Today is March 12, 1964 here in the ol' Tardis, and how's about THIS story...
The U.S. House of Representatives voted against raising their salaries by 45 percent (from $22,500 to $32,500 annually), declining, 184–222, to approve a bill that would have raised the salaries of 1.7 million other U.S. government employees. While the original intention was to have the measure made subject to a voice vote, where it would not be clear which individual Congress members wanted to give themselves pay raises, about one half of those present supported a motion to put the matter to a roll call vote. For the record, Democrats supported the measure 149 to 86, while the Republican vote was only 35 for and 136 against.
Just to be fair, I thought I would see how that stacks up today. In fact, the last time Congress VOTED themselves a raise was in 1991; since then, they have an automatic adjustment factor. To their credit, they have voted the auto-increase DOWN more often than not, the last raise, of 2.8%, came in 2009- before I started this blog! In fact, had they taken every adjustment allowed since they kicked in in '92, they would be making $44,600 more than they are- more than they made altogether in'64! Of course, they're also making 7.7 times more now than they were back then... Although by not taking the adjustment in 12 years, adjusted for inflation, Member salaries decreased approximately 17% from 2009 until 2020.
And as we are in 1964, you know this will be a Beatle-centric post, with 7 Beatles songs on the top 150, and 5 more about them.
Man, here we go again!
So I'm going to try and break this up with a three way contest this week- along with a live 6D, 2 new M10 debuts, and the mounting tension of, does American Pie redone become the first 5-week #1 in M10 history! All this and Skeeter Davis, too!
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First, the debut at # 10, and this is a familiar, if not seen in a while, face on the M10! With her third trip into the ten, here's Dami Im...
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Hi, Skeeter, welcome back!
Yes, it certainly seems like I'm the designated Beatle Lady!
Yep, we're about two weeks back of where we met last year, but you still snagged a win and once again, your reward...
EP: If you choose to accept it...
Thank you, Mission Commander... anyway, your reward, Skeeter, is to preside over this week's games, which- at 3 of 'em- is down from last week as promised, if only by one.
EP: Game one should be pin the tail on the...
Thank you! Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis Presley! Now first thing's first. 7 actual songs from 59 stations- one of them not even a Beatles song!
SD: So first thing is, who is the song that is not a Beatle but IS a finalist! You get to choose from...
Fun Fun Fun by the Beach Boys, at #6 on Cashbox this week...
Navy Blue by Diane Renay, the #7...
It Hurts Me by Elvis at #69...
EP: SIXTY-NINE??? I'm getting tooken again!
Suspicion by Terry Stafford at 32- in fact, he's the big mover at a 27 spot climb from 59...
EP: Yeah well, he may kinda sound like me, but he's not better looking...
SD: I don't know, Elvis... he's not that bad looking, either...
What do ya think, ladies? If you wanna vote, just leave it in the comments and I'll bug Elvis with the winner next week! Anyway, you have one more of these prospective finalists, Skeeter?
Yes, your last choice is Dawn by the Four Seasons at #3.
Okay, so five chances to pick the seventh finalist- who also has a shot at being the Panel winner!
EP: Yeah, a very slim shot...
Would you kindly go play in the traffic? So what about the second game?
SD: Well, Chris, that game goes like this: As Chris wrote down the votes, he also wrote down which non-Beatle song was the highest on each of these charts. Your second game is, take those songs we named before:
Fun Fun Fun
Navy Blue
It Hurts Me
Suspicion
and Dawn
And guess which one was the best non-Beatle song on the MOST charts! Keep in mind, this does NOT necessarily have to be the same as the first winner, because that is based only on #1 votes, and this is any vote that was the highest non-Beatle on the list. Got it? Great! Now the third game is, of course the Panel itself! Choose from your game one favorite, plus these Beatles songs:
I Want To Hold Your Hand at #1...
I Saw Her Standing There, the flip of that song...
Please Please Me at #4...
She Loves You at #2...
All My Loving, which hasn't charted yet...
and Twist And Shout, which debuts at #64!
And just in case it helps, here's where all the Panelists and non-Panelists got to on the years top 100:
Bobby Goldsboro, See The Funny Little Clown (one 4th place vote), #90...
Navy Blue, 86...
Twist And Shout, #55...
Please Please Me, #37...
Suspicion, #30...
