A Question of Statistics; or, What is it with Silver Convention???

Okay, I realize that many times the only reason someone comes to this blog is because you happen to be searching an image that I have used in the past. But I've noticed this odd statistical anomaly that I wish someone would explain to me.

This is the picture of the ladies of Silver Convention back in Time Machine week 30 on November 19th. This post has been looked at 169 times, third all time right now. Now, out of 118 visits from Germany, 71 of those coming as a result of Google Germany (Google.de) searches, 30 of them have been as a result of searches with the keywords "Silver Convention", looking for THIS PICTURE!

I would like to know, if anyone could scroll past the picture to tell me, what is the fascination in Germany with Silver Convention? Or, to put it another way (with the help of Babylon),Was ist die Faszination in Deutschland mit Silber Übereinkommen?

Just curious, y'know. I just wonder if I'll get an answer before this post is pushed into the top ten by google.de searches.

Step into my time machine week thirty-five

Hello Hooray!! We've reached the Merry Christmas edition of Time machine, and this is a week for believing, a big week for the King (at least in our story), and the week I tell the soon to be famous Fly Away story. Let's ho-ho-go!!!



8 debuts in the hot 100 this week, and I knew 1/2 of them! Coming in at 85 is the classic by Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody. With their timing just a hair off, we find the ubiquitous Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with December 1963 (Oh What A Night) at 84. Oh well, I guess the song does say, LATE December. If you are a fan of Art Garfunkel at all, you should check out his album Breakaway. The Title track, my favorite of his solo efforts, debuts at 79 this week. And at 77 Rufus featuring the lovely ...er, voice of Chaka Khan, hits with Sweet Thing. One thing I was going to note is at #88 is a song I noticed coming in a month ago, called For A Dancer by Prelude. Now if you remember Prelude at all, you remember their a capella version of Neil Young's After The Gold Rush. This, however, was so Peter Paul and Mary-like in the clip I listened to that I had to check and see if it was the same act. I'll have to fit this in with a handful of early 70's soft folk acts like Batdorf and Rodney to put on my Pandora station, Scrappy Radio.



Another thing that I wasn't going to note but will anyway, is that Feelings has yet again arrested its fall. In its 29th week on the charts, it slips only 2 to 49. By contrast the big dropper, falling 34 notches to 67, is Venus And Mars/Rock Show by Wings. As per usual, we'll see the big gainer in the top 40 debuts. Also, I see no good candidate for the almost but not quite this week; although I saw that the Pointer Sisters peaked last week at 51 and go down slowly to 54 with a song called, appropriately enough, Going Down Slowly. I can't make this stuff up.



Our looks at the tops on other years' charts takes us into the 6's this week. 1996 had already seen the crash and burn of the old Cashbox chart by this week, but on Billboard the top dog was Toni Braxton's Un-Break My Heart, which was in week 3 of an 11 week run. In 1986 Wang Chung was on top with Everybody Have Fun Tonight. This song always reminds me of the night on Letterman's monologue when he announced that Connie Chung and Maury Povich were going to try artificial insemination, leading him to observe, "This gives new meaning to the phrase, 'Everybody wang Chung tonight.' " One year from our current position in the timestream, we find Leo Sayer at #1 with You Make Me Feel Like Dancing- a song that never did the same for me. The top dog this week in 1966 was the Monkees I'm A Believer, which was in the second of an 8-week run. In 1956 the top song this week was Singing the Blues by Guy Mitchell. Mitchell, a pop vocalist who had 9 top tens including 2 #1s (Heartaches By The Number in '59 was the other), was born Albert George Cernik. He was given his stage name by Mitch Miller, who allegedly said, " My name is Mitchell, and you seem like a nice guy, so..." Singing The Blues spent 5 weeks on top in 1956/7, and two in the UK. Only thing is, in Jolly Ol', the 2 weeks were separated by Tommy Steele's version of the very same song. In the meantime, Marty Robbins was charting a country version that held the top country spot for 13 weeks.



4 new top fortys. Up 2 to 40 is a song I believe I mentioned at its debut a few weeks back, BTO's Down To The Line. Up 14 to #39 is the George Baker Selection's Paloma Blanca, a song later made infamous on commercials by Slim Whitman. From 56 to 38 comes the moaning groanings of Donna Summer and Love To Love You Baby. And our big jumper, from 48 to 22, is Paul Simon and 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.



Our album countdown features 3 one-and-dones, in the weeks of April 21- May 5th, 1973. First up was the Alice Cooper band with Billion Dollar Babies. The name was a reference to their sudden unexpected success, and the singles included Elected (26), Hello Hooray (35), No More Mr. Nice Guy (25), and the title track (57). Then Came one of the great albums of all time- Pink Floyds Dark Side Of The Moon. This monster album is claimed to be the 3rd largest-selling album of all time, behind Michael Jackson's Thriller and AC/DC's Back In Black. It remained on the Billboard top 200 albums list till 1988- a total of 741 weeks ( a little humility for YOU, Morris Albert). Never a big singles band, it did include their first American chart hit, Money (13), along with the dreamy Us And Them (101). In fact, the only two top 100 hits in the USA for this legendary band were Money and the #1 Another Brick In The Wall; however, they were much more successful on the mainstream rock chart established thereafter, with 8 top tens there including the #1's Learning To Fly (my favorite), On The Turning Away, and Keep Talking.

Dark Side then yielded to Elvis Presley. He taped a live special from Hawaii on Jan. 14th, 1973, called Aloha From Hawaii which was beamed into 40 countries and seen by 1.5 billion viewers. Of course that was the week of Super Bowl VII in the USA, so American audiences didn't get to see it until April 4th on NBC. The show pulled 50% of the US audience, and is still the biggest ratings pulled by a solo performer. It was also the only film produced by the King himself; and the album resulting, Aloha From Hawaii:Via Satellite, was his last #1. All proceeds from the concert, including Elvis buying his own $1,000 ticket, went to the Kui Lee Cancer center. The album yielded one single, a cover of James Taylor's Steamroller Blues (17).



Two songs enter the top ten, 2 fall out. the droppers are Fly Robin Fly, from 4 to 13; and Sky High, from 5 to 15. Kinda ironic, considering the titles, eh?



Rather than interrupt the countdown in medias res, I'll go next to the Fly Away Story. This was the late fall of our 8th grade year at dear old St. Louis Besancon Catholic School, and we had just went through a traumatic teacher change. 7th and 8th were now in the hands of one Herman Paul Stork, a nice guy for a bearded, warmed over hippie type. He had a lot of patience with the jokesters from our classes (and there were many), as befits a man with such a... er, unusual name. One night, he got permission (I'll never understand how) from Nuns and parents to take us to see the movie All The President's Men, a flick that began my lifelong disgust with Woodward and Bernstein. You that have seen this, all I can say is that the nuns OBVIOUSLY didn't screen it first. In any event, he took us to Pizza Hut afterwards- a Pizza Hut which had, of all things, a jukebox.

Descending upon it, we saw it had our subject song; and yours truly devised an excellent plan. About 4 or 5 songs in, we heard the opening guitar chords and in the midst of conversation, our eyes all met. When John Denver hit the chorus, the 20-some of us as one looked straight at Mr. Stork and as loud as we could, sang, "FLY AWAY". We laughed, he turned his usual shade of red, the restaurant looked at us all confused, and a good time was had by all.



Holding at #10 for a third week are the O'Jays with I Love Music. Fly Away joins us at #9, up 4. Moving from 11 to 8 this week is Sweet with Fox On The Run; KC and the Sunshine Band drop from 3 to 7 with That's The way I Like It. The Ohio Players wake from their week's slumber and resume climbing , up 3 to #6 with Love Rollercoaster. Last week's top dog, Let's Do It Again by the Staple Singers, drops all the way to 5. It is followed by three straight songs that move up 4 big notches- Convoy by CW McCall, from 8 to 4; Diana Ross' Theme From Mahogany, from 7 to 3; and Barry Manilow's I Write The Songs, from 6 to 2. Which Means that this week's #1 song- and the last for 1975, as this is the chart dated 12-27-75- is....

The Bay City Rollers with S-A-TUR-DAY- NIGHT!!
That's it from sunny Honolulu (yeah, right). See you next week in a brand new show!

The Time Machine Christmas Special

'Tis the season for a countdown of the fifty biggest hits since we started time machine (IOW the time period from late May to Christmas 1975). This is a warped just for fun hybridization of the year-end Cashbox and Billboard charts, with just a hint of author's discretion. But I will tell you this much- whatever else was disagreed on, #'s 1 & 2 were the consensus picks. Here we GO!



