There are four new entries into The Top Ten this week ... "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot (up from #13 to #6), "Sweet Mary" by Wadsworth Mansion (up nine spaces from #16 to #7), "Mr. Bojangles" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and, one of the biggest movers of the week, "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, which moves from #24 to #10, a jump of 14 spots.
Also moving ten spots or more within this week's Top 40 are "Theme from 'Love Story' by Henry Mancini (#25 to #12), "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed (#26 to #15), "Temptation Eyes" by The Grass Roots (#31 to #21), "She's A Lady" by Tom Jones (#37 to #22), "Just My Imagination" by The Temptations (up 19 places from #42 to #23), "For All We Know" by The Carpenters (#41 to #26), "Me And Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin (#46 to #27), "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted" by The Partridge Family (#47 to #31) and "Cried Like A Baby" by Bobby Sherman (#54 to #38).
This week's top debut is "Oye Como Va" by Santana, which debuts at #69.
Playing Favorites:
George Harrison is back on the survey this week as "What Is Life," the follow-up single to his #1 Hit "My Sweet Lord," premiers at #80. (I always liked this one better than his mega-hit, even back in the day!)
The B-Side to this week's #10 Creedence hit is charting on its own as "Hey Tonight" premiers at #86. (I always liked this song ... and you probably hear it more now than you did when it was out at the time ... although FM Classic Rock has always been pretty good to this song. In fact, it finished at #920 on last year's TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME list ... so I'm thinkin' that YOU guys like it, too!
Chicago's very own Staple Singers debut at #93 this week ... and the Marvin Gaye pop/soul classic "What's Going On" premiers at #90 ... but I wasn't particularly fond of these songs when they first came out.
I did, however, like Alice Cooper's "Eighteen" (which just happened to be the age I would turn in 1971 ... and may have slightly influenced my partiality to this one! (lol)
THIS WEEK IN 1971:
February 16th – Aretha Franklin records “Spanish Harlem”
February 17th – Johnny Cash is the subject of “This Is Your Life,” a popular television show
Also on this date, James Taylor made his television debut on “The Johnny Cash Show”
Also on this date, Actress Denise Richards is born
February 18th – The Carpenters are the subject of popular television series “This Is Your Life”
February 20th – Fifty tornadoes hit Mississippi and Louisiana, killing 74 people
