This Week's Top 10 Chart

Who turned out the lights?
Well, yesterday's blackout was an interesting diversion from the normal workweek.
Getting home last night was fun, danger at every intersection. Although, I must say that around here people were pretty good about taking turns. Even at four and six lane crossings, I saw people stop in both directions to let others cross. I had to get across one of those and was figuring on a good long wait but after a minute or two I was able to cross due to the thoughtfulness of my fellow drivers. It's nice to see that we can get through something like this without becoming totally self absorbed.

We didn't get power back until around 3:00 a.m. this morning so I was forced to read by electric lantern light last night and listen to my wife's walkman radio. This got me thinking about how useless my current system is without electricity. I could go for a big ass generator and fire it up when something like this happens but we only lose power a couple times a year and it would be so noisy I'd be fighting for volume so my second idea was to look into some sort of battery powered boombox of mini-system to use in these hi-fi emergencies. Is anyone out there aware of a decent sounding box? I realize I'm not going to get the sound of my Denon receiver from something powered by 8 D cells but I assume there a decent portables out there. Any recommendations are welcomed. I don't suppose anyone makes a high quality battery powered turntable? What, I've gone to far? Sorry, just daydreaming.

Ok, now down to business. The charts for the last two weeks have been pretty lackluster. I'm sorry, I didn't plan it that way it just happened. This week to celebrate the 34th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, I'm posting the chart from that very weekend. Yes, this is the stuff you might well have been listening to on WABC as you sat all but parked in your VW microbus on the New York State Thuway on this day in 1969. I realize that by this point a lot of people were turning to the FM dial for a more subdued type of DJ and more album cuts but not many cars were equipped with FM tuners in '69. Check out the Album charts for some truly classic LPs.

I hope everyone enjoys these charts and that you have a good weekend.
I'm going to try and stay cool and be thankful I can play some records again.
Power To The People!

This week's charts are from August 16, 1969

Code:

 1. In The Year 2525 (Exorduium & Terminus)
    ......................................[B]Zager & Evans[/B]
 2. Honky Tonk Women......................[B]The Rolling Stones[/B]
 3. Crystal Blue Persuasion...............[B]Tommy James & The Shondells[/B]
 4. Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good)
    ......................................[B]Neil Diamond[/B] 
 5. A Boy Named Sue.......................[B]Johnny Cash[/B]
 6. Put A Little Love In Your Heart.......[B]Jackie DeShannon[/B]
 7. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town....[B]Kenny Rogers and The First Edition[/B]
 8. My Cherie Amour.......................[B]Stevie Wonder[/B]
 9. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)..[B]Jr. Walker & The All Stars[/B]
10. Baby, I Love You......................[B]Andy Kim[/B]


This Week's Top 10 Album Chart

  1. Blood, Sweat & Tears.................[B]Blood, Sweat & Tears[/B] 
  2. Hair.................................[B]Original Cast[/B]
  3. Romeo & Juliet.......................[B]Soundtrack[/B]
  4. Johnny Cash At San Quentin...........[B]Johnny Cash[/B]
  5. This Is Tom Jones....................[B]Tom Jones[/B]
  6. Best Of Cream........................[B]Cream[/B]
  7. Crosby, Stills & Nash................[B]Crosby, Stills & Nash[/B]
  8. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida...................[B]Iron Butterfly[/B]
  9. The Soft Parade......................[B]The Doors[/B]
 10. Nashville Skyline....................[B]Bob Dylan[/B]          

 

Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

I am always reminded of that great scene in the wonderful movie "Beautiful Girls" when I hear that song.

Great list-
Cheers,
Norm

 

As for the singles chart, I never cared for #9. Too mellow for me, I guess. Otherwise, another great chart. I have every one of these hits.

 

I remember buying the 45 of "Honky Tonk Women" in 1969. What a great song.

 

Wasn't Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" recorded a couple of years earlier?

Jim W.

 

What can I say? Great charts - both of them.

I think the thing that surprises me most is that there was already a "Best of Cream" out by 1969. Was the band already apart by that time?

 

Jim, I can't tell you when the song was recorded but it's debut on the Top 100 is 5/31/69.

 

It was also the B Side to "I Don't Know Why" which peaked at #39. I also think it was recorded before 1969 but I have no proof.

mud-

 

Yes Cream had dis-banded and the forming of Blind Faith was already in the works although Goodbye Cream was there final swan song LP with Badge on it.

 

A squirrel....but don't tell anyone.....(sorry, inside joke from last nite)
Glad you made it through okay, Dave. Pretty crazy goings-on, but not the total disaster it coulda been.

Well, overall, a mixed bag but more upside than the last few weeks, to be sure!

Singles:

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

Albums:

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

Singles: 8.2: Very solid B. Albums: 7.5 B-, slightly better than that.

45's: The Stones, Tommy James and Jr. are the pick of the litter here; the edited advance preview of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" hardly prepared us for the Lp version, however. The Neil Diamond hit was made during his most productive period with Uni/MCA, and while "Sue" is a novelty, I factored in the flip, "San Quentin" to offset it a little, because while it's good fun, I'm not sure it's top-notch Cash. The Wonder and DeShannon ballads are good but not exceptional; the Andy Kim bubblegum number is a guilty pleasure, though a shadow of the Spector classic; "Ruby" is solid 1st Edition, but they did better; and finally, the #1 hit.....badly mixed, arch, and the lyrics were silly apocalyptic then, and time has not treated the whole thing any better. You have to really loosen your standards to like that one, even if it is some weird kind of time capsule.

