*Survey courtesy of Craig Pucci and ARSA website
It's interesting to see the discrepancies on these charts from week to week and state to state ... last week's #1 Record in South Dakota was "1,2,3 Red Light" by The 1910 Fruitgum Company. Here in Pittsburgh, that record is just making its way up the chart (and at a slow pace at that ... moving from #39 to #34 this week).
Lots of "heavy" tunes near the top of this chart, too ... "Sunshine Of Your Love" by Cream sits at #1, followed by "Hello, I Love You" by The Doors (#4), "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf (#6), "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan (#8), the Vanilla Fudge remake of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" at #11, "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" by The Amboy Dukes at #14 ... yet in between you find the soft rock sounds of The Vogues ("Turn Around, Look At Me"), "Sealed With A Kiss" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys and "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" by Mama Cass! (That was Top 40 in the '60's ... a little bit of everything ... and yet somehow it all still seemed to fit!)
I'm also partial to the new Petula Clark song at #27 ("Don't Give Up"), written by our FH Buddy Tony Hatch and "Face It Girl, It's Over" by Nancy Wilson. (Could there be a more out of place song on this countdown???)
I also love the fact that "I Need Love" by Third Booth makes a big leap from #20 to #13 ... this was a HUGE hit here in Chicago, peaking at #2!!! (kk)
And one more for good measure ...
In '68, KDKA was the 50,000 watt AM blowtorch heard nationally playing lots of top 40, while KQV was the 5000 watt attempt by owners ABC to mimic WABC and WLS in their larger markets. It worked pretty well. After weeks at #1, Pittsburgh's own Vogues get knocked off the top by Cream this week. One song WLS pushed to #2 was also eventually top 10 on KQV. The Third Booth was a downstate Illinois band whose "I Need Love" became a well known collectors classic that made one of Bob Stroud's "Rock 'N Roll Roots" CD a few years back.
A band from upstate New York, Wilmer & the Dukes, had been playing clubs for years and were having their small taste of national fame with "Give Me One More Chance." Interestingly, one of the draws for the band was that the black lead singer was backed by an all white band!
-- Clark Besch
THIS WEEK IN 1968:
8/8/68 – In Miami, Florida, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew are announced as The Republican Party nominees for the offices of President and Vice President of The United States.
8/10/68 – Cream’s double album “Wheels of Fire” hits #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart (perhaps a bit unusual since the #1 Hit on this week's KQV Chart is from Cream's PREVIOUS album!)
