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

OK here we go !

We now continue with the Billboard charts for the second half of 1971:

Quote:

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[see first half here:]

https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?27113-Billboard-American-Top-40-Fifty-Years-Ago-1971)-Sundays-Radio-Countdown-Listen

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Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #28
July 10, 1971

--- Now that there is no longer an accompanying countdown radio show, the weekly summary will be modified a bit to include the entirety of the Hot 100 with the emphasis still on that top 40 tier of Billboard's singles charting . The Top 40 remains the defining criteria of what was regarded as a hit , there were nonetheless many singles that were released that charted but didn't quite succeed at that level that are still fascinating to review. Since our focus is from a Motown leaning , from here on out all Motown chart activity from the entirety of the Hot 100 will be covered.

Motown this week:
The same two singles are on the Top 40 this week, one going up , one descending downward , with no additions. Six charters are by Motown proxy*. For the entirety of the Hot 100, there are nine Motown labeled singles, seven below the Top 40; some of them will get there others will not. Two debuting Hot 100 Motowners this week.

The Top 10:

Haven't seen this before , certainly not this year, the Top 5 songs hold firmly in their same positions as last week. Carol King sits on the thrown at #1 for a third week with IT'S TOO LATE , Raider's with INDIAN RESERVATION are #2, Cornelius Bros. & Sister Rose' TREAT HER LIKE A LADY is #3, Carpenter's RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS is #4, and again at #5 is DON'T PULL YOUR LOVE by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. Two new entries make it into the Top 10: Jean Knight's MR. BIG STUFF , big jump from#12 to#6 and another Top Ten newcomer Carly Simon , also a strong leap, from #16 to #10 with THAT'S THE WAY I ALWAYS HEARD IT SHOULD BE. Two out: IT DON'T COME EASY Ringo Starr from #10 to #12 and BROWN SUGAR by The Rolling Stones dissolves from #7 to #13.

The Top 40:

^I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight /Pips, a slight climb, now #18 , #19 last week.
NATHAN JONES - The Supremes lands at #27 from last week's #18

Biggest mover On the Chart: An increase of 23 places : HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART The Bee gees, #39 last week , now #16.

New To The Top 40:
Highest Debut:
SIGNS - Five Man Electrical Band - #33 up from #44 -[*first time artist]

COLOR MY WORLD/BEGINNINGS - Chicago -#37 up from #59 [6th Top 40 hit]
SUMMER SAND - Dawn-#38 up from #43 [4th Top 40 hit]
CHICAGO - Graham Nash - #39 up from #41 [* first time artist]
MOON SHADOW - Cat Stevens #40 up from #48 [2nd Top 40 hit]

A very good week for:
CHICAGO
Enters the top 40 twice this week , both as a song title at #39 , and as the name of an artist at #37. Doubt we'll ever see that occurrence play out again ...

The Hot 100:
Motown debuts:
#75 - MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five
#84 - WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE /ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay

2nd week: MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye #46 up from #72
2nd week: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA - Smokey Robinson/Miracles #68 up from #77
2nd week: IN THESE CHANGING TIMES - Four Tops #77 up from #79
3rd week: SMILING FACES - Undisputed Truth #69 up from #76
4th Week: NEVER DREAMED YOU'D LEAVE IN SUMMER - Stevie Wonder - #78 same as last week


*****
Last week The Supremes and The Four Tops were moving up the Hot 100, albeit just barely; YOU GOTTA HAVE LOVE IN YOUR HEART in its fifth week moved up one position from #56 to #55. This week the song disappears altogether.
The overlapping of this song with The Supremes single NATHAN JONES appears to have hindered both records charting, NATHAN JONES slips this week to#27 from #18 last week after peeking for two weeks #16 as YOU GOTTA HAVE LOVE competed for airtime.
Perhaps the hurry to release the ensemble single was due to the lyrics and tone suiting the current uplifting themes doing so well on the chart ...like JOY TO THE WORLD and PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND.
Strike while the fire is hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLF9UC7T5uY


YOU GOTTA HAVE LOVE IN YOUR HEART marks the premiere charting of writers Nick Zesses and Dino Fekaris. They'll do better with their next charter coming up shortly.

*****
While we await the Jackson family's new single to take off , how about a close substitute, Michael and Donny , move over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYBmLo8hDyU

It looked like I KNOW I'M IN LOVE by Chee Chee and Peppy was headed to the Top 40, the record was up to #49 its 6th week in, but this week it dips to #54.
So who are Peppy and Chee Chee ? - if you think their names sound like names of pet dogs, you'd be right , that's where they came from. In reality though barely teenaged Dorthy Moore [Chee Chee] , aged 12, and high schooler, Keith Bolling [Peppy] were culled from their Philadelphia schools, and paired by Jess James, record producer and song writer [THE HORSE, BOOGALOO DOWN BROADWAY]. The two became an opening act for several other performers including Gladys Knight And The Pips. One more thing, Keith Bolling was the son of Sam Cooke.

*****
Something unexpected has happened: Booker T and The MGs MELTING POT dropped off the Hot 100 four weeks ago. Last week it reappeared at #90 and this week moves up to #88. Could it possibly now make it to the Top 40? [see chart #23 for more on MELTING POT]

*****
**Proxy records are those that related to Motown in a secondary way, a record by a former Motown artist , A Motown song cover version, etc.

They are:

WANT ADS - Honey Cone - #8 was #6 [HDH]
SHE'S NOT JUST ANOTHER WOMAN - 8TH Day - #11 was #11 [HDH]
BRING THE BOYS HOME - Freda Payne - #21 was #23 [HDH ]
NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE - Isaac Hayes- #32 was #23[Jobette song]
LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH - Isley Bros.- #34 was #37 [Group charted Top 40 once with Motwn , in 1966 with THIS OL' HEART OF MINE [IS WEAK FOR YOU]
K-JEE - The Nite-Liters -#92 was #93 [Harvey Fuqua Production]

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #29
July 17, 1971

Motown's having a good week , one song continues its Top 40 climb, while another is the biggest Top 40 debut of the week. One song drops off. Six additional songs are on the rest of the Hot 100, one is a debut, one drops off.

The Top 10:

Carol King reigns supreme : Fifth week now that her double-sided hit tops the chart: I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE [intended "a" side] and IT'S TOO LATE . Stubbornly nipping at her heels INDIAN RESERVATION by The Raiders , third week #2.
James Taylor has the week's strongest Top 10 song - moving up three spots to #3 from #6 is his YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND. Two songs arrive: DRAGGIN' THE LINE by Tommy James rises to #8 from #14 and HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART The Bee Gees in at #10 from #16. Now out: Not quite as hot, WHEN YOUR HOT YOUR HOT Jerry Reed #14 from #9, and The Honey Cone's WANT ADS was at #8 now #20.

The Top 40:

^ I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight/Pips - Crawling up the chart one point at a time , up one more again this week to #17 from #18

Biggest Mover On The Chart:
Upward bound of 14 places: #23 from #37 - BEGINNINGS/COLOR MY WORLD - Chicago

Dropping Off The Top 40 / Hot 100:

NATHAN JONES The Supremes On The Forty for eight weeks peaking at #16 x2 . That'll do it for The Supremes this year even though they have a new album TOUCH , nothing additional will result from a Top 40 perspective, they'll return to it early next year.
Tidbit: There's a fourth Supreme singing in unison with the regulars on NATHAN JONES : Clydie King.
NATHAN JONES is the first Motown hit for songwriters Leonard Gaston and Kathy Wakefield. Gaston will go on to help cement Eddie Kendricks solo career with songs like GIRL YOU NEED A CHANGE OF MIND , KEEP ON TRUCKIN', and BOOGIE DOWN.

New To The Top 40:
Highest debut:
MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] -Marvin Gaye - #26 up from #46 [23rd Top 40 hit]

HOT PANTS PT 1 [SHE GOT TO USE WHAT SHE GOT TO GET WHAT SHE WANTS] - James Brown- #27 up from #49 [34th Top 40 Hit]
RINGS - Cymarron -#33 up from #45 [*first time artist]
IF NOT FOR YOU - Olivia Newton -John #37 up from #48 [*first time artist]
STOP LOOK LISTEN TO YOUR HEART - The Stylistics #39 up from #41 [* first time artist] advanced proxy record: this song will become a UK hit for Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye in a couple of years.
LIAR - Three Dog Night - #40 up from #72 [Tenth Top 40 Hit]

A very good week for :
James Brown
His ESCAPISM drops from the Top 40 after peaking @ #35 only to be immediately replaced and already topped by HOT PANTS entering at an impressive #27 [ this will be James' last Top 20 hit of the seventies]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
#79 - I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth

2nd week: MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five #46 up from #75
2nd week: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE /ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay #49 up from #84
3rd week: IN THESE CHANGING TIMES - Four Tops #70 up from #77
4th week: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA - Smokey Robinson/Miracles #66 up from #68
5th week: SMILING FACES - Undisputed Truth #51 up from #69

Off the Hot 100 :

NEVER DREAMED YOU'D LEAVE IN SUMMER - Stevie Wonder, but leave it has , after five weeks and a peak of #78. This is actually the b-side of WE CAN WORK IT OUT [Peak #13 before dropping off] , now charting on its own.

*****
Newcomer Olivia Newton-John struggled to break the Top 40, it took her two months to get here with IF NOT FOR YOU. This is a Bob Dylan song reflecting his current happy state with his marriage and recent family life. Bob released a single but that version failed to chart . The song is also featured on George Harrison's ALL THINGS MUST PAST triple LP produced by Phil Spector:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDAaKxlaBQ4

Dylan describes the tune as sort of Tex-Mex.

*****
There are other struggling new acts on the Hot 100 hoping for star power. Let's check a couple out :

The horn based band Chase [see chart #26] continues to climb with GET IT ON , this week at #25, up five spots. At #93, their third week in, is a similar group called Earth Wind And Fire. So far their breezy LOVE IS LIFE hasn't gotten legs, but this group is developing a sound that seems like a sure winner worthy of devotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwJMbBWnKX0

*****
Another new name is a British fellow, 26 year old Rod Stewart , a raspy vocalist who has been in bands for almost ten years , currently with the group Faces. Distinctive style, we'll see if REASON TO BELIEVE, in at #98, breaks.

Same proxy records as last week.

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #30
July 24, 1971

Motown's back in stride this week and in a big way.
They have three singles in the top 40, one is the chart's biggest mover , another the highest debut. A new Motown record hits the Hot 100 for a total of nine songs charting.



The Top Ten:

There's been an uprising: King's five week rule at the top has been toppled by The Raider's INDIAN RESERVATION after waiting patiently at #2 for three weeks. IT'S TOO LATE is now #2 while most of the Top ten does minor shifting.The typical addition of two new songs , both on the bottom two rungs this time. At #9 first time here for John Denver , taking 14 weeks to do so , TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS up from #12. And at #10, perhaps later than sooner , The Grass Roots are back in the Top 10 for the first time since 1968's MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS , with SOONER OR LATER being a bonus track off their current GREATEST HITS package. Produced by big music name, Steve Barri, who is all over the place in the industry. At ABC he'll collaborate on three Four Tops LPs which includes their biggest non-Motown hit , AIN'T NO WOMAN LIKE THE ONE I GOT , and will oversee the careers of Lionel Richie and Rick James during his 80's tenure as a VP at Motown.
Two records as usual , drop out:
The Carpenters RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS now at #11 from #7 and newcomer Carly Simon's first Top 10 visit is brief as THAT'S THE WAY IVE ALWAYS HEARD IT SHOULD BE drops from #10 [its peak] to #12

The Top 40:

I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight/Pips - with it stalling at #17 for a second week, the chart seems to be doing this record wrong.
^MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] -Marvin Gaye - Chart's doing this song right, eleven point jump from #26 to #15, it's this week's strongest mover.

New to the Top 40:

Highest Debut:
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE /ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay #26 up from #49 [*first time artist]

SWEET HITCH-HIKER - Credence Clearwater Revival #37 up from #64 [13th Top 40 hit]
RIDERS ON THE STORM - The Doors - #39 up from #50 - [ 9th Top 40 hit , unexpectedly the last]
LOVE MEANS YOU NEVER HAVE TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY - Sounds Of Sunshine -#40 up from #45 [* first time artist]

Note worthy:
STOP LOOK LISTEN [TO YOUR HEART] - The Stylistics : Last week debuted at #39 this week: falls off , to be forgotten until revived as a 'duet' by Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross in 1974 .

A very good week for
The Four Month Club:

This week there are four singles reaching the exclusive four month club, these are songs that have been charting on the Hot 100 for 16 weeks or longer. A former #1 song is one: now in it's 16th week , Honey Cone's WANT ADS is #38 [from #20]. Still in the Top 10, TREAT HER LIKE A LADY by Cornelius Bros. & Sister Rose, is another also now at sixteen weeks. The other two are most incredible ...finally reaching the chart's pinnacle in its 16th week on the chart is The Raiders INDIAN RESERVATION, has to be a record for longest time to get there, or close to it anyway. By contrast, way on the other end of the chart , struggling to become a hit , in its 16th chart week, is MELTING POT by Booker T & The MGs , 2nd week at #81 will never make it to the Top 40.

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:

IT'S SUMMER - The Temptations - #68 [highest debuting Hot 100 record]

2nd week: I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth #65 up from#79
3rd week: MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five - #42 up from #46
4th week: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA - Smokey Robinson/Miracles - #62 up from #66
4th week: IN THESE CHANGING TIMES - Four Tops [#75 down from #70]
5th week: SMILING FACES - Undisputed Truth -#45 up from #52

*****

To quote the Temptations, it's summer, when traditionally songs show up on the chart hoping to become that season's hit, three such songs with 'summer' in their titles are on the Hot 100:

IT'S SUMMER is off to a good start, first week on at #68 with a bullet . Will the public notice something different in the sound in this Temptations' release? Norman Whitfield intended their next hit to be SMILING FACES , but with the departures of Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams , he's resorted to plan B: awarding SMILING FACES to another Motown act, The Undisputed Truth [now approaching the Top 40] and re-recording instead a song The Temps had already released exactly a year ago ,the B side to their #1 song BALL OF CONFUSION. Being heard on it this time is a new voice, that of Richard Street, now replacing Paul Williams. No replacement yet for Eddie Kendricks . That'll won't happen until Damon Harris debuts on the next LP , next year.
Seems like a risky gamble, IT'S SUMMER has already been out there , will it go over as a new and improved recording? The Temptations have never failed to reach the Top 40 with all their releases since 1964.
So interesting is this plan that we'll post both versions to hear , foregoing the intended feature , another summer song SUMMER SAND now in the Top 40 by Dawn . It is at #34 this week, only a one point climb from last week, not as strong a showing as the group has gotten used to. They'll take a break from the Top 40 and return in a big way in 1973.

Original from 1970:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2rVun-yewQ

New and improved 1971:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVekLtG03g8


The third summer song on the Hot 100 is INDIAN SUMMER by Audience an 'art rock' group out of England. 2nd week on #83 up four.


*****

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #31
July 31, 1971

After a good Motown week last week , this one is even better. Five records in the Top 40, two are new with one as this week's highest entry record, while another catapults sixteen notches into the Top 10 and is the weeks biggest chart mover in doing so. No new records from the label enter the Hot 100, and one drops off , giving Motown a total of eight singles dotted throughout the list.