Suprising me to come in at #40 is Sammy Johns and Chevy Van. Though he was a one-hit wonder, he wrote the great country song Common Man that John Conley made famous. At thirty-nine is the first of the "mythical top ten" to make it, Orleans' Dance With Me. For what I mean by the "MTT", you'll have to go back to an earlier TM and look it up. England's Ace featuring Paul Carrack gets #38 with How Long. Melissa Manchester, Barry Manilow's "Sweet Melissa", is at 37 with Midnight Blue. Did you know that Toni Tennille joined the Beach Boys' Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston as the backup vocals on Elton John's Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me? Toni and Daryl Dragon aka the Captain are at 36 with The Way That I Want To Touch You, a song that they had released twice before on 2 different labels in 1974 before it finally became a big hit in 1975. Linda Ronstadt has the 35th hit on our countdown with You're No Good. The Eagles hit twice on this countdown; the first is Lyin' Eyes at 34.



The next 2 spots belong to KC And The Sunshine Band; Get Down Tonight at 33, That's The Way I Like It at 32. Another of the "MTT", America's Sister Golden Hair, is in the 31st spot. Michael Martin Murphey, whose 5 top 40 hits pale beside his 12 top ten country hits, is at 30 with Wildfire, which he wrote based on a dream he had involving the stories of a ghost horse his grandfather told him about when he was a child. Silver Convention takes #29 with current top ten Fly Robin Fly; besides That's The Way I Like It, the only song with that distinction. Linda Ronstadt gets her second mention with When Will I Be Loved at 28. Tom Scott, who was a member of the studio version of the Blues Brothers, blows the soprano sax on Wings' Listen To What The Man Said, our third member of the "MTT" and holder of the #27 slot.



Major Harris makes our list at 26 with Love Won't Let Me Wait. The second half of our countdown begins with Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds and Falling In Love at 25. Taking a look at the year 1975 in music, some of the acts getting their start this year were Aussie giants Air Supply and the Little River Band; funk ensemble Heatwave; the Boomtown Rats, who gave us the hit "I Don't Like Mondays"; and Ritchie Blackmore (from Deep Purple) formed Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio, breaking into the music scene with the roar of The Man On The Silver Mountain. Passing at least temporarily from the scene were the Faces, with Rod Stewart concentrating on his solo career and Ronnie Wood joining the Rolling Stones; the Guess Who, as Burton Cummings found himself just as popular in Canada solo; the Raspberries, as Eric Carmen hit with the album whose title was a double entendre- All By Myself; and one hit wonders Stealers Wheel, whose frontman Gerry Rafferty would soon become much bigger with the release of City To City. Acts like 50 Cent, Lil' Kim, Michael Buble, and American Idol's Bo Bice were born in 1975; Peter Ham of Badfinger committed suicide this year, and country music lost pioneer Lefty Frizzell.



Olivia Newton-John takes the #24 spot with Please Mister Please; BJ Thomas was at 23 with (here we go one more time) (Hey, Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song. Barry Manilow salutes Melissa Manchester and cribs from Chopin with Could It Be Magic at 22; and Tony Orlando And Dawn are at 21 with He Don't Love You. Brazillian Morris Albert, originally Mauricio Alberto Kaisermann, is at 20 with the oft-mentioned Feelings. 10cc, who tried awfully hard to make the chart twice with the same song (but I caught my boo boo), settle for one time at 19 with I'm Not In Love. Wikipedia tells us about the Ozark Mountain Daredevils," It is mentioned in the book about the band "It Shined," by Michael Granda, that the band name was derived from "Cosmic Corn Cob & His Amazing Ozark Mountain Daredevils," a name that John Dillon came up with at a Kansas City "naming party" after the band was told that the name they had previously been using, "Family Tree," was already taken. The band shortened the name because none of the band members at the time wanted to be called "Cosmic Corn Cob," and they did not want the name to sound similar to The Amazing Rhythm Aces." The former corn cobs hit at #18 with Jackie Blue.



The Bee Gees have the 17th song in our list with Jive Talkin'. Ballroom Blitz by Sweet, which was released and hit#2 in the UK and #1 in Australia, Denmark, Germany, and Ireland in 1973, was finally released in North America in 1975, where it hit the top in Canada and lands at 16 in our countdown. The Spinners come in at 15 with Games People Play; the female vocal was the late Barbara Imgram, whose Spinners connection included her husband Sherman Marshall writing their hit Then Came You. The next 2 spots belong to Freddy Fender; he puts Before The Next Teardrop Falls at 14 and Wasted Days And Wasted Nights at 13. Another gone but not forgotten figure is Van McCoy, who lands The Hustle at 12. War captures the #11 slot with Why Can't We Be Friends.



Along the way, I've mentioned several songs that I knew but never made it into the top forty. Here's the top ten of the below-top-40s, arranged by their peak on the Billboard charts.

10. I'll Go To My Grave Loving You- the Statler Brothers(93)

9. Never Been Any Reason- Head East(68)

8. Nice Nice Very Nice- Ambrosia (63)

7. Long Haired Country Boy- Charlie Daniels Band (56)

6. Mexico- James Taylor (49)

5. Por Amor Viveremos (the Spanish version of Love Will Keep Us Together)-Captain and Tennille (49)

4. Sail On Sailor- the Beach Boys (49)

3. Welcome To My Nightmare- Alice Cooper (45)

2. Make The World Go Away- Donnie and Marie (44)

1. Katmandu- Bob Seger (43)



The top ten leads off with Janis Ian, who said she was At Seventeen but actually ended up 10th. #9 is Pick Up The Pieces by the Average White Band. #8 is the Eagle's second song on the list, One Of These Nights. Sir Elton John, joining Sir Paul McCartney as nobility on the list, is 7th with Island Girl. John Denver comes in at 6 live from the Universal Ampitheatre in L.A. with Thank God I'm A Country Boy. The 5th-biggest song on our list comes from (and what would our countdown be without) Frankie Valli and the uncredited Four Seasons with My Eyes Adored You.



Earth Wind And Fire are the #4 act with Shining Star; David Bowie, accompanied by the screaming John Lennon at #3 with Fame. And now, the top 2, agreed by both charts. the #2 song of 1975 belongs to...

Glen Campbell, with Rhinestone Cowboy!

And the #1 song- surprise, surprise- issssss.........

The Captain And Tennille, with Love Will Keep Us Together!!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed our special journey. See you later this weekend on our regular trip.

Step into my time machine week thirty-four

Before we go this week, I want to announce that sometime over the holidays, I'm going to follow tradition with a year end list. But... it's going to be a hybrid of the Billboard and Cashbox lists, and only counting the time period I've been doing TM, so you cheaters that peak ahead won't really know for sure what's coming next. Stay tuned for that, and away we go!



15 debuts this week, including 2 Christmas songs- at 100, Greg Lake of ELP chimes in with I Believe In Christmas; and John Denver comes in at 72 with Christmas For Cowboys. In the regular debuts, we feature 6 tunes- the Commodores at 99 with Sweet Love; Roxy Music at 91 with the classic go-to-the-club-and-get-some song, Love Is The Drug; Natalie Cole at 82 with Inseprable; the Bee Gees at 77 with Fanny Be Tender (which some dude named Gino Cunico also hit with much lower); Yet another great Linda Ronstadt cover, this time the Miracles' great Tracks Of My Tears, at 73; and way up at 69, the Eagles with Take It To The Limits. The big dropper this week are the Four Seasons with Who Loves You tumbling 34 spots to 57; the big jumper didn't even become a competition until the top forty. And finally, take heart ye "Feelings" bashers; Morris Albert at last leaves the top 40, dropping to 49.



Our #1 album countdown this week takes us to March of 1973 and the ascendance of Elton John's wonderfully titled Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player. The title comes from his reaction when Groucho Marx (of all people) made six shooters with his hands and aimed them at Elton. This album bought him his first #1 single, Crocodile Rock, along with the Billboard #2 Daniel. After 2 weeks at the top, it was replaced by Dueling Banjos, the Deliverance soundtrack played by Eric Weissburg and Steve Mandel. The title tune, originally called Feudin' Banjos, was written by Al "Guitar Boogie" Smith, who got no credit. He sued and won a landmark case that convinced moviemakers to be polite and ask from now on. Banjos stayed on top for three weeks, which brings us to another somewhat unusual entry. On April 7, Diana Ross captured her first #1 album with Lady Sings The Blues, the soundtrack to the movie biography of the late jazz star Billie Holliday. It succeeded despite the absence of a big hit single (Good Morning Heartache peaked at 34) but succeed it did, holding the top spot for two weeks.



