Billboard Hot 100 October 30, 1971 - Post A Comment

Trick or treat!

Here is the Hot 100 from the October 30, 1971 issue of Billboard magazine:





The Halloween chart from October, 1971.

Your challenge is to pick one song, and share a memory, trivia, tidbit, rant
or something that other members might find of interest.

Please comment on as many songs as you like!

 

Ms. Jean Knight, we have decided that you follow up Mr Big Stuff with.....

You Think You're Hot Stuff....

 

#29 - "The Desiderata"? Never saw that other word on any pressings I know of from the guy that hosted a very early network (ABC) competitor to Johnny Carson on late night from 1964 to '65 inside a boxing ring.

As for the #1, this was its penultimate week at the top in the UK, per:

Week Ending 30 October 1971

09 - 01 - 01 - Rod Stewart - MAGGIE MAY / REASON TO BELIEVE
06 - 02 - 02 - Redbone - THE WITCH QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS
09 - 03 - 03 - Middle Of The Road - TWEEDLE DEE TWEEDLE DUM
06 - 05 - 04 - Four Tops - A SIMPLE GAME
06 - 10 - 05 - Titanic - SULTANA
12 - 07 - 06 - Shirley Bassey - FOR ALL WE KNOW
08 - 06 - 07 - The Fortunes - FREEDOM COME, FREEDOM GO
10 - 04 - 08 - James Taylor - YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND
07 - 20 - 09 - Bay City Rollers - KEEP ON DANCING
04 - 19 - 10 - Al Green - TIRED OF BEING ALONE
07 - 12 - 11 - Danyel Gerard - BUTTERFLY
04 - 18 - 12 - Joan Baez - THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN
11 - 08 - 13 - Nancy Sinatra And Lee Hazelwood - DID YOU EVER
09 - 11 - 14 - C.C.S. - TAP TURNS ON THE WATER
14 - 09 - 15 - The Tams - HEY GIRL DON'T BOTHER ME
08 - 13 - 16 - Engelbert Humperdinck - ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE
06 - 23 - 17 - Vince Hill - LOOK AROUND
04 - 25 - 18 - Scott English - BRANDY
05 - 14 - 19 - Aretha Franklin - SPANISH HARLEM
02 - 22 - 20 - Tom Jones - TILL
09 - 17 - 21 - The Marmalade - COUSIN NORMAN
07 - 21 - 22 - Carpenters - SUPERSTAR / FOR ALL WE KNOW
05 - 29 - 23 - Elvis Presley - I'M LEAVIN'
02 - 37 - 24 - Springwater - I WILL RETURN
12 - 24 - 25 - Daniel Boone - DADDY DON'T YOU WALK SO FAST
1 - NEW - 26 - Slade - COZ I LUV YOU
07 - 16 - 27 - Jethro Tull - LIFE IS A LONG SONG / UP THE POOL
04 - 33 - 28 - The Elgins - PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE
02 - 49 - 29 - Olivia Newton-John - BANKS OF THE OHIO
07 - 15 - 30 - Mungo Jerry - YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE IN THE ARMY TO FIGHT IN THE WAR
02 - 36 - 31 - The Move - CHINATOWN
05 - 40 - 32 - Roger Whittaker - MAMMY BLUE
04 - 32 - 33 - Clodagh Rodgers - LADY LOVE BUG
03 - 42 - 34 - The Sweet - ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
10 - 27 - 35 - Hot Chocolate - I BELIEVE (IN LOVE)
03 - 39 - 36 - The Settlers - THE LIGHTNING TREE
03 - 38 - 37 - Autumn - MY LITTLE GIRL
02 - 48 - 38 - The Newbeats - RUN, BABY RUN (BACK INTO MY ARMS)
16 - 30 - 39 - Buffy Sainte-Marie - SOLDIER BLUE
11 - 26 - 40 - The Supremes - NATHAN JONES
10 - 28 - 41 - Cat Stevens - MOON SHADOW
02 - RE - 42 - The Doors - RIDERS ON THE STORM
04 - 35 - 43 - Los Pop-Tops - MAMMY BLUE
02 - 46 - 44 - The Who - LET'S SEE ACTION
17 - 31 - 45 - The New Seekers - NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE
14 - 34 - 46 - Diana Ross - I'M STILL WAITING
03 - 41 - 47 - The Delfonics - READY OR NOT HERE I COME (CAN'T HIDE FROM LOVE)
1 - NEW - 48 - Diana Ross - SURRENDER
22 - 45 - 49 - Middle Of The Road - CHIRPY CHIRPY CHEEP CHEEP
1 - NEW - 50 - Jimi Hendrix Experience - GYPSY EYES / REMEMBER

Notice which version of "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" made the British charts. The Kissoons' which was the hit here were only on the charts about 1 or 2 weeks there. Middle Of The Road's - a UK #1 a few months before - never charted here.

Besides #1, the shared entries on each chart are:

#7 UK = #79 US
#10 UK = #12 US
#12 UK = #8 US
#20 UK = #71 US
A side of #22 UK = #4 US
#29 UK = #95 US

 

At #57! AKA "Mr. Big Stuff, Part 2" haha!




@debased @Manapua

 

At #29!

Les Crane was a San Francisco TV talk show host and husband of Tina Louise,
who played "Ginger" on Gilligan's Island.

The Rolling Stones made their American television debut on The Les Crane Show on June 2, 1964.

According to the liner notes for the album, "Desiderata" was a poem written in 1906 and copyrighted
under the title "Go Placidly Amid the Noise and Haste" in 1927 by Max Ehrmann, an Indiana lawyer.
It was about the search for happiness in life. Throughout the 1960s, the poem made its rounds around
hippiedom as "anonymous" ancient wisdom - it was widely reprinted, because most people assumed it
was in the public domain. Les read the poem on a street poster (which stated the words "Found in Old
Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, dated 1692") and decided to record it.

