1971 SUPERCHART: Week Ending January 23rd

This week's top three songs hold their positions from the week before ... while "Lonely Days" and King Floyd's "Groove Me" move into The Top Five.

Elton John's first US Hit "Your Song" climbs from #9 to #6 ... and Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden" makes a ten point leap from #17 to #7.  (It will go all the way to #1 in both Cash Box and Record World ... while stopping at #3 in Billboard.)  My all-time favorite Gladys Knight and the Pips song, "If I Were Your Woman," breaks into The Top Ten for the first time this week, moving from #18 to #10.

Dave Edmunds' remake of the old Smiley Lewis track "I Hear You Knocking" makes a big move this week, climbing from #31 to #19.  This song will go all the way to #1 here in Chicago ... and it was a great tribute to the sounds of early rock and roll.  John Lennon's "Mother" continues to climb, too, moving from #46 to #36 this week, while The Osmonds' "One Bad Apple" kicks off The Top 40, jumping from #49 to #40.

Previously featured "favorites" are doing well on the chart this week ... "Let Your Love Go" moves from #45 to #41, "Sweet Mary" climbs ten spots from #60 to #50, "When I'm Dead And Gone" moves up from #58 to #52 and Emitt Rhodes' "Fresh As A Daisy" climbs a dozen places from #68 to #56.

Last week's top debut, "Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You," jumps from #79 to #63, while this week's top debut bows at a more respectable #57 for The Jackson Five.  ("Mama's Pearl")

Playing Favorites:

Not a great week for premiers this week ... although I have always fancied Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through The Night" ... so that's the one I'm going with today.

 


1971 would prove to be a very big year for songwriter Kris Kristofferson.  In addition to "Help Me Make It Through The Night," Kris' compositions "For The Good Times" and "Loving Her Was Easier Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again" both made the pop Top 40 (the former a big hit for country crooner Ray Price, the latter would become Kris' own first hit as an artist), while Janis Joplin took his soon-to-be classic "Me And Bobby McGee" all the way to #1.

Also this week in 1971: 

 

January 17^th – Marvin Gaye sings The National Anthem at Super Bowl V in Miami, FL between The Dallas Cowboys and The Baltimore Colts

Also on this date, Kid Rock is born

January 18^th – Canada passes the CanCon Law, requiring that 30% of all music broadcast between 6 am and 12am be music created by Canadian artists.  (Tracks were considered eligible as long as they met at least TWO of the following four characteristics:  Music most be composed entirely by a Canadian; the recording artist is Canadian, the record was produced in Canada or the lyrics were written entirely by a Canadian.  This move was viewed as a way to better promote Canadian artists in their own country.)

January 20^th – Diana Ross marries Robert Silberstein … she’ll file for divorce five months later … but the couple will later reconcile.  In all, the marriage lasted six years.