So herer we are, the last somewhat normal episode of Time Machine... next week we'll have a Thursday M10 post for #699, and Friday is the Big Finale Halloween Bash! Now that I type that, it feels like it's gone so fast... almost 23% of my posts fall one way or another under the Time Machine banner! So how about one more time, let's look at what happened on any of the 23 October 22nds of the Martin Era 2.0...
In 1962, one of the world's most harrowing days, as President Kennedy announces that we have discovered Russian nukes in Cuba... and 14 years later, they were the first to land on Venus...
"Wait... where are the spaghetti monsters?"
Sometimes I wonder if all the other planets are just places where God stored his extra rocks... Anyway, at this point, I'd like to make a splash with our one last guest, but Elvis won last week, so...
EP: Waitaminit! Whaddya mean, "But ELVIS won..."
Well, you are an employee... more like family... than a guest...
EP: All right, all right, I'll buy that. So what do we have special this week?
How about a list of the highest charting Bob Dylan covers?
EP: What brought him up?
Well, it has to do with the backstory of our debut at #5 last week... Which reminds me, we had a debut this week that ALMOST made it three weeks in a row with a debut at #5 on the M10!
EP: I'd of cheated and put it there...
Yeah, but I'm honest about my lists. I remember doing my top ten as a kid and being such a fanboy that everything that certain artists put out I took to #1... Barry Manilow's Looks Like We Made It and ELO's Don't Bring Me Down come to mind as ones I might not have had at the top nowadays. But anyway, we did a new week of "this week's debuts" from Cashbox for this week's Panel, and there are 26 songs on the list! Also we have 2 M10 debuts, and the Dylan list, so let's get to it! With the debut at #10, here's our girl Dami Im with the lead single from a new lp called My Reality...
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So this week, 10 of the 26 debuts I picked from the past hit #1, kinda...
Kinda?
There's a bit of an asterix on one of them, which will give us yet another game to play later on. So pull them out, and the 2 at the bottom, and how about you give us the rest of the list...
Sure, gimme the pap...
...Wayne Newton!
EP: Wha.. Wayne? How's he get to do it?
WN: Come on, man, it's been a long time since I've done anything on the show!
EP: Yeah, there's a reason fer that. It's called, "The Infamous Beauty Contest Harassment Suit!"
Steady, buddy. I just thought it would be nice to close the series with an "all is forgiven"... Wayne, go right ahead.
WN: Okay, so these are the debuts Chris pulled that weren't eventually #1s, and weren't the bottom 2 by peak position, in chronological order...
Ricky Nelson, Lonesome Town, from 1958...
Patsy Cline, Crazy, 1961...
EP: You shoulda sang that one...
WN: Do you mind? The Rolling Stones, Time Is On My Side from 1964...
The Hollies, Stop Stop Stop from 1966...
Dionne Warwick, I Say A Little Prayer, from 1967, along with Glen Campbell with By The Time I Get To Phoenix...
From 1968, the Classics IV and Stormy, and Dion's Abraham Martin And John...
From 1969, the Band and Up On Cripple Creek, along with Blood Sweat And Tears with And When I Die....
Bread and Baby I'm-a Want You from 1971...
Gilbert O'Sullivan and Clair from 1972...
And LeBlanc and Carr, Falling, from 1977!
Nicely done, Wayne!
EP: Yeah, way to read stuff off a card, Wayynnne...
WN: What, like you were going to sing a medley?
EP: I mighta....
Boy, I can't take you two anywhere! Anyway, so I have a little story about last week's debut at #5, the Old 97's and Champaign, Illinois. It seems that Dylan had teamed up with Carl "Blue Suede Shoes" Perkins back in the 60's- apparently at a dinner in which they were both guests in the home of Johnny Cash. After dinner, Dylan helped write Wanted Man with Johnny... then, he and Carl came up with a song called Champaign, Illinois. "It was an unfinished tune that he gave to Carl, and Carl finished it."
Flash ahead to the 21st century, somewhere in Illinois, where lead singer of the Old 97s, Rhett Miller, is on the tour bus bored, and is entertaining himself by re-writing the lyrics to songs. He gets a Dylan tune called Desolation Road stuck in his head, and re-writes it and up-tempos it into the song that became their Champaign, Illinois. They played it live for years, but never recorded it until their manager told a buddy the story- that buddy being Dylan's manager. He got Bob to listen to a live recording, and he gave them the rights to record and Rhett a 50% songwriting credit! And that's how it came to appear on the Old 97s' 2010 lp The Grand Theatre.
EP: That is one messed up story!
Yep, and it made me decide to do a "Top Ten Charting Dylan Covers List!" And there's no better person to to give the reading of the list to...
EP: Aw, shucks...
Than our good friend, and the host at the start of the story, Mister Johnny Cash!
JC: Thanks, Chris; and Elvis, I sure hope you aren't intending on whining about it like you did on the last list?
EP: Bu... no, no I ain't.
JC: Good man! Now this here list only includes tunes from that stretch of 1955 to 1977 Chris calls the Martin Era 2.0.
Number Ten was myself and my lovely wife June doing our take on It Ain't Me, Babe, which made #58 on the pop charts.
9 was Olivia Newton-John's first big hit, with George Harrison on guitar, If Not For You, hitting #23.
8 went to Jimi Hendrix- and you all know this means All Along The Watchtower, which got to #20.
At number seven was a novelty version by the "Wonder Who"- actually Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons- of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright at #12.
