Hear Me Roar
(Pictured: a women’s liberation parade in New York City, August 1971.)
There’s a lot to recommend the American Top 40 show from December 16, 1972. It contains a famous error: Casey announced Rod Stewart’s “Angel” at #40 but played the B-side, “Lost Paraguayos.” “Angel” dropped back to #43 the next week, so it never appeared on the show. Casey’s modern-day restoration expert, Ken Martin, who does mono-to-stereo conversions for the earliest shows, fixed the error, but the original misidentified “Lost Paraguayos” was offered to stations as an extra during the recent repeat. The show features James Taylor and Carly Simon, then husband and wife, back to back with “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” and “You’re So Vain,” both debuting in this week. It’s got some AM-radio classics: the Raspberries’ “I Wanna Be With You,” “I’d Love You to Want Me” by Lobo, Loggins and Messina with “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” Jim Croce’s “Operator,” and Seals and Crofts with “Summer Breeze.”
And there’s also this:
30. “I’ll Be Around”/Spinners
27. “Superstition”/Stevie Wonder
18. “Corner of the Sky”/Jackson Five
17. “Keeper of the Castle”/Four Tops
15. “Superfly”/Curtis Mayfield
10. “I’m Stone in Love With You”/Stylistics
9. “I Can See Clearly Now”/Johnny Nash
6. “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”/Temptations
4. “You Ought to Be With Me”/Al Green
3. “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”/Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
Soul music was at a peak as 1972 drew to a close. (Your mileage may vary with the Jackson Five and the Stylistics, which is fine with me, and be sure to include #1, below.) Casey observes that Al Green had more Top 40 hits than any other act in 1972—four—which is a pretty good piece of trivia, and evidence that 1972 was a better year than it gets credit for.
11. “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu”/Johnny Rivers. The great pleasure of this song is the piano-bangin’ introduction and solo, over which Johnny (and anybody listening) whoops and generally enjoys the hell out of. That pleasure is being lost in our Spotify’d, algorithm-driven world. No singer lets the band play anymore.
7. “Clair”/Gilbert O’Sullivan. Honesty compels me to report that out of the 40 songs on this chart, I bought exactly two of them on 45s that fall: “I’d Love You to Want Me” and “Clair.” I can’t remember what attracted me to it. The song elides the question of whether O’Sullivan’s affection for Clair is familial or romantic until the very end, when it’s revealed that he’s babysitting his niece.
2. “I Am Woman”/Helen Reddy. This was unexpectedly moving when I heard it on the recent repeat: its joyful celebration of liberation, its glorious optimism, its strong determination to keep reaching higher.
1. “Me and Mrs. Jones”/Billy Paul. From November 1972 until sometime in 1974, Casey and the AT40 staff tried to predict each week what the next week’s #1 song would be. The previous week’s prediction of “Me and Mrs. Jones”—the third time they’d made a prediction—was the first time they’d gotten it right. Casey smiles and says a batting average of .333 is “better than I did in high school.”
Recommended Reading: Elvis in Vegas: How the King Reinvented the Las Vegas Show, by Richard Zoglin, is a bit mistitled. Only about a third of the book has to do with Presley’s Vegas years; most of the rest covers the fascinating history of Las Vegas showbiz itself, from the 50s glory days through the end of the 60s when Elvis arrived: from the Rat Pack to Wayne Newton to Howard Hughes, plus mobsters and topless showgirls. It’s definitely worth your time. Zoglin’s other books, a biography of Bob Hope and a history of 70s standup comedy, are highly recommended also.
Fear the Reaper: (Usual disclaimer: my opinion only, nobody else’s, anywhere on Earth.) I am not going to say much about iHeart Media’s reorganization and “employee dislocation” (except that the PR flack who came up with that phrase should choke on it). I know of only one high-profile person who lost a job in Madison, but back in the Quad Cities, our home between 1987 and 1997, cuts included three personalities with over 30 years in the market and one with better than 40. Local morning shows across the country: gone. Highly rated programs in all dayparts: gone. All are likely to be replaced by generic national shows. This feels like a declaration that local personalities no longer matter in local radio. And that is a dark and terrible thing for a radio company to declare.
