A new, if slightly warped, idea for college football playoffs.

I was thinking as Scrappy started waking me up this morning about division I (i.e. FBS) football. You have 6 automatic qualifying conferences for the BCS- the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, and the Pac-10. And then you have the also-ran conferences- the MAC, Mountain West, WAC, Conference USA, Sun Belt. The fuss kicks in when good also-ran schools like Boise State and TCU fight to get into the BCS (the so-called "bowl busters). These schools have to move heaven AND earth to get a shot at the national championship, whilst a less deserving school from the AQs only has to move one or the other.

My idea is the soccer system of relegation. To do this, Let's assign each big conference an also-ran conference to be its "relegation group". The Pac-10 gets the MWC, the Big 12 gets the WAC, the Big 10 gets the MAC, the SEC gets the Conference USA (and can split the Sun Belt with the Big 12). Pull, say, Pitt and West Virginia from the Big East and give them Duke and Wake Forest and they become the ACC's feeder. Make it so if a big conference school has 2 years in which they manage only 3 conference wins total, they get relegated if their feeder has a team that's lost only 3 times in those two years. If nobody meets the requirements, nobody moves. If the number is uneven, look at the total record. For example, Michigan's record in 2008-9 would have them relegated, along with Indiana. But only Central Michigan meets the requirement in the MAC, so you look and see that Michigan had more overall wins in those 2 seasons, and thus are spared.

With that accomplished, then you have an 8-team national championship playoff, and say a 4-team relegation league championship. This would give a Boise State a chance in the big show, and an Indiana could be more competitive in the relegation league. My research shows that if 2010 was the first "relegation year", that the ACC and SEC would be safe, the Big 10 would indeed switch IU for Central Michigan, the Big 12 would flip Baylor for Boise State, and Utah would have come to the Pac-10 a season earlier, dumping Washington State, while TCU would have been about 1 Washington win away from joining them.

Now I know Michigan's close call and TCU's bridesmaid status probably will rankle some, as would the idea of, for example, Hawaii having their 2 good June Jones/Colt Brennan years and sneaking into the Big 12 only to lose coach and quarterback and falling flat on their face. But if they get raised to the next level, perhaps the coach doesn't look for the better job right away, perhaps the star recruit signs with the team, or the star qb stays for his senior year instead of trying the draft as a sophomore. The administration cleans up problems before the NCAA investigation knocks them into the relegation tier, and the struggling team in the big conference is able to build itself back up against lesser competition.
The local flaw in the ointment would be the independents Army, Navy, and NOTRE DAME. They would have to find themselves a conference if they wanted to compete. Not such a big deal for the service academies, but a huge honkin' deal for Notre Dame, who would presumably go grovelling to the Big 10 or the reconstituted ACC who they have treated with disdain all these years. BYU, who goes independent next year, would likewise have slit its own throat; but the stupid merry-go-round we had this season as Nebraska, Mizzou, Texas, BYU, Utah, Boise, etc. played "follow the money" would be replaced with a much more stable arrangement.

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.

NHFFL week 9

The KCAs started out fast this week; by the time the second round of games were 10 minutes old, we had 72 points! Of course the bad news was that I dropped that bomb on the State Ducks in an intramural game. Final score was 72-31, with 4 players (Phillip Rivers, Michael Turner, Ahmad Bradshaw, and the Arizona D) in double figures. This beats the regulation time record for the season of 71, set back in week 4 by (you guessed it) the State Ducks. The quackers are really behind the playoff 8-ball now; they have to win out to finish 6-6. The KCAs move to 6-3, tied for the league lead since the T-cubs failed to make the tremendous comeback. After the day games, they trailed the B2s 41-15, but still had Rashard Mendenhall, Cedric Benson, Greg Jennings, and Mike Wallace, as well as the Dallas D. Can you guess who let them down? That's right, Mendenhall, Benson, Jennings, and Wallace all found the end zone; Dallas chipped in one measely point and the T-Cubs lose 41-40. No wonder Jerry Jones fired Wade Phillips Monday.



The T-cubs are thus 6-3, tied for first in the league with the KCAs and the Buzz Lightyears, who got there by pummelling SVA 53-35. Green Bay's D racked up 21 points on the aforementioned Cowboys, and T.O. found the end zone twice to give Buzz a 33-point Sunday night/Monday night. SVA slips to 4-5 and behind the Beagles in the Purple Div. Scrappy's boys topped the Rhinos 26-23 on Hines Ward's Monday nighter and the 3 from the Cincy D in that same game. Both teams are now 5-4, one game behind their respective division leaders.



