The Saturday Surveys (April 19th)

This WKYC Chart from Cleveland (April, 1968) shows National Hits "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro, "Cry Like A Baby" by The Box Tops, "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells, "A Beautiful Morning" by The Rascals and "Young Girl" by The Union Gap all firmly planted in The Top Ten, just like they were from coast to coast.

But it also shows a few surprises ... "Listen Listen" by The Merry-Go-Round is at #5 (these guys were HUGE out on the West Coast ... but never had much success nationally), O.C. Smith is at #8 with "The Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp" (a GREAT Forgotten Hit featured not too long ago on these pages) and The Doors' "Unknown Soldier" is at #9, down from #4 the week before.  (This one barely made Billboard's Top 40, peaking at #39.)



Other surprises include "Tin Soldier" by The Small Faces, "Sherry Don't Go" by The Lettermen and "I Will Always Think About You" by The New Colony Six, all snuggly placed in The Top 20. 

(You'll find another Cleveland-area chart down below from 1967 ... again, you'll see they pretty much went their own way when it came to MAKING the hits.)

Without a doubt one of the biggest and most popular radio stations in Philadelphia has always been WIBG ("Wibbage") ... and this chart dating all the way back to 1964 shows them charting The Top 99 Records Of The Week!!!

Naturally, The Beatles top the chart ... but with a rather unlikely candidate ... I don't think I've seen another chart yet where "Do You Want To Know A Secret" / "Thank You Girl" came in at #1!!!  (Of course they're also at #3 with "Can't Buy Me Love" / "You Can't Do That", at #5 with "Twist And Shout", at #30 with "All My Lovin'", at #34 with "Love Me Do", at #39 with "I'll Get You" (a rare B-Side that never charted nationally ... yet one of their very best early tracks), at #71 with "Why" (actually a Tony Sheridan record where The Beatles were the back-up band) and at #72 with "There's a Place".

And then two distinctly different charts from this week in 1967.

First up, WIXY in Cleveland, charting one of their own at the #1 Position ... "It's Cold Outside" by The Choir.  (Some of these guys would go on to join The Raspberries a few years later and enjoy even greater success on the charts.)



And there's Terry Knight again, this time holding down the #3 Spot with "Love, Love, Love, Love, Love".

Check out The Blues Magoos at #12 with "Pipe Dream" ... and Jeff Beck at #31 with "Hi Ho Silver Lining"!

KRLA's chart refers to their list as the "Most Requested" songs ... and there must be something to that ... because you couldn't even buy the #1 Record if you wanted to ... "Valerie" (again misspelled) wouldn't be released as a single until a year later ... so they, too, must have been playing it off of the sound track of The Monkees' television show.  (Here in Chicago WCFL used to count down the most-requested songs of the day ... and "Valleri" consistently beat ALL of the competition ... including The Monkees' own current recordings!  If Colgems would have released this record then, it very well could have been the biggest single of their career!)  The Monkees' REAL single at the time "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" / "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" held down the #4 spot.

Our buddies The Yellow Balloon are all the way up at #3 with THEIR big hit "Yellow Balloon".  In fact you'll find quite a few "Friends of Forgotten Hits" on this list again ... 

Tommy James and the Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now" is #2, "No Milk Today" / "There's A Kind of Hush" by Herman's Hermits is #6, "Blues' Theme" by Davie Allan and the Arrows is #10, Paul Revere and the Raiders are at #13 with "Him Or Me, What's It Gonna Be", "Happy Together" by The Turtles is right behind it at #14 and "Don't You Care" by The Buckinghams are at #25.

And check out The Beatles' hit at #31 ... a full six weeks before the "Sgt. Pepper" album was released, KRLA was evidently already playing "A Day In The Life" from some sort of advance pressing of the LP ... except they were calling it "A Day And A Life"!!!  (You've REALLY got to wonder how they got access to THAT track!!!)

Other titles worth mentioning:  The Robbs at #35 with "Rapid Transit", "Live" by The Merry-Go-Round at #12 (down from #3 the week before) and a Top Ten Hit by Music Machine called "Double Yellow Line" at #7. (We never heard THAT one here in Chicago!!!)