This Week's Top 10 Chart

This week's chart is from the week of March 23, 1968 - There's a little bit of everything here.
I love this period in radio. Don't like what's on? Just wait, another great song is coming up next!

1. (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay...........................................Otis Redding
2. Love Is Blue.......................................................................Paul Mauriat
3. (Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls...........................................Dionne Warwick
4. Simon Says........................................................................1910 Fruitgum Co.
5. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)....The First Edition
6. La - La - Means I Love You...................................................The Delfonics
7. Valleri...............................................................................The Monkees
8. (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone..........................Aretha Franklin
9. I Thank You.......................................................................Sam & Dave
10. The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde............................................Georgie Fame

 

For this week,
Paul Mauriat's "Love is Blue" crystalizes a lot of what this period in 1968 was.

1968 was a great yeasr for instrumentals.

The Horse-Cliff Nobles & Co.
Grazing In The Grass-Hugh Maskela
Soulful Strut-Young-Holt Unlimited
Love Is Blue-Paul Mauriat
Fool On The Hill-Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66
Casino Royale-Herb Alpert & the Tijuana brass

 

Dave,

Thanks the weekly charts. I was a junior in high school in March of 68'. Some great music then with a wide musical variety on the charts at any given time. That variety is what made Top 40 such a great format in those days. We were exposed to and enjoyed a wide variety of music each day on one or maybe two AM radio stations!

Bob

 

Maybe i'll start posting a few charts myself.

i do find it interesting that not too many people participate in these threads, especially this week's!

 

Grant,

Great idea! The charts bring back many memories.

Bob

 

I think that a lot of us on the forum were very young at the time of these releases and most likely haven't heard a lot of these. I know that at that point of my life it was The Doors, The Beatles, The Who, The Jackson 5 and the likes. It wasn't until I was older that I heard most of these songs, with the exceptions of Otis, Aretha and Herb Alpert.

 

Dave,

The weeks chart in 68'--is a great example of the variety I spoke about. I was 17 at the time and I can assure you that none of "us" at age 17 were especially found of Simon Says--a classic bubblegum cut that was immensely popular with pre-teens. I remember that my girlfriend at the time just had to listen to Love is Blue--let's just say it put her in a romantic mood in the backseat of my canary yellow 63' Chevrolet Impala 396 Super Sport. Bonnie and Clyde was "the" hit movie. I remember seeing that movie in a old time big screen theatre for $1.40. I bought the 45 right after seeing the movie. Sadly, my favorite Georgie Fame single, Get Away from 66' has never been released on CD.

A few memories from that time....

Bob

 

I was five years old at this time in 1968, but I still remember everything. 1968 was a HOT year for top 40. I LOVED "Midnight Confessions", "Angel Of The Morning", "Green Tambourine, "Think", and "Magic Carpet Ride". Oh, I can't forget "Girlwatcher"by the O'Kaysions!

 

One of my (many) collecting obsessions is to own every top 10 hit from 1955-1990, preferably on CD (are you listening, Allen Klein??) I'm not missing too many. Certainly have these covered.

 

You too, eh? But I got one step further and try for the EXACT mix and edit of the single. If I can't find it I attempt to recreate it by editing the long version in Cool Edit. In other cases i'll get the song from vinyl or mp3, if I have to.

 

What a week it was!

I was a junior in high school also, and ALWAYS had the radio on. Like you said, don't like this tune, just wait a few minutes. But the great part was that they were ALL fantastic tunes.

Nowadays we hear all this talk about diversity, and how important it is to society. Yet the radio and music industry is so far from that ideal; narrow-casting and pigeon-holing everything into a level of conformity that is both appaling and incredibly boring.

Steve

 

But what can you do? You have a few corporations that own way too many stations with general managers who don't take risks by playing it safe, so safe that they carefully select certain songs, pre-tape them, and broadcast them day and night. They program certain songs to be heard at certain times of the day to make the advertisers happy. Or, worse yet, they subscribe to a sattelite service like Westwood One that does the same thing from a central location. All the station manager has to do is make sure the the money flows. Safe money with no risk of some renagade DJ playing something risky or saying something potentially offensive. Safe as milk. The best you can do is one or two hours of some syndicated show like Dick Bartley. Webcasting looked promising but there are too many problems with reaching wide audiences and it doesn't do any good for the car. And, if the record companies have their way, the web may be cut down as well.

Oh, the good old days...

 

Guys, I too lament the passing of the golden days of AM radio. There are a lot of songs that I remember fondly that I would never have heard if it weren't for the diverse programing of the Top 40 stations of the 60's and 70's. Pop, Rock, Country, Soul and Oldies all on one station. In the late 60's there began to imerge what was then known as Underground Radio playing mostly rock and longer album cuts first on FM and later on AM. There weren't many FM car radios at the time but in the small town I lived in there actually was one of the first of these Progressive Rock AM stations. As a hip young teen I gravited toward this "progressive" programing but I always kept an ear on the top 40 stations too. Today, I really don't listen to the radio much except to catch the news or traffic reports in the morning.

 

Dave, even in the the 70s, starting around 1973, FM progressive rock radio even made a detour into top 40, even r&b! By the mid 70s AM radio was largely reduced to country and news radio. I don't know where it went in the 80s because I didn't listen to it much beyond r&B in 1982.

When i'm in the car nowadays I look for shock jock and satire like Phil Hendre.