"Touch Me" by The Doors beats Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People" to the #1 Spot on the WLS Hit Parade for this week in 1969. Elvis' "If I Can Dream" reaches #7, matching the showing for "Crying In The Chapel" in 1965, his last Top Ten Record in Chicagoland. And The Foundations seem to have a major hit on their hands as "Build Me Up Buttercup" leaps from #26 to #14.
Bob Seger's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," "I Got A Line On You" by Spirit and "I've Gotta Be Me" (?!?!) by Sammy Davis, Jr. all make jumps of eight places or more this week. (How's that for chart diversity, 1969 style???) And Cream is back with the highest debut of the week, "Crossroads."
Also this week in '69 ...
January 28th – The Beatles record both sides of what will become their next single (and first single of 1969) ... "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down."
Also on January 28th, a blowout on Union Oil’s Platform A causes 80,000 – 100,000 barrels of crude oil to spill out into a channel and on to the beaches of Santa Barbara County in California
Also on January 28th, a blowout on Union Oil’s Platform A causes 80,000 – 100,000 barrels of crude oil to spill out into a channel and on to the beaches of Santa Barbara County in California
January 29th – Peggy Lee records “Is That All There Is” … it will become a major comeback hit for her later this year
Also on this date, The Glen Campbell Good-Time Hour premiers on CBS Television. (It will run until 1972) Guests on that first episode include The Smothers Brothers (whose time slot Glen is filling for the winter), Smothers Brothers regular Pat Paulson, John Hartford (who wrote Glen's big #1 Country Hit "Gentle On My Mind") and Bobbie Gentry, with whom Glen has just recorded an album's worth of duets. (That album will go on to be the first country duet album in history to earn a gold record ... pretty amazing when one considers artists like Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash and Porter Waggoner and Dolly Parton.)
Also on this date, The Glen Campbell Good-Time Hour premiers on CBS Television. (It will run until 1972) Guests on that first episode include The Smothers Brothers (whose time slot Glen is filling for the winter), Smothers Brothers regular Pat Paulson, John Hartford (who wrote Glen's big #1 Country Hit "Gentle On My Mind") and Bobbie Gentry, with whom Glen has just recorded an album's worth of duets. (That album will go on to be the first country duet album in history to earn a gold record ... pretty amazing when one considers artists like Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash and Porter Waggoner and Dolly Parton.)
Speaking of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, the couple return to the United States today after a three week tour of the Far East where the entertained American Troops stationed in Viet Nam, Japan and The Philippines.
The Cowsills appear on The Kraft Music Hall
January 30th – The last live Beatles performance as a group takes place today on the rooftop of Apple Records. They will play for 42 minutes (longer than their shows during the height of Beatlemania!) before the police stop the show due to complaints about the noise. (Scroll back to see our 1969 Beatles Tribute on January 30th if you missed it!)
The Cowsills appear on The Kraft Music Hall
January 30th – The last live Beatles performance as a group takes place today on the rooftop of Apple Records. They will play for 42 minutes (longer than their shows during the height of Beatlemania!) before the police stop the show due to complaints about the noise. (Scroll back to see our 1969 Beatles Tribute on January 30th if you missed it!)
Also on January 30th, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition appear on The Jonathan Winters Show.
January 31st - The Beatles film videos for three songs they were unable to perform on the rooftop during yesterday's impromptu concert. The idea is to subsequently release these as promo television appearances for the new album, still titled "Get Back" at this stage. All three performances can be viewed in their entirety during The Beatles film "Let It Be" when it is released the following year ... "Let It Be," the newly named title track, "Two Of Us" and "The Long And Winding Road." All of these are Paul songs ... so again the remaining Fab Three feel like they are now sidemen to Paul's pet project. (Coming off the success of the biggest single of their career, "Hey Jude," an outside observer may simply refer to this as "going with their strengths." Most of the time, the only Beatle who wanted to be in the studio was Paul ... who was trying to urge the others to "get back" to where they once belonged as a band. This also marked the end of filming for the "Let It Be" project, at this point in time still undetermined as to whether it would air as a television special or be released in theaters as a film.
February 2nd – Actor Boris Karloff dies
Also on this date, Yoko Ono’s divorce is granted from her first husband, Tony Cox. Six weeks later she will marry John Lennon
Also on this date, “Carl Perkins Day” is celebrated in Jackson, Tennessee. Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnolds, Marty Robbins and Sonny James attend the celebration dinner.
And, while all of this is going on down in Jackson, Tennesee, Vanilla Fudge is performing "Shotgun" and The Temptations are performing "The Best Things in Life Are Free," "Runaway Child, Running Wild" and a medley pf "Cloud Nine" and "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" on The Ed Sullivan Show
February 3rd – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hire Allen Klein as The Beatles’ Manager. Paul McCartney holds out, refusing to sign with Klein (whom he doesn’t trust), preferring to stick with his soon-to-be new Father-In-Law, Lee Eastman
Also on this date, Ringo Starr begins filming "The Magic Christian" with Peter Sellers
February 3rd also marks the Ten Year Anniversary of what most consider to be Rock And Roll's First Tragedy ... the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Even today ... now SIXTY years later ... we mourn "The Day The Music Died."
