Saturday, April 14, 2018

The Saturday Survey (April 14th)


4-14-68 - KBLW - Logan, Utah 

Logan is a city of about 50,000 situated along the Utah / Idaho border just half an hour from the Great Salt Lake.  

With Utah being the base of the Mormon religion, it is not surprising that a religious release might be on this chart and "Holy Man" fits the bill, I guess.  Scott McKenzie's hit with John Phillips' "San Francisco" was the anthem of the previous year and the duo team up again in 1968 to try and recreate the hit sound from the summer of love, but few listened to Scott now.  
Otherwise, this chart is interesting in that it sometimes features the current and previous hit by an artist in their countdown, as well as co-number one songs!  

Following their hit "Zabadak," Britain's great Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich come back with the great "Legend of Xanadu," which was huge in their home country, but despite heavy airplay in the US, failed to dent the national charts.


-- Clark Besch


*Survey courtesy Frank Merrill

Jeez, I think the fake surveys I made up at home and kept in a notebook looked better than this professional survey published by radio station KBLW!!!  Even store-bough stencils would have made their logo look better.  (And I actually do remember making sure I always had a fresh, dark ribbon in my manual typewriter so that my charts look clean and legible, in the only font offered at the time!  lol)  

I am impressed, however, seeing "Nights In White Satin" listed as a "Sure Shot" ... of course KBLW would be proven right ... about four years later ... when The Moody Blues went all the way to #1 with this track.

We find Dickey Lee back in The Top Ten with "Red, Green, Yellow and Blue," a song we featured a few weeks ago in our Saturday Surveys feature.  It seems to me that these multiple listings should have earned it better than a #107 "Bubbling Under" ranking in Billboard.

And what the heck is "Love Machine" by The Roosters?  A Top Five Hit in Utah that peaked at #106 on The Billboard Chart in April of '68. 
(Clark sent us a copy to share with our readers ... it's not a bad song!)


For MY special track this week, I'm going with "I Love You" by People.

I've told the story numerous times before about how I was SO disappointed when I bought this 45 that it didn't match the version that they were playing on the radio here in Chicago in '68.  It store-bough single was MUCH longer, with a completely different vocal mix ... and recorded so softly you could barely hear it. (I ended up buying several copies trying to find the version I loved but to no avail ... and found that several other copies were poorly pressed ... also too soft and, in a couple of cases, the records skipped as probably being, at the time, more music than you could squeeze on to a vinyl 45.)

A few years back, Clark Besch (who put together this 1968 Saturday Survey Series) sent me an MP3 of the version I remember ... evidently the "promo only" track that our local deejays elected to play instead of the longer, "real" hit side.  Even all these years later, it's the only way I want to hear the song.  (It's a remake of a Zombies album track, which is also quite good ... but I fell in love with the People version that came in at just under three minutes ... so that's the one I'm sharing today.)  For the record, I am still searching for an ABSOLUTELY MINT COPY of this promo version, vinyl or digital ... so if you happen to have one, please contact me!  (kk)


THIS WEEK IN 1968:  

4/8/68:  Petula Clark’s television special “Petula” airs on NBC.  It will spark outrage when, while performing a song together, she takes the hand of black singer Harry Belafonte.  (It was a different time, America)


4/11/68:  LBJ signs The Civil Rights Act prohibiting housing discrimination.  That night Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin on lead vocals) make their national television debut on The Hollywood Palace.

4/14/68:  Record Producer Phil Spector marries one of his proteges, Ronnie Bennett of The Ronettes.  (The marriage will last five years … but the legend lives on forever!)