Today is September 11th, 1965, and you can have your choice of disasters. In Pakistan, the home team got clobbered by India in the Battle of Phillora, the largest tank battle since WWII; The Pakistanis lost some 66 tanks by one estimate. Or, you can go to the first football game ever played in the Astrodome. It was a disaster because A) the home team, the Houston University Cougars, got blanked in a 14-0 snoozer by then-powerhouse Tulsa; B) the crowd was a disappointing 10K less than the first baseball game held there, at around 37,000; C) They were just figuring out that grass won't grow under a closed roof, and 'astroturf' was yet to be installed, so they played on a field of hard dirt painted green. The artificial stuff was first played on in March the next year.
And that brings us to this week's Time Machine, in which I will tell the tale of the wildest comeback in Panel History; a visit with Eric Burdon of the Animals*; and it looks like another live 6D (which means I never got around to it last night...), as well as 2 new M10 debuts and a new #1! Let's get ready to roll out the Green Carpet!
*Keeping in mind, all guests, staff, and, in fact, the Tardis, are purely fictional unless quoted.
In a time machine hovering about 55 years in my past and one year in your future...
Dig it! And we're doing what?
Well, this is a music history show, basically, and I gather votes- well, the #1 songs from a lot of stations around the world for the week we're in- and the one with the most wins. You won last week.
Wow! Which song?
House of the Rising Sun...
Man, you sure this ain't a thing to get Price's name all the money on arrangements?
I read about that problem. That's why a lot of bands just put the rights in the band's name. By doing it by members alphabetically, and then running out of space...
Well, who would've thought they would have went by first names- A for Alan Price- instead of last names- B for Burdon? What a lot of rubbish! Oh well, so what am I to do here?
Well, we had 18 contestants from 82 stations- including a couple of interesting cases- and normally, I'd just let you handle the oddballs, and then read off the finalists! But this week, the most amazing thing happened...
Like, wow! What was it?
First, here, attend to these tidbits...
Okay... like, just read this?
You got stoned before the show, didn't you?
Never touch the stuff! I just like have problems when caught up in metaphysical journeys that lead to the possibilities of chronal paradoxi...
"Paradoxi"?
Trust me, dude! Anyway, so this says that one station voted for the Kingsmen and Louie Louie- despite the fact it was a big hit the year before, and would chart again next year? Wow, right in the middle. Say, did you get the station in a trans-temporal claudication?
"Claudication"?
Never mind. The other oddity was that the Beatles got a vote for Yesterday- actually, this is kind of funny- when they don't hit the hot 100 till next week. I think they had a time machine, too...
Well, they've certainly been in this one often enough! So the big news on this week's chart was the race for the top. One song got out to a big lead- big enough I was saying, okay, I'll need a backup plan to make this post interesting! But then, another song got hot, and near the end PASSED the first song- but I'm not saying what song was what, and if the leader stayed passed! Okay, here are four finalists, which contains these two dueling juggernauts!
"Juggernauts"?
Just do the list...
All righty, you can all vote for...
The Beatles and Help!, #1 on Cashbox this week...
Eve Of Destruction by Barry McGuire at #4...
Hang On Sloopy by the McCoys at #9...
...or The We Five at #5 with You Were On My Mind...
I'm sure you all can figure out that if I thought I needed a 'plan B', it was the Beatles that opened up the early lead. But did they regain it? Think it over whilst I cue up the new song at #10, by a new act here on the M10, originally from Pennsylvania and coming to us from their 2019 lp See You Tomorrow...
Hey, that's kinda funny too! D'ya think...
I think it's time to introduce... The Innocence Mission!
So the 6D victim- highest charting song without a Panel vote- was the Supremes with Nothing But Heartaches. After 5 straight #1 songs, this one stopped at this week's #8 on CB and 11 on Billboard. Needless to say, Motown management was displeased with a non-#1 result. In fact, Berry Gordy then circulated the following memo...
