The Beatles take over the top spot on the Top 100 Singles Chart (as we always knew they would) with their summer anthem "All You Need Is Love". (Could there be a better Summer Of Love anthem than this?) It made its way to #1 in just four weeks (#76 to #32 to #6 to #1). Most of the rest of this week's Top Ten held steady or slowly declined from the week before with the exceptions of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by The Monkees (which climbed from #9 to #4), "Mercy Mercy Mercy" by The Buckinghams (up one spot from #7 to #6) and "A Girl Like You" by The Young Rascals (which advanced three places from #10 to #7).
Top 20 movers include "Baby I Love You" by Aretha Franklin (#18 to #12), "Silence Is Golden" by The Tremeloes (#15 to #13), "My Mammy" by The Happenings (#17 to #14), "Soul Finger" by The Bar-Kays (#21 to #17), "Words" by The Monkees (#30 to #18), "Cold Sweat" by James Brown (#38 to #19) and "Thank The Lord For The Night Time" by Neil Diamond (#31 to #20).
The Beatles top the LP Chart again this week with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". It will remain in the #1 position for the entire month of August.
The Top Five Albums in America show a definite shift toward rock music becoming the mainstream as far as album sales go anyway. Behind "Sgt. Pepper" at #2 is "Headquarters" by The Monkees, followed by "Flowers" (The Rolling Stones, #3), "Surrealistic Pillow" (#4, by The Jefferson Airplane), and "The Doors", their self-titled debut album, at #5. (Notice a trend toward heavier rock, too, as, thanks to "Sgt. Pepper," albums are being taken a little bit more seriously these days.)
The rest of The Top Ten features a little bit of everything … Aretha Franklin, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, The Fifth Dimension, Bill Cosby and Andy Williams!
In one of those special "side deals" we mentioned awhile back, Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker receive $25,000 from RCA for the "Clambake" LP and $35,000 for The Colonel's new promotional idea for Elvis' 1957 Christmas Album. (The promotion includes a special Christmas radio program that will be broadcast on over 2400 radio stations around the country … it aired here on WLS.) Elvis and The Colonel equally split the $60 grand.
The Peoples Republic of China agree to give North Viet Nam an undisclosed amount of money in the way of a grant. The Viet Nam War will not be ending any time soon.