(There will be a rare Saturday post here, so stop back.)
War and Tragedy and Prince and Bowie
(Pictured: David Bowie, avatar of humanity, on the set of Absolute Beginners, 1985.)
Last week I wrote about the American Top 40 show from December 15, 1984. Here’s some of what else was on the Hot 100 in that week. It’s an MTV glory days video-rama.
42. “I Would Die 4 U”/Prince
58. “Tonight”/David Bowie
69. “Blue Jean”/David Bowie
I started writing this post on January 10, the anniversary of David Bowie’s death. It’s been said that Bowie and Prince were the glue that kept the world from exploding, because after their deaths in 2016, everything seemed to go off the rails. Also, it seems to me that Bowie’s stature has actually increased since his death (more than Prince’s stature has), and I’ll say again what I said back then: I hope that Bowie had some idea, before he died, of how beloved he was.
50. “Method of Modern Love”/Hall and Oates. “Method of Modern Love” debuted on the Hot 100 at this relatively lofty position on December 15, 1984. It was not the highest debut of the week, however. That belonged to “I Would Die 4 U.”
45. “I Just Called to Say I Love You”/Stevie Wonder
51. “Solid”/Ashford and Simpson
62. “Hard Habit to Break”/Chicago
64. “The Heat Is On”/Glenn Frey
What was that I said in last week’s post about future pop and rock classics that would never be off the radio?
52. “Misled”/Kool and the Gang. This band had a long string of Top-20 singles in the 80s with one-word titles. “Joanna,” “Fresh,” and “Cherish” you remember. “Tonight,” “Misled,” “Emergency,” and “Victory,” not so much. Your local oldies station isn’t going to play them, but in the middle of the 80s, they were so radio-ready, and the band’s track record was so solid, that nobody was going to ignore them.
53. “Desert Moon”/Dennis DeYoung. Many of us have a place or places in our pasts that we never leave completely behind. The “Desert Moon” video scratched an itch I had in 1984 that I don’t have in precisely the same way today. (But I still have it.)
57. “Operator”/Midnight Star. I felt guilty about liking “Operator” back in 1985—it was not on-brand for my self-image at that moment— but 35 years later I un-self-consciously surrender to the groove and just get the hell down.
61. “Mistake #3″/Culture Club
72. “The War Song”/Culture Club
“The War Song” had gone to #17 in November 1984; nevertheless, I bet you don’t remember it beyond its opening lines: “War, war is stupid / And people are stupid.” There have been more stirring protest songs, and “The War Song” gets tiresome pretty fast. “Mistake #3,” which got to #33 on the Hot 100, is pleasant enough to make #33.
77. “Eat My Shorts”/Rick Dees. Dees may have been funny on the radio, but on records, he was not. “Disco Duck,” platinum-certified #1 single that it was, isn’t funny, although it desperately tried to be. The only thing funny about “Eat My Shorts” is the decision to make it in the style of an R&B love ballad. It was in its first of two weeks on the Hot 100 on December 15, 1984.
80. “Tragedy”/John Hunter. “Tragedy” is a record I’ve written about before, a lost classic, with one monster hook piled atop of another, and it deserved a far better fate than two weeks at #39, in February 1985.
88. “All Right Now”/Rod Stewart. Rod, honey, no.
95. “Sugar Don’t Bite”/Sam Harris. Competitive reality shows are thick on the ground the last two decades, but they go back to radio days, with Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour. A predecessor of the modern form was Star Search, which ran for 13 seasons, from 1983 through 1995. It was syndicated to local stations for all that time, frequently running on Saturday evenings before network primetime. Eleven of those seasons were hosted by Ed McMahon. Harris (whose “Sugar Don’t Bite” made #36 and was in its 14th and last week on the chart on 12/15/84) was the first to win the male vocalist category, although first-season vocal group winner Sawyer Brown and third-season junior female runner-up Tiffany had the best careers of the singers who came through the show.
