"Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones enters its third week at #1 ... while Underground Sunshine reaches its peak of #2 this week with their cover of The Beatles' tune "Birthday." The Lettermen move up four spots (from #10 to #6) with their version of "Hurt So Bad" ... but the rest of The Top Ten remains pretty much unchanged, other than two new entries this week ... "Soul Deep" by The Box Tops (up from #11 to #9) and "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" by Tom Jones, which makes a sizable leap from #18 to #10.
It looks like Bob Dylan may have a major chart hit on his hands with "Lay Lady Lay" ... it climbs from #28 to #13, a jump of fifteen places. It comes from his "Nashville Skyline" LP and offers a new side to Dylan, both musically and vocally.
"Green River" continues to climb, this week moving from #20 to #14 ... while John Lennon's Beatles off-shoot group, The Plastic Ono Band, seems to have stalled at #17 with "Give Peace A Chance."
"Easy To Be Hard," the latest from Three Dog Night, jumps ten places this week (from #29 to #19) while the much-hyped Illusion climb from #32 to #23 and The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" leaps twelve places from #40 to #28.
New on the charts is Chicago's very own New Colony Six, who premier at #40 this week with their latest, "I Want You To Know," another pretty Ronnie Rice ballad.
THIS WEEK IN 1969:
August 8th – The Beatles are photographed (by Iain MacMillan) walking across the zebra crossing on Abbey Road. (A white Volkswagon Beetle bug is parked behind them with the license plate 28 IF … the age Paul McCartney would have been had he not died the year before in that fatal car crash where he blew his mind out in a car … except that McCartney was born June 18th, 1942 … meaning he was just now 26 years of age … proving all of this to be just as ridiculously false as all those other “Paul Is Dead” rumors that would soon be circulating!)
August 9th – The Haunted Mansion attraction opens for the very first time at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Also on August 9th, followers of Charles Manson kill five people in Terry Melcher's old house (now the home of Film Director Roman Polanski and his young, pregnant wife, Actress Sharon Tate) in the Hollywood Hills. Tate, along with Folgers Coffee Heiress Abigail Folger, Hollywood Hairstylist Jay Sebring and friend Wojciech Frykowski were all murdered that night inside the house. Another visitor, Steven Parent, is shot to death outside. Sharon Tate’s unborn baby was cut out of her body in one of the most brutal, terrorizing crimes in history. The term “Helter Skelter” will never be viewed the same way again.
August 10th – The killing spree continues as The Manson Family kills husband and wife Leno and Rosemary LaBianca
August 11th – At a press party held in Beverly Hills, Diana Ross introduces The Jackson Five, starting the rumor that she had something to do with discovering and lobbying for the band when, in fact, Motown Big Wig Berry Gordy asked Ross to do it because he felt she was the most recognizable artist on the Motown label to do so. (Her name would also be attached to The Jackson Five’s first album and a television special!) Gladys Knight and Bobby Taylor (of The Vancouvers) have also been given credit for first bringing the Gary, Indiana, group to Gordy’s attention.