Let's look at the tops of the other years this week before we go into the 7 count 'em 7 top 40 debuts. This week in 1995, Boyz II Men (whom I slandered last week and will thus leave alone) combine with Mariah Carey on One Sweet Day; in 1985, Mr. Mister hits #1 for the first time with Broken Wings; in 1975, you'll just have to wait to the end of the post; in 1965, the Four Seasons with Let's Hang On, one of my all time favorites and their 5th Cashbox #1 (it only got #3 Billboard); and in 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford was in his 4th of 7 weeks at the top with Sixteen Tons.



Into airplay alley this week comes Olivia Newton-John; having no more left with Something Better To Do, she re-enters at 40, up 13 with Let It Shine. Up 6 to 39 is the disco remake of the old classic Baby Face by the Wing And A Prayer Fife And Drum Corps, a group of studio musicians put together by one Harold Wheeler, who now is the musical director for Dancing With The Stars. At 38, up 12, we find hard rockers Nazareth with their excellent cover of Roy Orbison's Love Hurts. Up 6 to 37 are Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes with the excellent Wake Up Everybody. The Who's double entendre hit Squeezebox comes in at 36, up 13. The song I thought was going to be the high debut and biggest jumper comes in at 24, up a big 28 notches- the Miracles, sans Smokey Robinson, with Love Machine; and the song that said I was premature comes in at 20, up forty-two notches in just two weeks in the Hot 100, Neil Sedaka's Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.



Our almost but not quite this week is Frankie Valli (him AGAIN??) with Our Day Will Come. This remake of the Ruby and the Romantics #1 of March 1963 featured (as did Swearin' To God) the female vocal of Patti Austin, who'd gain greater fame with her duet with James Ingram, Baby Come To Me, which hit #1 in 1983. Our Day Will Come peaks this week at 14.



Two songs enter the top ten, two fall out. The droppers are Nights On Broadway, down 11 to 16th, and My Little Town, dropping also 11 to 18th. By the By, Fly Away climbs from 20 to 13, which means likely next week I'll tell you the Fly Away story. Along with the song and the singers, it involves a human stork, Woodward and Bernstein, and Pizza Hut.



Holding onto the #10 spot are the O'Jays with I Love Music. Also stalled at #9 are the Ohio Players with Love Rollercoaster. Leaping from 19 to 8 come Pigpen and Rubber Duck; yes, CW McCall's Convoy wastes no time trucking into the top ten. At 7th , up 6, is Diana Ross with the Theme From Mahogany-big day for Diana and movies, eh? Barry Manilow moves up 2 to #6 with I Write The Songs. Jigsaw climbs one to 5 with Sky High. Fly Robin Fly descends one spot to #4. KC and the kids drop from top dog to #3 with that's The Way I Like It. The Bay City Rollers climb 2 to the runner up spot with Saturday Night. All of which means that our new #1 song this week is...

The Staple Singers, who let Pop up front this time, with Let's Do It Again.

See you for that special countdown next week, along with our usual fun'n'games.

Step into my time machine week thirty-three

For those of you out there who consider this post a matter of life and death (anybody?), tis the season to get used to later episodes- the dreaded spectre of OT reared its head for the first time today. A half-day, to be sure, but nonetheless. From overtime to back in time, now, as we look back at Earth Wind, And Fire, War, and- Lorne Greene?



13 songs made their debut this week in 1975, and quite a few are of some note. Donnie and Marie, that lovable couple of kids, hit at 99 with their cover of Deep Purple (which I really like, but could do without the Marie voiceover in the middle. At 97 a country singer named Kenny Starr charted his version of The Blind Man In The Bleachers; noteworthy because his country version hit #2, an accomplishment because the former Loretta Lynn protege would never be seen again on the pop chart, and crack the top 30- barely- just 2 more times on the country chart. Needless to say, his cover didn't stack up very well against David Geddes' version (which is at 22 this week and slowing down...) chartwise.

Farther on up, Foghat makes its entrance at 81 with its most famous song, Slow Ride. That entrance alone topped its previous chart peaks outside of Fool For The City. Three notches hence at 78 we find former Raspberry Eric Carmen with the title single from his first solo album, appropriately titled All By Myself. A great album to listen to if you're not a depressed, angst-ridden teenager who can't get a girl to look at him that way; if you were, well...

At 75 we rejoin Mr. David Bowie and his follow up to Fame, Golden Years (wop, wop, wop). The best, however, we save for yet higher up. Neil Sedaka hits with his prozac remake of his 1962 smash Breaking Up Is Hard To Do clear up at 62; and at 61, here comes Rhymin' Simon (Paul, that is) with 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. He said it had nothing to do with Marvel comics, but "sneak out the back, Jack (Kirby), make a new plan, Stan (Lee), no need to be coy, Roy (Thomas)", methinks we stretch coincidence a bit thin here.



Our big dropper falls to 55 from 19- Natalie Cole's This Will Be. One way to get mentioned one last time. I struggled to find a big Mover higher than a 16-spot jump - until our second highest top 40 debut this week. Again, needless to say, we'll let that bird out of the cage a bit later.



Let's do a "specials slam" this week. First, our continuing countdown of the #1 albums of the 70's. We are at the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973, and overlapping both for five weeks was Seventh Sojourn, the first #1 disc for the Moody Blues. No doubt propelled a bit by the third re-release of Nights In White Satin which peaked #1 Cashbox and #2 Billboard right inbetween the album's two singles: Isn't Life Strange (29) and I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock'N'Roll Band) (12). This would be the last album for the Moodies for some time, as they went on hiatus and solo projects after the tour for this album. Sojourn ended its reign the week of January 6th, 1973, replaced by Carly Simon's No Secrets. This album was headed by Right Thing To Do (17) and of course You're So Vain (1), a song made more controversial not only by A) her refusing to name who it was about, B) one of the candidates thereof singing backup on the tune, and C) having so many candidates to mention for the title. In addition to the previously hinted-at Mick Jagger, and Cat Stevens, who got his due last week on TM, you also have Warren Beatty (widely believed to be the winner), Kris Kristofferson, and the man she married just the November before, James Taylor. No Secrets was followed by War with The World Is A Ghetto. Led by the #2 Cisco Kid and the #7 title track, War held the top spot for the 2 weeks of February 21-27, 1973.



In our looks at the #1s of other years, we are back in the 4s this time. Number one this week in 1994 were those sure RNR HOFers Boyz II Men with On Bended Knee. 1984 sees Chaka Khan, with some help from Grandmaster Mellie Mel and Stevie Wonder's harmonica with I Feel For You. 1974's #1 this week were the Three Degrees and When Will I See You Again. In 1964, we have the curious rock'n'roll phenom Lorne Greene, taking full advantage of his TV fame as Ben Cartwright on Bonanza to place his spoken word hit Ringo at #1. He actually had to say on the album that the song had nothing to do with "the Beatles' wonderful drummer". In fact, it also had little to do with its real life subject, western owlhoot Johnny Ringo (as apparently, neither did his appearance in the movie Tombstone). Finally, we whizz past 1954 long enough to hear the gentle tones of the Chordettes with Mr. Sandman at the top. On with the show.



Seven, count 'em, seven top 40 newbies this week, and they don't all wait their turn. Rising 11 to #40 is the Average White Band with a funky little number (that, alas, I did not recall) called School Boy Crush. At 39, up 15 (and a contender for the big mover for a few more seconds), a song we talked about a few weeks ago when it first came in, Bob Dylan's Hurricane. Up from43 to 36, Paul Anka's Kodak moment, Times Of Your Life. I don't care if it was a commercial first, it still makes my eyes go moist. Knowing me, that was probably a contributing factor. Kiss finally breaks into airplay alley for the first time with their live version of Rock And Roll All Nite, also up 7 to 35th. EWF blast their way up from 41 to 27 with Sing A Song; and any other week, that jump would surely win the high debut, and maybe the biggest jump. BUUUUUT... the big mover goes to John Denver; you might say he flies away with it, with Fly Away rising 49 notches from 69 to 20. Keep reminding me to tell that funny story involving that song when it goes top ten. And the week's high t40 debut goes to CW McCall (nice initials) with Convoy trucking all the way from 49 to 19. Ten-four!



