For the third time this year, a record returns to the #1 spot as "Groovin'" by The Young Rascals displaces Aretha Franklin's hit "Respect" to reclaim the throne four weeks after they last vacated it.
Franklin slips to #3 and The Turtles sneak into the #2 position with "She'd Rather Be With Me", up two places from the week before. "Windy" by The Association continues its climb from #7 to #4 and "Little Bit O' Soul by The Music Explosion climbs from #8 to #5 … any one of these last three tracks has enough momentum to become the next #1 Hit in America.
Also making large strides this week are "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli (up to #7 from #12), "San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie (climbing from #24 to #9), "Come On Down To My Boat" by Every Mother's Son (#17 to #13), "The Tracks Of My Tears" by Johnny Rivers (#26 to #16), "New York Mining Disaster, 1941" by The Bee Gees (#23 to #17), "Don't Sleep In The Subway" by Petula Clark (#27 to #21), "Up, Up And Away" by The Fifth Dimension (#29 to #22), "C'mon Marianne" by The Four Seasons (#30 to #23), "Society's Child" by Janis Ian (#36 to #26), "Light My Fire" by The Doors (#51 to #30), "For Your Precious Love" by Oscar Toney, Jr. (#40 to #32), "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder (#48 to #34), "Pay You Back With Interest" by The Hollies (#47 to #36), and "Soul Finger" by The Bar-Kays (#50 to #38).
Herb Alpert's reign at the top of the Albums Chart lasted all of a week … because THIS week The Monkees are back on top with their third #1 album in a row, "Headquarters".
For the first time The Monkees are in complete control on this LP, performing most of the instruments themselves, having full say in the final song selection and even helping out with some of the production duties. The celebration would be short-lived, however … next week a brand new album by The Beatles will take over the top spot on the chart … and remain there for the next fifteen weeks!
While perched on top of the albums chart this week, The Monkees are already recording tracks for their NEXT LP. Today, it's the Michael Nesmith composition "Daily Nightly", which by year's end will appear on what will be their fourth album to chart this year. Micky Dolenz will later overdub some strange sound effects when he receives his newly ordered Moog synthesizer. (The Monkees have also come a long way in a very short time frame ... this is a huge step forward musically from the teeny-bopper pop they were recording on their first two LPs ... especially when one considers that they were first hired as actors to portray a rock and roll band ... and then actually became one!)
Elvis reports to MGM Studios to begin work on his next film "Speedway". He presents a brand new car to his costar Nancy Sinatra that has the word "Speedway" painted on one door and "Starring Nancy and Elvis" on the other.
*****
In a move I've never totally understood, while The Turtles were already on the chart with "She'd Rather Be With Me", a HUGE late-Spring / early-Summer Hit, White Whale (their record company) released the title track to the new Walter Matthau / Robert Morse film, "A Guide For The Married Man" as a single. The record never had a chance and disappeared within a couple of weeks. (It's got to be one of their rarest singles as it sold virtually nothing and was out of the stores virtually overnight!)
But I LOVED it! I had just seen the movie and as soon as I heard the track, I ran out to the store to buy a copy. (I was probably one of a select few to do so!) It was as "Turtles-sounding" as a record could be and, perhaps had they waited a little while longer to release it ... it was only two catalog numbers apart from their current hit single ... it might have had a chance to do something on the charts.
The movie itself was a fun romp featuring Robert Morse trying to entice his good friend Walter Matthau to cheat on his wife, laying out the groundwork for what will and won't work in such a scenario. (Clearly, the film was pure fantasy ... as Matthau was married to the stunningly beautiful Inger Stevens, something that could NEVER happen in real life!!!)
Now I will admit to having a MAJOR crush on Ms. Stevens at the time, being already familiar with her work on both "The Twilight Zone" and "The Farmer's Daughter".
But here she was, for the first time in MY life anyway, up on a big screen in living color ... which included an opening scene of her removing her top in front of good old oblivious Walter. (OK, it was only a boob side shot ... and it lasted all of 1/100th of a second ... but I was only 13 years old at the time ... and that was the first real boob ... or half a boob ... I had ever seen!) I knew right then and there that I would have to spend the rest of my life with her ... and that ANY man who would even CONSIDER cheating on her was an even bigger boob than what she had graciously just shown us!)
The movie featured a who's who of cheating consultants ... everyone from Lucille Ball to Sid Caesar to Carl Reiner to Joey Bishop to Jack Benny to Wally Cox to Jayne Mansfield, Art Carney, Phil Silvers and more.
Anyway, it's a GREAT scene ... and a GREAT track ... otherwise overlooked by most ... so we'll run it as a Forgotten Hits extra today!
