Billboard's Hot 100 / Top 40 Motown Chronicles - 1971 Pt. 2

[Boogiedown]

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #52
Dec. 25, 1971

Another spectacular star-studded year of pop music concludes with big hits and misses by the famous and soon to be famous as well as the fly-by-nights. A year end review will hopefully be developed on a post of its own. For now, here is the final weekly report [#52] for Billboard's chart action for 1971:

The final week finds Motown with eight songs on the Hot 100 - respectable by any standards. What's lacking is the presence of any career defining releases, what is being offered is closer to a year-end house clearing of miscellaneous recordings. Except by the Jackson family, none of the currently charting records by Motown artists are Top 10 bound. Perhaps the most significant development in 1971 was the splintering of Michael Jackson as his own artist while remaining a member of The Jackson Five. That ploy is the payoff for Motown this final week of 1971: Michael has Motown's biggest single of the moment and the J5 have the highest Top 40 debut record of the week. Eight songs total on the Hot 100. One is Top 5. Four on the Top 40, and four that are mostly struggling further down.

The Top 10:

The brand new #1 is BRAND NEW KEY written and performed by Melanie [Sufka] released on her and her husband's own NEIGHBORHOOD label. Sly's FAMILY AFFAIR ends its three week run as the nation's #1 song dipping to #2. Just below that at #3 is AMERICAN PIE by newcomer Don McLean, up six from #9 making it the Top 10's hottest member. Michael Jackson sits tight at #5 with GOT TO BE THERE. Another week of two Top 10 debuts: SCORPIO by Dennis Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band [including co-Funk Bro. Bob Babbitt] recorded at the GM studios in Detroit, #8 from #11. Also two songs at #10 and the only split record on the entire Hot 100, HEY GIRL/ I KNEW YOU WHEN by Donny Osmond up from #12. Bread's BABY I'M A WANT YOU slips out to #11 from #7. Down the shaft goes SHAFT, ten point drop from #6 to #16 for Isaac Hayes .

The Top 40:

SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations stalling mid-chart repeats at #18 .
^HEY BIG BROTHER - Rare Earth #32 up 6 from #38.

New to the Top 40: A second light week: 4 new songs three with modest advancements:
Highest debut:
SUGAR DADDY - Jackson Five #31 up 14 from #45 [8th Top 40 hit]

GEORGE JACKSON - Bob Dylan #38 up 8 from #46 [8th Top 40 hit]
CAN I GET A WITNESS - Lee Michaels #39 up 3 from #42 [2nd Top 40 hit]
WHITE LIES BLUE EYES - Bullet #40 up 4 from #44 [* first time artist][One Hit Wonder]

Hot 100:

Debuts:
none from Motown

2nd week: ^MAKE ME THE WOMAN YOU COME HOME TO -Gladys Knight and the Pips- #48 up 35 from #83
2nd week: ^YOU MAKE YOUR OWN HEAVEN AND HELL RIGHT HERE ON EARTH - Undisputed Truth #85 up 2 from #87
4th week: ^WAY BACK HOME - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #75 up 4 from#79
7th week: SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - #53 again from #53
off:
none

A very good week for:
Ray Monette
Not only is Ray a recently added member of the group Rare Earth with a new album release and a record in the Top 40 by them, he is also a member of the 'Detroit Guitar Band' that has made Dennis Coffey a Top 10 star.

*****
Also a very good week for
Stax records:
As Isaac Hayes drops out of the Top 10, the Staple Singers stand poised to take his place landing at #12 this week , up one from #13. And this week they have introduced onto the Hot 100 what may be the countdown's most creative single, SON OF SHAFT by The Bar Kays [if for no other reason for the somewhat self-deprecating title itself ... who does that!] We'll look at this record a bit closer in the new year.

*****
The UK continues to mine the forgotten vaults of Motown. This week its The San Remo Strings entering at #40, a band mostly made up of Detroit Symphony musicians, getting play with their 1966 song FESTIVAL TIME , at that time released unsuccessfully by Ric-Tic Records.

*****

Last week a chart race was mentioned between two versions of a song called I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING [IN PERFECT HARMONY], a tune that evolved from a Coke commercial. When an ad executive had come up with the line "I'd like to buy the world a Coke", the British songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway , [YOU'VE GOT YOUR TROUBLES] took the line and inserted it into a song they'd already worked:

:

The results became a radio jingle performed by The New Seekers that listeners began calling in requesting to hear. When a TV ad was next planned, the group wasn't available to record it.
The Hillside Singers were created by the ad company of the Coke commercial and using this name, a non-Coke version was released on a 45 with the New Seekers realizing its' hit potential quickly releasing an alternate. This week that version advances above The Hillside Singers', moving up eleven to #17 [this week's biggest chart mover within the Top 40], while The Hillside Singers move up five to #21.
Producing the advertisement to fruition proves a complex project above and beyond what is typical of commercial making:



Young people from around the world [with their respective locally bottled Coke in tow] were flown in and gathered on a hillside near Rome Italy. With a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar budget , at the time the most ever for a TV commercial, the total was compounded when the shoot took extra days due to rainy weather .
The New Seekers version of I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING also debuts this week on the UK chart at #32.