The Top 10:

Another new #1 song this week , James Taylor has no reservation in giving The Raiders the boot, in a nice way , singing YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND . INDIAN RESERVATION slips one to #2 , Carol King also drops one to #3 with ITS TOO LATE/ I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE. Only one song enters the Top 10 this week and it does it in just four weeks of Hot 100 charting: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN by Detroit radio DJ Tom Clay, it entered the Top 40 just last issue at #26. Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose provide the room, TREAT HER LIKE A LADY dipping to #12 from #6.

The Top 40:

^MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] -Marvin Gaye - #11 up four from #15
I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight/Pips hanging tight at #17 for third week.

New to the Top 40:
Three new songs , all somewhat from Detroit :
Highest debut:
MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five #30 up from #42 [seventh Top 40 hit]

SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth #37 up from #45 [*first time artist]
WHATCHA SEE IS WATCHA GET - Dramatics #40 up from #50 [*first time artist ]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
no debuts

2nd week: IT'S SUMMER - The Temptations - #57 up from #68
3nd week: I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth #47 up from#67
5th week: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA - Smokey Robinson/Miracles - #56 up from #62

off the chart :
5th week: IN THESE CHANGING TIMES - Four Tops [off from #75]

*****
A very good week for:
Carol King
Yes she no longer has the #1 song as a performer now that IT'S TOO LATE has concluded its five week run at the top , yet she's right back on top , this time as a songwriter , as YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND , as sung by James Taylor is now #1. This version was sanctioned by King , in fact it was recorded in the studio with the same musicians during the same sessions as her TAPESTRY project.
To make it sweeter, besides baby James', her song is also on the Top 40 as performed by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway [up one to #31]. It was not designed to compete with Taylor's release, theirs was recorded after hearing King's version on the Tapestry album. It and James Taylors' single were released on the same day.
Carol Kings TAPESTRY LP is #1 again , and her buddy James Taylor's MUD SLIDE SLIM & THE BLUE HORIZON is right behind at #2. A very good week for her indeed.

One other wrinkle in this tangled web , Toni Stern , wrote the lyrics to Carol's IT'S TOO LATE in a single day. It was a reaction to her ended affair with ...James Taylor.

*****
Not a lot is disclosed about the details of how DJ Tom Clay's homemade version of speech snippets interlaced with two chosen songs came to be during a three week radio stint in LA , but somehow the concept wound up being released on MoWest with vocals performed by The Blackberries with an arrangement by Gene Page, which certainly created an elevated rendition of Clay's original project. Likely Tom Clay's long history as an off and on and off again DJ in Detroit resulted in a familiarity with Motown long before this creation. And never mind that Tom Clay's DJing story includes nefarious projects as well as the accepting of payola regarding the records he aired and promoted .
But come together in LA they did, resulting in MoWest's biggest hit for that imprint: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN. The two songs utilized, presented here in their original hit formats, were :

A Hal David /Burt Bacharach composition turned down by Dionne Warwick [too country] and therefore a hit [#7] for Kentucky born Sharon Lee Meyers aka Jackie De Shannon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUaxVQPohlU

Dion [DiMucci], best known for a string of early 60s hits such as RUNAROUND SUE, had one later round on the Top 40 reaching #4 in 1968 with the first recording of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hFMy4pTrs

Which also made the Top 40, #33, as done by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in 1969 , as well as reaching #9 in the UK that same year when done by Marvin Gaye [single not released in the US]

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #32
Aug 7, 1971

Strong Motown presence this week, two records in the Top 10, six in the Top 40, one is brand new , and nine songs total on the Hot 100 , one debuts.

The Top 10:

As other records stall, The Bee Gees' HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART? leapfrogs them and grabs the #1 position from #6. James Taylor's YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND ends its run at the top of just one week and now drops to #3 while The Raiders have reservations about descending and hold at #2. MR BIG STUFF is #4 again , DRAGGIN THE LINE is draggin' at #5 again. After a massive 16 point leap to enter the Top 10 last week, Tom Clay's WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN this week moves up just one to #9. Also advancing just one place, Marvin Gaye's MERCY MERCY ME , just enough to enter the Top 10. Chicago's COLOR MY WORLD/BEGINNINGS also enters this week at #8 from #16. The two that make room:
DON'T PULL YOUR LOVE , Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds, to #11 from #7 and SOONER OR LATER by The Grass Roots are at #14 from #9.

The Top 40:


^MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five solid six point hike to #24 from #30.
^SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth twelve place advancement right beneath the J5 at #25 from #37.
I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight/ & The Pips -big drop to #28 from #17.

Biggest Mover On The Chart:
RIDERS ON THE STORM - The Doors 13 places to #23 from #36.

New to the Top 40, four hits , two USA, two Brits :

Highest Debut:
SPANISH HARLEM - Aretha Franklin - #29 up from #69 -[24th Top 40 hit]

I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth - #37 up from #47- [4th Top 40 hit]
WONT GET FOOLED AGAIN - The Who - #39 up from # 49 - [9th Top 40 hit]
RESURRECTION SHUFFLE - Ashton Garner & Dyke - #40 up from #41 -[* first time artist]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #87

3nd week: IT'S SUMMER - The Temptations - #54 up from #57
6th week: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA - Smokey Robinson/Miracles - #56 same as last week

by proxy:
STICK UP -Honey Cone -#68 highest debut single

off the chart :
none

*****
A very good week for:
Motown albums:

On the Soul LP Top 50, Motown owns four of the top five spots.
#1 Marvin Gaye's WHAT'S GOING ON ,
#3 SKY'S THE LIMIT -The Temptations
#4 IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN - Gladys Knight & The Pips,
#5 MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five.
The spoiler at #2 is Aretha Franklin's LIVE AT FILLMORE WEST.
Motown also has the weeks highest debut LP coming in at #13, Diana Ross' SURRENDER.
Eight of the chart's Top 20 LPs are from the Motor City's labels: Continuing down,
#16 ALL BY MYSELF - Eddie Kendricks ,
#18 WHERE I'M COMING FROM - Stevie Wonder ,
#19 TOUCH , The Supremes
#20 self titled UNDISPUTED TRUTH .
Plus five more albums lower on the fifty:
#28 RAINBOW FUNK - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
#29 DIANA [Ross] TV SOUNDTRACK
#30 EXPOSED - Valerie Simpson
#39 TEMPTATIONS GREATEST HITS Vol II [41 weeks]
#45 ONE WORLD - Rare Earth

14 albums of the Top 50 ....not bad Motown!

*****
While we're perusing the soul charts, over on the Soul Singles Top 50 , besides noting that Motown has four tunes in the Top 10, there is a song written by Gene Chandler called ARE YOU LONELY?, #27 up from #34, sung by Sisters Love. Most members of the group, comprised of Vermettya Royster, Merry Clayton , Odia Coates , Lillian Fort, and Gwen Berry are former Raelettes [Ray Charles singers].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC146CF3q64

Shall not wait until this record appears on the Hot 100 to highlight it, as it won't get there and will peak on the Soul chart at #20. With no further success at A&M, the group will jump to MoWest , release some singles , appear on Soul Train [where a gushing Don Cornelius explains it's their first visit but definitely not their last], and tour with the Jackson Five. The LP they recorded for the label was shelved at the time and by 1973 the group is no more.

*****
Always watching for competing versions of the same song, such as YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND currently on the Top 40 by both James Taylor, #3 and by Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, #31. This week the song, RESURRECTION SHUFFLE, an original composition by Ashton Gardner and Dyke [their last names] barely claws its way onto the Top 40, after two weeks at #41 it nudges to #40. In England, where the song originates, it fared much better , peaking at #3. But there the advantage was that Tom Jones hadn't already rush released an impressive knock off version :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdnWkPMLh1I

Jones' rendition peaked at the higher rank of #38 a few weeks back.

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #33
Aug 14, 1971

Motown continues to be a force to be reckoned with this week: two songs in the Top 10, four songs on the Top 40, and eleven songs total on the overall Hot 100, two that are new from two of the label's stalwarts. They also have the biggest moving record within the Top 40. No records drop off.

The Top 10:

An overall shifting of positions but The Bee Gees hold tight at #1 for week two with HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART? Two strong songs are nipping at their heels: Jean Knight's MR BIG STUFF lifts two places to #2 and John Denver's TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS progresses three spots to #3.
After racing up the chart to get to the Top 10, both WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay and MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye have eased up, each moves up one point again this week to numbers #8 and #9. One song drops out: Carole King's IT'S TOO LATE/ I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE slips to #11 from #7 making room for Canadian newcomers Five Man Electrical Band with SIGNS at #10 from #15. This is yet another record the DJs have flipped. The A side was meant to be HELLO MELINDA, GOODBYE .

The Top 40:

^SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth a four place rise to #21 from #25
^MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five sluggish move to #22 up from #24 no bullet
^I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth its’ eleven places upwards from #37 to #26 makes it the weeks biggest mover on the chart.
I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight & The Pips likely the record's last week on the charts, a dip of five from #28 to #33.

New to the Top 40, five new charters, a variety of sounds, all American, all male:

Highest debut:
AIN'T NO SUNSHINE - Bill Withers #27 up from #48 [* first time artist]

MIGHTY CLOUDS OF JOY - B.J. Thomas #36 up from #42 [eleventh Top 40 hit]
GO DOWN GAMBLIN' - Blood Sweat & Tears #37 up from #55 [ fifth and final Top 40 hit]
I'M LEAVIN' - Elvis Presley #38 from #44 [93rd Top 40 hit]
MOTHER FREEDOM - Bread -#39 up from #45 [5th Top 40 hit]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder -#86
SURRENDER - Diana Ross -#87

2nd week: TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #73 up from #87
4th week: IT'S SUMMER - The Temptations - #54 same as last week
7th week: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA - Smokey Robinson/Miracles - #58 down from #56.

off the chart :
none

*****
A very good week for:
Punctuation.
Besides three of the five debut records having apostrophes,
seven of the Top Ten songs have punctuation symbols in their titles in one form or another:

HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART?
MR. BIG STUFF
TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS
DRAGGIN' THE LINE
YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE/ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN
MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY]

*****
A look at two of the new records to reach this week's Top 40:

Blood Sweat & Tears, GO DOWN GAMBLIN', is the group's fifth Top 40 hit in a row in just a little over two years. They went to #2 immediately with a cover version of Brenda Holloway's YOU'VE MADE ME SO VERY HAPPY that she wrote two years earlier with her close sister Patrice, a recording that took her into the Top 40 to #39 in 1967. It was Brenda's last 45 release from Motown before she made the decision to leave abruptly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zvTvZcmouU

Holloway sued Berry Gordy over monies surrounding the success of the Blood Sweat and Tears version of her song, and won.

B, S & Ts followed that hit with two more that peaked at # 2, SPINNING WHEEL and WHEN I DIE, with each follow-up single thereafter faring less and less. GO DOWN GAMBLIN' will not break the trend, it will peak in a couple of weeks at #32. This will be the last time dissatisfied lead singer David Clayton Thomas will be heard on the countdown. He will leave the group by the end of the year. The group will replace him, but to no avail, Blood, Sweat & Tears will not chart another Top 40 hit.

*****
Elvis Presley is closing in on his 100th Top 40 hit. I'M LEAVIN' is #93. It was written by Sonny Charles [with Michael Jarrett], lead singer of The Checkmates LTD, the voice heard on the Phil Spector song, BLACK PEARL, that reached #13 in 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MMG43fIJ-c

I'M LEAVIN' is kind of a ghost song, appearing from seemingly nowhere, not taken from LOVE LETTERS FROM ELVIS, Elvis' current LP at the time [the 'B'-side HEART OF ROME was], or from any other LP [until after his death]. The sentiments and overall tone of the song, including the title, might be described as kind of haunting ... and would certainly have been all the more-so had it been unknowingly released close to the time of his unexpected death.

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #34
Tom T Hall commemorative
Aug 21, 1971

Mostly hot but some cooling for Motown this week: One less record in the Top 10, while the remainder is the Top 10's strongest mover. Five songs in the Top 40, one less than last week, while one of the remaining is this week's biggest chart mover. No debuts. Nine records in the complete Hot 100 , two less than last week , and no debuts.


The Top 10:

Three weeks at #1 now with the Bee Gees' HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART holding close competitors at bay, and creating a bit of a log jam. One song presses forward through the clog: MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] by Marvin Gaye is now #4 up five from last week's #9. Two new Top Tenners, two out.

As was also true last week, the Top 10 is comprised of song performances by men solely. Well almost: Upon a closer look at John Denver's TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS [#3 again] the record is credited as being performed by John Denver with Fat City , the performing husband and wife duo of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert . The two had written most of TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS with Johnny Cash in mind, until they played it for John Denver after opening for him at some Washington DC gigs, who immediately wanted it for himself and the three stayed up all night perfecting the song.
The couple will later team up with another married couple and the four of them will become The Starland Vocal Band and create a #1 song with AFTERNOON DELIGHT [on John Denver's Windsong label]

Two debuts : SWEET HITCH-HIKER, in just six weeks is #6, and with a nine point jump from #15. Besides this not being a two-sided hit as has become usual for CCR, for the first time Creedence Clearwater Revival is a trio. One of the Fogerty brothers, Tom, has dropped out. Maybe this will be the formula to grant them a #1 record after eight Top ten records, with half of those peaking at #2.
Also entering the Top 10 , Three Dog Night with a substantially different vibe than their joyous JOY TO THE WORLD #1 hit, now followed up by the angry shouting of: LIAR ...#10 from #14.
Out :INDIAN RESERVATION by The Raiders is #11 from #6.
And perhaps the chart's shocker of the week:
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay does a major dive from #8 to #17, after only seven weeks on the Hot 100. The message in the recording seems to have been successfully made during this brief time frame, but also program directors are likely not enthusiastic about the record's time consuming length of 6:10, basically eating the same air space of two typical releases, it's the longest length of a Motown hit to date.

The Top 40:

^MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five break into the top half of the chart at #20 exactly, up two without a bullet
^I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth slows down a bit in their climb to #22 from #26

Biggest Mover Of The Week:
Two songs advance nine places: CCR's SWEET HITCH-HIKER, #15 to #6, and SMILING FACES , The Undisputed Truth up to #12 from #21.

New to the Top 40:
A youthful week, five new records, two new artists, and one new Motown song by proxy:
Highest debut:
UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY - Paul and Linda McCartney -#21 up from #65 [* first time artist]

GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL - Donny Osmond - #24 up from #44 [2nd Top 40 hit]
I WOKE UP IN LOVE THIS MORNING - The Partridge Family Starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy #35 up from #63] [4th Top 40 hit]
STICK-UP - Honey Cone - #38 up from #42 [2nd Top 40 hit]
TIRED OF BEING ALONE - Al Green #39 up from #41 [*first time artist]



Off the chart:
I DON'T WANT TO DO WRONG - Gladys Knight & The Pips departs after peaking at #17 and reaching #2 for four weeks on the Soul chart. Over on Cashbox this was a Top Ten song [#9].

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
none
2nd week: ^ IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder -#58 up from #86
2nd week: ^ SURRENDER - Diana Ross -#65 up from #87
3rd week: ^ TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #60 up from #73
5th week: ^ IT'S SUMMER - The Temptations- #51 up from #54
8th week: - CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA -Smokey Robinson/Miracles - OFF from #56.

Off The Chart: CRAZY ABOUT THE LA LA LA fails to reach the Top 40, and this will be the case for all future Smokey Robinson and The Miracles 45 releases from the disbanded unit although more Hot 100 charting for them will come.

