WCFL had stopped printing and distributing charts early the year before. For most of the year, they sent a poster to be displayed in stores only ... but nothing that us kids and record buyers could take home. (Fortunately, there were enough of us fanatics out there who wanted this information so we wrote down the weekly chart and then recreated it at home. Sadly, this was before the time of cell phones to take pictures!!!)
In honor of the 50th Anniversary of 1969 ... when SO many great, legendary events occurred ... we'll be running Fifty Year Flashbacks from time to time throughout the year ... musically, all keyed around that week's WLS Chart.
We will also devote full pages to certain events throughout the year (some of which were first published by Forgotten Hits back in 2009 on the 40th anniversary of these milestones.)
So, let's kick this sucker off with the WLS Chart for January 6, 1969. (By the way, ALL charts supplied for this year's survey features are courtesy of Jack Levin, a fellow survey collector as well as a guy I have known for a good forty years. Thanks, Jack, for livening up this year's tribute to '69!!! (kk)
Some big movers this week ... led by The Doors, who jump 19 places with their latest, "Touch Me," which is up from #33 to #14.
And how about that Top 10??? Pretty solid tracks throughout.
New on the list this week are our buddies The Royal Guardsmen ("Baby Let's Wait," which premiers at #34) and The Turtles with one of my favorites by them, "You Showed Me," which closes out the list at #40.
The 2nd Annual WLS Hit Parade Awards that this survey is referring to was a listener-based / fan-based poll of choosing Chicago's favorites in several categories. I asked Jack to send us a copy of that, too, so our readers could see what the trends in music looked like as we kicked off 1969.
Other news this week:
January 1st – Ohio State defeats USC in the Rose Bowl
Also on this date, actor Verne Troyer (Mini Me) is born (he died in 2018)
Also on this date, actor Verne Troyer (Mini Me) is born (he died in 2018)
January 2nd – Rupert Murdoch adds the largest-selling British Sunday Newspaper, “The News Of The World” to his media collection
January 3rd – 30,000 copies of John and Yoko’s “Two Virgins” album were seized at a New Jersey airport because the front cover featured a nude, full-frontal photograph of the couple. A vice squad also shut down a record store in Chicago for displaying the album.
Eventually, Tetragrammaton Records would repackage the new LP in a plain brown wrapper. (Ironically, The Beatles’ late manager Brian Epstein once suggested “Brown Paper Bags for Pepper,” as he believed THAT album’s revolutionary front cover went WAY beyond the border of good taste.)
January 5th – Rocker Marilyn Manson is born
Diana Ross & the
Supremes perform "Love Child," "I'm Livin' In Shame" and
"I Get a Kick Out of You" on The Ed Sullivan Show