A dual almost but not quite this week. Pete Wingfield (whose song was 18 with a bullet on Billboard two weeks ago) ends his climb with (all together now), needless to say, 18 With A Bullet. In addition we salute Wings with Venus And Mars/Rock Show, which peaks here at 16. Oddly enough, this marked the first time that any former Beatle's single release did not chart in Jolly Ol'. (Bit of a prude about the long hair and "scoring an ounce", I suppose) And one more note whilst we are in the neighborhood. (Oh, I know, this is going to be another "Feelings" update, isn't it?) Why yes, yes it is. Feelings is still in the top 40 at 37 this week, its 27th in the hot hundred. This is its 16th week in the TOP 40- let's put this in perspective. In the 33 weeks we've rode the time machine, only 47 other songs have topped 16 weeks IN THE HOT 100. Only 30 of those made 18 weeks; 19 made 19 weeks; 8 of them saw 20 weeks. Six of those made it to their 21st week on the hot hundred, and only 2- Johnny Wakelin's Black Superman-Mohammed Ali (which never made it higher than #23) and Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy- made it as far as 23 weeks on the hot 100.



Two songs into the top 10, 2 go out. The Way That I Want To Touch You sinks from 9 to 15; and Island Girl drops from 5 to 12.



The O'Jays hit the top ten for the fifth time- an apparently glancing blow, from 11 to 10, with I Love Music. Rolling up 4 spots to #9 are the Ohio Players with Love Rollercoaster. Barry Manilow climbs two notches to 8 with I Write The Songs (or, at least, Bruce Johnston does). Simon and Garfunkel hold at 7 with My Little Town. Jigsaw climbs 2 to #6 with Sky High. The Bee Gees move down one to 5 with Nights On Broadway. The Bay City Rollers move up 2 to #4 with Saturday Night. Silver Convention drops 1 to 3rd with former top dog Fly Robin Fly. The Staple Singers move up to the runner up spot with Let's Do It
Again. And you're getting a picture of them because one thing I won't do again is post another picture of this week's #1 song. For the 3rd straight week, KC And The Sunshine Band with That's The Way (uh-huh uh-huh) I Like It.


I'd have to say that's SOME improvement over Harry Casey...


OKay, see you right here next week!

Step into my time machine week thirty-two

The name of the game is status quo this week, with not a lot of top ten movement, a big mover that's big move was so-so, only 3 debuts to speak of, and the strange story of the Singing Nun. Step in and mind the ceiling.





Ten songs debut on the hot hundred this week,but only three are all that noteworthy. At 92 is a song noteworthy because I know it and it is a pretty, mellow tune, called Blue Guitar and sung by Justin Hayward and John Lodge of the temporarily disbanded Moody Blues. If you like the Moodies at all, you will enjoy it. The other two both have the common thread of Olivia Newton-John. First at 69,we have the John Denver hit Fly Away (which I promise I'll tell you a funny story about when it hits the top 40) in which she sings backup; and the woman herself, who hits at 65 with Let It Shine. Our limpy big mover, coming up a mere 17 to #80 is the George Baker Selection with Paloma Blanca. The much bigger dropper is Leon Russell's Lady Blue, tumbling 33 notches to 75.





We're in the threes this week on the look at other years at #1. 1993 was topped this week by Meatloaf's I Would Do Anything For Love, which allegedly was #1 for six weeks; however, Cashbox was in its terminal decline already, and two of those six weeks were repeat charts. 1983 saw Lionel Ritchie was at #1 with the Thanksgiving song of '83, All Night Long. The top dog this week in 1973 was the Carpenters' Top Of The World, which was my favorite song through much of grade school due to my warped mind connecting it to a certain young lady. Now we get to 1963, and the top dog for the next 5 weeks was Dominique by a lady we called The Singing Nun, and the French-speaking world knew as Soeur Sourire, or "Sister Smile". She was, at the time, a real nun, from a monastery in Belgium, and thus this was the only Belgian act to hit #1 on the US charts. Lack of reward from her major hit and a pile of issues with the church including views on birth control and her budding lesbianism led her to renounce her vows and attempt (and fail) to build a music career on her own, finally running aground after an attempt at a disco version of Dominique. Saddled with debt and having rejected the Lord who might have helped her, the no-longer-singing no-longer-nun and her "partner" committed suicide by pills and booze on March 3rd, 1985. Sliding on up to 1953, the top dog was Tony Bennett with Rags To Riches.





On the subject of death, I recently learned that former ELO cellist Mike Edwards died a couple of months back in an appropriately unusual way- apparently his van was hit by a massive runaway roll of hay. That's him with the cello in happier times.

Coming into airplay alley this week are 5 tunes. Up 8 to enter at 39 is one of my all time favorites, Hamilton, Joe Frank, and "Reynolds" with Winners And Losers. Al Green comes in at 38, up 3, with a song which I didn't know and was surprised to find wasn't one of his usual Let's Stay Together clones. However, the tune, called Full Of Fire, didn't really stick with me in any other way either. ELO (wow, two mentions on one TM!) comes in at 37, up 14, with Evil Woman. Glen Campbell comes in with Country Boy (You Got Your Feet In LA), up 8 to #35. And coming up 12 spots to #34 is Fleetwood Mac with Over My Head. This is their first US top 40 hit, despite 5 top tens in the UK (which includes the instrumental Albatross, which hit #1 in '69 AND #2 in '73, as well as cracking their hot 100 again in 1990).

The almost but not quite this week goes to Willie Nelson, still getting high at the age of 77, with Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain. Despite a long career on the country side which had seen 15 top 40's and 2 top tens, this song gave him his first #1 country and first top forty pop. In a side note, this is the last song Elvis Presley was known to have sang before he died- make of that what you will. Blue Eyes peaks at 25 this week.

One song enters the top ten this week, one song exits- Natalie Cole's This Will Be, down from 9 to 19.

In our look at the #1 albums of the '70s, we are up to August of 1972. Chicago V, fueled by the pre-release of Saturday In The Park, hits #1 and stays for 9 weeks. This album featured Saturday ( another side note: the "Italian" that the man singing Italian songs sings are Italian sounding nonsense words. Urrgy Burrgy Burrgy.) which hit #3 as well as Dialogue Parts 1 & 2, which reached 24. Chicago V was followed in late October by Curtis Mayfield's Superfly soundtrack. The album, dealing with social issues such as drug dealing and race relations, was much more serious that the movie, and was compared favorably to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. It had two hit singles- Freddie's Dead, which hit #4 pop and #2 soul, and the title track, which hit #8 pop and #5 soul. On November 18 it was replaced by Cat Stevens' Catch Bull At 4. The unusual name comes from the Ten Bulls of Zen, which (without trying to go too in-depth) are symbolic steps in the path on a Zen follower. Despite the fact that its only single was Sitting, which hit #16 ( and perhaps with a little boost from the relationship he was pursuing with Carly Simon, who wrote Anticipation with him in mind), it was an extremely fast seller going gold in just 15 days. It would hold the top spot into early December.

The top ten this week leads off with Barry Manilow climbing 3 to #10 with I Write The Songs. Dropping from 6 to 9 are the Captain and Tenille with The Way That I Want To Touch You. Up from 10 to 8 is Jigsaw with Sky High. Holding at 7 this week is Simon And Garfunkel with My Little Town. At #6, up 2, are the Bay City Rollers with Saturday Night. Elton John tumbles 2 to #5 with former top dog Island Girl. The Bee Gees move up one to #4 with Nights On Broadway. The Staple Singers edge up one to #3 with Let's Do It Again. Holding at 2 is former top dog Silver Convention with Fly Robin Fly. Which means KC and the Sunshine Band hold onto the top for a second straight week with That's The Way I Like It.

That's all for this week. Thanks for riding along!

Step into my time machine week thirty-one

Hi, kids, hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, and hope you enjoyed TM's Thanksgiving special. I'm considering the special to have taken care of the jaunt through other years at #1 this week, but we have a lot of fun still lined up, including Batdorf and Rodney (who?), Bill Fries (who??), and a trip through Nellcote (where?) and the Chateau d'Herouville (where??). Come join our Convoy!



