Joe Tex holds down the #1 spot (for at least the second week in a row) with his latest "Hold What You've Got". (What HE's got is the #1 Record!!! And hold it, he did!)
Being Nashville, we do see a little country slant to this week's chart ... Billy Edd Wheeler has the #4 Record with "Ode To The Little Brown Shack" ... but for the most part, this list reflects the sounds of the day ... still big on The British Invasion (records by The Searchers, Petula Clark, The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Zombies make up a good part of The Top 20) ... and artists like The Righteous Brothers, The Beau Brummels, The Newbeats, Tommy Roe and Roger Miller are also making their mark. (The coolest part of radio in the '60's was that nobody ever gave a second thought to hearing all of these artists played back-to-back, side-by-side ... today this wouldn't even be a consideration ... everything has to have "the same sound" where each and every record literally blends into the next one. Oldies Radio has the opportunity to "remember" what it was like to feature all these great artists at the same spot on the dial ... but rarely strays from their "tried and true" list of 300 songs either. Too bad ... but exactly why Forgotten Hits has decided to extend this "Flashback" series another year ... to look back, reflect and remember just how good this music was back in the '60's ... even if radio today has filed most of it away forever.)
The top debut on the chart this week belongs to Roger Miller with "King Of The Road", certainly his most "serious" song to date ... and an immediate classic. It's interesting to see songs like "The Boy From New York City" by The Ad-Libs, "This Diamond Ring" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, "My Girl" by The Temptations and "The Jolly Green Giant" just first premiering on the chart this week ... after we've already seen them near the top of the charts in other cities featured earlier this month. This helps explain why some records never fared as well nationally as we remember them ... because although they were indeed huge hits, they never made the impact at the same time in all of the major markets, thus diluting their overall impact on the charts.