We have a tie at #5- two songs hit #9 on the charts. One of them was that same Don't Think Twice, done seriously by Peter Paul and Mary.
The other one was Stevie Wonder doing Blowing In The Wind.
The #4 on our list was the Turtles' version of It Ain't Me Babe.
Number three went to Manfred Mann and The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo), reaching #4 on Cashbox.
The second song was again Peter Paul and Mary, this time with their version of Blowing In The Wind...
And the highest charting Bob Dylan cover went to...
...the Byrds and Mr Tambourine Man, which hit #1. Thanks for finally having me on the show!
My pleasure! Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Cash!
And now, with a live 6D....
EP: Who's the next special guest?
Why, you, buddy!
ME? I never...
What did you tell Col. Sanders last week? "Just put the headset on, it practically does itself!"
Man, this contraption's gonna muss my hair...
Okay, so there once was a 60s band in the UK called the Mighty Avengers, believe it of not. Here in the states, the Mighty Avengers meant this:
There, it was a whole 'nother thing. Most of this band eventually became Jigsaw- the ones that hit with Sky High here in the states. Well, the writers for this group- Clive Scott and Des Dyer- they wrote the very first 45 Chris ever bought, Who Do You Think You Are by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. There's a big hit for ya! It was produced by Steve Barri, known for a lot of writing and production credits, including writing Secret Agent Man and A Must To Avoid, and producin' Dizzy an' the song that gets the 6D award by peaking at a Panel-low # 36- Mama Cass and Make Your Own Kind Of Music. Not bad, hey?
Nope, real good! Before we give you your guess choices, though, here's that high debut- all the way up at #4! This is an acoustic version of a song that hit #1 in the UK already in a more bouncy form, and is in the US top 40 right now. I liked the acoustic much better, as you can see... this is Elton John and Dua Lipa...
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Alright, here's than list of #1 songs I pulled out of this week's debut list. First, find the one song that topped the others by eventually spending five weeks at #1. Second, one of them was #1 on Cashbox, but held off at #2 on Billboard... find THAT one!
In chronological order...
Sam Cooke, You Send Me, 1958
Return To Sender, Elvis, 1962
Big Girls Don't Cry, Four Seasons, 1962
Good Vibrations, Beach Boys, 1966
Love Child, Supremes, 1968
Come Together, Beatles, 1969
Theme From Shaft, Isaac Hayes, 1971
The Joker, Steve Miller Band, 1973
Angie Baby, Helen Reddy, 1974
Laughter In The Rain, Neil Sedaka, 1974
and That's The Way I Like It, KC and the Sunshine Band, 1975.
While you think about that, I have one more special treat. Live from Antarctica, here's Nardole with the Overseas If You Please! Nardole, can you hear us?
S-s-s-sir, I can hear you... but why from here? It's s-s-s-sixty-seven below here!
Well, we have all this live remote equipment we never used, and it would be a shame to waste it...
I-I-I-I-I see... well, quickly th-th-then...
In the Uk-k-k-k-K, it was Eye Level, the th-theme f-f-from the TV show Van Der Valk by the s-s-Simon P-p-park Orchestra...
In New Zealand, it was P-p-paul Simon with Take Me To The Mardi Gras...
Interesting thing about that one: It never charted here- wiki claims it only was released in the UK, and yet it hit #1 in New Zealand and was #3 in South Africa this week. It was supposed to be the b-side of Kodachrome, but the BBC wouldn't play Kodachrome due to "advertising prohibitions", so...
Sir, m-m-might we move on?
Oh, sorry, go ahead...
In Australia it was Susie Quatro with Can The Can... in Canada, Angie by the Rolling Stones... in South Africa, the George B-b-baker Selection with Baby B-b-blue...
You were sounding better for a minute there, what happened?
A p-p-penguin p-p-peed on my leg... but it's frozen now...
The pee, or you leg?
The p-p-penguin, s-s-sir...
Ah, well you go ahead and seek shelter, and thanks for being such a trooper all these years!
All right, how about you hit the M10, buddy?
EP: Fine!
9- and falling 6, Moon Taxi an' Mission...
8- and falling 4, Morello an' Phantogram, Driving To Texas...
7- up one, Styx an' Age Of Entropia...
You okay, King?
EP: Man, Noodle made ME cold!
6- Up one, Geowulf an' I've Been Over It... 5- Up one, The Beths an' Dying To Believe...
3- Outta the top spot, Gerry Rafferty an' Sign Of The Times...
2- up 3 for Champaign, Illinois...
An' new at the top...
...Jason Isbell an' the 400 Unit and Brittney Spencer an' Midnight Train To Georgia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, here's your debut guess results!
Good Vibrations, Come Together, The Joker, and Angie Baby all were #1 for 1 week...
You Send Me, Love Child, Shaft, and That's The Way I Like It all made 2 weeks...
Return To Sender was the one that, while making #1 on CB, it was held out on Billboard for 5 weeks by our winner....
Our very last Panel winners, the Four Seasons and Big Girls Don't Cry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, that's it! Be here next Thursday for the latest M10, and Friday for the great 700th episode Halloween Bash!
And now I can't get Mighty Quinn out of my head. Which is better than having That's the Way I Like It stuck there.
ReplyDeleteAnd I just woke up from a nap with Andy Williams singing Can't Get Used To Losing You, which beats both!
DeleteThese posts make songs get stuck in my head
ReplyDeleteYou aren't alone...
Delete