Not that I want to fall flat on my face right off the top, but out of eleven hot hundred debuts, we're only going to mention 4- and I only knew 2 of those! Coming in at 97 was the George Baker Selection with Una Paloma Blanca. The song Somewhere In The Night comes in at 83- and 89. The higher one was by Helen Reddy; the second was by a duo I'd never heard of called Batdorf and Rodney. It was very well done- basically you can imagine the Helen Reddy song structure with the Barry Manilow vocals and you'd be close. Finding info on Batdorf and Rodney was a bit more difficult. However I did get the story- maybe more than I wanted- on John Batdorf's website. Digested for time, they met when Mark Rodney's brother heard John at some club and got together. Eventually they met up with Ahmet Ertgum of Atlantic and were signed. They were basically an instrumental jam acoustic band who record execs kept trying to turn into a new Simon and Garfunkel. Somewhere was released at the same time Helen Reddy's version was, and John claims that Helen's team bullied stations into not playing theirs "Or they'd never get another Helen Reddy record again." (which is amusing, since the only other hit of any great size she had after that was You're My World.) Also, execs were cutting Mark's vocals and he was getting pushed farther and farther out of the mix. John formed a new band called Silver, who were "forced" to do a song I loved called Wham Bam Shang A Lang, which we'll see next summer if TM's still around. He hated it, much like he dissed Helen's version of Somewhere, and that's basically the end of his story.



Anyway, the other stop here in the lower rungs this week was the highest debut- Olivia Newton-John doing a cover of He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. It was pretty much what you would imagine. Oh, and speaking of the lower rungs, the Road Apples move up from 89 to 74 with Let's Live Together- or to put it another way, right where they were 3 weeks ago before they fell off the charts for one week.



The big movers this week were easy to find, sitting right next to each other. The Big dropper was Born To Run, running down 31 notches to 65. At 66, up 32, is Bill Fries, or as you better know him, CW McCall, with Convoy. "CW McCall" was a character invented by Fries for an ad campaign for a bread company, and the trucker persona of McCall was the one he used in most of his hits- yes, there was more than Convoy.



Time to look at our #1 album countdown. We're up to the summer of '72, and Jethro Tull was at the top with Thick As A Brick. Meant to be a parody of progressive rock concept albums, it was one long 45 minute song, split on the vinyl album. In concert, it expanded to a 60-70 minute first half, followed by a 25 minute second side along with other tunes, with an ersatz "weather report" in the intermission. Thick held forth for two weeks until being replaced the week of June 17th by the Stones' Exile On Main Street. The group were tax exiles at the time, and recorded in the basement of a rented villa in Nellcote, France. It was scrabbled together in between bouts of extreme drug use and police raids, and contained the singles Tumbling Dice (#7) and the Keith Richards' vocal Happy (#22). It spent 4 weeks at the top, and yielded on the week of July 15th to Elton John's Honky Chateau. Also recorded in France at the Chateau d'Herouville, it contained the #6 Rocket Man and the #8 Honky Cat, and spent 5 weeks at the top.



Coming into the top 40 this week were 5 tunes. Alice Cooper climbs a notch to 40 with Welcome To My Nightmare. David Ruffin walks up from 57 to 39 with Walk Away From Love. Gladys Knight and the Pips move up from 42 to 34 with Part Time Love, a song I didn't know and sadly didn't remember 2 minutes after I played it. The other two rip into the countdown: Diana Ross' Theme From Mahogany knew where it was going to- from 52 to 28; and the Love Rollercoaster that the Ohio Players were riding rolled up from 44 to 23.



Our almost but not quite is a bit of a tricky subject. John Denver's Calypso was the b-side of his #1 I'm Sorry. As such, Billboard considered it the second half of a 2-sided #1. Cashbox, however, separated the two, and this week Calypso falls from a peak of 26 to 38. So it's either a top dog, or an almost but not quite, depending on how you look at it.



Two songs go into the top ten, 2 fall out. The droppers are Who Loves You, from 7 to 12; and Heat Wave, from 6 to 22. Also in this area, what might be the last report on Feelings; it drops from 16 to 22 in its twenty-fifth week.



Coming in at 10, up 5, is Jigsaw with Sky High. Jigsaw (or the British Jigsaw, as they were known in Australia) was an English band who had evolved from a wild, instrument-burning stage act to a pop band who did the original of the Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods hit Who Do You Think You Are. Natalie Cole holds at 9 with This Will Be. Coming in at 8, also up 5, are the Bay City Rollers with Saturday Night, a song that failed to chart in its first version in the UK a year before, and the reworked song was never released in Jolly Ol', making its money everywhere else in the world. Simon and Garfunkel (the real ones) move up 1 to 7 with My Little Town. The Way That I Want To Touch You moves down 2 to #6 for the Captain and Tenille. The Bee Gees hold at 5 with Nights on Broadway. Pop Staple and his daughters shoot up 6 to #4 with Let's Do It Again; Elton John hangs on to #3 with Island Girl. Silver convention falls off the perch to 2 with Fly Robin Fly; which means we have a new top dog! At #1, up one spot...

KC And The Sunshine Band, with That's The Way I Like It!

So it goes this week. See ya next time!

Step into my time machine week thirty

A big week ahead on Time Machine. Lots of debuts, a new #1, a wedding, and an album that was born in a barn. Before we take off to 1975, I'd like to direct your attention to the comments section of last week's episode, and the continuing discussion of the true origin of the song "Superstar". Steve Fischler and I are sniffing out the issue, and hopefully there will be more on this somewhat less than breaking news story coming soon.

We open with what seemed to be thirteen debuts- but one really doesn't qualify. That one is a subject we've mentioned before, Let's Live Together by the Road apples. Due to that intriguing name I had checked it out when it actually debuted a few weeks ago. It had dropped out of the hot 100 last week after peaking at 74, but re-enters this week at 89. The real debuts include: CW McCall's trucker novelty Convoy, at 98; Nazareth's excellent Roy Orbison cover, Love Hurts, at 95; America with Woman Tonight at 81; Bob Dylan's plea for wrongly convicted boxer Rubin Carter, Hurricane, at 87; Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes' dynamic Wake Up Everybody at 72; and way up at 69, Earth Wind And Fire with Sing A Song. Two songs tie for biggest drop, a mere 15 spots to 55 for last week's top 40 debut Peace Pipe by BT Express, and to 54 for Helen Reddy's former top 10 Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady. The big jumper was a real battle, with songs jumping 19, 22, 24, 32, and 33 notches NOT taking the title. The winner, as usual, awaits us in the top 40.

This week, we're in the 2's as we look at the #1s this week in other years. 1992's top dog was How Do You Talk To An Angel by Heights. 1982 had Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, from the movie An Officer And A Gentleman, at the top; 1972 had Johnny Nash with I Can See Clearly Now, a song I taught to my kids long ago. In my inaugural year of 1962, not surprisingly we find the ubiquitous Four Seasons on top with Big Girls Don't Cry. And in 1952, Patty Page led the charts with I Went To Your Wedding, which was the third of her 4 #1s and 11th of her 24 top 10's, a streak that ran from I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine (#8 in 1950) to Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (which hit, ironically, # 8 fifteen years later).

David Geddes leads off our top 40 debuts this week with Last Game Of The Season, up 22 to #40. Hot Chocolate comes in at 39, up 8, with You Sexy Thing; the Isleys leap 32 with the ballad For The Love Of You (which, of course, I didn't recognize). Our Big Jumper lands at 36 this week, up 41 notches from 77 a week ago- Sweet's Fox On The Run. The O'Jays come in at 35, up 22 with I Love Music; and the top debut, up 22 to #33, Barry Manilow's I Write The Songs.

Going to our #1 album countdown now, we're up to early March, 1972, when American Pie is dethroned by Neil Young's Harvest. (Did you know Neil's middle name was Percival? I'd a never guessed that!) In addition to the #1 Heart Of Gold and the #31 Old Man (both containing background vocals by Linda Ronstadt and the banjo-guitar pickin' James Taylor), it also featured AOR hits A Man Needs A Maid (one of two songs featuring the London Symphony Orchestra) and The Needle And The Damage Done (recorded live at UCLA). Some of the songs were recorded (for that proper ambiance) in a barn on the studio property, leading to this conclusion:
Mixing was done at both Quadrofonic and at Young's house. During playback at the ranch, Mazer ran the left channel into the PA speakers still in the barn and the right channel into speakers in the house. With Crosby and Nash beside him Young sat outside listening to the mix. When asked about the stereo balance, he called out, "More barn." (thanks yet again to wikipaedia)
Harvest would become the top selling album of 1972; yet it only held forth at #1 for two weeks. It was replaced by America's self-titled debut. This album had been released in 1971 without the unfinished Horse With No Name; once it began to catch fire, the album was re-released with Horse on it, and this time was #1 for 5 weeks. Along with Horse, this album featured the number 9 I Need You and airplay hit Sandman. Horse was hamstrung, so to speak, by both a misconception it was a drug song (horse being slang for heroin) and its similarity - intended- to Neil Young, whose Heart Of Gold it replaced at #1 in a weird twist of musical fate.
It was overtaken in late April 1972 by Roberta Flack's First Take. This album had just the one single, the #1 First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, but that was enough to propel it once the song was featured on the Clint Eastwood flick Play Misty For Me. Roberta would also spend 5 weeks at the top in the spring of 1972.