Also at 5-4 are the Clock BBQs, who took firm hold of second in the Gold Div. by sending the Elks to their 5th straight loss, 30-20. The Elks (4-5) could not mount that big late game comeback as Ben Rothlesburger and the Pittsburgh D only combined for 9. Finally, the Angels ripped the Rangers 44-21 with Matt Stafford (28 points in 2 games), David Akers, and the NO D combining for 38 points.



Three games left in the regular season. KCAs and Beagles play for first in the Purple; KCAs won their first match 47-21, so Scrappy needs to win by 27 to get the tie-breaker. A big Gold Matchup features the Clock BBQs vs the B2s, who are 4-0 the last 4 weeks after an 0-5 start. The Elks are exactly the opposite, winning their first 4 and losing the next 5, and they will likely see their playoff chances evaporate without a streak-breaking win over the T-Cubs. And the Rhinos will have the chance to finish off the Duck once and for all.

<

.

PURPLE	W	L	PF	PA	RP
KCAs	6	3	415	310	721
Beagles	5	4	252	320	320
SVA	4	5	328	323	414
Rangers	3	6	235	342	204
GOLD
T-Cubs	6	3	350	290	581
CBBQs	5	4	339	312	481
B2s	4	5	337	368	401
Elks	4	5	336	355	376
SCARLET
Buzz	6	3	385	298	637
Rhinos	5	4	363	329	506
Ducks	3	6	367	366	381
Angels	3	6	302	430	133

One more exploration before we go back to work

Today's goal was to check out the Swamp, the woods on the south side of California road, which until this summer was always water-filled. The secondary goal was to check out the south bank of Stony Run's entrance into the river- reversing yesterday's trip by going in at the landing, while trying to avoid becoming disgusting yet again.

We entered the Swamp at this huge dead double trunked tree.

The Swamp itself appears to have been one of those water-filled holes we're always running into that some highly-educated engineer decided to build a road right through. About thirty feet in, the ground rises about 6 feet to the level of the field beyond. Thirty feet south woulda made a BIG difference, dude.

We struggled to find anything resembling a trail amidst the rise, and exited at the east end of the swamp, finding nothing of note, unless you're a collector of old blue bottles.

We then went down to the landing, where we saw that some bright person (possibly a road engineer) tried to drive off the landing into the muck. Fortunately for them, it would seem that sanity struck before they got TOO stuck. We circled the big weed island, and here's some of what we saw.

See the heron flying in front of big weed island?

Scrappy really wanted to get the seagulls out on that sand spit.

Ducks on Stony Run.

After which, we returned via the back trail to Tina's landing. Just as we were turning back out to the road, Mr. Buck decided to jump the creek (from the far side to our side), crash through about 20 feet in front of us, and take off down the road that is actually an extension of the greenway but is used as an access road by the contractors building between it and the hotel. (It looks to be another suite of medical offices by the looks.) Scrappy demanded to follow, and he tracked him until he apparently went into the Swamp about halfway down. At this point, I decided I'd had enough adventure for one day, and promptly fell down. All in all, a good end to a week of exploring.

Chris' FCS page #8

Wow, glad I'm not the AP chart. Their #s 1, 2, AND 3 all got beat, all by teams they had no real business losing to. The bad news is that they were also my #s 1, 5, and 10. Not good, but better than the experts. Plus their #8 also lost, albeit to their #5 ( which would be my 7 beating my 17).

I'm going to a top 25 this week, so that I can squeeze in some of theirs that I wouldn't ordinarily rank. One of those is the Richmond Spiders, who I give my inaugural 25th spot after they bested former top dog (to borrow a Time Machine term) James Madison 13-10 in OT. JMU got the ball first in OT but ended up with nothing after having to go for it on a 4th-and 30 from the 45. Richmond goes to 5-4 in the ultra-tough CAA while JMU loses their 5th in 6 games to drop to 4-5. Another one that the AP ranks week after week, and I finally let into the top 20 last week, is New Hampshire (that aforementioned AP #8) who lost to my boys from William AND Mary 13-3. UNH drops to 5-4 and falls from 17 to 24th; the Tribe raises its record to 7-2 and move up from 8th to 6th.

Another of those I might never have found a home for otherwise (mainly because of the crappy league they play in) is Grambling, who gets the first #23 spot after their latest cheap win over Div. II Concordia, AL, 35-0. The Tigers move to 8-1 with the win. Central Arkansas is one of those teams I've been waiting for to get that elusive quality win and they did that with a 49-17 romp on hot-and-cold Texas State. The Bears get #22 with their 6-3 record. The last of the add-ons is yet another team I struggle with because their league, the Ivy League, is clearly the MAC of the FCS. But Penn finally earns some love after pasting a piss-poor Princeton squad (nice alliteration, eh?) 52-10 and gets #21.

