the sequel, Return of the Red Baron, was on the Cashbox charts this week in the USA at #20.

BM:  The UK #1 song, Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me, was at #89 on CB...

BH:  A band from Colorado called... er, Boenzee Cryque... had a vote with an uncharted hit called Still In Love With You... and this band would eventually evolve into Poco...

BW:  And a song that DIDN'T get a Panel vote- both the song and the band were called Yellow Balloon- was at 2 different positions on the CB chart- #s 87 and 114!

BH:  Somebody didn't do his proofreading!

Thanks, guys!  We had so many contestants, we don't hit the 6D victim- the highest charter that didn't get a vote- until #11, and it's gonna lead us into a whole big deal!  But before that, guys, why don't you announce the finalists?

BW:  All right, we have The Monkees at #4 on Cashbox with A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You...

BM:  Not to mention that the flip side, The Girl I Knew Somewhere, got a vote...

BH:  ...so just pretend we didn't mention it!  Also, we have Frank and Nancy Sinatra with Something Stupid, at #3...

BW:  Then it's the week's #1, Happy Together by the Turtles...

BM:  And we finish up with I Think We're Alone Now, by Tommy James and the Shondells, at #5!

BH:  So choose from those great hits, keeping in mind that 2 of them had a big battle, and finished 1-2 just one vote apart!

Nice- maybe I should say, RIGHTEOUS job, gentlemen!  And while you, gentle reader, think about the choices, here's the other end of that production spectrum, debuting at #9 on the M10 this week- Caroline Rose...





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So I mentioned our 6D leads us down a two-week feature, and this is how.  The 6D was Leslie Gore's California Nights, a song that was produced, like so many other 60's hits, by Bob Crewe.  Bob also appeared in our Crazy Covers segment...

...when his version of Music To Watch Girls By, which would peak elsewhere in this year at #15, would go against Andy Williams, who was at #64 this week.  Results? Both of us opted for the Bob Crewe Generation instrumental.  And that got me thinking, because here are two references to Mr Crewe- as an artist, and as a producer, without even bringing up where he had his greatest success, writing and producing the Four Seasons!  So, how good was he?  I have compiled a list of his biggest hits writing and/or producing, and the next 2 weeks, we'll be counting them down!  So here is the first of 2 hunks this week and 2 hunks next week, of Bob Crewe's biggest hits!

First, there was a five-way tie for 25th (which I didn't move heaven and earth to break, unlike the rest):  2 from the Four Seasons:  1964's Save It For Me (writing and producing) and 1966's Tell It To The Rain (produced only); along with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels' Jenny Take A Ride (1965, w/p), Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes (which included Crewe and co-writer Kenny 'I Like Dreaming' Nolan) with Get Dancin' (1974, w/p), and an asterix for the Diamonds' cover of Silhouettes, which got into the top 10 in airplay in 1957, though not in sales.  Those five all hit #10; the rest go higher.

24- Four Seasons, Working My Way Back To You (#9, '66, p)
23- Four Seasons, C'mon Marianne (#9, p, '67)
22- Billy and Lillie, Lah Dee Dah (#9, w/p, 1958)
21- Lettermen, Going Out Of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You (#7, w, 1967)
20- Four Seasons, Ronnie (#6, w/p 1964)
19- Freddy Cannon, Talahassee Lassie (#6, w, 1959)

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Our other Thumbs feature came about when we had 3 songs grab pieces of the Big Mover title with a 34-notch rise this week, and we (well, I) decided we'd rate them!  Our contestants:

Simon and Garfunkel's At The Zoo (from #64 to 30)
Peter and Gordon's Sunday For Tea (69-35)
Nancy Sinatra and Love Eyes (72-38)

What was interesting wasn't that we both took At The Zoo, but why we didn't like the others.  Laurie commented that, while Nancy has an awesome voice, it appeared that they tried to 'jazz up' the music, and she felt the two didn't match up.  For me, I loved the melody behind the P&G song, but their show-tune vocal style was annoying.

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Our second hunk of Crewe hits:

18- Diane Renay, Navy Blue (#6, w/p, 1964)
17- Frankie Valli, Swearing To God (#6, w/p, 1975)
16- Sock It To Me Baby, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (#6, w/p, 1967)
15- Silhouettes, Herman's Hermits (#5, w, 1965, the second of 3 versions of this song)
14- Devil With A Blue Dress/ Good Golly Miss Molly- Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (#4, p, 1966)
13- Good Morning, Starshine, Oliver (#3, p, 1969)

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The rest of the M10:

The Pretenders, who got shoved out last week, return at #8 with The Buzz.
Geowulf's Hideaway moved up 2 to #7.
Black Joe Lewis shoots up 4 to #6 with Five Dollars.
As Iron Ceiling III continues to break up, Anna Burch slips 3 to #5 with Party's Over.
However, Tennis nudges up 1 to #4 with How To Forgive.
Not without a lot of effort, I move Real Estate's Paper Cup down to #3 this week.
And Anna Burch also moves up 2 to #2 with Tell Me What's True.

And the new #1- the 130th in M10 history-

....Albert Hammond Jr with Set To Attack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Panel- did you guess which two duked it out for the top?

Not if you took Tommy James, he got 9.4%...
Nor if you took the Monkees, they got 11.1%...

So if you took Frank and Nancy, or the Turtles, you did get the Big Two- but who won?

The Turtles managed 22.22%-  but the winners, with 23.07%....

Frank and Nancy with Something Stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So be here for the greatest honor the TM has ever had- the Chairman of the Board in our Time Machine!

Greatest?  I've been working here for three years, now!

That's 'honor', not 'horror'!