The Top Three remain unchanged for the fourth week in a row … "I'm A Believer" by The Monkees is at #1, "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen holds at #2 and "Tell It Like It Is" by Aaron Neville hangs on to the #3 spot.
Three new records enter The Top Ten for the first time, including a major mover, "Kind Of A Drag" by The Buckinghams, up from #21 to the #10 spot. Also enjoying Top Ten success this week are "Nashville Cats" by The Lovin' Spoonful and "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" by The Blues Magoos.
Cracking The Top 40 for the first time are "Hello Hello" by Sopwith Camel (#29, up from #43), "It's Now Winter's Day" by Tommy Roe (#33, up from #48), "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny and Cher (#35, another HUGE leap, up from #61), "Bring It Up" by James Brown (#37, up from #49), "Gimme Some Lovin'" by The Spencer Davis Group (#38, up nearly twenty places from #57), "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by Cannonball Adderley (#39, up from #58) and "Wack Wack" by The Young-Holt Trio, featuring namesakes Eldee Young and Isaac "Red" Holt, who broke away from The Ramsey Lewis Trio to form their own group along with Don Walker.
Aretha Franklin has her first recording session for Atlantic Records at Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Her first single for the label, "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You", is cut at this session.
The Monkees are #1 on the Album Chart this week for the twelfth straight week. But a new album returns to The Top Ten this week as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' 1965 classic "Whipped Cream And Other Delights" climbs from #14 to #10 in its 90TH week on the chart! (I wasn't sure if any of you have ever seen that album cover before … so here it is!)
Colonel Parker negotiates a new contract for Elvis with RCA Records, extending through 1974 with an additional extension option to run through 1980 if exercised. (Elvis would die in 1977 but RCA continues to release new collections regularly after his death. In fact, Elvis is often the top-earning dead celebrity in all of show business.)
This new contract guarantees a $300,000 per year advance (against royalties) through 1970 and a $200,000 per year advance through the end of 1975. In light of his own new contract with The King Of Rock And Roll, putting 50% of this money in his own pocket, one could consider today to be a pretty big pay day for Colonel Tom Parker.
The Outsiders, performing "Time Won't Let Me" and "Help Me Girl" and J.J. Jackson, performing "But It's All-Right" and "I Dig Girls) appear on "Where The Action Is".
