Simon and Garfunkel jump ahead five places and take over the #1 Spot on this week's WLS Hit Parade with their latest, "The Boxer." The rest of last week's Top Five songs shuffle the line-up a little bit with "Gitarzan" landing at #2 (up a notch), "Hair" falling to #3 (after being #1 last week) and #'s 4 and 5 holding steady for "Sweet Cherry Wine" and "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" respectively.
The Guess Who's "These Eyes" is one of the week's biggest movers, jumping from #19 all the way to #7 as they break into The Top Ten for the first time. "Love Can Make You Happy" by Mercy climbs fifteen places from #26 to #11 while Bill Deal and the Rhondels are up thirteen spots (from #30 to #17) with "I've Been Hurt" and both Donovan and The Flirtations each jump a dozen spots with "Atlantis" and "Nothin' But A Heartache" respectively.
Apple Records' Mary Hopkin has the top debut this week with "Goodbye," a song written and produced for her by Paul McCartney and just a few weeks after Creedence Clearwater Revival's original version disappeared from the charts, a new, soulful version of "Proud Mary" premiers at #39 for Solomon Burke.
This week in 1969:
April 29th – Ringo Starr records his lead
vocal on “Octopus’ Garden,” a track to be included on The Beatles’ next LP
“Abbey Road”
April 30th – The Fifth Dimension receive a
gold record for their #1 Hit “Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In”
Also on this date, George Harrison overdubs one of his guitar solos on "Let It Be," a track last worked on in January. Later that night, John and Paul team up again to resurrect an old track from 1967, once considered for use in the animated film "Yellow Submarine." The completed track would grace the flip side of "Let It Be" when it was finally released as a single the following year ... "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" ... quite unlike ANYTHING else The Beatles ever recorded!
Also on this date, George Harrison overdubs one of his guitar solos on "Let It Be," a track last worked on in January. Later that night, John and Paul team up again to resurrect an old track from 1967, once considered for use in the animated film "Yellow Submarine." The completed track would grace the flip side of "Let It Be" when it was finally released as a single the following year ... "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" ... quite unlike ANYTHING else The Beatles ever recorded!
May 1st – Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan tape what will air as the first episode of The Johnny Cash Show at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.
Also on this date, Director Wes Anderson is born
Also on this date, Director Wes Anderson is born
May 3rd – Jimi Hendrix is arrested at
Toronto’s International Airport by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for
possession of narcotics. He ends up
posting $10,000 bail – but is acquitted of all charges in December
May 4th - On tonight's Andy Williams television special Roger Miller performs "King Of The Road" (as a duet with Andy) and "Little Green Apples." Aretha Franklin is also a guest. (She sings "Gentle On My Mind.")
Also on this date ... Elvis Presley books a trip to Hawaii under the name of John Carpenter, the name of the character he plays in his last film, "Change Of Habit."
THE BOXER:
We've told you the story before about how Simon and Garfunkel beat the programming system with their new single "Fakin' It" back in 1967.
Conventional wisdom at the time was that if you wanted to get your song played on the radio, it had to be under three minutes long or it wouldn't even be considered. This was so that the radio station could get in the right amount of music, commercials, the typical top and bottom of the hour news breaks that were so common back then and enough deejay chatter (back in the days when deejays were still allowed to talk on the air!) to keep folks tuned in.
"Fakin' It" ran 3:14 seconds ... but rather than show that time on the label and risk not having the record played, Columbia Records printed labels showing the time as 2:74 ... thus, to the unsuspecting eye, UNDER three minutes.
The theory worked ... and "Fakin' It" became a Top 15 hit on the national charts. (In hindsight, the title takes on a whole new meaning, doesn't it?)
The following year, both Richard Harris ("MacArthur Park") and The Beatles ("Hey Jude") topped the charts with records clocking in at over SEVEN MINUTES!!! ... so the "taboo" was broken forever. In 1969, even Simon and Garfunkel were able to push the envelope a little bit further ... "The Boxer" ran for five minutes and ten seconds ... and in 1970 "Bridge Over Troubled Water" became one of the year's biggest hits despite clocking in at 4:51. (You'd think a proven act like these guys would have had carte blanche when it came to making their musical statement ... but this was a VERY competitive time in music ... and NOBODY wanted to risk being bumped off the play list for something as simple as a "three minute infraction"!!!) kk
May 4th - On tonight's Andy Williams television special Roger Miller performs "King Of The Road" (as a duet with Andy) and "Little Green Apples." Aretha Franklin is also a guest. (She sings "Gentle On My Mind.")
Also on this date ... Elvis Presley books a trip to Hawaii under the name of John Carpenter, the name of the character he plays in his last film, "Change Of Habit."
THE BOXER:
We've told you the story before about how Simon and Garfunkel beat the programming system with their new single "Fakin' It" back in 1967.
Conventional wisdom at the time was that if you wanted to get your song played on the radio, it had to be under three minutes long or it wouldn't even be considered. This was so that the radio station could get in the right amount of music, commercials, the typical top and bottom of the hour news breaks that were so common back then and enough deejay chatter (back in the days when deejays were still allowed to talk on the air!) to keep folks tuned in.
"Fakin' It" ran 3:14 seconds ... but rather than show that time on the label and risk not having the record played, Columbia Records printed labels showing the time as 2:74 ... thus, to the unsuspecting eye, UNDER three minutes.
The theory worked ... and "Fakin' It" became a Top 15 hit on the national charts. (In hindsight, the title takes on a whole new meaning, doesn't it?)
The following year, both Richard Harris ("MacArthur Park") and The Beatles ("Hey Jude") topped the charts with records clocking in at over SEVEN MINUTES!!! ... so the "taboo" was broken forever. In 1969, even Simon and Garfunkel were able to push the envelope a little bit further ... "The Boxer" ran for five minutes and ten seconds ... and in 1970 "Bridge Over Troubled Water" became one of the year's biggest hits despite clocking in at 4:51. (You'd think a proven act like these guys would have had carte blanche when it came to making their musical statement ... but this was a VERY competitive time in music ... and NOBODY wanted to risk being bumped off the play list for something as simple as a "three minute infraction"!!!) kk
