As expected, Tommy James and the Shondells hit the top of the WLS Hit Parade with their latest, "Crystal Blue Persuasion," up from #8 the week before.
There are a few other big movers on this week's chart ...
Zager and Evans jump a dozen places from #16 to #4 with their break-through hit, "In The Year 2525." (I'm still committed to hanging around here long enough to find out how many of their predictions come true!)
The Joe Jeffrey Group climb eleven places (from #23 to #12) with their first WLS chart hit, "My Pledge Of Love," a song that I still find it hard to sit still to fifty years later!
Tony Joe White climbs ten spots with his first hit, "Polk Salad Annie' (from #40 to #30) ... and moving five places or more we have "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition (#12 to #7), "Baby, I Love You" by Andy Kim (from #18 to #10), "My Cherie Amour" by Stevie Wonder (#22 to #17), "Quentin's Theme" (from the hit television soap opera series "Dark Shadows"), up from #24 to #19, Ray Stevens' remake of "Along Came Jones" (#27 to #22), "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" by Jackie DeShannon (#30 to #23), "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond (#34 to #28), "Good Old Rock And Roll" by Cat Mother and the All-Night News Boys (a record produced by Jimi Hendrix), from #36 to #29, "Yesterday When I Was Young" by Roy Clark (#37 to #32) and "Reconsider Baby" by Johnny Adams (#39 to #34).
New on the chart are "Laughing" by The Guess Who, their follow up hit to their smash "These Eyes" and "Birthday" by a Wisconsin Group calling themselves The Underground Sunshine, a cover of a track found on The Beatles' #1 White Album that did VERY well here in Chicago.
Also new this week ... "Break Away" by The Beach Boys, a song written by Brian Wilson and his FATHER, Murry Wilson ... all that much more interesting when one considers that the two never really got along and at one point Brian actually fired his father as manager of the band! (Still, it's one of my favorite "Forgotten Hits" by them ... so we just HAD to feature THIS one today!!!) kk
THIS WEEK IN 1969:
July 1st – John Lennon, his son Julian, Yoko Ono and her daughter Kyoko are injured in a car crash in Scotland. Lennon receives seventeen stitches for a facial injury while Yoko receives fourteen stitches. Both children are badly shaken up after the accident. John, in typical eccentric fashion, later had the car crushed into a cube .. and then put it on display on his front lawn at his home in Tittenhurst Park.
Also on this date, Sam Phillips sells his legendary Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, to Shelby Singleton. Sun Records helped to launch the careers of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison.
July 2nd – Bassist Noel Redding and Drummer Mitch Mitchell quit The Jimi Hendrix Experience after performing at the three day Denver Pop Music Festival held at Mile High Stadium. Mitchell would team back up with Jimi Hendrix (along with new bassist Billy Cox) later this year to form the new (but short-lived) group Gypsy Sun and Rainbows … which is the act that performed at Woodstock six weeks later.
July 2nd – Bassist Noel Redding and Drummer Mitch Mitchell quit The Jimi Hendrix Experience after performing at the three day Denver Pop Music Festival held at Mile High Stadium. Mitchell would team back up with Jimi Hendrix (along with new bassist Billy Cox) later this year to form the new (but short-lived) group Gypsy Sun and Rainbows … which is the act that performed at Woodstock six weeks later.
July 3rd – Rolling Stones founder and guitarist Brian Jones drowns in his own swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England
July 4th - The Atlanta International Pop Festival drew 100,000 fans to see Blood, Sweat and Tears, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Rivers, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, Led Zeppelin and Sweetwater. Also on the bill tonight … Grand Funk Railroad … and, after some Capitol Records Executives saw the band’s performance, they signed them to a record deal with the label.
Grand Funk would go on to have eleven straight gold or platinum albums, eight of which would make The Top Ten on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart.
July 5th - The Rolling Stones put on a free concert at Hyde Park, London, appearing for the first time with their new guitarist, Mick Taylor
Also on this date, The Cowsills appear on The Johnny Cash Show.
July 5th - The Rolling Stones put on a free concert at Hyde Park, London, appearing for the first time with their new guitarist, Mick Taylor
Also on this date, The Cowsills appear on The Johnny Cash Show.
July
6th - Bobby Vinton sings
"Those Were The Days" and a medley of "Blue Velvet,"
"Halfway to Paradise," "Take Good Care of My Baby" and
"Please Love Me Forever" on The Ed Sullivan Show.