By 1984, MTV was a big deal, and Ann and I, squarely in its demographic back then, watched it regularly. Rock videos had already developed their own grammar, and while that resulted in a certain sameness among a lot of them, it also made MTV a comfortable and familiar environment. I didn’t perceive it as competition for my radio station, not really. We were doing things they couldn’t do, every single day.
We Are the Young
(Pictured: Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael, January 1985.)
Once again this year, I ran up a surplus of American Top 40 shows in December, and it’s going to take me well into the new year to catch up, starting with December 15, 1984. There is a very good argument that 1984 is not merely the greatest musical year of the 80s, but one of the greatest of all time. And in this week alone, there’s a remarkable number of future pop and rock classics, all side-by-side jostling for position.
39. “Caribbean Queen”/Billy Ocean
32. “I Want to Know What Love Is”/Foreigner
29. “The Boys of Summer”/Don Henley
26. “Purple Rain”/Prince
22. “You’re the Inspiration”/Chicago
16. “Run to You”/Bryan Adams
15. “Born in the USA”/Bruce Springsteen
8. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”/Wham
4. “I Feel for You”/Chaka Khan
3. “Like a Virgin”/Madonna
That’s what I’m talking about: so many superstars, all young and in their prime, with songs that would be part of Top 40, adult contemporary, classic rock, and oldies playlists for decades to come.
38. “Bruce”/Rick Springfield
37. “Tender Years”/John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band
Casey describes “Bruce,” a song he says Rick Springfield recorded in the late 1970s about being mistaken for Bruce Springsteen. He describes it in such detail that actually playing the song becomes redundant. It’s followed (immediately on the recent repeat, but after a commercial break in 1984) by “Tender Years,” which actually could be mistaken for Springsteen.
35. “Loverboy”/Billy Ocean
33. “Pride in the Name of Love”/U2
31. “Stranger in Town”/Toto
30. “Easy Lover”/Philip Bailey and Phil Collins
25. “We Are the Young”/Dan Hartman
18. “Walking on a Thin Line”/Huey Lewis and the News
17. “Strut”/Sheena Easton
In mid-December 1984, we had thrown the switch on a Top 40 format at my radio station two months before. I loved hearing these songs (and others from this show) because it meant we were rockin’, and for the first time in my career I was playing on my air what I was listening to at home.
28. “Centipede”/Rebbie Jackson
19. “Do What You Do”/Jermaine Jackson
Casey says that this is the sixth time a pair of siblings were in the Top 40 at the same time: Donny and Jimmy Osmond, Donny and Marie, Andy and Robin Gibb, Jermaine and Michael (with two different records by Michael), and Jermaine and Rebbie.
24. “Understanding”/Bob Seger. Seger had a seemingly bottomless well of songs in which an older and wiser guy looks back on his young self and what he went through to become old and wise, delivered at a wistful medium tempo. “Understanding” got up to #17 on the first chart of 1985 and then looks to have vanished until it turned up on a Seger compilation in 2003.
The only Christmas flavor on this show comes midway through the second hour, from a snippet of “Nuttin’ for Christmas” by six-year-old Barry Gordon, which was a hit in 1955. Casey played it in response to a listener question about the youngest person ever to hit the charts. A snippet was enough.
12. “Valotte”/Julian Lennon. It’s hard to recapture the way it felt to hear this visitation from beyond the grave in 1984, especially when it first hit the air. But the record came by its success legitimately because it’s actually good, and not solely because it reminded people of John.
10. “All Through the Night”/Cyndi Lauper. “All Through the Night” should probably go on the list of classics I made earlier because it’s the best thing on a very good show. Listen to the not-just-full-throated-but-whole-body-involved note she holds on the last word: “until it ends, there is no end.” If you’re not getting goosebumps, you’re listening wrong.
2. “The Wild Boys”/Duran Duran
1. “Out of Touch”/Hall and Oates
With a whole raft of enduring classics on the radio in this week, the two most popular songs are a bit of a fizzle. “The Wild Boys” always seemed to me like Duran Duran testing the theory that they could record anything and people would buy it. And if you are surprised to be reminded that “Out of Touch” hit #1, so was I.
