In order to fill 53 Mondays this year with only 50 states to choose from, we've had to "expand" our base. As such, you'll find TWO charts from Chicago this year, a chart from Washington, D.C. and today's chart from CHUM in Canada, the best-known source of pop music history for this era.
You'll see that they were listening to much of the same music North of the Border that we were listening to here in The States ... but with one notable exception.
Canadian Radio stipulated that a specific percentage of music played on the air had to come from Canadian artists. As such, some of these charted higher in The Great White North than they did here in The US of A ... if they charted here at all.
For example, Canadian acts shown on this week's list include April Wine (#6), Neil Young (#11), Mainline (#17) and Fludd (#25). Neither Mainline or Fludd ever had an American Top 100 Hit.
I'm going to feature "Brandy" by Scott English this week. Down from #18 the week before (and a former Top Ten Record), THIS is the record that Barry Manilow turned into "Mandy" three years later, scoring his first #1 Hit here in The States. (When it comes to music history, the song "Brandy" ... a totally DIFFERENT song ... is typically attributed to the group Looking Glass. Manilow didn't want there to be any confusion, so he took the Scott English tune, threw in a few more dramatic overtones, and turned it into "Mandy" instead ... and enjoyed a HUGE hit in the process.)
Three Dog Night have the #2 record this week with "Family Of Man" and Malo seem to be speaking a universal language as their hit "Suavecito" sneaks into The Top Ten.
But then I'm also going to feature a couple of these "Local Hits" that never really saw the light of day here in The States ...
Ironically, BOTH about "Getting" somewhere!!!
Get Up, Get Out And Move On by Fludd ...
And "Get Down To" by Mainline.
Enjoy!
