How cool is this? The top three acts on this week's WLS Hit Parade Chart have all been Forgotten Hits participants over the years!
Add to that tally Gary Puckett, The Box Tops, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, The New Colony Six and Lou Christie, and we can lay claim to 40% of this week's hit-makers! (If you thought things were pretty darn exciting fifty years ago ... they're every bit as exciting for me fifty years later!)
Biggest movers within The Top Ten this week include Grass Roots (I guess you can include the current members of that band to our "contacts lists," too, now that I think about it!), up from #11 to #5 with "I'd Wait A Million Years" and the aforementioned Mr. Puckett, who climbs from #15 to #6 with his latest, "This Girl Is A Woman Now," my all-time favorite Union Gap song.
The Temptations climb nine places (from #23 to #14) with "I Can't Get Next To You" and Bobby Sherman is up ten spots with his breakthrough hit "Little Woman" (#33 to #23).
Not much in the way of premiers this week ... but the two tracks that debut at #39 and #40 are both '60's Classics ... "Tracy" by The Cuff Links (giving Ron Dante TWO songs in this week's countdown) and "Hot Fun In The Summertime" by Sly and the Family Stone, soon to be yet another monster hits for these guys.
THIS WEEK IN 1969:
September 2nd – The very first ATM machine in The United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York
Also on September 2nd, Former President of The Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh, dies
September 3rd – The Elvis movie “The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It) opens in theaters nationwide. Elvis has to feel a major sigh of relief that he won’t be making motion pictures like this one ever again … he is now once again a top concert draw. (The Colonel has already booked him to perform at The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at The Astrodome on February 27th, 28th and March 1st. Elvis is taking his act out on the road!)
September 4th – The Youngbloods are scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show tonight to perform their hit “Get Together” but during his opening monologue, host Johnny Carson states that they will NOT be appearing on the program … "They complained about the set, the lighting, the sound, the show ... everything. So we wiped their noses, told them they'd been in show business a day and a half and sent them home." Wow!
September 5th – Lt William Calley is charged with six counts of premeditated murder for the 1968 My Lai Massacre, which killed 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai, Viet Nam
Also on September 2nd, Former President of The Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh, dies
September 3rd – The Elvis movie “The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It) opens in theaters nationwide. Elvis has to feel a major sigh of relief that he won’t be making motion pictures like this one ever again … he is now once again a top concert draw. (The Colonel has already booked him to perform at The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at The Astrodome on February 27th, 28th and March 1st. Elvis is taking his act out on the road!)
September 4th – The Youngbloods are scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show tonight to perform their hit “Get Together” but during his opening monologue, host Johnny Carson states that they will NOT be appearing on the program … "They complained about the set, the lighting, the sound, the show ... everything. So we wiped their noses, told them they'd been in show business a day and a half and sent them home." Wow!
September 5th – Lt William Calley is charged with six counts of premeditated murder for the 1968 My Lai Massacre, which killed 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai, Viet Nam
Also on this date, Dweezil Zappa (son of Frank) is born
September 6th – After performing at a show at the Memphis Mid-Southern Coliseum, James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul,” announces his retirement from live performing. (It doesn’t last long.) Brown says he’s tired. (James may have other things on his mind … he is also fighting a paternity suit file by the one-time president of the local James Brown Fan Club.)
September 6th – After performing at a show at the Memphis Mid-Southern Coliseum, James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul,” announces his retirement from live performing. (It doesn’t last long.) Brown says he’s tired. (James may have other things on his mind … he is also fighting a paternity suit file by the one-time president of the local James Brown Fan Club.)