I finally get around to ranking an Eastern Washington team(7-2) that clearly the AP (#6) loves more than I, putting them at 20th despite their off week. Part of that is because of UNH's fall; the other I'll explain in two more spots. UMass holds on to its #19 spot with a 39-24 win over Maine, which raises them to 6-3. And in one of those "who's better AP or Chris" matchups, I took it on the chin along with Indiana State, who dropped a 30-20 game to Northern Iowa (6-3), who come in at 18 and allow E. Washington the spot ISU used to have. South Carolina State (7-2) move up one notch to 17th with a 54-14 win over Howard, while North Dakota State (6-3) hold at 16th on a 20-6 win over Southern Illinois.

Stephen F. Austin (7-2), fresh off their meltdown to the previously mentioned Texas St., blow out Nichols St. 48-13 to hold at 15th; SE Missouri State (9-1) also hold their 14th slot after whupping Div. II Southwest Baptist 40-14. Villanova is back out of the top ten and down to 13th after they (that #3 team) lose to Rhode Island 17-14 and fall to 6-3. Dayton (8-1) struggled mightily against a far inferior Drake team (OK, not that inferior) who had erased a 24-14 deficit in the fourth quarter to take a 25-24 lead with under a minute-and-a-half to go; but the Flyers score on a 37-yd pass with 1 second left to pull out a 31-25 win, and keep last week's #12 spot. Robert Morris (8-1), who gets minimal love from the AP to this point, beat a tough Central Connecticut State team 42-24 to move up 2 to 11th.

Montana State (8-2) ease up one into the top ten with a 24-10 win over feisty Weber State. Western Illinois (6-3) takes a week off and stays at 9th. AP's #2 team, previously unbeaten Jacksonville State, drops to 8-1 and from 5th to 8th after a 49-37 trouncing by Eastern Kentucky. Jacksonville (9-1) ceased its streak of obliterating opponents, but still holds at 7 with a 24-16 victory over Butler (of all people). And as I mentioned, William AND Mary move up to #6.

Bethune-Cookman (8-0) is the last remaining undefeated team after a 23-18 win over strong Hampton. Liberty (7-2) holds at 4th with their 40-14 win over Gardiner-Webb; but the bells rang out across the land when Georgia Southern (a former top 20) rose up and downed mighty Appalachian State 21-14 in OT. The Mountaineers drop to 8-1 and down 2 to #3. Wofford (8-1)stays at #2 after a harder-than-it-should-have-been 10-3 win over Samford. Which means that Delaware (8-1) moves back into #1 after a 48-0 rout of hapless Towson.

Later in the week I'll try to do a post on the new AP rankings and how bad they are compared to mine.

More exploration

We didn't take the camera with us this morning; seeings as it was 28 degrees I doubted we'd go exploring again. But then I come up with the bright idea: with everything getting froze last night, we might be able to make our way over frozen muck to the creek mouth! Cutting through the woods-tongue near the IPFW field (since they were playing soccer at 9am- go figure) we soon found my hypothesis correct and worked our way past the smaller of 2 weed "islands" to the banks of the stream, which was between a yard- yard and a half wide and no deeper than six inches as it crossed the sandy mud. Scrappy had no qualms going right on across, but I hoped to find an easy place to cross. Working west away from the river, along the weed island, it got progressively muddier, forcing me to forego the examination of two marrooned shopping carts that looked to have been swimming for some time. We turned back, with Scrappy vainly trying to get me to go in one or more of the narrow paths into the weed island. I told him I preferred to have just a little bit more warning as to what lie ahead, thank you. We walked down to where the creek turned along the side of the "finger", but there the water widened and deepened. Eventually we picked a spot about midway that I just hauled off and jumped over-almost- and proceeded along the south bank, where the water still in the shadows of the "finger" was frozen. Scrappy doesn't enjoy nearly as much wading through water that breaks. So then we turned back and exited the river where Scrappy usually goes in, at the landing above the IPFW bridge. My feet and his butt and legs were a muddy mess (so much for the shower he took yesterday). So I led us through a bunch of tall, dewy grass- through the old ballfield lot, down the back end of the ravine, back out onto the woods trail, and across the meadow to clean both of us fairly efficiently. Not totally efficiently, as Laurie sent us both to the showers yet again.

Speaking of Laurie, we took her to the Spot Thursday night, and we saw a raccoon ignoring us as he dug an old log for bugs (I presume). I add this to several more deer sightings (including the one about 1:30 Friday am in the back yard) and update our animal count. 52 deer, 19 rabbit, 7 bat, 4 skunk, 6 raccoon, 5 groundhog, 2 opossum, 7 fox, 4 black squirrel (which never made it down here; Msnkrey, you're south of us, do you come across any black ones in your area?) and that pheasant I'd almost forgot.

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!