*****
A very good week for:
More punctuation, the solidus specifically.
Forward slashes are most often used on the charts to reference double sided hits where both the A-side and the B-side are popular and both are getting radio play . There are two examples on the current Top 40: Carole Kings IT'S TOO LATE/ I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE [she'll repeat this practice with her next issued single] and Chicago is at #7 again with BEGINNINGS/COLOR MY WORLD.

Less often, the slash can also indicate something else: A single side that is a medley. There are also two examples of this this week: Usually the combined songs are identifiable as independent hits being used in combo as with Tom Clay's WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE /ABRAHAM, MARTIN AND JOHN but Paul and Linda McCartney's UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY is a bit of an anomaly , two never before songs being combined and credited as such [who creates a medley out of new material ???]

*****
One song that is zipping up the Hot 100 is Joan Baez' THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN already at #54 in only its second week on the Hot 100 [we'll get back to that song in weeks to come as it journey's upward], but also debuting this week is a song with a similar title, THE YEAR THAT CLAYTON DELANEY DIED. a song written and performed by Tom T. Hall. It will be his second #1 country song as an artist and will miss the Top 40 by two points. Tom is already well known as a songwriter [Rolling Stone will designate him as one of America's Top 100 songwriters] especially for the head-turning #1 record HARPER VALLEY PTA that turned secretary Jeannie C. Riley into an international star overnight. The song entered the Hot 100 at #81 and shot to #7 the following week, thus making it the largest jumper into the Top 10 of the 60's decade. HARPER VALLEY PTA made Jeannie the first female to top both the Hot 100 and country charts with the same song and that wouldn't be repeated until Dolly Parton's 9 TO 5 hit of 1981.
It so happens Tom T. Hall has passed away at the time of this writing [Aug 20, 2021 age 85] Tom, often referred to as 'The Storyteller' composed 12 #1 country songs , with 26 more placing in its Top 10. He will break into the Top 40 as an artist a bit further up the road.

We'll set aside the other originally intended focuses for this week [hopefully to return] to pay tribute:

Tom's last #1 record on the country charts was in 1975 [others will reach Top 10] which he titled FASTER HORSES [THE COWBOY AND THE POET]. Its view on life calls out what the lyrics refer to as 'buffalo chips' :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvMcX95G20

Fans of Manfred Mann will recall his/their Tony Hazzard tune FOX ON THE RUN that reached #5 in the UK in 1969. In a rare case of a non self-penned hit, Tom turned it into one helluva [albeit brief] Top 10 US country song in 1976:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYvT5FG6uWk


Of special note:
Premiering this week on the Billboard Top 200 LPs chart:
#53
SHAFT
Soundtrack/Isaac Hayes

Replacement for discontinued link for Chart #33's post :

Quote:

---

*****
Elvis Presley is closing in on his 100th Top 40 hit. I'M LEAVIN' is #93. It was written by Sonny Charles [with Michael Jarrett], lead singer of The Checkmates LTD, the voice heard on the Phil Spector song, BLACK PEARL, that reached #13 in 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z84MLSf2mi4



I'M LEAVIN' is kind of a ghost song, appearing from seemingly nowhere, not taken from LOVE LETTERS FROM ELVIS, Elvis' current LP at the time [the 'B'-side HEART OF ROME was], or from any other LP [until after his death]. The sentiments and overall tone of the song, including the title, might be described as kind of haunting ... and would certainly have been all the more-so had it been unknowingly released close to the time of his unexpected death.

---

Added :

A new post has appeared on youtube, Elvis' initial attempt at I'M LEAVIN' in the studio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjCZxfezK4

I'M LEAVIN' charted Top 40 for two weeks, debuting at #38, moving up two to #36, then off ....dropping to #63 before leaving the Hot 100 the following week.

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #35
Aug 28, 1971

Motown holds their own this week, Marvin Gaye has their biggest single with MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] repeating at #4, while a second song from the label makes the Top 10. Same five songs on the Top 40, no debuts and again this week Motown supplies the chart's shocker. Nine records on the entire Hot 100 as no singles drop out and no new ones debut.

The Top 10:

Bit of a shake-up, three new songs enter this week. It's been a year of monster #1 hits and the Bee Gees take a turn with a #1 song scoring a month's run with HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART. MR BIG STUFF yields after a gallant attempt at #1 dropping now to #5 from #2. Now in that #2 spot is a rather remarkable chart performance by John Denver [and Fat City], nudging up one more spot from #3 in its 19th week on the Hot 100. Should it succeed at reaching the top next week, it'll be from a five month climb. Below it at #3 the Ten's strongest gain by Five Man Electrical Band's SIGNS up five from #8. Giving Motown something to grin about, SMILING FACES SOMETIMES by The Undisputed Truth now enters the Top 10 at #8. Could've been a hit for the Temptations, as was intended, were they not disputing. At this juncture, only the Tempts' LP version , which is 12:43 long can be heard, no single edit was released. In 1972, a 3:31 minute version will be placed on the backside of PAPA WAS A ROLLING STONE https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...UE/s-l225.webp for some European presses. Perhaps it sat on the shelf until then to be tested in markets where Undisputed Truth's version went unreleased.

Also new to the Top Ten: Aretha Franklin's SPANISH HARLEM , with a five point jump to #9 from #14, and the biggest mover on the Top 40 this week goes to Donny Osmond's 14 point surge to #10 from #24 with GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL.
Three on, means three off:
Chicago's COLOR MY WORLD/BEGINNINGS to#11 from #7, James Taylor's YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND from #5 to #14, and Tommy James DRAGGIN' THE LINE from #9 to #17.

The Top 40:

^I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth breaks into the Top 20 , #18 up from #22

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN -DJ Tom Clay - slight additional drop to #20 from #17
MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five -has peaked only halfway up the chart and plummets to #30 from #20, their worst charting performance so far, by far.

New to the Top 40: Five newbies , with two about locations, two about time
Highest debut:
BANGLA DESH - George Harrison -#31 up from #41 [4th Top 40 hit]

THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN - Joan Baez - #33 up from #5 [*first time artist]
MAGGIE MAY/REASON TO BELIEVE - Rod Stewart - #36 up from #46 [* first time artist]
SATURDAY MORNING CONFUSION Bobby Russell- #38 up from #44 [*first time artist]
WHERE YOU LEAD - Barbra Streisand - #40 up from #41 [4th Top 40 Hit]


The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts;
none [2nd week]
3rd week: ^ IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder -#47 up from #58
3rd week: ^ SURRENDER - Diana Ross -#54 up from #65
4th week: ^ TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #56 up from #60
5th week: - IT'S SUMMER - The Temptations- #69 down from #55

Off the chart :
none from Motown

A very good week for :
Phil Spector :

Phil's project with George Harrison gives them the week's highest debuting Top 40 single with BANGLA DESH, and now in the Top 10 is Aretha Franklin's interpretation of a song Spector wrote [with Jerry Leiber] back in 1960 to become Ben E. King's first post-Drifters hit, after DJs flipped FIRST TASTE OF LOVE, to play its 'b' side: SPANISH HARLEM. Aretha Franklin's reworking has now out-paced the original's #10 peak by entering the Top 10 at #9.

Also a very good week for:
Maggie.

With two titles working it, the name "Maggie" is the hottest moniker on the chart. Other names now found on charting titles are: Abraham, Martin and John, Albert, Marianne, Annabella, Stagger Lee, and Amanda. [sort of the A-list]
The group, Redbone [Cajun term for mixed-race], started this Maggie trend 12 weeks ago with their song titled MAGGIE, now at #48 up from #50. But something interesting happened a couple of weeks ago. Radio stations began flipping Rod Stewart's REASON TO BELIEVE, and playing the lengthy MAGGIE MAY instead. Now its bursting onto the Top 40 with a ten point jump after crawling for seven weeks , headed for # who knows and an unknown Rod Stewart may be on his way to having a notable singing career.

*****

While we are listing songs which sing names, new to the Hot 100 this week by Johnny Rivers , who's already had thirteen Top 40 hits since 1964, including two Motown covers, BABY I NEED YOUR LOVIN' [#3] and TRACKS OF MY TEARS [#10] is a catchy straightforward religious tune about singing his name called THINK HIS NAME:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Euh7i6QVc

THINK HIS NAME enters at #92, how high will it rise ...we'll see.

*****
Another such themed song, one that came and went quickly with a two week run peaking at #89, is TOP 40 OF THE LORD. Notable as the only time the vocal group Sha Na Na will score a charting single on the Hot 100. Also noteworthy in that for a group whose fame comes to be as that of a nostalgic do-wap oldies singing act , TOP 40 OF THE LORD is an original song written by band member Scott Simon with a decidedly contemporary country sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXenMbR3nUE

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #36
Sept 4, 1971

Decent week for Motown. Two Top Ten songs again, one of them new, which means one from the last ranking, surprisingly, has dropped out. Six Top 40 charters, one a debut. None drop off. Eight Motown songs on the Hot 100, one departs, no new ones this week.

The Top 10:

The biggest Top 10 shakeup thus far this year. Every ranking has movement with each position featuring a title that wasn't there last week, no repeaters. Like last week, three new songs on the Top Ten, one of them entering at --- #1. In 4 weeks, Paul and Linda McCartney bolt over the other lined up singles each eyeing that coveted top position, going from #12 to #1 with UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY. The Bee Gees step down one place to #2 after a four week run at the top with HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART. Three songs move up five hefty spots within the Top Ten: SMILING FACES SOMETIMES, #3, SPANISH HARLEM, #4, and GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL, #5 while Five Man Electrical Band's SIGNS, which shot up from #8 to #3 last week, reverses its course and is back down to #8. John Denver's TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS, is now #7, the long road up the chart [20 weeks] for the 45 ends at #2.

Three also depart decidedly: Jean Knight's MR. BIG STUFF down to #12 from #5, SWEET HITCH-HIKER by Creedence from #6, its peak, to#16, and the chart’s surprise drop :MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye has maxed out with two weeks at #4, now big dip to #13.
These are replaced by :The McCartneys at #1, AIN'T NO SUNSHINE Bill Withers #8 from #13, and from Motown: Rare Earth's I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE big hike from #18 to #10.
That’s six songs to break into the Top Ten in just two weeks

The Top 40:

MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye - #13 down from #4
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay down to #28 from #20.
MAYBE TOMORROW - The Jackson Five - smaller dip this time to #33 from #30.

Biggest mover on the chart:
Up 17 notches :MAGGIE MAY/REASON TO BELIEVE - Rod Stewart - #19 from #36

New to the Top 40:
Quite a sweep this week, eight new songs, mostly by premiering artists, Stevie Wonder being the most senior chart resident:

Highest debut:
CHIRPY CHIRPY CHEEP CHEEP- born in Trinidad , now out of the UK, brother and sister Mac And Katie Kissoon #30 up from #44 [* first time artist]

THE STORY IN YOUR EYES - Moody Blues - #31 up from #41 [4th Top 40 hit]
WEDDING SONG [THERE IS LOVE] - Paul Stookey #36 up from #43 [* first time artist]
DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN - Lee Michaels #34 up from #45 [ * first time artist]
IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder #37 up from #47 [21st Top 40 hit]
RAIN DANCE - The Guess Who #38 up from #50 [11th Top 40 hit]
SO FAR AWAY /SMACKWATER JACK - Carole King #39 up from #71 [3rd & 4th Top 40 hit]
I LIKES TO DO IT - The People's Choice #40 up from #42 [*first time artist]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
none [3rd week]

4th week: ^ SURRENDER - Diana Ross - #44 up from #54
5th week: ^ TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #54 up from #56
6th week: - IT'S SUMMER - OFF down from #69

off the chart:
The Temptations - IT'S SUMMER - falls off. From having a #1 song with JUST MY IMAGINATION last time out to a single that doesn't make the Top 40 [#51 peak], they'll now regroup, literally, and spring back.

****
A very good week for:
Booker T of the MGs
Now liberated from Stax Records Booker T Jones has moved to California and recently married Priscilla Coolidge, sister of Rita Coolidge. His acceptance of a project at LA based Sussex Records to work with an unknown assembly line worker has paid off: Bill Wither's AIN'T NO SUNSHINE has become Wither's first and now Top 10 hit and has created an instant industry favorite .

****

Solidus multi-titled charters were the focus recently, three others appear this week. Carole King offers a one-two punch in her return to the Top 40 with SO FAR AWAY/SMACKWATER JACK, Carpenters have the Hot 100's highest debut at #49 with SUPERSTAR/BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN, their first instant double sided hit, and George Harrison's BANGLA-DESH now gets an added split credit with the flip DEEP BLUE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=999uKLFmt5w

and if listening to George isn't dire enough this song's message is hard to beat:

HE'D RATHER HAVE THE RAIN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bx5C8CkxA0

....than anything I could give him.

Enters this week at #94 by Heaven Bound with Tony Scotti. The record will not go on to be a success [nor when done by The Partridge Family] but Tony Scotti will. He will head Scotti Bros. Records [and Pictures] with pro-football brother, Ben Scotti, featuring successes by acts like Leif Garrett and Survivor as well as providing James Brown with a resurgence in 1985 when LIVING IN AMERICA reaches #5 , JB's best Hot 100 charting since hitting #3 in 1965 with I GOT YOU [I FEEL GOOD].

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #37
Sept 11, 1971

The chart calms down some this week with one new song making it into the Top Ten and six new songs breaking into the Top 40. Motown's presence remains strong, but with less entries, two tunes in the Top 10, five in the Top 40, seven songs on the Hot 100. Two Motown songs drop out of the Top 40 [and therefore the Hot 100] this week, and a new one pops in.
One debut Motown song on the Hot 100 as well.

The Top 10:

Amazingly, after Paul and Linda's skyrocket to the top spot last week, there is a new #1 song this week replacing theirs. In only its fifth week on the Hot 100, UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY has peaked and now descends, with somewhat of a thud, to #5. Other songs now vying the top: Aretha's SPANISH HARLEM up two to #2, AIN'T NO SUNSHINE by Bill Withers is #4 from #6, and I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE from Rare Earth up three to #7 from #10. Undisputed Truth's SMILING FACES SOMETIMES sits at #3 again as well. But this week the top honor goes to Donny Osmond's GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL with a bounding leap up from #5 and in just six weeks on the Hot 100.
A very good year for Carole King continues: Not only is she at #32 up seven from #39 with SO FAR AWAY/SMACKWATER JACK but GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL which she wrote with Gerry Goffin in 1962 is again at #1 after already doing so back in 1963 by Stevie Lawrence.
One new song in the Top 10 right at #10: MAGGIE MAY/REASON TO BELIEVE - Rod Stewart up nine places from #19. One out: LIAR, Three Dog Night 's cover of the tune by Argent peaked at #7 and is now at #13 from #9.

The Top 40:

MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye #15 down just two from #13
^IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder - #28 up nine from #37

Off The Chart:

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE //ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN - Tom Clay #28 last week peaking at #8, nine week Top 40 run.
MAYBE TOMORROW The Jackson Five, also a nine week Top 40 run, with half the success, a peak of #20, last week #30.

Biggest Mover Of The Week:
Up 14 places: DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN - Lee Michaels #20 from #34.

New To The Top 40:
Highest Debut:
SUPERSTAR ** Carpenters - #17 up from #49 enters in the chart's top half [Fifth Top 40 hit]

MAKE IT FUNKY [Part 1] - James Brown - #30 up from #56[35th Top 40 hit]
SWEET CITY WOMAN - Stampeders - #33 up from #43 [* first time artist]
K-JEE - The Nite-Liters -#39 up from #45 [*first time artist]
SURRENDER - Diana Ross #40 up from #44 [5th Top 40 hit]
** - Last week the Carpenters entered the Hot 100 as a two sided play: SUPERSTAR/BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN, this week Billboard advances the record to the Top 40 but credited as SUPERSTAR only.