Recommended Reading: In 1978, the album Aurora by Daisy Jones and the Six became one of the year’s biggest hits. Their single “Turn It Off” won Record of the Year at the 1979 Grammys, and in the spring of that year, Daisy Jones was the idol of millions of young women around the world. But after a gig in Chicago that summer, at the height of their success, the band suddenly broke up. If you don’t remember all that, you haven’t read the novel Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. And you should.
Miles Away
(Pictured: Nicolette Larson, 1979.)
Be sure to go back and read the comments on last week’s post about the American Top 40 show from December 16, 1978. Former AT40 staffer Scott Paton has favored us with stories about his contributions to that specific program and some other stuff he saw while working on AT40.
As we do, let’s look at some of what else was on the Hot 100 in that same week.
41. “Lotta Love”/Nicolette Larson. “Lotta Love” is a practically perfect record, and after it made #8 on the Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard‘s adult contemporary chart, a lot of people would have bet on Larson to become a superstar. But it didn’t work out that way despite her California country-rock cred, and she died young, only 45, in 1997. Bonus fact from Wikipedia (so who the hell knows): “In the late 1980s, she briefly dated ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.”
42. “The Gambler”/Kenny Rogers. I did not have much use for “The Gambler” at the time it was a hit, but today I recognize how good it is. The gambler is a vividly drawn character in a vividly told story.
45. “Please Come Home for Christmas”/Eagles. I missed this last month when I wrote about Christmas songs on American Top 40, although I put an addendum in the comments of that post when I realized it. Short version: “Please Come Home for Christmas” appeared on AT40 on three January 1979 shows, undoubtedly wearing out its welcome by the last week.
47. “Hold Me, Touch Me”/Paul Stanley
61. “Radioactive”/Gene Simmons
In September 1978, the four members of KISS released solo albums on the same day, on the heels of two frenzied years of hype. It turned out to be a rather significant overreach. All four albums charted, but only Ace Frehley’s single “New York Groove” had any staying power beyond a couple of months.
53. “Home and Dry”/Gerry Rafferty
54. “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth”/Meat Loaf
Each of these was the third single from a highly successful album. “Home and Dry” is good, although there are better songs on City to City. “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” equaled the #39 Hot 100 placing of “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” without being remotely as exhausting.
56. “You Needed Me”/Anne Murray. The power of “You Needed Me” is that it’s not explicitly about romantic love, which made it resonate with people in all sorts of personal relationships. It took time to build, making #1 in its 17th week on the Hot 100 and its 12th week in the Top 40 (November 4, 1978), and it spent six weeks among the nation’s Top 5.
65. “Miles Away”/Fotomaker. With Gene Cornish and Dino Danelli of the Rascals and Wally Bryson of the Raspberries, Fotomaker had plenty of ingredients for power-pop success, and the fact that they didn’t make it big wasn’t for lack of trying. They released two albums in 1978 alone. “Miles Away” was the bigger of their two chart singles, but it needed more Raspberry in it.
68. “Soul Man”/Blues Brothers. At first blush, the Blues Brothers seemed like a parody, and some people found it disrespectful. In the grooves, however, Briefcase Full of Blues is a fan’s love letter to classic R&B. If Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi seem like they want to actually be Sam and Dave, they were neither the first nor the last.
76. “Baby I’m Burnin'”/Dolly Parton. In 1978, people called this a disco record, and while it got a disco remix, the OG really isn’t that far out of step with other uptempo pop-country records of the time.
78. “Shattered”/Rolling Stones. In which the Stones summon up that good old-fashioned decadence one last time. They’d never seem quite so sleazy again.
79. “Dancin’ Shoes”/Nigel Olsson
90. “Dancin’ Shoes”/Faith Band
Olsson was Elton John’s longtime drummer. The Faith Band, from Indianapolis, was the group led by “Dancin’ Shoes” songwriter Carl Storie. Both versions debuted in this week. Olsson would get to #18; the Faith Band version, which would reach #54, is here.