Two songs enter the top 10, 2 fall out. Dropping are Low Rider, from 5 to 11, and Lyin' Eyes, at last giving ground from 8 to 17. Not so willing to give ground this week is Feelings; it holds at 16 again this week, its 24th on the hot 100 ( longer than anyone else this week by 6 weeks) and 13th in the top 40.

Our almost but not quite this week is ABBA's SOS. I was a bit surprised that this was their third top 20 hit- my memory says second, but apparently I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do was before it. It peaks at 12 this week, and America was about the only place it charted that low (and it certainly didn't peak this low locally). It was #1 in Australia, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa, and #2 in Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Mexico, and (?) Rhodesia.

Top Ten Time! The Staple Singers, horny lot that they are, jump 7 notches to #10 with Let's Do It Again. Natalie Cole climbs one spot to 9 with This Will Be. Up 4 to #8 is the Simon And Garfunkel reunion, My Little Town. Here's a note on this by Paul Simon, courtesy Wikipaedia:
Simon has stated that the song is not autobiographical; instead he says that it is about "someone who hates the town he grew up in. Somebody happy to get out."He has been quoted describing the writing of the song: "It originally was a song I was writing for Artie. I was gonna write a song for his new album, and I told him it would be a nasty song, because he was singing too many sweet songs. It seemed like a good concept for him." After playing the song for Garfunkel, the two decided to collaborate again in the studio on this one track.
Those ubiquitous Four Seasons hold at 7 with Who Loves You; Linda Ronstadt, who also shows up a lot, drops to 6, down from 4, with Heat Wave. The Bee Gees shoot up from 9 to 5 with Nights On Broadway. The Captain and Tenille slip from 3 to 4 with The Way That I Want To Touch You. Last week's top dog, Elton John's Island Girl, loses its hold on the top and falls to #3. KC And The Sunshine Band hammer their way from 6 to 2 with That's The Way (uh-huh uh-huh) I Like It; so that means our new top dogs are....









Silver Convention (at least the singing part of them) with Fly Robin Fly, a song that was "Run Rabbit Run" until mere moments before the recording. Kinda makes ya wonder where the rabbit was going to run to.






That's it for this trip. See you next week, and stay tuned for more "Superstar" news!

Step into my time machine week twenty-nine

Today, a special edition of Time machine. But first, a moment.



On this day in 1942, the battle of Guadalcanal began. When it ended, almost 1500 Americans would have given their lives for our liberty, including 5 brothers named Sullivan when the USS Juneau went down. I bring this up because originally, this was going to be a regular time machine, with the special part coming yesterday. But yesterday was Veteran's Day, I realized; and rather than put together something hopelessly inadequate when so many (including Bob G. over on his blog) did such a fine job of honoring them, I decided on a moment of silence, instead.






On to today's show, in which I'm going to suspend all the usual specials in order to make a big deal out of the TOP TEN IN MY PERSONAL SEVENTIES COUNTDOWN!






We start the top ten off right now!





10. (They Long To Be ) Close To You- The Carpenters: I used to always hear this in the doctor's waiting room as a kid. Actually, I looked forward to it knowing that since Doc Dahling played WEZR (easy listening) that I was almost guaranteed to hear this or the upcoming #9 while there. Karen Carpenter was my first real celebrity crush, though for some reason I always imagined her with blonde hair. This also linked to my Daniel Boone fixation, as a collection album of soft tunes had Ed Ames (Mingo) singing this song. My youthful brain already made idiotic connections between things at an early age.

The B-Side: First recorded as a b-side by Richard Chaimberlain way back in '63, it became a b-side staple for artists up to and including Dionne Warwicke before Richard Carpenter and Herb Alpert (who owned their record label, A&M) arrainged it for Karen to sing. It quickly became one of the label's greatest selling hits. This is the 9th Carpenters tune to land in the top 1000- so far. It reached #1 on Cashbox in August of 1970.

9. We've Only Just Begun-The Carpenters: Karen's voice always sounded to me like it had to be coming from a smiling mouth. She just made me feel good, feel loved, in some musical way.

The Lie: Paul Williams sang the fragmentary version of the song that was used as a commercial by Crocker National Bank in California that Richard heard, and he called Paul asking if there was a complete version of it that Paul could send to him so that he and Karen could record it. Sure there is, Paul lied, as he and his partner had basically what was on the commercial and that was it. So he stalled Richard for a couple of weeks until they finally finished what became the complete song. This is the 10th song by the Carpenters in my top 1,000; it hit #1 in November of 1970.

8. Shannon-Henry Gross: Another of the weird games my mind played back then was waiting for that magical act that would replicate the tight harmonies and sunshine music that the Beach Boys seemed no longer capable of. A string of false messiahs had already come and gone when Shannon burned through the summer of 1976. In this time frame, WMEE did a nightly top 10 and Shannon spent weeks fighting with, I believe, Afternoon Delight for the top spot. Like most of these songs, I will cry to this if I haven't played it for a while. I'm bad like that.

About The Dog: Gross, the former guitarist for Sha Na Na, wrote the song about the Irish setter of Beach Boy Carl Wilson, who had recently went missing. It wasn't until long afterwards that I learned that some of the Boys were actually sing the harmonies on this record. Shannon hit #5 in June of 1976.

We get 10 debuts in the hot 100 this week, and we know an amazing 8 of them! Coming in at 98 is Rhythm Heritage and the Theme From SWAT. ELO comes in at 95 with Evil Woman from the album Face The Music, which will play into our further story. The Wing-And-A-Prayer Fife And Drum Corps (jeez!) hits at 89 with their disco version of Baby Face. Paul Anka came in with his commercial redoux, Time Of Your Lives, at 88. The Who surface at 82 with Squeezebox; the former Temptation David Ruffin comes in at 79 with Walk Away From Love. At 77 Sweet hits with the follow-up to Ballroom Blitz, Fox On The Run. And at 76, the Ohio Players with Love Rollercoaster.

The big jumper is David Geddes' The Last Game Of The Season, up 23 to #62; it just beat out Venus And Mars Rock Show and I Write The Songs, who each climbed 22 notches. Three tunes manage to drop 14 this week for the "biggest loser" title: the Biddu Orchestra with a disco rendition of Peter Nero's Summer of '42, down to 68; former CCR frontman John Fogerty with Rockin' All Over The World, to 41; and the Boss down to 31 with Born To Run.

7. Listen To What The Man Says-Wings: Another celeb crush was Linda McCartney, and my ears will inevitably chase her backing vocals across this song.

Joe English: became the drummer for Wings on the Venus And Mars album, and left during the recording of London Town. He became a Christian and formed his own band (the not-surprisingly named Joe English Band), as well as pitching in on some of the day's biggest CC bands- Petra and Degarmo and Key, for two. This was the 16th song for McCartney/Wings on my top 1,000; as followers of Time Machine know, it hit #1 in July of 1975.

6. Wishing You Were Here-Chicago: Listening to this song on an 8-track, coasting through the channel at Snow Lake. This song was meant to be listened to on the water; those childhood days at Snow come back to me every time I hear this.

The Caribou Ranch: is the studio where this song, along with the rest of Chicago VII, was recorded. In yet another of my twists of fate, the Beach Boys were there that particular day, and at Peter Cetera's request Carl and Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine sang along with Peter on the chorus. This makes the Beach Boys the band with the most mentions without charting in this top ten! Chicago had 17 songs on my top 1,000; this peaked at #9 in December of 1974.

5. Superstar-The Carpenters: The mournful horns in the intro give this song almost a reverence, despite the subject matter. One of those songs that the first note usually stops time and breathing for me.