The musical background was by Fred Werner, who found the poster in a Los Angeles store. This won the
Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording in 1971.

The first recording of the poem was by the UK group Every Which Way in 1970 as "Child of the Universe."

National Lampoon parodied this on the album Radio Dinner as "Deteriorata." It starts: "You are a fluke of the
universe, you have no right to be here..." That parody featured Melissa Manchester as one of the background
singers.

The title is in Latin. It means "something desired as essential."

This was Crane's only hit.







Here it is, with 42 bonus seconds!

 

Now we're cookin'!! Eleven year-old tyke at this time.

So many wonderful songs but Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves would be my song. Recently heard the dedicated mono mix on the Back to Mono podcast.

Song just never gets old to these ears.

 

#1 and #29 are among the 45's in my collection along with #2, 4-10, 12, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 39 (both the original Warners' and MGM 45's, B.T.W. - alas, each single is a different recording!), 43, 44, 48, 55, 58, 77, 84 and 87.

In the case of Cat Stevens, for example you'll find a different single on each (U.S. and U.K.) chart. Seems the UK had slightly longer durations in terms of their chart life than the U.S. at this point.

 

Makes one wonder if it was Ehrmann, in 1906, that found that poem, if indeed it was 1692 . . .

 

When I was a kid, I grew up listening to Peter, Paul and Mommy Too, and I especially loved their very silly version of "The Old Lady That Swallowed a Fly." I also had fond memories of a song that used to be played on the station that my mom played in the kitchen, probably partially because she liked the song a lot. In it, a man sings about marriage and love and his voice is tender and calming. It was quite some time that I realized the man singing that song was the same guy attempting to swallow a goat on my tape.

 

#77- Scorpio. Didn't actually hear this song when it was released because I wasn't yet on the planet. But ultimately it really made an impression on me.

One day I found the 45 in my older brother's record collection. I was curious about the title so I gave it a spin. Damn!! What a totally KILLER drum/conga breakdown. Insane, and of course now legendary. And (as I later found out) a dozen massive fuzzed out guitars overdubbed on the main riff. Amazing stuff.

By the way is Bob Babbitt's slinky bass groove still the longest bass solo in top 40 history?

 

Glad you're continuing these kinds of threads! '71 was a great year so hopefully, more will get on board.

Springwell - It's For You

Here's a Lennon/McCartney tune that was first given to Cilla Black who had a Top 10 hit with it in '64. Three Dog Night did their version at the end of the decade in a very different arrangement that Springwell took and psych/pop-ed up. It's #61 on this chart and would peak one spot higher. I'm proud to say I was one of the small number who bought this single.

 

#50 Gayle....

 

Sweet City Woman - the first time I really thought, I like banjo. It sure sounded good in this pop song!

 

Ah, the power of CanCon and the reach of CKLW. Was of benefit to all those south of the Canuck border. Also have loved this record from the first time I'd heard it . . .

 

Even beyond the Top 10, there is a lot of great music on the chart, especially a lot of classic Soul/R&B. If only today's Hot 100 was even half as wonderful and memorable...

 

A lot of the soul/R&B from the South in particular has been euphemistically referred to as "deep soul," i.e. a shorthand for coming from the Deep South. But if you look at the word "deep" in terms of antonyms, a lot of what passes for R&B today could be politely referred to as "shallow soul."

 

If You Really Love Me was late 1971? Sounds like late 60s Stevie. He'd sound VERY different a year later.

 

I was struck by the Canadian content, as well: Stampeders, Lighthouse, Guess Who and the Band. The songs are all standards above the 49th parallel but didn't realize their success on the U.S. charts.

 

My wife and I were just saying the same thing! We’re from Calgary, so we love the Stampeders, of course.

You have to also love the wonderful diversity of musical styles on these 70s charts. Ah, those were the days...

 

Same here!

I am sure I heard it while watching the Sonny and Cher TV show.



I remember buying the 45 with my mom.



And I was especially intrigued by this little dude on the label:



Does anyone know who that is?


@Grant @Rose River Bear @MikeM @Stephen J @OnTheRoad @kevinsponge
@blehman @tim_neely @7solqs4iago @Spitfire

 

Charity Ball - Fanny

Nobody around these parts was playing this but I happened to pick it up from a record store with a 10 cent bin that was mostly comprised of promo copies of songs I wasn't aware of. Other finds at the time included American Pie, When There's No Love Left/Beautiful People by The New Seekers, When The Battle Is Over by Delaney & Bonnie and For A Day Like Today by Suzi Jane Hokum. They all ended up spending a lot of time on my turntable with Pie and Charity Ball getting the most spins. I still love this tune which shoulda been at least Top 10.

 

A caricature of Snuff Garrett.

My own copy looks more like this:

 

Well, I turned nine years old just two weeks after this chart posted, and one day I bought two 45s, and one of them was "Yo-Yo" by the Osmonds. The other one was Donny Osmond's "Go Away Little Girl". Remember, I was nine years old.

I couldn't play the two records with my sister around. Every morning before school, I had about a half an hour alone in the house so I would play the two singles on the living-room stereo a few times at a loud volume. Yeah, I liked the two songs a lot! But, after a couple of weeks, I grew tired of them. And, besides, both 45s were angrily destroyed by my sister when she found them in a stack of her 45s that she took to a slumber party.

The 45 was edited. It was produced by Rick Hall at Fame Studios. Anyway, at #3, here's "Yo-Yo".