83. “Shake Your Groove Thing”/Peaches and Herb
89. “I Will Survive”/Gloria Gaynor
Debuting together during that December week and soon to be inescapable.
86. “Free Me From My Freedom”-“Tie Me to a Tree (Handcuff Me)”/Bonnie Pointer. I am pretty sure I’d never heard “Free Me From My Freedom” before today, but dang, it’s tasty, even if the “handcuff me” bit comes off a little skeevy now. Whoever plays bass on it is doin’ some serious work.
In December 1978 and January 1979, the campus radio station was still running a Top 40 format. It’s where I first heard (and played) Fotomaker, the KISS solo stuff, Nicolette Larson, and the Blues Brothers, among others. Of all the facets of my education, that’s one of the most enduring.
Gonna Make Your Life So Sweet
(Pictured: the Beatles and CCR had a very good 1969, but it took ’em several releases to make it. The Archies ruled with just one.)
Here are more year-end radio surveys from 1969.
WSRF, Fort Lauderdale, Florida:
1. “One”/Three Dog Night
95. “I Want You Back”/Jackson Five
Notable: “Soul Experience” by Iron Butterfly, “Did You See Her Eyes” by the Illusion, “Wishful Sinful” by the Doors, and “I’m Free” by the Who at #74 through #77.
WWCO, Waterbury, Connecticut:
1. “Honky Tonk Women”/Rolling Stones
100. “Something in the Air”/Thunderclap Newman
Notable: The absolutely fabulous “Walking in Different Circles” by the Elves at #99. The band, formerly known as the Electric Elves and later as just Elf, was founded by singer and bassist Ronnie James Dio.
KEWI, Topeka, Kansas:
1. “Sugar Sugar”/Archies
100. “Rock Me”/Steppenwolf
Notable: This chart has some fine obscurities on it, including the propulsive “Paul’s Midnight Ride” by the Delights Orchestra at #15 and “Green Door” by the Jerms at #49. “Green Door” is a psychedelic cover of the 1956 #1 hit by Jim Lowe; it was recorded in Nashville, but of the Jerms we know practically nothing else.
WCVS, Springfield, Illinois:
1. “Dizzy”/Tommy Roe
100. “It’s Your Thing”/Isley Brothers
Notable: Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” at #84. People forget (and by “people,” I mean “me,” until I looked it up) that it went to #19 on the Hot 100 in February 1969.
WLOB, Portland, Maine:
1. “Crimson and Clover”/Tommy James
100. “Cinnamon”/Derek
Notable: “A Boy Named Sue,” the First Edition’s “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” “Stand By Your Man,” and CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising” at #23 through #26. That’s a down-home quarter hour for a Top 40 station.
WHNC, New Haven, Connecticut:
1. “Get Together”/Youngbloods
100. “Malinda”/Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers
Notable: “Mama Soul” by the Soul Survivors at #24. Best known for the early Gamble-and-Huff production “Expressway to Your Heart,” the band hit the Hot 100 two other times, but not with “Mama Soul,” which was produced by Rick Hall. At #87 is “A Beautiful Day” by the Bridge, a bubbly sunshine pop number by a group that I am guessing was from New Haven or nearby.
KTKT, Tucson, Arizona:
1. “Green River”-“Commotion”/Creedence Clearwater Revival
2. “Something”-“Come Together”/Beatles
99. “Oh Happy Day”/Edwin Hawkins Singers
Notable: The double-sided “Atlantis” and “To Susan on the West Coast Waiting” by Donovan at #57; the double-sided “The Weight” and “Tracks of My Tears” by Aretha Franklin at #90; “I Threw It All Away” by Bob Dylan, from Nashville Skyline, at #95.