"Groupie": was the original working title when Bonnie from Delaney and Bonnie and Leon Russell wrote it, a song about a groupie who slept with a singer who moved on to the next show, leaving her behind. In fact, the original lyrics said, "And I can hardly wait/ to sleep with you again". This was not only changed by Richard, but also on a previous cover by Cher. Much like the lead character, this song got around- Rita Coolidge sang it, so did Joe Cocker and Bette Midler. It was watching Midler on the Tonight Show that introduced Richard to the song, and he saw its potential; Karen knew it from Cocker's Mad Dogs And Englishmen lp and didn't think much of it until Richard re-arranged and modified it. This is the 11th song by the duo on this chart, and it peaked at #2 in October of 1971.

Three songs entered the top 40 this week. Soul group BT Express come in at 40, up 3, with the funky Peace Pipe. Up 6 to 35 is Freddy Fender's tex-mex cover of the old classic Secret Love. And climbing, as previously mentioned, 22 notches from 51 to 29 is Wings with Venus And Mars Rock Show.

4. Nights Are Forever Without You- England Dan And John Ford Coley: the thunder of the guitar on the second chorus grabs me and squeezes my heart. One of my best memories is watching Dan and John perform this on the old Mike Douglas Show.

Life After: Dan, the brother of Seals And Crofts' Jim Seals, had several country hits before dying from Lymphoma in March of 2009. John, who was like Jim, Dan, and Dash Crofts a member of the Baha'i faith, has since left the faith to become a Christian, and now does lectures on the subject. Nights is the 5th entry for the duo on my top 1,000; it reached #10 in December 1976.

3. Mandy-Barry Manilow: This was the first 45 I bought with my own money; in a day when singles were much cheaper, I paid my niece $1 for it. I would have probably paid much more. I had a 2x3 poster of Barry on my bedroom wall for years, and this song was the main reason why.

Brandy or Mandy?: Brandy was the song's original title when written by the duo of Scott English and Richard Kerr. It was an up-tempo song then, and a careless response to an annoying reporter started the rumour that it was written for Scott's dog. Barry and producer Ron Dante slowed the tune and changed the name to avoid confusion with the Looking Glass hit. This is song number 16 for Manilow on my top 1,000 and hit #1 in January of 1975.

Three songs enter the top ten, three drop- and boy, do they drop! Last week's #2, 3, and 4 go out- Bad Blood from 2 to 11, Games People Play from 3 to 15, and Miracles from 4 to 14. More news from the mid-range: Feelings spends its 24th week on the chart climbing yet again, from 18 to 16. This song, despite what the Gong Show did to it, refuses to die.

2. Strange Magic- Electric Light Orchestra: Once upon a time, my older brother took me with his family (his kids and I were the same age) on a magical spring trip to Florida. On the way back we were camped in Cartersville, Georgia. Among other neat things that happened that night was that Tom gave us a quarter to play one song on the clubhouse jukebox. Robin played Aerosmith's Last Child; Raine played EWF's Shining Star; I played Strange Magic. Listening to the three different vocal lines interweaving near the end of this song is for me like a visit to an astral plane.

Face The Music: was the album that spawned this as well as Evil Woman. This was the 36th song by ELO on my top 1,000 (Yes, I'm an ELO "groupie"; no, I never wanted to sleep with Jeff Lynne). It peaked at #14 in May of 1976.

1. No Time-The Guess Who: They were the cool group when I was a kid, and I always associated them with brother-in-law Doug, since he had a couple 8-tracks and a slight resemblance to Burton Cummings. Probably the only group besides the Four Seasons to come close to ELO in my favorites. You need not wonder why.

The Other Version: I used to have a copy of Canned Wheat, which was the album that the original of this song appeared on. It was just a hair slower, had the verses reversed, and a neat intro- it was a jack in the box being wound slowly (and I think) backwards. The Guess Who, caught straddling the decades, lands 16 songs on my top 1,000; this song peaked at #4 in February 1970.

And now for this week's top ten!

Coming in at #10 is Natalie Cole with This Will Be. The Bee Gees jump from 13 to 9 with Nights On Broadway (which is another tune I saw performed on Mike Douglas- God that show was cool!). The Eagles continue to give ground only stubbornly, dropping 2 to #8 with Lyin' Eyes. Stealing a page from Morris Albert, the Four Seasons move back up, from 7 to 9 to 7 once again with Who Loves You. Roaring into the countdown from 12 to 6 is KC And The Sunshine Band with That's The Way I Like It. Low Rider holds at 5 for War. Linda Ronstadt moves three to #4 with Heat Wave. Zooming into the vacuum created by this week's dropouts, the Captain and Tenille sail up 7 to #3 with the Way That I Want To Touch You. So does Silver Convention, leaping from 8 to 2 with Fly Robin Fly. Leaving us with a repeat at #1, Elton John's Island Girl.

Well, that's it this week. Be back next time for the usual hi jinx and fun.

Step into my time machine week twenty-eight

First off, as we enter the world of November 5th, 1975, it is 2 weeks ago today that Joe Morgan knocks in the winning run and Will McEnnany puts the side down 1-2-3 in the ninth to give the Cincinnati Reds and Sparky Anderson the World Series title.



Two weeks forward, we see 13 songs hit the hot 100 for the first time, and I set a record by mentioning 8 of them.. At 99 the Smoky-less Miracles hit with Love Machine. At 98 we have the results of leaving your studio equipment on during sex, Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby. The changing of Fleetwood Mac from obscure British band to international superstars begins with Over My Head coming in at 93. Kiss had peaked earlier in the year in the 50's with the studio version of Rock And Roll All Night, the live version begins its climb at 91. Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds enter the charts at 86 with my favorite song of theirs, Winners And Losers. David Geddes comes in with his tear-jerker follow-up to top dog Run Joey Run, the story-song The Last Game Of The Season (The Blind Man In The Bleachers). At 83, Glen Campbell follows up Rhinestone Cowboy with Country Boy (You've Got Your Feet In L.A.). and finally Barry Manilow comes in all the way up at 77 with I Write The Songs. The big dropper this week is Brazil, fresh from its top ten appearance, falling 19 spots to 63. Our big jumper, surprisingly not in the top 40 this time, is Wings with Venus and Mars/Rock Show, flying 33 to #51.



Let's look at our countdown of the 70's top albums next. We're up to December 18th of 1971, and the top album was Sly And The Family Stone's There's A Riot Going On! Originally intended to be called Africa Talks To You, the name was changed in response to the title of Marvin Gaye's classic What's Going On?. The Family was being torn apart by this point by creative tensions, record executives demanding product, the influence of the Black Panthers, Mobsters, and lots of cocaine and PCP. The increasingly paranoid Sly did most of the work on this himself, anf it allegedly shows in the murkiness of the excessive overdubs. Family Affair (#1), Runnin' Away (#23), and (you Caught Me) Smilin' (#42) were the singles off this lp, the last big hits the Family would score. After its two-week run, Carole King (who was still in the top ten with Tapestry) assumed the top spot with Carole King:Music, which featured one single (Sweet Seasons, #9) and the original of the subsequent hit by the Carpenters, It's Going To Take Some Time. Music was #1 for three weeks before overtaken by a juggernaut: Don McLean's American Pie. The title cut in 2002 was voted the 5th greatest song of the century, trailing only Over The Rainbow, White Christmas, This Land Is Your Land, and Respect. The other single, Vincent (Starry Starry Night), was a #12 hit in America and even huger all over Europe, including #1 in the UK. This is an album I have owned; I also recommend the side one songs Crossroads and Til Tomorrow. American Pie held the top for 7 weeks, ending on March 4th, 1972.



4 songs come into this week's top 40. At 40, up one, is James Taylor's Mexico. Leaping from 52 to 39 was the disco hit I'm On Fire (a song you'll remember if you hear it, I believe) by 5,000 Volts, a huge European hit which actually started out as the b-side of the record. Up 5 to 38 is Willie Nelson's classic Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain. And soaring up from 49 to 28, The Staple Singers with a slight variation on the Donna Summer theme, Let's Do It Again.



The number ones from other years feature is back in the 1's this week. In 1991 this week, Bryan Adams was at #1 with another of his power-pop hits, Can't Stop This Thing We Started; in 1981, top dog was Christopher Cross with the Theme to the movie Arthur, The Best That You Can Do. In 1971, Cher was on top this week with Gypsies, Tramps, And Thieves. 1961 had Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean on top; and in 1951, bandleader Eddy Howard had his second #1 song, Sin (It's No Sin). Howard, who hit in 1946 with To Each His Own, lost his popularity to the rock'n'roll era and died in 1963 of a cerebral hemorrhage, aged 49.



