Tilting at Windmills: Time Machine co-ordinates VII-III6865567727376

Friday, July 23, 2021

Time Machine co-ordinates VII-III6865567727376

Hello, and welcome to the Time Machine, counting down the last 15 weeks of...

KNOCK KNOCK

Um, excuse me, I better see who...

Aaron May: Hey, I'm here- and I brought doughnuts!

Chef Aaron May?? Great to meet you, but why-

AM Someone told me you needed some Mayhem this week, and that's my nickname- at least the one Guy Fieri always uses!

Ah HAH!

AM: By the way, this girl followed me up here...

TT: So, you thought you'd use some flimsy excuse to get rid of me again this week, did you?

Well, the thought had... uh, never mind. Frankly, I'm glad to see you both, because it's time for another fun round of Time Machine!

AM: This isn't going to involve trying to make caviar from SPAM or a savory sauce from Oreos, is it?

No cooking here, boss, all music! And if you looked at the header, you know that this week I picked from the years 1955, '67, '72, '73, and 1976 for my favorites in this week's top tens. But first, and since I have no debuts on the M10 this week, I thought I would post this video in honor of the late Robby Steinhardt, the violinist from the glory days of Kansas, who passed this week aged 71...

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AM: Believe it or not, I was just a baby when that came out...

Mmmblmmblmawmmaw...

TT: For pity's sake, swallow the doughnut first!

AHEM, I believe it! It just staggers me how fast all these years got away from me. I was a sophomore in high school...

TT: Dear God, I was closing in on 40...

AM: You don't look that old now!

TT: Thank you! Yes, Chris is a sweetie and always brings me back from when I looked the best..

ANYway, why don't we get started with our musical selections this week! With 5 years in the shuffle, I still managed to pull 16 of my favorites out of those five top ten lists. Then we looked up where they finished in their years' respective year-end charts. The top 5 this week will be our finalists; our bottom 2, neither of which made their years' lists, split 6D and Overseas If You Please duties. The rest of them, let's have Chef Mayhem give us the list- since he is the newbie here, Toni...

TT: I'm fine with that...

(I bet she wouldn't be if it was Antonia Lafaso...)

TT: ExCUSE me?

Nothing, nothing, Chef if you would...

AM: Why not? The songs that didn't make the top five or the last two are...

C'mon, Marianne by the Four Seasons, the #9 song this week in 1967...

Get Down by Gilbert O'Sullivan, the #9 song of 1973 this week- looks like a trend starting...

I'll Be Good To You by the Brothers Johnson, the #8 in 1976...

And probably my favorite on the list this week..

TT: Then , why aren't you?

Why aren't I what?

TT: Good to me!

AM: Moving right along, next is Kodachrome by Paul Simon, the #8 this week in '73... say, are these all gonna come in pairs?

Then it's Starbuck and Moonlight Feels Right, the #6 in '76...

Andrea True and More More More, the #3 in '76...

The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy, the #10 in '76...

Too Late To Turn Back Now by the Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, the #2 in 1972...

And finally, the Carpenters and Yesterday Once More, the #3 this week in 1973.

Nice job, Chef!

TT: Eh, 14 on gameplay, 12 on plating...

You hush, now! It's time for our 6D, and that means it's time for our favorite attorney, Horace Bellbottom!

HB: I do wish we could dispense with the fanfare. At any rate, given that both our bottom songs missed their 100 for their year, we chose which song to feature based on the year- in other words, we couldn't have gotten anything approaching a full Overseas If You Please on this one. And we begin with a rather heartbreaking story, copied from Wikipedia:

Robin Gibb's son played "I Started a Joke" on his phone just after his father died from kidney failure on 20 May 2012. Robin-John Gibb told The Sun:

"When he passed away we went out, they took the equipment away and we came back in, I picked up my phone and found "I Started a Joke" on YouTube and played it. I put the phone on his chest and that was the first time I broke down. I knew that song and its lyrics were perfect for that moment. That song will always have new meaning to me now."

HB: We get to that story because the song I Started A Joke was the last song released by Hall of Fame vocal group the Four Aces. And the Four Aces make our story because their biggest hit, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, won the Academy Award for best original song that particular year-1955-, beating out a song from the Fred Astaire movie Daddy Longlegs, which was performed by Mr Astaire. However, it is the cover of that song, that was sitting at #5 this week for the McGuire Sisters in 1955, that is our 6 Degrees victim- Something's Gotta Give.

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AM: Boy, you guys sure take the long way around the barn on that feature!

Well, like the Busch Beer guy says...

"Kinda the point!"

Next up, Toni, the OSIYP...

TT: So the other song that was at the bottom was the #7 from 1967, Don't Sleep In The Subway by Petula Clark...

I love Petula...

TT: Yes, don't we all...

(AM: I see what you mean about Antonia..)

TT: ExCUSE me??

Er, moving right along...

TT: So, in 1967, here were the international #1 songs this week...

Both South Africa and New Zealand had the Tremeloes and Silence Is Golden...

Canada had the Fifth Dimension and Up Up And Away...

I love Marilyn McCoo...

TT: You're just trying to make me mad, now...

Um, you're cute when you're angry?

AM: Nice save...

TT: Whatever. Australia had Whiter Shade Of Pale this week, by Procol Harum...

...and England had the Beatles and All You Need Is Love. Meanwhile, the big mover this week across the years was Gary Glitter's Rock And Roll- this week in 1972, it climbed 36 spots from 97 to 61.

Thanks! And now, in alphabetical order, this week's finalists!

Gilbert O'Sullivan scores again with Alone Again, Naturally, the #6 in 1972...

Looking Glass and Brandy (You're A Fine Girl), #10 that same year...

Also in 1972, the week's #1, Bill Withers and Lean On Me....

From 1955, Bill Haley and his Comets with Rock Around The Clock, also at #1...

...and finally, The Association and Windy, the #1 in 1967! So 3 #1s on the list- but do they make it to their year-end #1? CLUE: ONE of them did...

AM: I'll bet it's Rock Around The Clock- it only makes sense, it's a classic!

Last week, all three songs that were #1 that week did not win...

TT: Yeah, so glaze your doughnuts with that!

AM: Says the woman that calls THAT cleavage! What's your guess?

TT: I'll go with Windy! I loved the music in 1967...

Me, too! I was in Kindergarten then...

TT: Let's not do this again! I'm the oldest one of us here, I get that...

If Elvis were here, you wouldn't be...

TT: He's hiding, again, isn't he? Coward...

Anyway, let me tell you about this week's M10! Other than the top 2- and which one was where was another debate- I almost literally had every other song in every other position before I was finally satisfied! And here's what I came up with:

10- Brooke Annibale falls from 3 with Feels Like Home...

9- The Beach Boys fall from 6 with Big Sur...

8- courtship. ends up here a second week with Fuzzy...

7- Counting Crows fall from #2 with Bobby And The Rat Kings- good enough to move them to #6 on the all-time songs of summer list...

6- Journey up one with The Way It Used To Be...

5- Maneskin up 4 with Beggin'...

4- Weezer rockets up 6 with Tell Me What You Want...

3- Sass Jordan falls 2 from the top with The Key, putting her #31 on that all-time list...

2- Griffith James and Tennis up 3 with Market And Black....

And the new #1 this week....