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:One
MacARTHUR PARK [PART II] - The Four Tops #78

6th week: ^ TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars - #50 up from #54

By Proxy
SOLO - Billy Sans #98 - Invictus release

off the chart:
none

A very good week for:
Diana Ross
Not only is she back on the Top 40 for the third time this year but Ross is in her fourth week at #1 on the UK chart with I'M STILL WAITING, lifted from her previous LP.

Also a very good week for:
The Jackson Five
How can that be when the group disappears completely from the countdown this week with a Top 40 song that was there for only six weeks peaking at #20, a far cry from their pattern of never having a record not reach #1 or at worst , #2.
Debuting this week: Their animated Saturday morning cartoon show The Jackson 5ive. Wisely it would appear, their most current hit MAYBE TOMORROW is not one of the show's two featured songs [ABC and GOING BACK TO INDIANA are]. Besides the five brothers, the weekly skits include a Berry Gordy as manager character and two talking mice named Ray and Charles. All the voices are imitated by stand-ins, [Edmund Sylvers is Marlon] except that of Diana Ross as herself when she is drawn into this premiere edition, another part of her very good week.

*****
Also on the current UK chart is a song by Curtis Mayfield called MOVE ON UP now at #14 having peaked at #12. For whatever the reason this strongly dancable [disco?] song is going unnoticed in the USA [& apparently not released as a single there until 1972]. The British release on Buddah is an edited version from the disco lengthed, 8 minute album cut from Curtis' 1970 debut. A slight variance of it in the middle of disco's peak in 1979 by Destination goes #1 disco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTENo5asXwA

Curtis will continue to perform MOVE ON UP in a long form as part of his repertoire at his live performances.

*****

Another hint of disco: Been watching the instrumental K-JEE by The Nite-Liters struggle up the Hot 100 [dropping off once entirely then reappearing] until now in week #10 it breaks the Top 40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9UUeq1tpdM

NYC sounding , although recorded in Chicago, K-JEE will get a Philly redo by MFSB and become a part of the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER movie and ST packaging. Produced by former Motown heavy hitter, Harvey Fuqua, he will go on to make SF's Sylvester a disco superstar.


*****
Have stumbled upon an interview with the elusive Elton Farokh Ahi, the fellow who created the MOVE ON UP 1979 remake and its a must read for anyone with a disco interest:

https://iranian.com/Music/2007/July/Ahi/index.html

In a nutshell: when Elton met Curtis Mayfield by chance in LA, Curtis wanted him to perhaps help him with his latest material. Elton didn't hear anything in there he could make into a dance floor hit, so they reviewed possible old stuff instead and out popped MOVE ON UP. When Curtis presented the reinvented version his label said, oh no , you don't want to do disco !!.....so Elton asked , can I run with it, and with Mayfield's blessing the result was a disco tune that was #1 for four weeks.

Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #38
Sept 18, 1971

Motown has less momentum this round, current releases seem to be stalling with Stevie Wonder's single delivering their best chart performance of the week. Two Motown songs remain firmly in the Top Ten, with all of the label's Top 40 and Hot 100 charters from last week present again this time, none drop off, while no new ones arrive.

The Top Ten:

Donny Osmond repeats his grip on the highest rung, week #2 for GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL. Still wanting her turn at the top, Aretha Franklin is at #2 again this week with SPANISH HARLEM. At #3: Bill Withers' AINT NO SUNSHINE with a one point gain. Top Ten's strongest song: MAGGIE MAY by Rod Stewart now #4 from #10. For Motown, not as big a grin this time as Undisputed Truth's SMILING FACES SOMETIMES slips from #3 to #6 and Rare Earth's I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE remains at #7 again this week. Newly in: THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN at #8 from #12 by Joan Baez, and WHATCHA SEE IS WHATCHA GET by The Dramatics, up one from #11 to #10. Dropping out of the Top Ten slots: Two long running chart attendees: TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS John Denver and Fat City now #13 from#8 [22nd week] and Five Man Electrical Band's SIGNS dives from #9 to #18 [17th week]

The Top 40:

^IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder up eight points to #20 from #28.
MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye #31 plummet from #15.
^SURRENDER - Diana Ross #38 up two from #40.

Biggest Mover Of The Week:
SWEET CITY WOMAN - Stampeders 14 spots up to #21 from #35

New To The Top 40, five tunes with a mostly soulful line up:

Highest Debut:
BREAKDOWN PART 1 - Rufus Thomas #34 up from #43 [4th and final Top 40 hit]

THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE The Persuaders #35 up from #57 [*first time artist]
THE LOVE WE HAD STAYS ON MY MIND - Dells #36 up from #47 [7th Top 40 hit]
I AIN'T GOT TIME ANYMORE - Glass Bottle featuring Gary Criss #37 up from #41 [*first time artist] [one hit wonder]
IVE FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN - Free Movement #39 up from #44 [*first time artist] [one hit wonder]
YO-YO - Osmonds #40 up from #85 [3rd Top 40 hit]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:None

2nd Week:^MacARTHUR PARK [PART II] - The Four Tops #62 up from #78
2nd Week: THAT'S A WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #93 same as last week
7th week: TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars -#53 down from #50

By Proxy:
YOU'VE GOT TO CRAWL [BEFORE YOU WALK] 8th Day #91 an Invictus release

A very good week for:
Stax Records.
Although just missing the top spot with Jean Knight's MR. BIG STUFF, #2 for two weeks, which departed the charts last week, Stax continues having a good season. The Dramatics break the Top Ten this week with WHATCHA SEE IS WHATCHA GET, on Stax' shadow label Volt, and Rufus Thomas breaks the Top 40 with BREAKDOWN, which is the week's highest debuting single. On the Top 50 Soul album chart this week, Stax has eight albums charting [Motown has 13]:
#42 - LOVE MEANS - Carla Thomas
#41 - LOVEJOY - Albert King
#35 - TO BE CONTINUED - Isaac Hayes
#33 - MELTING POT - Booker T. & The MGs
#29 - BEST OF TWO WORLDS - Soul Children
#09 - MR BIG STUFF - Jean Knight
and two soundtracks:
#26 SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSS SONG [will get a focus in the future]

and another --- at #2, held back from #1 only by Marvin Gaye's WHAT'S GOING ON, in its sixth week on the chart , a little ditty from Isaac Hayes called SHAFT. With no singles issued yet from it, the album is selling based on the popularity of the movie.

*****
INDIAN RESERVATION by The Raiders persevered on the chart until ultimately reaching #1 in its 16th week on Chart 30 from July 24th.
Quite a determined feat, and this week perhaps even more spectacularly, Free Movement's I'VE FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN has taken the same amount of time - four months - just to break the Top 40. That's 16 moves on the chart before finally reaching the Top 40 at #39. How much further, how much longer can it chart?

Free Movement is a vocal group of six young people from various parts of the country that met and merged in LA in 1970 and cut a demo record for Decca. By the time that record, I'VE FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN took hold, the group had already moved on, signing with Columbia records where they cut an album and released a couple of mildly received follow-ups before disappearing and becoming a one hit wonder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fTYLp4jDbw

*****
While some such records like I'VE FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN take what must feel like an eternity to break through to become hits, others don't linger on the Hot 100 long enough to get a chance. Before letting it slip away completely unnoticed, one such song has come and gone on the Hot 100 in just four weeks [#81 peak] by a group called Electric Express recorded out of North Carolina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnMOZF8INE

IT'S THE REAL THING Part I and II features partying in the background, an effect that will be used considerably in future disco records not the least being Marvin Gaye's #1 disco song, GOT TO GIVE IT UP. It's not new but its now becoming increasingly used as in Marvin's WHAT'S GOING ON earlier this year where in the opening, amongst the crowd chatter someone can be heard saying, this is a groovy party, man.

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #39
Sept 25, 1971

A bit of a coast for Motown, a downhill coast. Two songs from the label remain in the Top Ten but both are in decline. On the Top 40, one big name is rising up, another big same has dropped off, while another big name is struggling. Neither the Top 40 nor The Hot 100 have new Motown songs. Seven Motown records in total on the charts.

The Top 10:

Still at the top, Donny Osmond's GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL, third week there. Quite a shuffle within the Top Ten , only one other spot besides Donny's #1 repeats, AIN'T NO SUNSHINE by Bill Withers is at #3 again . Aretha slips with SPANISH HARLEM to #5 from #2 , replaced there at the second spot by Rod Stewart's MAGGIE MAY. Motown is at #7 with SMILING FACES SOMETIMES a one point drop for The Undisputed Truth and also dropping Rare Earth's I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE to #10 from #7. Just one new song slips in, SUPERSTAR by the Carpenters #8 from#12. Edged out: Bee Gees past #1, HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART from #9 down to #17.



The Top 40:

^IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder jumps up 6 points to #14 from #20.
SURRENDER - Diana Ross #38 same as last week.
Off:
MERCY MERCY ME [THE ECOLOGY] - Marvin Gaye
The second single from his WHATS GOING ON LP, peaked at #4 with a ten week run on the Top 40.

Biggest mover on the chart:
YO YO - Osmonds #19 up from #40, 21 places.

New to the Top 40: three new artists are taking a turn on the coveted upper chart zone, with one return of a regular, who is on it for the last time:
Highest Debut:
TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE - Denise LaSalle #35 up from #42 [first time artist] [One Hit Wonder]]

STAGGER LEE - Tommy Roe #37 up from #45 [11th and final Top 40 hit]
ALL DAY MUSIC - War #39 up from #41 [first time artist as solo]
EASY LOVING - Freddie Hart #40 up from #49 [First time artist] [One Hit Wonder]

The Hot 100:

Motown Debuts:
None

3rd Week:^MacARTHUR PARK [PART II] - The Four Tops #43 bounding up from #62
3rd Week: ^THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #82 from #93
8th week: TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars -#56 down from #53
no drop offs

A very good week for:
Chess/Janus Records - three records on the Hot 100, two of them now on the Top 40: THE LOVE WE HAD [STAYS ON MY MIND] The Dells at #34, and TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE Denise La Salle at #35. The label's other record that's charting: a thus far unnoticed tune by former Motown staffer George Clinton, CAN YOU GET TO THAT credited to Funkadelic at #93 in its third week. Janus /Chess [Chess brothers selling their accomplished label in 1969 and Janus being a conduit for product from British record partner Pye] have lately come under ownership of GRT Records, which stands for General Recorded Tape, a radical concept when the company formed for that purpose in the 1960s: putting music on tape instead of vinyl.

Also a very good week for:
Buddah Records
This independent label/distributer also has two songs in the Top 40: AIN'T NO SUNSHINE by Bill Withers at #3 and Honey Cone's WANT ADS at #11. Two other Buddah records are also on the Hot 100, Laura Lee's WOMEN'S LOVE RIGHTS #53 and at #86 Chee Chee & Peppy's I KNOW I'M IN LOVE [see chart #23], a record that's reappeared on the Hot 100 after dropping off. Buddah is currently under the lead of Neil Bogart, who will construct Casablanca Records in coming years.

*****
Diana Ross finishes her #1 run in the UK after four weeks at the top with I'M STILL WAITING a surprise hit [spotted by DJ Tony Blackburn from her 1970 EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING album]. Diana's song gets replaced at #1 by another resurrection, The Tams HEY GIRL DON'T BOTHER ME from 1964.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eErxJ-p6TF8

The Tams are a vocal group out of Atlanta Georgia. When HEY GIRL DON'T BOTHER ME first charted, it just missed the Top 40 [#41]. The Northern Soul scene has revived the original recording into becoming a hit seven years later in the UK but it won't reappear on the charts in the USA.

*****
This week the soundtrack to SHAFT moves into the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 50 Soul LPs chart. It also is at #6, up from #8, on the Top 200 National LP chart . The soundtrack is in its seventh week on the charts following the movie's premiere in late June. Stax has not yet realized the opportunity, nor the need to release a single from it on this date September 25, 1971.

Also mentioned last week was the second ST currently issued by Stax: SWEET SWEETBACK's BAADASSSS SONG a film written, co-produced, scored, edited, directed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles, which in spite of the film’s title, will not have any specific song, baadasss or otherwise associated with it and no singles from it released.... thus no reference to it in our ongoing Hot 100 focus. Yet the usefulness of the music from the film is quite clever, Van Peebles , having no budget to promote his shoestring project, purposely creates and prereleases a soundtrack to specifically initiate interest in the movie [not a typical ploy, STs are traditionally released later in a movie's run] Van Peebles will apply his own limited musical talents [he numbers the keys on his piano to create sequences] resulting in the ST that moves up three notches this week to #23 from #26 during its 16 week run so far. Because of their overlap , the timing was off for Melvin to witness the prosperous benefits of a catchy theme like SHAFT's . One thing on his side, Van Peebles tapped into a hungry [literally] budding new band on the scene to carry out his music. Van Peebles will never make the Hot 100 on his own, he'll be successful in other ways in his future ventures, but the band he used will, in a big big way :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLqQ_1aZBII

The performers being : Earth Wind And Fire.

Rest in Peace Melvin Van Peebles, what a life.
August 21, 1932 – September 22, 2021


Of special note:
Premiering this week on the Billboard Top 200 LPs chart:
Comedy duo Cheech and Chong debut with CHEECH AND CHONG at #186.

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #40
Oct. 2, 1971

Does Motown ever have an off week? While not riding one of their peak sessions, they remain firmly in the game: One song in the Top 10. Four songs on the Top 40, one a debut, and seven songs on the Hot 100 with nothing new again. Three new by proxy.
A stunner: One of Motown's largest stars drops this week from the Top 40 after a modest appearance there with her latest single. It is replaced on the Top 40 by a another Motown super talent who are fairing about the same with their latest release.

The Top 10:

A new number one and two songs enter replacing the two that drop out, one of the drop offs is from Motown. Strongest song within the Top Ten: Carpenters' SUPERSTAR up to #4 from #8 . Rod Stewart lingered before his MAGGIE MAY B-side eventually took his single REASON TO BELIEVE into the Top 40, then once there it bulleted its way up , and now in its 12th week on the Hot 100, it hits #1. Quite a contrast to the two takes in one session time it took to record the song. MAGGIE MAY will be #1 in the UK, Canada, and Australia as well. Donny Osmond and GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL trades positions with Rod Stewart's #2 spot of last week after three weeks at the pinnacle. Motown is still placing with SMILING FACES SOMETIMES at #8 down one from #7 while Rare Earth drops out and down to #17 from #10. But at least they got to celebrate a third Top 10 record [#7 peak].
In : Giant leap of ten points, The Osmonds YO YO is at #9, and Lee Michaels enters at #10 from #12 with IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. WHATCHA SEE IS WHATCHA GET by The Dramatics is the other departure to #18 from #9.

The Top 40:

^IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder inches up two places to #12 from #14.
I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth #17 down from #10
Off:
SURRENDER - Diana Ross - 3 weeks in the Top 40 #38 peak, drops out to #43 -Ross on a downward trajectory, each of the three releases from her latest album, this being the title track, scoring less and less. Not trying to jinx her, but she can't go much lower, not as a Top 40 artist anyway. Ironically, exactly a year ago to this day, Ross was enjoying her third week at the very top, #1 with AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH. This is partly what makes chart watching so intriguing.

Biggest mover on the chart:
2 songs make 10 point bolts : The Osmonds YO YOs into the Top 10 and Denise Lasalle's TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE now #25 from #35.

