Time Machine co-ordinates VICLVI63982162

Well, this week, as we dig into August 21st, 1962- a day when we just missed a 5.7 earthquake in Italy on one side and an assassination attempt on Charles DeGaulle on the other- we get a break from the constant banter with Elvis, and substitute for it an easy week for Dave Fisher of the Highwaymen.  He gets one M10 debut, a two-horse race in the Panel, a 6D that's on life support, and thankfully a fully-adult Chris instead of the 97-day old version native to the time period!

Assassination?  Mon Dieu!  Is there no room for me in your marvelous machine?

Sorry, mine's made in America, and you KNOW how you feel about Americans, pal!

Nardole:  So, you're simply going to leave him out there?

What?  They miss him!  Am I supposed to pick up every two bit politician about to get his head blown o-

JFK:  Say, Chris, where are the towels kept?  We're out down at the sauna....

Er, Nardole will show you... it's right on his way out....

N:  Hmm.  Yes, come along with me if you please, Mr President.....

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Welcome in, Dave Fisher!

Glad to be... where ever this is....

You were the leader on the group from its inception...

Musical director, yes...

...and you were pretty much the only one who originally stuck with music as a career...

Yes, most of the lads went on to the law, or business.... 

One thing that would have sunk you now was the name you all originally went with...

Well, it was innocent enough- we did a lot of Irish and Scotch ditties, so the Clansmen seemed a natural fit... until we were told that we had a somewhat isolated view of things, up in Connecticut.

And so it should have been.  Unfortunately, as bad as it would have seemed then, it would have been five times worse where I come from.  So one thing I noticed is that your band had a talent for picking the wrong side of a single...

Hardly our fault.  We thought our first record, Santiano, was a nice little sing-a-long, but it flopped... till somebody played the other side- Michael- and the rest is history there.  Then, we pulled a song called The Gypsy Rover off our second album and it just missed the top 40.  But then, someone played that b-side- Cottonfields- and it went top 20.  So, yeah, we kind of struggled with what to promote!


Makes you wonder what would have happened if you'd have released Whiskey In The Jar instead of I'm On My Way, huh?

Maybe so....


So anyway, we have a 19-song, 44-station Panel this week, and I found a couple of oddities for you to share...

Yes, one vote was for Skeeter Davis and Something Precious, which not only never charted, but was itself the b-side to a big country hit.  Also the Tornadoes- not the ones from the UK that would have the big instrumental Telstar, but an American surf band- got a vote for another non-charter called Bustin' Surfboards.  Yet another famous b-side on this week's chart is Cliff Richard's cover with the Shadows of Do You Want To Dance, a #2 in the UK that got an Australian vote this week.  Chris?

So when it comes to the finalists, here's the thing. Two songs got more than the rest of the field combined, but we HAD a two-song final a couple of weeks back.  I'll throw a couple of "best of the rests" in to mix it up, and make your guess at least a challenge.  Dave?

Your choices, with their positions on this week's Cashbox chart, include:

The #1 this week, Little Eva's The Loco-Motion...
The #2, Neil Sedaka's Breaking Up Is Hard To Do....
The #3, Bobby Vinton and Roses Are Red...
And the #8, Tommy Roe and Sheila.

There you have it!  Thanks, Dave, and now for our debut this week on the M10.  This is a song by an act I have listened to new stuff from for some time, hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed- and generally not expecting much.  This one though, came up on my Spotify, and halfway through, I paused it looking for the video.  At #10, new music from an old, old alt-band, the Flaming Lips....





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Speaking of debuts, this is the week in 1962 that the Four Seasons debuted at #100- one of four that tied for the spot- with Sherry.

Which brings to mind the stat pack, where it was Johnny Tillotson getting the Big Move, up 35 from 86 to 51 with Send Me The Pillow You Dream On.

In our friends across the sea charts (I really have to come up with a better title for this bit), Frank Ifield's I Remember You was on top in the UK, Panelist Roses Are Red topped both Australia and New Zealand, and Canada had The Loco-Motion.

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One of the things Laurie and I usually do (if not this past week) is play through a lot of the next week's hot 100, learning little bits and pieces along the way.  I was having a miserable time doing a 6D on this week's victim- Barbara Lynn's You'll Lose A Good Thing at #4- until I got looking into her producer and owner of her label, Huey P Meaux.  And what I found was not so much a 6D as it was a lot of things that tied into the songs we played this summer.  Among those tie-ins were:

Two weeks ago, we listened to Freddy Fender's Wasted Days And Wasted Nights, which first charted way back when, but got pulled right off the bat when he got convicted on a marijuana charge.  Huey produced it then, and restarted one of his old labels to make it a hit in the seventies.  Most of the people in his stable did versions either of this or of You'll Lose A Good Thing.  In fact, Freddy did a version I always loved that hit #1 country and #32 pop in 1976.

Another act we've run into on occasion is the Sir Douglas Quintet, who had the big hit (produced by Huey) She's About A Mover.  They also covered Wasted Days.

The biggest hit (so far) of the summer on the M10- Smile Now, Cry Later, covered by the Shacks from a Sunny Ozuna and the Sunliners original- might not have been a Huey production for Sunny (It had no producer listed on the label) but most everything else they did WAS on Huey's label and with his production.

One song we hit on a while back was a number by R&B act Lee Maye- who just happened to be a star on the Milwaukee Braves baseball team at the same time!  Lee was another member of the Huey club, as well.


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The rest of this week's M10:

Elvis moves up a notch to 9 with I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water.
Down 4 to 8 are the Jayhawks with Bitter Pill.
The Explorer's Club holds at 7 with Roses And Rainbows.
Hazel English's first hit on the M10, Five And Dime, slips a spot to 6; flipping spots with the up-and-coming Toy Soldiers by Silversun Pickups at 5.
Dent May also slips back on to 4 with I Could Use A Miracle.
The big jump from 8 to 3 for Hazel English's second hit, Off My Mind.
Holding one more time at #2, Brooke Annibale's Home Again.

Which means a second week at #1 for....

...The Beths and Jump Rope Gazers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And as for that Panel pick....


Your throw ins were Roses Are Red and Breaking Up, each with 6.8%.

Tommy Roe comes in 2nd with 18.2%.


And your winner, with 34.1%....

...yep, it's Carole King's babysitter, Little Eva, with the Loco-Motion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Next time, Eva goes to 1963!