The Weekly Top 10-December 5, 1970

Great Top 10!!! 1970 is one of my all time favorite years for pop music, and the year that my love affair with vinyl began. My parents bought me my first record player that Christmas and kept me supplied with 45's to play on it. The #2 single(#1 the following week) was one of my first 45's and my personal favorite on this chart. W.B., let's see if you can identify where this single was pressed!

 

Tears of a Clown and Gipsy Woman go together on the kind of compilations I like. And are among my favorites on the list.

I am just revisiting the 5th Dimension's work via a 2 disk compilation of their's. Like it more now than I did back then.

I don't remember that Stevie Wonder song, and Badfinger is almost totally unknown to me.

 

Brian Hyland also had a big hit on Philips, "The Joker Went Wild", and their masters are also now owned by UNI.

"I Think I Love You" was the last Bell 45 I owned with the painted on label, thank goodness.

On this chart, I am surprised that the Stevie Wonder song was a top ten hit. It's been a favorite of mine since I discovered it on the old "Looking Back" anthology, but I don't recall hearing it played on the radio around here. Overall a great selection of tunes.

 

Well, it's one of those thin, sharp-edged vinul pressings...

 

"Painted on"?????

 

Speaking of "Tears of a Clown," I noticed on Jeff's 45 that the co-credit goes to "S. Wonder," but on my Miracles Make it Happen LP, it's "S. Judkins." I can't find another record where Stevie's credited under anything but his stage name. Maybe on early Tamla pressings only?

 

I don't know that I'd want to hear him do them today. But surely he put down demos in the old days, right? Where are those?

 

I agree that all are classics! My favourite has to be No Matter What by Badfinger though

 

One of the plants that did a lot of East Coast pressing for the Bell family of labels had this cheap process where they would take a styrene 45, and instead of affixing a paper label, they would just print the label in ink right on the plastic. Needless to say that if you weren't very careful the label would wear or wash off. Here's a photo from Ebay of a copy of "Knock Three Times" by Dawn that used this process.

 

And of course the dog ate your homework, too....



Billboard Top 10, Week ending December 5, 1970:

1. I Think I Love You............................The Partridge Family
2. The Tears Of A Clown.....Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
3. Gypsy Woman...........................................Brian Hyland
4. I'll be There..............................................The Jackson 5
5. We've Only Just Begun..................................Carpenters
6. Fire And Rain.............................................James Taylor
7. One Less bell To Answer......................The 5th Dimension
8. No Matter What..............................................Badfinger
9. Heaven Help Us All...................................Stevie Wonder
10. Share The Land......................................The Guess Who

Have at it![/QUOTE]

Well, if ya say so...

1. C+
2. A-
3. B
4. A-
5. B+
6. A-
7. B+
8. A
9. B+
10. A-


A 9.2....nice B+

The idea of David Cassidy acting or singing still strikes this kid as funny, for some reason, his father at least had flair and style, maybe the teenage gals understood it better.....and this is the kind of Archies-like assembly-line thing that grew old fast even back then.

The surprise, in hindsight, was the Miracles' hit, a remix of an Lp cut already over 3 years old, and after some of the forgettable crap Smokey had been cutting that year, small wonder he went back to the vault and pulled out this hidden gem.....the J5 song, though we didn't know it at the time, was their last great single, "Never Can Say Goodbye" notwithstanding, that one has grown over time while the others sound like retreads ("Mama's Pearl" was merely cute--and the J5, for a time, were cute and inventive--not with that one, nor most to come). Stevie's thoughtful hit reminds us, today, of how ahead of his years he was, and not just in maturity; other than Marvin Gaye, he made Smokey's stuff sound desultory and throwaway which, just a few years before, would have been unthinkable.

On the pop side, hard to argue with the Carps and 5D...and while Burton Cummings always sounded as if he were choking on his own spit, this one, although not heralded much, seems now like a worthy companion to Bill Withers' "Lean On Me," for some reason. And while Hyland's comeback hit doesn't come close to the Impressions' original, it does have an evocative sheen of its very own, and one of those 'why hasn't this every been in stereo' hits that remains kinda inexplicable not being in stereo(and by this time, Del Shannon had become a true journeyman, and would remain so for the rest of his days).

That leaves JT--love it, but it is overplayed these days on oldie radio--and Badfinger, which, when you listen to that great guitar riff, sounds almost visionary....and yes, you can hear the Beatles all over it, and indeed, this sounds like something they might have done, had they stuck it out another year.

 

Ed,

Evocative sheen?

Brings visions of a Woman in a Bikini, oiled up, laying on the beach on a very hot summer day...

Bob

 

Memories, aahhh sweet memories, but, what the heck are The Partridge family doing at #1

I thought I had better taste when I was eleven, heh heh heh

I remember going to see Grateful Dead, Chuck Berry, and Traffic with my older Brother that year. I guess I gotta get some brain cells back I musta been sleeping

 

It does, doesn't it? Must be the synth part.....

My mind drifting on a cold, windy afternoon, putting off errands that soon must be taken care of....waiting for snow that has yet to properly arrive!

 

Hitsville box and Smokey/Miracles box.

 

You're absolutely correct Grant!! Pick your prize from shelves 1 through 3!!! Actually that copy of "Knock Three Times" looks a lot like the kind of labels found on UK 45's where the label(ink and typeset) is molded right into the vinyl instead of using a paper label. To John B Good, I'm surprised that you've never heard "No Matter What". That is one of the greatest rock/pop singles of all time IMHO. Invest in a copy of their greatest hits album or look around for a copy of the single, you'll be glad you did.

 

Great chart, Grant! I was 16 years old and driving my first car! I'd crank some of those pup's up when they would play on the radio! Especially, "No Matter What" by Badfinger! "The Tears Of A Clown," is my all time favorite Smokey Robinson & The Miracles song. Yeah...great chart indeed

 

That copy was from Columbia's Santa Maria, CA plant. Now, as to what a copy from Pitman, NJ, looked like . . .

 

Don't forget . . . the Make It Happen LP was 1967, while the 45 was 1970. By then his songwriting credit was likely changed.

 

That was from Bestway Products of Moutainside, NJ, which was most infamous for that type of pressing. However, from 1964 to '71 they alternated between this and using regular paper labels (with label copy usually printed by the former Co-Service Printing of Newark, NJ, and some printed by Progressive Label Co. of Brooklyn, NY). My copy of that 45, needless to say, is a Columbia/Terre Haute, IN pressing with Pitman label copy artwork. After 1971 Bestway only used paper labels.

 

Thanks to all about where to find the mono mix.

I'm going to have to get the Hitsville box. I've really wanted to get it for while anyway.

Joe

 

That Badfinger 45 I have pictured has a Bell Sound stamp in the run out groove and was mastered by Sam Feldman. It has his initials right next to the machine stamp. Were all Apple and Capitol 45's at this time manufactured with the serrations around the outer edge of the labels, or where those only pressed at specific pressing plants?

 

Better yet, look for a DCC NO DICE gold if you really wanna hear it gooood....

 

Exactly!

No better way to hear it than this.

 

Exactly, how could I forget. I actually found a Gold "No Dice" CD(with a cut out notch) at Music For A Song for $9.99!!! Awesome disc!!!

 

I see what you mean now. Yeah, Amy, Bell, and Mala, were all part of that family.