New to the Top 40: Five entries all '60s hit-makers save one.
Highest Debut:
LOVING HER WAS EASIER [THAN ANYTHING I'LL EVER DO AGAIN] - Kris Kristofferson, [#30 up from #41][* First time artist]

BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Raiders #32 up from #46 [fifteenth and final Top 40 hit]
NEVER MY LOVE - The Fifth Dimension #38 up from #61 [16th Top 40 hit]
GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES - Cher #39 up from #66 [6th Top 40 hit]
MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops #40 up from #43 [17th Top 40 hit, all Motown, final Motown Top 40 hit]

The Hot 100:

Debuts: None
4th Week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #82 again
8th Week - SURRENDER - Diana Ross #45 down from #38
9th week: TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars -#58 down from #56
off: None

debut charters by proxy:
DO I LOVE YOU- Paul Anka #97 - Produced by David Van DePitte
YOU BROUGHT THE JOY - Freda Payne #92 - written by Holland Dozier Invictus release
SPILL THE WINE - Isley Bros, #79 - former Motown Artist

*****
A very good week for:
Country songwriters turned performers

Two of this week's rising records on the Top 40 are country, both with an amazingly similar theme: the easiness of their love relationships. One is this week's highest debut: LOVING HER WAS EASIER [THAN ANYTHING I'LL EVER DO AGAIN], written and performed by Kris Kristofferson. Roger Miller is already nine weeks on the country chart with the song peaking there at #28. It will go to #2 on the country chart when revived by Tompall & The Glasser Bros. in 1981 propping up their long career since 1959 with their biggest hit. Kris' version of his song won't chart country at all, by design, the 45 wasn't serviced to country radio stations so as to not pigeon-hole the hit songwriter turned pop artist. Produced by Fred Foster on his Monument label, Foster was the producing force behind Roy Orbison. His style has been compared to Phil Spector with the expansion of types of instruments he incorporated to create his pop sound.

******
Freddie Hart at #37 meanwhile will kiss his lucky stars he's charting country. Capitol Records has decided to drop him following the lack of success of his recent singles. A DJ in Atlanta has spotted a cut on his 1970 album, EASY LOVING, starts playing it, a spark is ignited, and Freddie Hart has reached #1 this week [and will be there for three weeks with a one week interruption by Tom T Hall's, THE YEAR THAT CLAYTON DELANEY DIED, see chart #34] with what will be the #1 country record for both 1971 and 1972 and he will now have six #1 songs in a row and a resigned contract at Capitol. Freddie Hart is one of eleven children from a sharecropper family in Alabama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdninwY6T3o

Hart learned guitar at age 5, ran away from home at age seven, survived by picking cotton, working in saw mills , etc., and lied in order to enter the military at age 14.

*****
Also entering the Hot 100 at #81: another Freddie , Freddie North, a radio DJ from Nashville Tennessee, with SHE'S ALL I GOT, a huge country song written by Swammp Dog and Gary US Bonds. We'll follow this original version as it climbs up the chart and perhaps into the Top 40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzVPlcaG8KA

Johnny Paycheck has currently released a cover version of the song and has named his latest album after it : SHE'S ALL I GOT. It will reach #2 on the country chart and will cross onto the Hot 100 the only record by Paycheck to do so [including his infamous 1977 hit TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT]. Other versions were recorded by Conway Twitty , Tanya Tucker, and Tracy Byrd's 1997 version charted #4 Country.

*****

The highest ranking Motown disk in the UK this week is NATHAN JONES by The Supremes , second week at #5. Diana Ross shares a Top 10 spot as I'M STILL WAITING dips to #10 from #2.

*****
Predicted by Billboard to make the Hot 100 Top 20:
"Martha Reeves And The Vandellas -BLESS YOU [2:58]-Been a long time between releases, but this swinger loaded with the Motown sound has put the group right back on top with sales impact".

Boogie, I'm discovering this thread for the first time. You sure made one hell of an effort here! Your fingertips must be covered in callouses by now!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Philles/Motown Gary

Boogie, I'm discovering this thread for the first time. You sure made one hell of an effort here! Your fingertips must be covered in callouses by now!

---

Hi Gary! Thanks and welcome!

I'm just having fun recounting the golden days when music meant so much to me. This gives me a format in which to relive the tunes I remember so well from my youth plus the music beyond that , and with more context. In the process of the compiling, I'm learning much more than I could've imagined, so now I'm hooked. :cool: And it's good brain exercise! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Boogiedown

Hi Gary! Thanks and welcome!

I'm just having fun recounting the golden days when music meant so much to me. This gives me a format in which to relive the tunes I remember so well from my youth plus the music beyond that , and with more context. In the process of the compiling, I'm learning much more than I could've imagined, so now I'm hooked. :cool: And it's good brain exercise! :)

---

I hear you, Boogie -- loud and clear, and I can appreciate each and every word you say. Such undertakings regarding that which we love are good for the soul. Whether people respond favorably or not, knowing that you made the effort for the music is all that matters.

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #41
Oct. 9, 1971

Not Motown's most remarkable week. One record enters the Top 10 and one drops out. Same four songs in the Top 40, two heading up, two down. Two new songs break the Hot 100, making it eight songs total on the Hot 100 chart.

The Top 10:

Rod Stewart spends his second week at #1 with an older woman, MAGGIE MAY, and conversely Donny Osmond repeats his position at #2 with GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL. Just below that, The Carpenters are now charting like superstars [five top 3 songs in a row], up one to #3, and Joan Baez' THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN up one point to #4. Two strong songs move up four places each: The Osmond's YO YO, now #5 from #9, and Lee Michaels DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN #10 to #6. Stevie Wonder [with wife Syreeta Wright] makes the Top Ten with IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME, in at #9 from #12. Just beneath that at #10 from #14, singing about a SWEET CITY WOMAN are The Stampeders. Just outside the list, now at #11 from #8 are The Undisputed Truth with SMILING FACES SOMETIMES. Also now out, Aretha Franklin and SPANISH HARLEM to #12 from #7.

The Top 40:

SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth #11 down from #8
I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth #26 drop from #18
^MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops #38 up from #40

Biggest mover on the chart:
GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES - Cher eleven notches entered at #39, now #28.

New to the Top 40: Just three, by Brits, Canadians, and Americans, one from each:

PEACE TRAIN - Cat Stevens #34 up from #50 [3rd Top 40 hit]
ONE FINE MORNING - Lighthouse #36 up from #41 [* first time artist]
ONLY YOU KNOW AND I KNOW - Delaney And Bonnie #40 up from #49 [2nd and final Top 40 hit]

Off:
Nothing from Motown

The Hot 100:

Debuts: Two:
INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] - Marvin Gaye #62
TOUCH - Supremes - #97

5th Week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #82 again
10th week: TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars-#58 down from #56
off:
9th Week - SURRENDER - Diana Ross off from #43
Last week Diana Ross dropped out of the Top 40, this week she disappears from the Hot 100 altogether with SURRENDER, and thus the surrender of the tune's chart stature after a brief run.

*****
A very good week for:
A&M Records:
Four artists from the label are on the Top 40 all with records on their way up, two in the Top 10. At #3 up from #4, The Carpenters SUPERSTAR, and Lee Michael's DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN #6 up from #10, Carol King's SMACKWATER JACK/SO FAR AWAY #14 up from #16 , and this week's highest debuting record is Cat Steven's PEACE TRAIN at #34.
A&M is an independent Los Angeles record label [operating out of Charlie Chaplin's old movie studio.] A&M is owned by Herb Albert & Jerry Moss, two friends who created the label, Alpert becoming its first star when his THE LONELY BULL , the label's first release, goes all the way to #6. Alpert is an LA raised son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants with musical talents, he takes up the trumpet at age 8 and in college is a member of the USC Marching Trojan Band. Herb gets into music professionally in the late fifties [and co-writes Sam Cooke's WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD] artificially takes on the Tijuana Brass persona, after witnessing mariachis in Mexico, with the first cuts being entirely himself repeating his own trumpet to create the band.

By the end of the year , the label will introduce a new acquisition, Beatles pal Billy Preston. A&M will release the title track, I WROTE A SIMPLE SONG, from his A&M debut LP. It'll chart , but not Top 40, but some DJs will begin flipping the 45 over, and Billy Preston will have one of the biggest hits of early 1972 and the clavinet will become a favorite instrument for upcoming funk and disco compositions.

*****

Some currently charting artists/songwriters are prolific: Carol King, Kris Kristofferson, Stevie Wonder , Cat Stevens ......while other lyricists wind up having one gem within them [Clive Davis' recent NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE] . Two examples this week:

Noel Paul Stookey is at #25, up two, this week with WEDDING SONG [THERE IS LOVE]
Stookey is the Paul in Peter Paul and Mary. Band mate Peter Yarrow gets married in 1969, and Paul, as the best man, writes a little tune for the couple. Meant as a personal gift , and reflective of his strong Christian beliefs, Stookey refused to perform it publicly until Yarrow insisted he do so at a concert with wife Mary present. The couple have since divorced but the song lives on as a wedding staple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR051uCNrAw

*****
Live recordings before an audience rarely make the Top 40, one is doing well this week, the only one on the chart, and off-hand can't recall any others from this year.
NEVER MY LOVE by The 5th Dimension advances to #26 from #30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2zkJpJRYA

The track, featuring Marilyn McCoo front and center, is from their only concert LP recorded with the original line-up. Where it was recorded, can't confirm, but the backing orchestra is big band leader Nat Brandwynne's, who is currently backing Petula Clark's tour and his orchestra will be heard on Diana Ross' upcoming Caesar's Palace live recording. The 5th's project is produced by Bones Howe the same producer who made this song a massive hit by The Association in the first place. By the time that version ran the Top 40, peaking at #2, exactly four years ago in October 1967, there were 16 cover versions recorded. BMI announced NEVER MY LOVE was the second most played song on radio and television in the 20th century in the US. [Curiously folks in the UK may be only remotely familiar with the song, it has charted there once, in 1981 , with a peak of #52 by Sugar Minott done in a reggae/synth style.]

The Four Tops have already put a Motown spin on it in 1969, and Smokey Robinson will use NEVER MY LOVE as in intro /segue into coincidentally, NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE, mentioned above on his first solo album coming up in 1973.

Also coincidental to the topic , The Fifth Dimension hit #1 in 1969 with a Laura Nero song titled, WEDDING BELL BLUES.

NEVER MY LOVE was written by The Adrissi Brothers, Don and Dick, members of a performing acrobat family. They shifted to music performers in the fifties and recorded through the seventies, their biggest hit being SLOW DANCING DON'T TURN ME ON, a tune about disco and rock and roll and the ladies that dance to them, that will make the Top 40 in 1977, but, without a doubt, the brothers' claim to fame is their incomparable composition: NEVER MY LOVE.

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #42
Oct. 16, 1971

A nice week for Motown. One record moving higher into the Top Ten, four records on the top 40, one being this week's highest placing newcomer. One drops off. Seven songs total on the Hot 100, one drops off and a main Motown group debuts, returning after a lengthy chart absence.

The Top Ten:

An unusual occurrence this week, both the UK and the US charts agree on their #1 single: Rod Stewart's MAGGIE MAY. Week one there , week three here. Hoping for another turn at the summit, Carpenter's move up one spot again this week, now at #2 with SUPERSTAR. If they continue this pattern, next week they'll get their wish. Also staying hot, YO YO by The Osmonds moves up two places from #5 to #3. The rest of this week's Top Ten songs are losing momentum. None rank with a bullet, except the lone new song on the Top 10, entering at #10 with a huge jump from #28, Cher's GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES, after just five weeks on the Hot 100 to get there. Cher edges out Bill Wither's AIN'T NO SUNSHINE, just one place out at #11 from #8. Motown is still represented by Stevie Wonder's IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME, advancing one notch to #8.

The Top 40:

SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth #12 down just one from #11
MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops again at #38:
Off:
I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE - Rare Earth. Known as The Sunliners when formed in 1960, the group Rare Earth hopefully celebrated this Top 10 hit of theirs, it'll be their last. They will return to the Top 40 however. I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE enjoyed a ten week run on the Top 40 with a peak of #7 before this weeks departure from the entire Hot 100.

Biggest mover on the chart:
Again this week, GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES by Cher 18 places up from #28 to #10

New to the Top 40: Mainly a soulful handful of American men, Laura Lee loudly being the exception. Two entries by proxy.

INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] - Marvin Gaye #35 up from #62 [21st Top 40 hit]
YOU'VE GOT TO CRAWL [BEFORE YOU WALK] -8th Day #38 up from #54 - [2nd Top 40 Hit]
WOMEN'S LOVE RIGHTS -Laura Lee - #37 up from #41 [*First Time Artist] [One Hit Wonder]
A NATURAL MAN - Lou Rawls - #39 up from #45 - [4th Top 40 Hit]
LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY - James Taylor - #40 up from #58- [4th Top 40 Hit]

The Hot 100:

One Motown debut:
BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas -#74

2nd week: TOUCH - Supremes - #71 up from #97
6th Week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #64 up from #72
off:
TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY - Jr. Walker & The All Stars-
A ten week run for Junior Walker, but he just couldn't crack the Top 40 this time, close though: at a #50 peak.

by proxy:
WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO - Donnie Elbert -#100 - remake of former #1 song by The Supremes

*****
A very good week for:
Being an Osmond.
As one #1 record, GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL, descends for Donny to #5, the entire brood trade rankings and are poised to duplicate the achievement, with YO YO now at #3, putting both songs in the Top 5 at the same time . Rare event indeed: simultaneous Top 5's for such closely associated acts.

Also a very good week for:
Willie Mitchell

Willie has two records on the Top Twenty this week: He's in the midst of creating a superstar out of Al Green with TIRED OF BEING ALONE at #13 for a second week , and he produced Denise LaSalle's self-penned TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE, the Memphis made tune, misleadingly released on the Detroit based label Westbound, moving up to #16 from #18.


Of note: Isaac Hayes' SHAFT single enters the Hot 100 halfway up at #50. No review of the single or a prediction for its performance is printed by Billboard. The weekly Soul Sauce column also ignores Haye's record even though it's the weeks highest debut on the Soul Single countdown at #36.

Instead, what is mentioned are some Motown updates:

Quote:

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Remember when "going solo" meant splitting from the group -budding was the word if there was genius that couldn't be kept down -and going at it alone? At Motown David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Diana Ross and G. C. Cameron [[of the Spinners) have all moved into a solo role, subtly expanding the roster while doubling business potential. Now, Like Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson stays firmly with the Jackson Five and goes solo with "Got to Be There." Meanwhile, the Temptations have gelled long enough to pose for new publicity glossies, biographies, and the lineup reads: Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, Dennis Edwards, Richard Street and Damon Harris. Of Harris, who has replaced the irreplaceable Kendricks at tenor, the word is that the fit is perfect, and the Temps will scrape "Cloud Nine" with their next single, "Superstar, Remember How You Got Where You Are."

---

Also in Billboard, on the coveted pages near the published Hot 100 chart, a full page ad for the now charting Martha Reeves And The Vandellas BLESS YOU that reads, "Returning with a hit for all the believers."

******
A fun one is riding low on the Soul Top 50 Singles chart, seven weeks there and now repeating at #29 is a group called The Newcomers, four vocalists backed up by The Bar-Kays. They have spent five years at Stax resulting in six singles, but no albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJT3hI3UrZA

Is PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY a J5/Osmonds homage.... or parody....