We will release nothing less than Top Ten product on any artist; and because the Supremes' world-wide acceptance is greater than the other artists, on them we will only release number-one records.
So how well did they do? Better than the start- the five singles the girls had before the streak, only one made the top 40. After the memo, though, they charted 19 more songs as a-sides while they were the Supremes 1.0 (aka while Diana Ross was still with them), and they fell thusly:
1 song (5.2%) missed the top 40...
5 charted between 40 and 11 (26.3%)...
13 of them made the top ten (68.4%), including...
7 number ones (36.8%).
Which, while not being Berry's number, isn't too shabby. Of course, I had to check this against the Beatles. While together, and after they hit their 5th #1, here's how they fared...
22 a-sides total...
1 missed the 40 (4.5%)...
3 made the 40 but not top ten (13.6%)...
18 total top tens (81.8%), including 7 number ones (31.8%)- So how about that, the Beatles get beat once this week- will it be twice?
Debut #2 is pretty familiar- to me, because it's been drifting around the shuffle waiting its time for a while, and to you faithful followers of this show because, well, it's Anna Burch...
****************************************
Overseas, if you please: The other #1s were...
Help! winning in Australia and New Zealand...
Canada had a delightful change of pace with Eddie Rambeau's My Name Is Mud...
The UK had the Stones with (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, currently at #34 on Cashbox...
And, welcome back to South Africa, who had a gent named Murray Campbell at the top with Goodbye My Love!
In the meantime, before I give out the big mover, I have to mention where I was misled (aka I misread) my info on the Explorer's Club and their recent (until this week) top ten, Roses And Rainbows. I had thought the Danny Hutton original was after his time with 3 Dog Night; I found out this week I was a few roses short, as Danny PRE-3DN was on the charts this very week at #115!
As for that big mover- this was a chart full of Sonny and Cher stuff, with I Got You Babe still at #3, and it and Sonny's Laugh At Me were both Panelists. So when it looked like their 28-notch move with Baby Don't Go (even though I like it) would be the big mover, I was begging, pleading, PLEASE let it be someone else.
(BTW, did I ever tell you I REALLY don't like Jay and the Americans? Just sayin'.)
Well, guess what, there was a song that beat it out! With a 34-notch jump from 79 to 45...
...Jay and the Americans and Some Enchanted Evening. Be careful what you wish for...!
Between the debuts is Har Mar Superstar at #9 once again with Don't You Go Forgetting About Me Now. (BTW, I've been meaning to tell the story about his pseudonym. At one point, he claimed that HMS was actually actor Sean Tillman's twin brother HARold MARtin Tillman, thus the name. Later, he admitted it came from a strip mall called the Har Mar Mall near his Minnesota home.)
Dent May moves up one to 7 with Pour Another Round.
Eight weeks on the chart may be it at last for Brooke Annibale's Home Again, down 2 to 6.
Saintseneca leaps to #5, five spots up for In A Van.
Up one more to 4 for the Flaming Lips with Flowers Of Neptune 6.
The Beths begrudgingly give up a spot to #3 with Jump Rope Gazers.
As previously mentioned, 2-week #1 Off My Mind by Hazel English slips back to #2.
Which means we have a second #1 for....
... Tennis, with Need Your Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And now, just how did this battle turn out? Well, if you took the We Five (6%) or the McCoys (8.5%), you missed out on the titanic struggle between Barry McGuire and Eve Of Destruction- a song that if memory serves was down at least 7-1 and maybe 12-2- and Help! Who took the win?
The Beatles netted 25.6%... but catching them, and PASSING them, with 31.7%....
...Barry McGuire and Eve Of Destruction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boy, won't he be surprised when I drag HIM to 2020 next week!
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
Posts
"You got stoned before the show, didn't you?"
ReplyDelete*snicker* :)
Yeah, I liked that, too!
DeleteWhat to say, what to say, I do not know what to say maybe I am stoned
ReplyDeleteAnd there is my big laugh for today, thank you!
Delete