Two songs enter the top ten, two fall out. Dropping this week are Lady Blue (which I can't believe never went higher) from 8 to 15; and It Only Takes A Minute, slipping from its peak at 10 to 22. Also dropping, finally, this week is Feelings, sliding from 12 to 18 in its 22nd week on the charts.



My Top songs of the 70's countdown closes in on the top ten, and includes 2 songs on this week's chart. At 15 is this week's #16, My Little Town by Simon And Garfunkel; 14 is former top dog Sister Golden Hair by America. 13 is ELO's Telephone Line, a song that I first heard on a Thursday, debuted it at #1 one one my chart (only two songs ever got that) on Friday, and bought the single on Sunday (which was quite a trick in my family back then). #12 is this week's #13 song, the Bee Gees and Nights On Broadway. And at #11, the song that gives me my most vivid and intense mental image of where I'd like to be: Seals And Crofts' Summer Breeze.



One more stop before the top ten- the Almost-But-Not-Quite for this week. Bruce Springsteen peaks this week at 17 with Born To Run. This was allegedly his big-budget last chance to go from "critically acclaimed" to "commercially successful" and the album became such a perfectionist's nightmare for him that upon hearing the final product he threatened to "throw it out into the alley". However, the single began playing on Progressive and AOR stations and became such a big hit there that he got his picture on both Time and Newsweek. The album scored as well, reaching #3 and eventually being considered on of the greatest of all time.



Here we go, as they say on Bud Light ads. At 10 this week, up one, are the Captain and Tenille with The Way That I Want To Touch You. Slipping 2 to #9 are the Four Seasons with Who Loves You. Jumping from 13 to #8 is Silver Convention with Fly Robin Fly. Linda Ronstadt climbs 2 to #7 with Heat Wave. The Eagles are apparently going to take the slow way down yet again, dropping just 2 to #6 with Lyin' Eyes. War cruises up one more to 5 with Low Rider. Jefferson Starship steals a line from their song, going "right back where I found you" two weeks ago to #4 (up one) with Miracles. Holding again at 3 for the third week, the Spinners with Games People Play. And last week's top two switch positions this time; Neil Sedaka dropping to #2 with Bad Blood, and our new #1...



...Elton John with Island Girl.

That's a wrap for this week. See you next time!

Step into my time machine week twenty-seven

Well, here we go on another trip to 1975, and the question is: will Neil Sedaka hang onto the top spot? Will the Eagles succeed in their last gasp attempt? Or does someone new step into the picture? Let's find out.



9 debuts hit the hot 100 this week, and three of them are of note: Al Martino scores with his disco version of Volare at 92; Diana Ross comes in at 88 with the Theme To Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To?) ; and Wings come in at 84 with the rowdy Venus And Mars Rock Show. Ironic, I guess, because they also have the big dropper this week, Letting Go dropping from its peak of 41 down to 68. The big mover, as it has several of the last few weeks, lies ahead in the top 40.



The almost-but-not-quite this week goes to another one of those star-crossed bands, the Outlaws, with There Goes Another Love Song. It peaked last week at 26 and is on its way down now. On Billboard it went only to 34, and their biggest Billboard hit was Ghost Riders In The Sky which went to 31. Three of the original five members have passed away: Billy Jones, one of their 3 lead guitars, o.d.ed in February of 1995, and bassist Frank O'Keefe committed suicide just 19 days later. Guitarist and vocalist on Love Song and on Green Grass And High Tides, Hughie Thomasson died of a heart attack in his sleep just 3 years ago, after leaving a ten-year stint with Lynyrd Skynyrd to reform the old band.



I mentioned irony a bit ago, and it hit while I was looking up the other years at #1 as well. This week we're back on the 0's, and while Laurie was watching the Vanilla Ice Project on DIY (yes, he's doing remodels now), I found that Ice Ice Baby was the #1 song this week in 1990. In 1980 the top dog was Barbara Streisand (with a big boost from Barry Gibb) with Woman In Love; the Jackson 5 held the top in 1970 this week with I'll Be There; in 1960, the Drifters were in the 3rd of six weeks at #1 with Save The Last Dance For Me; and in 1950, the folk band the Weavers, with Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra, were at #1 with their cover of the r&b hit by Leadbelly, Goodnight Irene, which lyrically was not your typical 1950's tune (Some times I live in the country/Some times I live in town/Some times I take a great notion/To jump in the river and drown). Leadbelly was not a happy man when he wrote it, and the Weavers actually cut out some of the worse lyrics.



5 new songs enter airplay alley. The Bay City Rollers are up 14 to 39 with Saturday Night. The Manhattan Transfer, famous for their remake of Boy From NYC, are up 6 to 38 with the gospel -flavored Operator (Give Me Jesus On The Line). Longtime r&b artist Leon Haywood got his first top 40 hit with I Want To Do Something Freaky To You, up 6 to 36(and though I know it had nothing to do with it, our next irony is a song with such a name hitting the charts on Halloween weekend). Frankie Valli, once again in full can't-get-away-from -him mode, comes in at 34, up 7, with Our Day Will Come (and we'll see him again in the top 10). And finally, our big mover of the week climbs 30, from 49 to 19 this week- That's The way I Like It by KC and the Sunshine band.



Four more weeks of my top songs of the 70's countdown. We start at #20 this week; I'll Be Good To You by the Brothers Johnson. Number 19 is a recent time machine guest and a member of the "mythical top ten", Chicago's Old Days. Manfred Mann' Earth Band is at 18 with, of course, Blinded By The Light. Paul McCartney sails in at 17 with Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey; and at 16 is Todd Rundgren with Hello It's Me.



Three songs enter the top 10, three drop out, with a vengeance. Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady falls from 5 to 26; Mr. Jaws sinks from 6 to 27; and Dance With Me waltzes down from 7 to 30. In a note from the other direction (aka the dead continue to rise) Feelings moves UP 3 to #12 in its 21st week on the charts... and, for the third time- it has the bullet!



Our look at the number one albums of the 70's brings us to the unusual circumstance of 2 straight one-week toppers. We are at, ironically (our theme today, apparently) Halloween week, 1971, and pulling into the top spot is John Lennon's Imagine. Most people who know me know that the #1 title track is one of my least favorite songs of all time. I always have to wonder how John's coming out with that whole "imagine no heaven and no hell " thing these days. Among the other notables on this album is a tune called How Do You Sleep? Which was a response to Paul McCartney's sideways jabs at John on his album Ram. John, though, took things to the next step; and though George Harrison (presumably) gritted his teeth and played slide guitar on the track, the visiting Ringo Starr on listening to the rehearsals, said, "John, that's Enough," and left. Despite being Lennon's most critically acclaimed album, it was knocked down after one week by Isaac Hayes' Shaft soundtrack. This double album was, but for three songs (including the #1 title track and the top 40 Do Your Thing), an all instrumental album, featuring Hayes' score for the movie. Come to think of it, the main theme and what I heard of Do Your Thing this afternoon were pretty much instrumental as well. That brings us to November 1971 when Santana III took over for the next 5 weeks. This album featured the #12 Everybody's Everything and the #36 Nobody To Depend On, which we get to hear several times a week on the cd player at work. Both featured the guitar work of Neal Schon, who would leave Santana the next year to help found Journey.



Top ten time! Coming in at leadoff is the brother-band Tavares with It Only Takes A Minute, moving up from 12. Linda Ronstadt climbs 8 big notches from 17 to 9 with Heat Wave. Coming in at 8, up 3, is Leon Russell with Lady Blue. Russell was a songwriter of great variety, from the early version of what would become the Carpenters' Superstar (with Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie) to George Benson's This Masquerade, and was the piano player on Badfinger's Day After Day. At number 7, the promised appearance of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, with Who Loves You, up 2. War rises hydraulically from 10 to 6 with Low Rider. Now, everybody take on step backwards: Jefferson Starship, down one to 5 with Miracles; Eagles, down one to #4 with Lyin' Eyes; and Spinners, down one to #3 with Games People Play.



And now, time for one final irony, the top two songs feature one man as a backup on the one and the lead on the other. At number two, up from 8th this week, is Elton John with Island Girl. and at number one for a second week- with Elton John singing along on the chorus- is Neil Sedaka with Bad Blood.


Thanks to Getty Images for the pic. Same time next week, eh?