Albums: SAN QUENTIN is the best of the lot; Cash was really feeling it during this period, the peak of his crossover popularity. Some other solid entries: CSN's debut, while too fluffy, is also very appealing; Cream's comp touches all the major bases, and offered the stereo 45 edit of "White Room" and the US debut of "Spoonful"; IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA remains a solid, guilty pleasure, another time capsule, but a truly fun example of such things. SKYLINE is Dylan not up to previous highs, but it's a relaxed, satisfying experience. The "Hair" cast Lp is also a time capsule, at times odd, but scores some points, as does BS&T's 2nd album, though there's way too much noodling to take it too seriously, even now, and it's not the classic the Al Kooper-led debut was. Which leaves the lamentable SOFT PARADE, which has a handful of fine tracks but Morrison was really out of it, and the rest of the band couldn't compensate; a few generally embarassing tracks really hurt this one. THIS IS TOM JONES suffers from TJ's usual mix of I'm-Sinatra/I'm-hip/I'm rockin' material, and though some of it works--"Hey Jude" and "Dance Of Love" aren't bad--most of this is blatantly mediocre. This leaves the ROMEO & JULIET score, and though composed by one of the greats--Nino Rota--it's still dull by his standards, and without the film to keep it company, yawn-inducing.


ED

 

Wow, Ed, you really dislike the Z & E huh? Maybe because I have fond memories of it growing up (time and place and all that) or perhaps because I really don't hear it very often these days, but I always get a kick out of it. I know it's not a great song, but it's one of those that really takes me back to, well, 1969. As a kid I thought it was so cool, almost like science fiction!

 

I love the whole chart! Yes!!! and the 45's number one gets an A+ a nice melodic song. So many great melodies back then. Question??? Does a Musician and Layman hear the songs differently? I believe so, as most critic's can't play a note or chord of music, so therefore they are going by their own opinion...I'm sometimes moved by a single perfectly place chord just in the right sweet spot..chills abound.

 

"2525" is an overproduced mess, and a D+ is being generous. It's still a dispiriting, depressing load of nonsense all these years later. While CCR was stuck at #2, they were also building their legend; Z&E went to wherever the lucky one-hit wonders go. I believe they call it obscurity. And justice.


ED

 

Snopes agrees with you on this one, ED.

mud-

 

Overproduced mess? I guess Z&E can now rest with your generosity Obviously the public thought differently or we would not be discussing this song whether it be a one hit wonder or not... ED, Are you a musician, have you ever composed a song (words & music)...???

 

Wow I too hated the song as it just got played the hell out of IMO. But I'd give it at least a "B" and that's still being bad about it.
I however can listen to it now and not think that and can give it an A.

Now I'm waiting for a response to Michael's question.

Play nice now

 

OK, so Zager & Evans, as a folk duo, were not up there with Simon & Garfunkel....or even Brewer & Shipley. But I do give them credit for creating the pop music equivalent of "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Everything about that record is so unctuously goofy or over-the-top, that you can't help but bear witness to the whole mess.

Jim W.

 

Oh, and those lyrics! Let's review the last verse:

"Now it's been ten thousand years,
Man has cried a billion tears,
For what he never knew,
Now man's reign is through,
But through eternal night,
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterdaaaaaaaay"

DUH DUH DUH DUNHHHH.

 

Do you have to be a metalworker or welder to decide an AMC Gremlin is ugly?

 

He's not getting one(nothing personal, my friend; you're just missing the point). Rather, I'll put this to the membership:

If "2525" is an A+, what does that make "Proud Mary"?

When you've collected as much and as long as I have, the answer is simple: "Proud Mary." At best, "2525" is a pathetic guilty pleasure, nothing more. The fact is, they can't both be an A+, they can't both be great; to say so is to expose a complete lack of critical faculty. And, by that measure, all cheese therefore tastes the same and is great; all beer tastes the same, therefore all are great; all women get an A+ for being perfect wives and mothers, all men get an A+ for being perfect husbands and fathers. Yet we know this is not so, either.

"2525" is successful junk; that's all it is. History is riddled with junk; our attics and garages are loaded with junk that we bought once upon a time, thinking it wasn't. Time changes that perception. "Proud Mary" was vindicated long ago--say, around the first few weeks it was released, and has only grown in stature, and not because it sucks or that millions made some kind of mistake. "Time the avenger," as Chrissie Hynde would say.

Or, to put it another way, if you live long enough, you gotta learn to tell the difference between chicken soup and chicken ****.

Now, if only I could find a nice clean copy of the original Truth 45....

Hey, being a collector doesn't mean you don't collect music you don't like. Vinyl train wrecks can be as much fun as the cinematic kind....

ED

 

...and I've never heard "2525" played by a polka band.

mud-

 

ED, you must be looking at another chart. "Proud Mary"?

Jim W.

 

Sorry, Jim...that's my 1969 "Record Of The Year." When I was a kid--and well beyond--I'd make up MY version of the Grammy awards, and almost every record listed they didn't nominate, of course....

As it was, "Proud Mary" would have done better, but in its first week at #2, Sly was in his last week at the top with "Everyday People." Then Tommy Roe's worthless "Dizzy" took over....if bubblegum ever had a bad name, that's the song to thank for it above all others....

That's another can o' worms right there, isn't it?


ED

 

Hey Ed,
Next, you're gonna tell us that our Singing Bass(es), Pet Rocks, Pogs and Fisher Price Record Players (with steel stylus!!!) were all junk too, aay?

 

I hear ya ED, but it could've been worse: What if Zager & Evans had actually kept "Proud Mary" from reaching No. 1?

Jim W.