Friday, November 28, 2014

50 Years Ago This Weekend

November 28-29-30:  

The Zombies creep up a notch to #4 with their first American Chart Hit "She's Not There" on this week's Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart.  Also in The Top Ten this week:  "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks (#7) and "Time Is On My Side" by The Rolling Stones (#8).  

Holding on to Top 20 spots are The Honeycombs (#14 with "Have I The Right, down from #7 the previous week) and Herman's Hermits with "I'm Into Something Good" (up a notch from #20 to #19).  

Rounding out The Top 40 we have "Sha La La" by Manfred Mann (making a HUGE leap from #47 to #28, which comes in just ahead of their FIRST Hit "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", now the #31 record in the country) and "I Don't Want To See You Again" by Peter and Gordon (#33).  

Other British artists on this week's chart include The Dave Clark Five (#46 with "Any Way You Want It"), The Searchers (#46 with "When You Walk In The Room"), Julie Rogers, who makes a huge leap from #81 to #51 with "The Wedding", Chad and Jeremy (#55 with "Willow Weep For Me"), Matt Monro (new on the charts with "Walk Away", which premiers at #79 this week),  "As Tears Go By" by Marianne Faithful (#81), The Searchers' remake of "Love Potion Number Nine" (debuting at #83) and Sandi Shaw, who premiers at #89 with her version of "There's Always Something There To Remind Me".





Herman's Hermits enjoy their second week on top of the WLS Silver Dollar Survey with their first American Hit "I'm Into Something Good".  The Zombies are right behind them at #2 with "She's Not There".  The Kinks ("You Really Got Me", #6), The Rolling Stones ("Time Is On My Side", #7) and The Honeycombs ("Have I The Right", #9) also hold Top Ten spots on this week's chart.  

"Don't It Make You Feel Good" sits at #13 for The Overlanders and The Beatles (STILL shown as "The Beatle's" for some crazy reason on the WLS chart) premier at #24 with their two-sided hit "I Feel Fine" / "She's A Woman".  (This one won't show up on the Billboard Chart until the following week.)  

Rounding out The Top 30 are "As Tears Go By" by Marianne Faithful (#26), "The Wedding" by Julie Rogers (#27) and "Any Way You Want It" by The Dave Clark Five (#30). 


 

The Beatles were reportedly quite upset at the Capitol Records mixes made for their new single.  Capitol added a ton of echo to both tracks ... but this is the way I heard them back then and this is the ONLY way they sound right to me today.  (It was this type of behavior here in The States ... along with editing out tracks from their albums to release as singles and additional LP output ... that prompted The Beatles to pose for their infamous Butcher Cover photo a couple of years later!  The Beatles simply felt that their US label was butchering their creative output for their own financial gain ... and they didn't like it one bit.  A great amount of thought went into the sequencing of their LP's and Capitol threw all that by the wayside by releasing LP's with eleven tracks, for example, instead of fourteen, like their British counterparts.)  
All of that being said, in this particular case, when I listen to the British pressings of "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman", they seem limp in comparison ... there's just no pop or "oomph" at all.  
Truthfully, I've gotta side with Capitol on this one ... a good decision in my mind ... and probably why this two-sided hit went to the top of the charts for two (Record World), three (Billboard) and FOUR (Cash Box) weeks on the U.S. National Charts.  (kk)