*****

Still perusing the Soul chart, another tune, in complete opposition in its tone from the above, is about to slip away mostly unnoticed. Just hanging on at #50 after lingering for six weeks is BREEZIN' written by Bobby Womack and released here in tandem with Hungarian born , California based jazz guitarist, Gabor Szabo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetYKshzUac

This version will not make the Hot 100, but a future remake by another jazz guitarist will, and BREEZIN' will become a familiar part of his repertoire [although curiously it'll fail to crack the Top 40]

Sorry for the delay. My computer is being worked on and waiting for parts. Will resume ASAP. :):cool:

Got this far :

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #43
Oct. 23, 1971

One of Motown's milder weeks, but not entirely. Seven songs on the Hot 100, no new ones, four song's on the Top 40 including this week's biggest mover, and one in the Top 10 with no debuts and one drop off. Both the UK and Billboard agree with Rod Stewart maintaining his number one spot, four weeks now for Rod and MAGGIE MAY. Close to him, The Carpenters are #2 again with SUPERSTAR and The Osmonds hold their #3 position again with YO YO.
Stevie Wonder's IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME, has peaked , last week at #7 and now this week it’s #10

INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] - Marvin Gaye

SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth
MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops
BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas -#74

2nd Week: TOUCH - Supremes - #71
7th Week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #64

A good week for Deleany and Bonnie:

Quote:

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from

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Quote:

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Chart #26
June 26, 1971
https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?27113-Billboard-American-Top-40-Fifty-Years-Ago-1971)-Sundays-Radio-Count
Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett are a recently married couple, 1967, who record with various people they enlist as 'friends' including Eric Clapton, George Harrison , Gregg Allman, Leon Russel, Rita Coolidge and King Curtis [see chart #8]. Bonnie was the first white Ikette, and the couple are among but a limited few white artists to have released an album on Stax. Apparently they co-wrote NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE together, although it's only credited to Delaney .

Because of marital problems, drugs and misunderstandings with labels and contracts, Delaney and Bonnie will be done as a performing couple by 1972 and divorced. There will be one more visit to the Top 40 from them later this year .

---

However this year of 1971, and this week as an example, the duo are riding high.

Another good week for:
Willie Mitchell [Vice-president of HI Records]
Last week , Willie had two songs in the Top 20 , this week each moves up and now he has two in the Top 15. After two weeks at #13 Al Green's TIRED OF BEING ALONE nudges up another point. Denise LaSalle's TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE from #16 to #14.

Of special note:
NEVER MY LOVE by The Fifth Dimension [see Chart #41] is now #1 this week on the Easy Listening chart [#26 Top 40].

will finish this ASAP.

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #43
Oct. 23, 1971

One of Motown's milder weeks, but not entirely. Seven songs on the Hot 100, no new ones, three songs on the Top 40 including this week's biggest mover, and one in the Top 10 with no Top 40 debuts and one surprisingly drops off the Top 40 after a brief stint.

The Top 10:

Both the UK and Billboard agree with Rod Stewart maintaining his number one spot, four weeks now for Rod and MAGGIE MAY. Close to him, The Carpenters are #2 again with SUPERSTAR and The Osmonds hold their #3 position again with YO YO.
Stevie Wonder's IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME, has peaked [#7], last week it was at #8 and now this week it’s #10. The biggest mover within the Top 10 is Cher's GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES, six moves upward from #10 to #4. The most impressive chart performance, amongst the most of any record this year, is Isaac Hayes entering the Top 40 this week in the Top Ten at #9 with the THEME FROM SHAFT, up from last week's Hot 100 entry at #50. It's the only record to enter the Top 10, knocking out Paul & Linda McCartney's former #1 UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY now at #13 down from #7.

The Top 40:

INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] - Marvin Gaye from #35, now #21, a fourteen place leap.

SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth - down to #30 from #12.
off:
MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops after three weeks on the Top 40 peaking at #38 now a drop to #52, a modest final bow from The Four Tops as a legendary Motown act.
Biggest mover on the chart:
INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] - Marvin Gaye 14 places - up to #21 from#35.

New to the Top 40: Two BIG ones and five total:

Highest Debut:
THEME FROM SHAFT -Isaac Hayes - #9 up from #50 [4th Top 40 Hit]

IMAGINE - John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band - #20 - new to the Hot 100 -[Fifth Top 40 Hit]
THE DESIDERATA - Les Crane #35 up from #54 - [*first time artist] [one hit wonder]
I'M COMIN' HOME - Tommy James- #40 up from #41 [2nd Top 40 hit as a soloist] [16th Top 40 hit career total]

The Hot 100:
No Motown debuts:

2nd week: BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas -#65 up from #74
3rd Week: TOUCH - Supremes - #71 repeat position
7th week: MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops #52 down from #38
7th week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #62 up from #64
No drop offs.


******
A good week for:
Delaney and Bonnie
ONLY YOU KNOW AND I KNOW - their second career charter advances seven spots from #34 to #27. Meanwhile this week their former song from earlier this year, NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE is charting twice on the Country Chart:
Dickey Lee is at #8 and Mays Nutter is at #62.
On the British chart, The New Seekers are currently at #35 from #21 after having spent five weeks at #2 with their rendition of NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE.
By 2008 the song will be covered by 100 artists including the Osmond Brothers in 1983, [#43 Country]

from

Quote:

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Chart #26
June 26, 1971
https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?27113-Billboard-American-Top-40-Fifty-Years-Ago-1971)-Sundays-Radio-Count
Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett are a recently married couple, 1967, who record with various people they enlist as 'friends' including Eric Clapton, George Harrison , Gregg Allman, Leon Russel, Rita Coolidge and King Curtis [see chart #8]. Bonnie was the first white Ikette, and the couple are among but a limited few white artists to have released an album on Stax. Apparently they co-wrote NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE together, although it's only credited to Delaney .

Because of marital problems, drugs and misunderstandings with labels and contracts, Delaney and Bonnie will be done as a performing couple by 1972 and divorced. There will be one more visit to the Top 40 from them later this year .

---

However this year of 1971, and this week as an example, the duo are riding high.

*****
Another good week for:
Willie Mitchell [Producer and Vice-president of HI Records].
Last week , Willie had two songs in the Top 20, this week each moves up and now he has two in the Top 15. After two weeks at #13, Al Green's TIRED OF BEING ALONE nudges up another point. Denise LaSalle's TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE from #16 to #14.

*****

We are currently at the cross roads of one of Motown's biggest acts: The Four Tops. After 17 Top 40 hits beginning in 1964 and running continuously through 1971 including two number ones, I CAN'T HELP MYSELF and REACH OUT ILL BE THERE, the group drops off the Top 40 this week for the final time as a Motown act. The male champions of the Holland-Dozier Holland sound do so with an anticlimactic whimper. How Motown chose this release as a single, an unedited split of an almost seven minute album cut from two years ago, 1969, only they can explain. This possibly is the only 45 ever released that begins midway into the song ... with the first half pressed as its 'b' side. Perhaps a coin toss decided which half of the song would be offered as the "A" side, the second half winning:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tphfU05h4M


Meanwhile, at this very same time, The Four Tops are riding high in the UK with a record that isn't from any of their albums . A SIMPLE GAME is a cover of an unknown B-side tune from a Moody Blues single, [they sing back-up] that somehow The Four Tops recorded in England in 1970. Now #12 from #18 the song will continue to climb until its peak at #3 [#14 Ireland].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDID-1NYAjg

A SIMPLE GAME will get a US release but it will peter out at #90, the kumbaya theme falling flat as it also did with their Supremes shared song YOU GOTTA HAVE LOVE IN YOUR HEART that fell short of making the Top 40 a few weeks ago. The success of A SIMPLE GAME in the UK suggests it's premature to count the Four Tops out as just yet despite the under performing release of MACARTHUR PARK under Motown. The group hasn’t broken up and their original lineup remains the same, they are simply moving on.

*****
Of special note:
NEVER MY LOVE by The Fifth Dimension [see Chart #41] is now #1 this week on the Easy Listening chart [#26 Top 40].

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #44
Oct. 30, 1971

Motown has slowed to a crawl this week, with seven records scattered about the charts but nothing commandeering. No Motown songs, for the first time in a long while, are in the Top 10, two songs are on the Top 40, with one dropping off by a Motown one hit wonder, and one Hot 100 debut is brought on by a small big gun - and without a moment to lose.

The Top Ten

Rod Stewart is at #1 again this week [UK also] , fifth week, now giving him one of 1971's biggest hits with MAGGIE MAE. Carpenters give up their attempt to reach the top with SUPERSTAR dropping to #4 from #2, Cher's GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES trading places at #2 from #4. Unlike a YO YO, the Osmonds again neither go up or down, third week at #3. SHAFT by Isaac Hayes is the biggest mover within the Top 10 now at #5 from #9.
Three new songs on the Top 10.
Last week, THEME FROM SHAFT entered the Top 10 in record speed, on its second week on the Hot 100. A rare event but this week John Lennon repeats the feat, with IMAGINE entering the Top 10 in its second week on the Hot 100 , # 6 from #20. Also this week, exactly the opposite extreme occurs with Free Movement's I'VE FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN finally breaking into the Top 10 taking 22 weeks [5 1/2 months] of chart climbing to do so. The third Top 10 debut is Cat Steven's PEACE TRAIN in at #9 from #15. Three on, these three off: GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL , Donny Osmond #11 from #7, SWEET CITY WOMAN The Stampeders, #16 down from #8, and Stevie Wonder's IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME to #14 from #10 ,

The Top 40:

IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME -Stevie Wonder - #14 from #10.
^INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] - Marvin Gaye up to #19 from #21, surprisingly slim move compared to the 14 jump last week.
Off:
SMILING FACES SOMETIMES - The Undisputed Truth - off the Hot 100 from #30. The Norman Whitfield created singing group now depart for the last time off the Top 40, as they will never reappear there again despite numerous attempts with mostly recycled Temptations songs. In 1976 they'll have a #6 disco hit with YOU+ME=LOVE on Whitfield's own label.


New to the Top 40: five total, mostly chart veterans :

Highest Debut:
EVERYBODY'S EVERYTHING- Santana #28 up from #47 [4th Top 40 hit]

QUESTIONS 69 AND 69/ I'M A MAN - Chicago #35 up from #45 [8th and 9th Top 40 Hit]
TWO DIVIDED BY LOVE -Grass Roots #38 up from #48 [12th Top 40 hit]
ONE TIN SOLDIER [THE LEGEND OF BILLY JACK] - Coven - #39 up from #41 [*first time artist][One Hit Wonder]
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT - Five Man Electrical Band -[2nd Top 40 hit] #40 up from #54



The Hot 100:
One Motown debut:
1st week: GOT TO BE THERE - Michael Jackson - #89 DEBUT

3rd week: ^BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas -#56 up from #65
4th Week: TOUCH - Supremes -#80 down from #71
8th week: MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops #59 down from #52
8th week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #62 same as last week
No drop offs.
By proxy:
#79 -SCORPIO -Dennis Coffey And The Detroit Guitar Band - Motown in-house musician [First and only Funk Brother to chart a 45 under his own name [?] ]


*****
A very good week for:
Steve Winwood [British 80's solo recording artist [WHILE YOU SEE A CHANCE, HIGHER LOVE with Chaka Khan], previously in bands Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith]
Chicago enters the Top 40 this week with a split single , one side being I'M A MAN a Top 10 Spencer Davis Group hit in 1967 written by Steve when he was a part of the band.
Also a hit by The Spencer Davis Group GIMMIE SOME LOVIN', which reached #2 in 1967 is charting again , this time a live version by Traffic [#83 from#90, 2nd week], which is a new music ensemble created by Winwood. The song was the immediate result of a Spencer Davis jam session when they were pressured by their label to come up with a follow-up hit.

Both these lengthy percussion laden songs will get major disco remakes: I'M A MAN by Macho [#6 disco] being one of the first Italo-Disco hits under the leadership of Jacques Fred Petrus [who popularized Luther Vandross in his group Change], and GIMMIE SOME LOVIN' by a mysterious group called Kongas [#2 disco] that offered some drama with the French disco rivalry of Cerrone / Constandinos.

*****
A most unlikely Motown record on the Rare Earth label has now spent eight weeks on the Hot 100. The group is Messengers from Minnesota, with THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS, and sounding a bit like I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW by Tommy James [who is also on this week's Hot 100 , slipping now out of the Top 40] .
The bubblegumish tune also has a slightly different version recorded by Ohio Express of YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY [I GOT LOVE IN MY TUMMY] [#4 peak in 1968] fame that didn't chart. Although light and fluffy in sound, the lyrics of THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS are themselves rather sardonic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVk0-PrkdD4

Motown released the song in many countries in 1971 - [Argentina, South Africa, Italy etc.] and Japan, where it has become an ongoing favorite by various acts :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvgKr24KRvk

At a time when 45s are becoming increasingly longer, just under four minutes becoming common and some even longer, UNCLE ALBERT [4:49]and MY SWEET LORD [4:39] for example, THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS bucks the trend clocking in at under 2 minutes [1:54].

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #45
Nov. 6, 1971


Good bounce-back week for Motown; seven songs total on the Hot 100, one in the Top Ten, three in the top 40, one a debut, four additional songs rank below the Top 40, two are new, both by big names, replacing two singles that drop off.

The Top 10:

After hogging the #1 spot for five weeks, Rod Stewart has decided to share the esteemed position, yielding to a bunch of GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES. Right beneath that, the THEME to the movie SHAFT , by Isaac Hayes from #5 with the biggest Top Ten move. MAGGIE MAE is #3, with John and Yoko next at #4, IMAGINE that.
Cher is #1 for the first time as a solo artist and the first time since she and her husband Sonny hit #1 their first time out with I GOT YOU BABE in 1965.
Just one new song breaks the Top Ten, Marvin Gaye's INNER CITY BLUES, a rare record title that's not actually sung in the lyrics [its subtitle '[MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER]' is], big ten point leap to get there #9 from #19, the biggest mover within the chart. Lee Michael's DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN drops out of the Top 10 to #12 from #7.

The Top 40:

IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder - #15 one point dip from #14

New to the Top 40: four total, 3/4 Top 10 bound

Highest Debut:
BABY I'M-A WANT YOU - Bread #22 up from #43 [6th Top 40 Hit]

ROCK STEADY - Aretha Franklin #34 up from #69 [25th Top 40 Hit]
GOT TO BE THERE - Michael Jackson #39 up from #89 [* first time artist as solo]
CHARITY BALL - Fanny #40 up from #42 [*first time artist]

off: none from Motown

The Hot 100:

Two Motown debuts:
1st Week: SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations #85 DEBUT
1st: week I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross - #89 DEBUT
4rd week: ^BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - #53 up from #56
9th week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messenger #72 down from #62

Two drop offs
5th Week: TOUCH - Supremes - off from #80

The title cut from the group's current album, TOUCH was but a gentle tap on the Hot 100 lasting four weeks and peaking at #71 [no charting R&B]. TOUCH features a bit of a change-up with both Jean Terrell and Mary Wilson, [ soloing by her a rare event], sharing lead vocals, and "touch" will become a favorite term when autograph signing for Mary Wilson. After producing the past three albums, Frank Wilson [no relation to Mary] departs as their producer and sets his sights on Eddie Kendricks. Smokey Robinson steps in to produce and the group returns by year's end.
8th week: MacARTHUR PARK [PT. II] - The Four Tops - Off from #59

*****
A very good week for:
The Chi-Lites.
Perseverance pays off for this vocal group that has been together since forming while in high school in 1959, with various members, the main glue being lead singer Eugene Record. In 1964, the Hi-Lites change their name for legalities to The Chi-Lites [from Chicago]
The Chi-Lites have not one but two records on the Hot 100 this week, bolting to #14 with HAVE YOU SEEN HER [3rd week], and at #100 with I WANT TO PAY YOU BACK [FOR LOVING ME], and a very hot LP.
Brunswick Records has been cleverly filtering out releases from the LP, three so far, but word is out about the HAVE YOU SEEN HER cut and due to pressure from competitive copycats, they are now rush releasing this fourth single overlapping the current one.