Dawn, #30...
Al Hirt with Java at #16 (and one time at #4)...
The Dave Clark Five and Glad All Over at #9 (with a #3 and a #9...)
Louis Armstrong's Hello Dolly! at #3 (with 1 #2)...
She Loves You at #2...
And I Want To Hold Your Hand, the year's biggest!
Okay folks, you got your work cut out for you again this week! In the meantime, here's that second debut at #9- another familiar voice on the M10. With some help from a young man named Keite Young, here's Leon Bridges...
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So who exactly are Hugo and Luigi? Let me take you the long way. In the mid to late 1970's they owned H&L records- a label that never placed a single higher than #69 on the pop charts. However, they had once upon a time ran Avco records, and the dude that had that #69 had a number one on Avco- Van McCoy and The Hustle. Luigi Creatore and Hugo Peretti had long been in the record business- at one point, they were creative directors and helped found Roulette records- getting out before its ties to the Genovese mafia family came out. Before that, yet, they were producers for acts other than Hugo and Luigi, including working on the Tokens' The Lion Sleeps Tonight, the Isleys and Shout, and Little Peggy March's I Will Follow Him. I believe Elvis can add something here...
EP: Well, I could, but I'm out playing in traffic...
Have it your way... Hugo and Luigi...
Okay, okay. They were co-writers on Can't help Falling In Love, too!
And, they were a large part of Sam Cooke's success, including producing the song Good News, which is our 6D victim at #9 without a Panel second...
Skeeter, you wanna give us those game 1 and 2 winners before we roll on?
SK: You bet! The one song that got on the Panel that wasn't a Beatles hit was- Terry Stafford, Suspicion!
EP: Of course it was...
SD: Oh, jealous, your song had 2 number two votes, that's not bad...
EP: Bet that means I didn't win game 2 either...
SD: I'm afraid so, sweetie. You see, Navy Blue had 3...
EP: Well, at least I was cl...
SD: and Suspicion had five...
EP: UH-oh...
SD: and Fun Fun Fun had six! But the winner with 23 times they were the next best...
...the Four Seasons!
EP: Those guys get on my nerves about as bad as the Beatles! Why I wish I...
Frankie Valli: Hey, shut it, cry baby!
Hey, Frankie, nice to see you! As a dude with no small success on the M10, why don't you go ahead and do the Overseas, If You Please- if Skeeter don't mind...
SD: No sir, go right ahead!
EP: Gettin' crowded in here... guess I'll go see what's up in the commissary...
FV: All right, Paisans, here's what was riding the radio this week:
New Zealand and Australia both had I Saw Her Standing There at the top...
Canada had I Want To Hold Your Hand...
Now, England had already been through stage one of Beatlemania, and had moved on. Their number one was a song also on the American charts, but by a different artist. There, it was Cillia Black singing Anyone Who Had A Heart at #1, while here Dionne Warwick was at #55.
Hey, thanks a lot, Frankie! Skeeter, how about the M10?
Well, okay, but I don't know most of these...
Neither do most of the readers, unless they play the videos!
All right, so at #8 is Crack The Sky with Blowing Up Detroit- is this like a Motown thing?
Not really...
Number seven is the Fratellis with Action Replay, up 2 spots...
Six and moving up 4 are Pale Waves and You Don't Own Me... not a Leslie Gore cover, is it?
No...
Didn't figure it would be, somehow... number five and holding is Royal Blood and Typhoons...
Weezer drops 2 to #4 with Grapes Of Wrath...
The Explorer's Club is up 3 to #3 with Don't Waste Her Time...
Tommy James and the Shondells up to #2 with Hold On To Him....
Which means number one, for a record breaking 5th week, is...
Home Free with Don McLean and American Pie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Skeeter! Hey cry baby, you want the Panel?
No. I do not.
Suit yourself. Last chance to shine before the Beatles take over...
Gimme that! So here's the thing. Voting for Stafford got ya exactly 5%. Not looking so good now, huh!
Same for Saw Her Standin' There, Please Please Me, an' All My Loving. Twist an' Shout did even worse, with 1.6%.
So the real battle was Hold Yer Hand or She Loves You. One got 47.7%, the other'n got 30.5%. An' the winner...
She Loves Ya! So be here next week for them guys once again... and probably watch them win again!
A wonderful post
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