WISM, Madison, Wisconsin:
1. “Something”-“Come Together”/Beatles
5. “Bad Moon Rising”-“Lodi”/Creedence Clearwater Revival
10. “Proud Mary”/Creedence Clearwater Revival
11. “Green River”-“Commotion”/Creedence Clearwater Revival
12. “Don’t Let Me Down”-“Get Back”/Beatles
100. “I’m Gonna Make You Mine”/Lou Christie
Notable: This chart is a great indication of the reach of the Beatles and CCR in this year. “Birthday” by Underground Sunshine, a Wisconsin band managed by WISM’s Jonathan Little, was a significant national hit, and checks in here at #33. WISM was the only station in the country to put “Don’t Shut Me Out” on a 1969 year-end chart, at #76, although it shows up in a few weekly ARSA listings at stations across the country. (Beyond my link in the previous sentence, you can read more about Underground Sunshine here.)
KMEN, San Bernardino, California:
1. “Come Together”-“Something”/Beatles
100. “Simple Song of Freedom”/Tim Hardin
Notable: The charming and clever “Day After Day” by Shango, at #76, was co-written by Stuart Margolin, better known as an actor and whose face you would certainly recognize. One of the members of Shango was Tommy Reynolds, eventually of Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds. At #77, “Apricot Brandy” is by Rhinoceros, a funk/rock band assembled by record producer Paul Rothchild, famed for his work with the Doors and Janis Joplin.
WLS, Chicago, Illinois:
1. “Sugar Sugar”/Archies
89. “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’/Crazy Elephant
Notable: While the Beatles’ “Get Back” is at #14, “Come Together” and “Something” are way down at #62.
WABC, New York:
1. “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In”/Fifth Dimension
100. “This Girl’s in Love With You”/Dionne Warwick
Notable: “Get Back” is #4; “Come Together,” without “Something,” is at #56.
WCOL, Columbus, Ohio:
1. “Good Morning Starshine”/Oliver
2. “Hair”/Cowsills
100. “Did You See Her Eyes”/The Illusion
Notable: In addition to Oliver and the Cowsills, there’s more Hair flavor down at #88 with Three Dog Night’s version of “Easy to Be Hard.” At #18 is “Who’s Nuts Alfred” by J. D. Blackfoot. Blackfoot, born Benjamin Franklin Van Dervort, was a Cleveland native who made a couple of highly regarded psychedelic albums after “Who’s Nuts Alfred,” which is sadly not found at YouTube.
Cash Box:Â
1. “Sugar Sugar”/Archies
100. “Oh What a Night”/Dells
Notable: Cash Box lists “Easy to Be Hard” at both #12 and #31. Its survey is also the only one I’ve seen that shows “Come Together” and “Something” in separate positions, at #63 and #66.
Clearly, “Sugar Sugar” was the consensus #1 song of 1969 across the country. Your mileage may vary.
14 Feet of Soul
(Pictured: eight feet of Beatles, 1969.)
I thought it would be fun to go through all of the 1969 year-end music surveys at ARSA to see what I could see, but I got partway through and started thinking, no, this is too much even for a geek with time on his hands. So here’s a couple dozen of them, not necessarily the most interesting ones, but a mix of stations big and small, in no particular order, and in two parts.
WTIX, New Orleans, Louisiana:
1. “Everyday People”/Sly and the Family Stone
69. “Mind Body and Soul”/Flaming Ember
Notable: “Gotta Have Love” by Paul Varisco and the Milestones at #33, “Superlove” by David and the Giants at #43, and “Girls Are Made for Lovin'” by Elliot Small at #57, all local New Orleans/Louisiana/southern Mississippi acts.
KIMN, Denver, Colorado:
1. “Honky Tonk Women”/Rolling Stones
100. “Take a Letter Maria”/R. B. Greaves
Notable: “Albatross” by Fleetwood Mac at #76. It’s charted high several times in the UK over the years, but never got a sniff of the national charts here despite being hypnotically gorgeous.
WPDQ, Jacksonville, Florida:
1. “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In”/Fifth Dimension
100. “See”/Rascals
Notable: The Rascals hit the national Top 40 four times in 1969, but none of the four ever made it into onto good times/great oldies radio. “Love and Let Love” by the Hardy Boys (shown in a tie with BS&T’s “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”), is at #40, a cash-in on the Hardy Boys Saturday morning cartoon show that had premiered in the fall of 1969.