Quote:

---

October 30:
By ED OCHS
SOUL SLICES: Even while Baltimore was losing a World Series,
the music business was hustling and bustling in Baltimore, where the
Chi -Lites "Have You Seen Her" was the top song at WWIN when
local group Freddie & the Spindles, struck by the obvious, recorded
the zooming LP cut. Why didn't Brunswick release the single
immediately, satisfying the rare and persistent demand of soul radio
'round the country? Or did Frankie & the Spindles, a local group,
step in and force the action and reaction by Brunswick, which initially
responded to the roar by issuing in mid -September another single
from the album, "I Want to Pay You Back." Enter Frankie & the
Spindles, and jukeboxes and retail outlets are servicing the single
Brunswick would not. Now, of course, two weeks after Frankie
figured it out, the Chi -Lites' "Have You Seen Her" single is the top
soul tune everywhere. At least Frankie & the Spindles grabbed some
added exposure while selling the Chi -Lites' LP out as Brunswick
slept.

---

The Spindles' inexplicable party infused interpretation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSeV9l8qE3c

Quote:

---

Nov. 6th
By ED OCHS
SOUL SLICES:
Near gold is the Chi -Lites' "Have You Seen Her." At least seven covers of the smash took the wraps off the Chi -Lites' original, says Brunswick's Pete Garris, who didn't want to slow up the album's push toward the half million mark by parting with the big cut. "We had 40,000 copies of the single sitting on the floor," said Garris, "but now the album's picking up again and with the singles we could hit over 31/2 million pieces." In a holding pattern is the group's "I Want to Pay You Back" single, and that's the good news.

---

*****
Don't blink: The Spinners have split from Motown, but the singer [on both leads] of their biggest hit while at the label for ten years, IT'S A SHAME, hasn't: G.C. Cameron has gone solo and ACT LIKE A SHOTGUN on the new label MOWEST is at #50 on the Soul Singles Top 50 Chart for the second week of its two week run. Next week, it'll be gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5H3nSk2oz0

Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #46
Nov. 13, 1971

Pretty good week for Motown: Six songs total on the Hot 100, with no debuts and one drop off, one song in the Top Ten, three songs total on the Top 40 with a strong debut.

The Top Ten:

Cheers for Cher, repeating her #1 position with GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES [the song's working title: GYPSIES TRAMPS AND WHITE TRASH] and SHAFT by Isaac Hayes also holds its' position at #2. The Lennons' IMAGINE moves one up to #3. Most impressive this: six months it took, but Free Movement's I'VE FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN is now a Top 5 record, up three from eight, the Top Ten's biggest move.
This is rare, none of the songs on this week's Top Ten are strong enough to be earmarked with 'bullet' status, save one, the only new song amongst them. Most songs remain static, even Marvin Gaye's INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] repeats at #9, this after bulleting to that spot last week with a ten point jump. New entry: HAVE YOU SEEN HER, by The Chi-Lites written by the group's lead singer Eugene Record is #8 with a bullet, six up from #14.
Joan Baez' THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN departs the Top Ten down to #19 from #9.

The Top 40:

^GOT TO BE THERE - Michael Jackson - #13 up from #39 & the chart's biggest mover, 26 spaces.
IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder - falls to #34 from #15
Off : none from Motown

New to the Top 40: six total, one each from San Francisco, Detroit, and Memphis -and three from Hollywood:

Highest Debut:
FAMILY AFFAIR - Sly & the Family Stone - #21 up 29 from #50 2nd week [8th Top 40 Hit]

ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU - Sonny and Cher - #33 up 9 from #42 6th week [8th Top 40 Hit]
RESPECT YOURSELF - The Staple Singers -#37 up 7 from #44 5th week [2nd Top 40 Hit]
SCORPIO -Dennis Coffey And The Detroit Guitar Band -#38 up 6 from #46 3rd week [*1st time artist[
WHAT ARE YOU DOING SUNDAY -Dawn #39 up 2 from #41 7th week [5th Top 40 Hit]
CHERISH - David Cassidy #40 up 47 from #87 2nd week [*1st time artist as solo]

The Hot 100:

No debuts

2nd week:^ SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations - #67 up from #85
2nd week: ^I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross - #78 up from #89
5th week: BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - #53 sames as last week

Off:
10th week: THAT'S THE WAY A WOMAN IS - Messengers off from #72 [see chart #44]
The Messengers from Minnesota now depart with perhaps their one Hot 100 charter. Formed in 1962, [Mike &] The Messengers have been signed at Motown since 1966. They were the first to record Ashford and Simpson's CALIFORNIA SOUL, under the guidance of new Motown name Jerry Bowen, the song made most famous by The Fifth Dimension. It was released as the "b' side of The Messengers 45 called WINDOW SHOPPING .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65h29CF-Rs

An un-credited female is heard singing on CALIFORNIA SOUL with this all male vocal group, Valerie Simpson?

*****

In the UK, a record of interest has now peaked at #5. From the second album of six released in the seventies, The group from Norway, called Titanic, scores its most renowned hit with SULTANA. The record has been cited as one of the earliest European links to disco and one of the first singles to boast a promo 'long' and 'short' version:

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...ru/s-l225.webp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNy2aigt_EM&list=RDBNy2aigt_EM&sta rt_radio =1

The instrumental record is highly rhythmic, its inspiration coming from the American group Santana [Hence Sultana >>> Santana]. The group's main songwriter, Janne Løseth [guitar & vocal], will break ranks in the mid seventies and become lead singer and member of the French disco group Space [MAGIC FLY] that will also feature the voice of Madleen Bell.


*****
A very good week for
being Sonny or Cher:

Cher has the biggest selling/ most radio played single of the week for a second week with GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES and together as a married couple the Bonos have the second highest debuting song of the week with ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU [first recorded by Ray Charles also in 1971] at #33. Both records are produced by Snuff Garrett , so a very good week for him as well.

*****
Of note:
Also on the UK chart, rediscovered Motown vocal group The Elgins have peaked at #28 [now# 34] with a re-release of PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE, this a follow up to their #3 placement of the re-release of HEAVEN MUST HAVE SENT YOU back in September.

Also, Rod Stewart's MAGGIE MAE, remains at #1 in the UK and will tie the 5 week run at that position that happened in the US.

Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #47
Nov. 20, 1971

Not a big Motown week, but a couple of bright spots: a new Motown record breaks into the Top 10, replacing one that suddenly drops out. One new Motown record in the Top 40, it also replaces one that drops out. Six songs total on the Hot 100, one is new at #85. 3 new Hot 100 songs by proxy.

The Top Ten:

Shut your mouth Cher and your GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES, this week we're talking about SHAFT! Now the new #1 and in just six weeks by Isaac Hayes.

Several hits in fact have fast-tracked to the top rack ---Five songs that have been on the Hot 100 for five weeks or less have bolted into the Top 10. Newcomer Rod Stewart is the senior member in this regard with MAGGIE MAE now in its 19th week of chart service now #6 from #4.
Three new songs bust on, each in quick order: BABY I'M-A WANT YOU - Bread from #11 to #4 in its 5th week, FAMILY AFFAIR - Sly & the Family Stone #8 from #21 in 3rd week, and GOT TO BE THERE Michael Jackson #9 from #13, fourth week.
Out of the Top 10: Free Movement's I FOUND SOMEONE OF MY OWN , the charts reigning elder finally drops out of the Top Ten: 26 chart weeks now for them, down to #11 from #5, their peak; Marvin Gaye #12 from #9 , his peak with INNER CITY BLUES; and The Carpenters dive to #16 from #10 with SUPERSTAR.

The Top 40:

INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] -Marvin Gaye- After sitting at #9 for two weeks, the record slips out of the Top 10. #12 down from #9.

Biggest mover on the chart:
RESPECT YOURSELF -The Staple Singers #23 up from #37, a fourteen place leap.

New to the Top 40: six total again this week, a mixed bag, and half are appearing for their first time:

Highest Debut:
WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO - Donnie Elbert - #30 up 21 from #51 - sixth week [*first time artist]

THEME FROM SUMMER OF '42 - Peter Nero #31 up 12 from #43 - sixth week [*first time artist] [One Hit Wonder]
SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations - #32 up 35 from #67 - 3rd week [28th Top 40 Hit]
WILD NIGHT - Van Morrison - #36 up 5 from #41 - 7th week [4th and Final Top 40 Hit]
AN OLD FASHIONED LOVE SONG - Three Dog Night #39 up 38 from #77 - 2nd week [11th Top 40 hit] [ 4th Top 40 Hit this year]
I'D LOVE TO CHANGE THE WORLD - Ten Years After #40 up 1 from #41 - 9th week [* first time artist] [One Hit Wonder and just barely]

off the chart:
IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME - Stevie Wonder - falls off the Top 40/Hot 100 from #34. Stevie Wonder's 21st Top 40 song [12th Top 10] drops off after 11 weeks and peaking at #8. Stevie will take a chart break for a few months.


The Hot 100:

One debut:
1st week: SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles #84 DEBUT


3rd week: ^I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross -#63 up 15 from #78
6th week: BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - #56 down 3 from #53

3 songs by proxy :
ONE MONKEY DON'T STOP NO SHOW - Honey Cone HDH's Hot Wax Label
CAN I GET A WITNESS - Lee Michaels -HDH song, hit single for Marvin Gaye [#22]
[I KNOW] I'M LOSING YOU - Rod Stewart - Top Ten Hit for both The Temptations and Rare Earth

A very good week for:
Music from movies:
Four such recordings on the Top 40:
At the very top: The theme from the movie SHAFT by Isaac Hayes.

New to the Top 40: The theme to the Movie A SUMMER OF '42, The Michael Legrand soundtrack is peaking at #52 on Billboard's album chart this week. Peter Nero's cover version of the title song is what is charting Top 40.

Chicago rock group, Coven, [actually their vocalist, Jinx Dawson] has recorded a version of ONE TIN SOLDIER, used in the movie BILLY JACK. The original Canadian recording by The Original Caste vocal group from 1969 reached the Top 40 in early 1970, peaking at #34.Coven's version will peak at #26 after it gets pulled from radio by BILLY JACK's movie producer apparently not wanting any promotion for the movie in the midst of distribution conflicts.

Also as it descends, the Carpenters SUPERSTAR release is suddenly a two-sided hit with BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN , its b-side, gets shared billing. [As it initially did the first week this record appeared on the Hot 100 weeks ago.] The tune will lose out to SHAFT for the best song Oscar for this year .
This instrumental version can only be found on the original vinyl ST:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zv3QSuXKao

More music from this film project will make it to the Top 40 in a few years up the road.

******

Also a good week [that's concluding a very good year] for:
Phil Spector.
John Lennon's IMAGINE, perhaps his most renowned song as a post-Beatle, said to be his best seller, is at #3 for a second week and is produced by Lennon and Phil Spector with Yoko Ono also involved.
IMAGINE will be recorded by Diana Ross and performed in concerts by Stevie Wonder.

At #72 , slipping one from #71 in its 5th week, YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELIN' written and produced by Spector in 1965 becoming a #1 song by The Righteous Brothers, is now being dueted by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway [#30 Soul Chart]. This is the second song from the duo's future album of next year, their version of YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND reached #21 this summer, premiering the two artists on the charts ...

*****
Ponderosa Twins Plus One peaked on the Hot 100 at #76 after seven weeks and this week they spend the last of their eleven weeks on the Soul chart at #33 [#23 peak] with a cover of Sam Cooke's YOU SEND ME. The Cleveland Ohio group consists of two set of twins , plus one other , formed in 1969 while attending the same high school [the Ponderosa part of their name unexplained].
The youthful group is vying for radio space within a setting already well-loaded with youthful voices. Their 1:51 version of WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE produced by Funkadelic member Calvin Simon fails to chart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcjj7-FOCVU

In a few months , Michael Jackson will release his remake of a similarly styled & bird-lyriced recording, ROCKIN' ROBIN.

Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #48
Nov. 27, 1971

Motown never has a terrible week really, just some that are better than others. This week's not especially remarkable, but not bad. Six songs on the Hot 100, same as last week, one drops off, & one debuts. Two songs on the Top 40, one is Top 10.

The Top Ten:

All ten songs are originals, no remakes. Five are written by the artists' themselves. The oddball is TV talk show host, Les Crane's THE DESIDERATA. It is a reciting of some prose from Max Erhmann from the 1920s [from his Christmas card], this being the first time the words are recorded and put into a musical context . Max has been dead since 1945, but his new-age motivational theme now takes the culture by storm, the poster with its message pops up everywhere.

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...Bs/s-l225.webp

THEME FROM SHAFT repeats at #1 by Isaac Hayes, his second week at the top, and Cher and the gang are again at #2. Michael Jackson's GOT TO BE THERE employs a solid jump to #7 up 2 from #9. FAMILY AFFAIR by The Stone Family is the Ten's biggest mover, 3 places from #8 to #5. Two new songs appear this week: ROCK STEADY by Aretha Franklin is at #9 from #15, and THE DESIDERATA enters at #10 from #13.
Wake up Maggie, you're out of the Top 10, Rod Stewart is at #11 down from #6. And YO YO by The Osmonds drops from #10 to #15.

The Top 40:

INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] -Marvin Gaye #22 dropping ten from #12
^SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations #28 up four from #32

New to the Top 40:
Five New songs this week, amixed bag, with one headed for the top.

Highest Debut:
STONES - Neil Diamond #23 up 24 from #47 3rd week - [17th Top 40 hit]

BRAND NEW KEY - Melanie #33 up 21 from #54 5th week - [3rd Top 40 hit]
YOU ARE EVERYTHING - Stylistics - #35 up 8 from #43 4th week - [2nd Top 40 hit]
I KNOW [I'M LOSING YOU] -Rod Stewart #38 up 41 from #79 2nd week - [2nd Top 40 Hit]
SHE'S ALL I GOT - Freddie North #39 up 2 from 41 9th week - [*First time artist] [One Hit Wonder] [see chart #40]

no drop offs from Motown

The Hot 100:

One debut:
1st week: HEY BIG BROTHER -Rare Earth #77 DEBUT

2nd week: ^SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles #64 up 20 from #84
4rd week: I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross -#63 same as last week

Off:
7th week: BLESS YOU - Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - off from #56
Martha and the [new] Vandellas were close to Top 40 success with this The Corporation [Jackson Five songwriters] single that peaked at #53.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ9dZ0p3208


In their 10 year run at Motown the group has been in the Top 10 six times just missing #1 with DANCING IN THE STREET [at #2] in 1964. The vocal group will release their next [and last] album next year with more singles issued from it, but BLESS YOU is going to be their last Hot 100 appearance.