KYSN, Colorado Springs, Colorado:
1. “Honky Tonk Women”/Rolling Stones
69. “Big Bruce”/Steve Greenberg
Notable: “Big Bruce” is a parody of Jimmy Dean’s “Big Bad John” that was yanked after a lawsuit from “Big Bad John”‘s publishers and reissued after the resemblance was toned down. Its homosexual stereotypes ain’t funny anymore. Four double-sided Creedence Clearwater Revival singles appear on the KYSN chart: “Proud Mary”/”Born on the Bayou” at #10; “Green River”/”Commotion” at #12; “Bad Moon Rising”/”Lodi” at #24; and “Down on the Corner”/”Fortunate Son” at #40. We’ll see them elsewhere.
WCOP, Boston (a country station):
1. “Harper Valley PTA”/Jeannie C. Riley
2. “Wichita Lineman”/Glen Campbell
3. “A Boy Named Sue”/Johnny Cash
Notable: Aren’t those three notable enough? How about Campbell’s “Galveston” at #6, Porter Wagoner’s superb story-song “The Carroll County Accident” at #10, or Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” at #18? “Harper Valley PTA” came out late in the summer of 1968 but clearly had plenty of staying power, at least in Boston.
KLMS, Lincoln, Nebraska:
1. “In the Year 2525″/Zager and Evans
40. “Good Old Rock and Roll”/Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys
Notable: KLMS headlines the survey as the “Top 148 of 1969 (Only 40 Really).” The highest-ranked Beatles song is “The Ballad of John and Yoko” at #4; “Get Back” is at #29; “Come Together”/”Something,” which appears on practically every other year-end survey in the country, does not appear at all.
KBZY, Salem, Oregon:
1. “Sugar Sugar”/Archies
100. “More Today Than Yesterday”/Spiral Starecase
Notable: Two Tommy James records in the Top 10, and neither one is “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” which is at #24: “Crimson and Clover” is #2 and “Sweet Cherry Wine” is #10. The Nightcrawlers, a Florida band, charted in a few places in 1965 and in more as 1966 turned to 1967 with “The Little Black Egg” (#91). A handful of stations in the Pacific Northwest charted it in 1969.
WBAM, Montgomery, Alabama:Â
1. “Honky Tonk Women”/Rolling Stones
100. “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”/Jackie DeShannon
Notable: “No Not Much” by the Smoke Ring at #25, a record we have dug around here for a long time, and “Hold Me” by the Baskerville Hounds, a Cleveland-area garage band, at #30. At #68, there’s a smoothly soulful cover of the Platters tune “With This Ring” by an Alabama group called 14 Feet of Soul. (Seven members equals 14 feet.)
WVLK, Lexington, Kentucky:
1. “Wedding Bell Blues”/Fifth Dimension
59. “Sweet Cherry Wine”/Tommy James and the Shondells
Notable: “Church St. Soul Revival” by the Exiles, at #3, was written and produced by Tommy James, who later recorded it himself. The band, from Richmond, Kentucky, later became Exile, and hit #1 with “Kiss You All Over” in 1978.
WTPS, Kalamazoo, Michigan:
1. “Touch Me”/Doors
69. “Witchi Tai To”/Everything Is Everything
Notable: “Condition Red” by the Goodees at #9. The Goodees were a trio of white girls from Memphis who recorded on a Stax subsidiary; “Condition Red” got up to #46 on the Hot 100. At #55 is the Frost, one of the legends of Michigan rock ‘n’ roll, sounding a bit ahead of their time on “Mystery Man.”
Billboard:
1. “Sugar Sugar”/Archies
100. (tie) “Sweet Cream Ladies”/Box Tops and “Let Me”/Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Notable: Ties were not unheard-of on the Billboard year-end charts, but having the only one of 1969 at #100 smacks of a couple of editors resolving a disagreement by cutting the baby in half.
There are more to come on Monday.
Writer, radio jock, beer geek, Badger fan. They don't think it be like it is, but it do. 
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