A very good week for:
SUPERSTARs
Seems unlikely that after the theme from the rock opera JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR peaked at #14 by Murray Head back in June , that any more 'superstar' themed songs would emerge, but now there are two such records on the chart.
At #21 down five from #16 are The Carpenters' SUPERSTAR, while The Temptations SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] moves up four from #32 to #28. Recently [see Chart 43] it was noted that the couple Delaney and Bonnie were having a very good week, year. Add to that, they wrote The Carpenters SUPERSTAR #2 hit along with Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell.
The Temptations song features the group's new line-up with lyrics that suggest a grudge toward departed band members.
Two at once, three this year .....a very good year for superstar records.


*****

OK. It's time to do some talkin' about SHAFT :


. The soundtrack will chart for over a year, peaking at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 LPs and will be the R&B LP chart's #1 song for 14 weeks. It is also #1 on Billboard's jazz LP chart. The double album will become Stax Records all-time #1 seller in its history.
When Hayes was shown the opening sequence of the movie with Richard Roundtree emerging out of the NYC subway, Hayes developed a pulsating urban vibe that became SHAFT's theme.
The song is considered by some to be the first [albeit, unintended] disco record. It herald's many disco elements that will come to typify the disco sound: hissing high hat, wah wah guitar, flutes, punching horns and strings, and airy female back ups all over a driving 121 BPM beat.
Isaac Hayes will embrace disco and showcase it in future works, his style magnified in his upcoming THEME FROM THE MEN, and he will release two future albums with 'disco' in their titles, DISCO CONNECTION and JUICY FRUIT [DISCO FREAK] as well as recording a disco remake of SHAFT released in 1978. He will place on the disco chart four separate times.
That the development of disco owes a lot of its roots to the SHAFT movie theme and the groundbreaking sound Isaac Hayes, along with Johnny Allen, employs therein can't be overstated.

*****

Always watching for competing versions of the same song on the charts. In Europe, almost every country has embraced a song call OH MAMMY [or MAMY]. Originally composed in French in 1970, various artists have covered the song and multiple versions are successfully co-sharing their chartings in many countries. OH MAMMY is #1, or close to it around the world, all of Europe [and #1 in Germany for 10 weeks], Mexico, South Africa [#1 for 12 weeks], Japan, Israel, Brazil, and in Argentina, MAMMY BLUE 's #1 spot is co-shared by five different versions. Various artists include Roger Whitaker, James Darren [the actor], and Bob Crewe. The most prominent recording is by the group the Pop Tops out of Madrid Spain. Theirs is the only version so far to break Billboard's Hot 100 and this week it is #57 in its seventh week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKp9e1_YsWk

*****

Eying emerging musical styles penetrating the pop charts ...disco...country... another form is reggae:
To be featured next week.

Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #49
Dec. 4, 1971

As the year is winding down, so too it seems is Motown. Same six songs on the Hot 100 as last week, no new ones and none drop off. Same three songs on the Top 40, one in the Top 10. The biggest names from the Motown roster are under-performing.

The Top 10:

A new #1, with a power leap to the top, Sly & The Family Stone bolt five notches from #5, overstepping Bread's BABY I'M A WANT YOU [#3 again], and The Chi-Lites HAVE YOU SEEN HER [#4 again] [both seeming to be #1 bound] to bump off Isaac Hayes and THE THEME FROM SHAFT, now #2. FAMILY AFFAIR also takes the #1 spot on the Soul Singles chart replacing HAVE YOU SEEN HER , where SHAFT has now dropped out of that chart's Top 10.
Michael Jackson is still ascending, this week by one to #6 from #7. He's GOT TO BE THERE, and is. Just one new Top 10 record: Three Dog Night's AN OLD FASHIONED LOVE SONG enters at #7 from #14. Cat Stevens exits peacefully with PEACE TRAIN to #14 from #8. Maybe the biggest surprise is Aretha's ROCK STEADY repeating at a steady #9 after jumping six places into the Top ten last week.

The Top 40:

^SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations #25 mildly up 3 from #28.
INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] -Marvin Gaye #29 down 7 from 22.
no Motown drop offs.

Biggest mover on the chart:
BRAND NEW KEY - Melanie - #15 up 18 from#33

New to the Top 40: Five records, another mixed bag.
Highest Debut:
HEY GIRL/I KNEW YOU WHEN - Donny Osmond- #32 up 38 from #70 [3rd Top 40 hit, titles here combined]

SUNSHINE - Jonathan Edwards -#36 up 16 from #52 [*first time artist] [One Hit Wonder]
AN AMERICAN TRILOGY - Mickey Newbury -#37 up 13 from #50 - [*first time artist] [One Hit Wonder]
BEHIND BLUE EYES -Who - #38 up 10 from #48 - [tenth Top 40 Hit]
I'M A GREEDY MAN [part I] - James Brown #39 up 4 from #43- [36th Top 40 hit]
YOUR MOVE -Yes - #40 up 3 from#43 [*first time artist]

The Hot 100:

no debuts:
2nd week: ^HEY BIG BROTHER -Rare Earth #60 up 17 from #77
3rd week: ^SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles #58 up 6 from #64
5th week: I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross -#67 down 4 from #63 last week
.
no drop offs ,

One debut by proxy
LAY LADY LAY -The Isley Brothers #82 - former Motown artist.

A very good week for:
double-sided hits

and they can use it, as the double sided hit 45 is in great decline and by next year will become practically nonexistent.
This week there are three within the Top 40.
#23 - Rod Stewart's MAGGIE MAE/REASON TO BELIEVE - had radio DJs not flipped this record to unveil the MAGGIE MAE side, this release would've petered out perhaps not even making the Top 40.
#32 - HEY GIRL /I KNEW YOU WHEN - Donny Osmond- Donny's latest single, another remake ... both sides ... take your pick.
#33 - Chicago's QUESTIONS 67 AND 68 /I'M A MAN - perhaps to hedge their bet if radio stations wouldn't take to this re-release by the increasingly popular Chicago, their first single from 1969 that peaked at #77, Columbia doubled the play option with the alternative 'b' side of a hit remake.
One more to mention: The Carpenters SUPERSTAR charted as that title during all of its Top 40 run, except for its last week when it got listed as SUPERSTAR/BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN [see chart #47]. That "b' side is now charting as its own title and is at #89 [credited though with five weeks [?] of charting].
There were many such split 45s in 1971. There are no additional double-sided hits on the horizon.

*****

Reggae: is a Jamaican musical style that emerged in the late 60s. The first record to use the word was the non-charting DO THE REGGAY by Toots and the Maytals [reggae derived from 'tattered clothing']. Reggae's presence on the charts has been sparse, cited hits include HOLD ME TIGHT by Johnny Nash in 1968 and The Beatles OB-LA-DI OB-LA-DA also 1968. 1972 will see some prominent hits with a reggae flavor. Right now there's a bit of a novelty song on the UK chart: JOHNNY REGGAE by The Piglets. The Piglets are a female trio masterminded by Jonathan King, a record making wizard who will be very successful in the next couple of years. It's a very good week for Jonathan: not only has JOHNNY REGGAE peaked at #3 in the UK but the Bay City Rollers are still charting with their first single created by King: KEEP ON DANCING, which peaked at #9 and only charted in the UK, but - The Bay City Rollers are just getting started.

A side and B side [disco tinged instrumental]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lJDeYIh4No

The brief, excited female part is a revisit of the infamous JET'AIME MOI NON PLUS European hit of 1969 [#58 Hot 100], and will very soon be amplified further by another European hit, JUNGLE FEVER that will set the mood for future hits specifically by Donna Summer and others in the disco genre.

Also trying to get a foothold beyond the lowest rungs of the Soul Singles chart [#40 in its 10th chart week, #25 peak] is a California record [on Vulture] by Frederick II [his only recording]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvUrphRyj2s

GROOVIN' OUT ON LIFE is a cover of Hopetown Lewis' local Jamaican hit of this year.

Also this week, mentioned as a Billboard special merit spotlight release:

Quote:

---

*M.G.'s- Jamaica This Morning [[3:06) [[Prod. M.G.'s) [[Writers: Jackson -
Dunn -Ford) [[Dunn- Jack,East /Memphis, BMI)- Infectious instrumental
instrumental rhythm item loaded with such appeal for top 40, MOR, soul
and jukebox play. Could break through for a heavy chart item. Stax 0108

---

Stax dabbles in the reggae sound a bit, but Motown ifaik, never does, although Stevie Wonder titles a song, BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN, and Lionel Richies'
ALL NIGHT LONG is cited as having Caribbean influences.

Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #50
Dec. 11, 1971
Joe Simon commemorative who passed away 12-13-21.

The year is coming to an end and while Motown is not ending it with a bang, it's not quite a whimper. Six Motown records grace the Hot 100. One is in the Top 10, two in the Top 40, and two new records come onto the Hot 100 as two of their biggest acts drop out. This week, The Jackson family are providing the label its' most oomph.

The Top Ten:

Something unique this week, the top four songs are also on the Top 50 Soul Singles chart:

#1 FAMILY AFFAIR -Sly And The Family Stone [2nd week] -#1 Soul
#2 THEME FROM SHAFT - Isaac Hayes - #13 Soul
#3 HAVE YOU SEEN HER - Chi-Lites - #5 Soul
#4 GOT TO BE THERE - Michael Jackson #4 Soul
Sly Stone repeats at #1 for the second week, with Isaac Hayes holding at #2. Michael Jackson's GOT TO BE THERE goes Top 5, a two point increase, and is Motown's hottest record at the moment.
While Melanie's BRAND NEW KEY enters the Top 10 in its 7th week, Aretha's ROCK STEADY falls out in its 7th, to #12 from #9, a steady but abbreviated chart run. John Lennon's IMAGINE is also out #13 from #10, while Sonny and Cher enter at #8 from #11 with ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU.

The Top 40:

^SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations #22 slight advance up 3 from #25.
off:
INNER CITY BLUES [MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER] -Marvin Gaye
The third single in a trilogy from Marvin's monumental WHATS GOING ON LP , INNER CITY BLUES had an eight week run and topped at #9 giving Gaye three Top 10 singles from one album a feat that made Gaye the first male solo artist to place three top ten singles on the Hot 100 off one album. Each single from the LP also reached number one on the Soul Singles chart, the first time this occurred on any Billboard chart.
Gaye will now take a break from the chart for almost a year, returning with a reminder, like Diana Ross, that Motown has now gone Hollywood.

New to the Top 40: Six records, including some big career defining ones.

Highest Debut:

ONE MONKEY DON'T STOP NO SHOW- Honey Cone #30 up 14 from #44 4th week [3rd Top 40 Hit]

I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING - Hillside Singers #31 up 20 from #51 3rd week [*first time artist] [One Hit Wonder]
CLEAN UP WOMAN - Betty Wright #32 up 25 from #57 - 3rd week [2nd Top 40 hit]
DROWNING IN THE SEA OF LOVE - Joe Simon #37 up 6 from #43 - 3rd week [4th Top 40 hit]
LETS STAY TOGETHER - Al Green #38 up 30 from #68 -2nd week [2nd Top 40 hit]
HALLELUJAH -Sweathog #39 up 9 from #48 - 5th week [*first time artist][One Hit Wonder]
AMERICAN PIE - Don McLean #34 up 35 from #69 2nd week [*first time artist][this title was omitted from last weeks debuts , charting was as shown. It is now #23 in its second week up 11]

The Hot 100:
Two Motown Debuts:

1st week: SUGAR DADDY - Jackson Five - #72 - Debut
1st week: WAY BACK HOME - Jr. Walker & The All Stars -#85 - Debut
3rd week: ^HEY BIG BROTHER -Rare Earth #46 up 14 from #60
4th week: ^SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles #53 up 5 from #58
off:
6th week: I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross off from #67.
Diana Ross departs the Hot 100 with her sixth release as a solo artist. In spite of it being a #1 hit in the UK, it is her worst Hot 100 performing single to date and first to not make the Top 40, peaking at #63 [ in Canada #81] and it will be Ross' worst Hot 100 performing single of her Motown solo career [almost]. It is all uphill from here. When Ross returns next year it'll be with music from her debut acting career, starring in a biography of Billie Holiday.

*****
a very good week for
Jonathan King.
Last week it was mentioned the producer was enjoying success on the UK chart with two acts under his wing: The Piglest with JOHNNY REGGAE holding again this week at #5, and The Bay City Rollers, who move back up again some #27 from #33 with their long running KEEP ON DANCING. Also on the UK Top 50 is King himself with a remake of HOOKED ON A FEELING, a #5 song by BJ Thomas in 1968. King has done something weird in his version adding an ooga chaka chant which he calls a 'reggae rhythm by male voices'. This added ingredient will be repeated in a very successful, soon to come remake by a group out of Sweden.
Also on the UK chart: Comedian Benny Hill has a#1 hit with a comic novelty ERNIE THE FASTEST MILKMAN IN THE WEST.
Two versions competing in the UK: neck to neck: FOR ALL WE KNOW by The Carpenters #24 and Shirley Bassey #23.

*****
A very good week for
'America' :
Both in their second week on the Top 40 are Don McLean's AMERICAN PIE and Mickey Newbury's AN AMERICAN TRILOGY , which will be embraced by Elvis Presley and will become a highlight of his concerts and is included in his upcoming #1 release ALOHA LIVE FROM HAWAII VIA SATELLITE:
https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...mS/s-l225.webp

In the UK HEY AMERICA a 'Christmas' song by James Brown that will not chart on any US chart.
Billboard also spotlights a new song by The Byrds
they seem enthused about:

Quote:

---

BYRDS - AMERICA'S GREAT NATIONAL PASTIME
[2:56]
[Prod:Byrds] [Writers: Battin-Fowley)] [Kyo/BadBoy,BMI] - This wild rhythm
item with a lyric line to match has it to bring the Byrds back with heavy
sales and chart action. Lyric should be listened to throughout. Heavy
jukebox record.

---

******
Another good week for:
The Bonos
Cher's GYPSIES TRAMPS AND THIEVES and the couple's ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU bump into each other as they traverse the charts, putting both songs side by side and in the Top 10 at the same time, #7 and #8 respectively.

******
Joe Simon:
Never wanting to again pick cotton in the hot sun, Joe Simon, born in Simmesport, Louisiana in 1936, followed his singing talents he discovered in church. By his accounts, he spent early times of his adulthood literally living in a chicken coop. When settling in the East Bay of San Francisco, he buddied with Larry Graham and Sly Stone, building his career over a ten year period until 1971 when he partnered with Gamble and Huff to record one of his definitive albums DROWNING IN THE SEA OF LOVE . Exactly 50 years ago Simon was witnessing the thrill of the title track of his upcoming LP, his career seventh, conquering the charts. .

From 1969, long before Michael Jackson, Joe Simon [who liked dance oriented tunes] was doing The MOON WALK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXxgUp_U45A

Doesn't appear to be any Motown music in Joe Simon's repertoire, but before Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross, he covered the Stylistics current hit song YOU ARE EVERYTHING [this week #18 up 9] [and released in the UK only as a single]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEuhYqY5MmI

Thom Bell wrote it with Bobby Martin handling Joe Simon's version.

Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #51
Dec. 18, 1971

Rare Earth commemorative
Founding lifetime member Gil Bridges passes: 12-8-21

Much the same this week as 1971 fades out mildly for Motown, but the label does up its presence this chart. Still one song on the Top 10, three in the Top 40 with a debut, and with two additional tunes debuting on the Hot 100 and none dropping off, Motown has a total of eight charters.

The Top 10:

FAMILY AFFAIR by Sly & The Family Stone tops the Hot 100 for the third week. It is also the group's third #1 song, preceded by EVERYDAY PEOPLE in 1968, and THANK YOU [FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN/ EVERYBODY IS A STAR in 1969. It's a FAMILY AFFAIR , besides the regular Stone family members, the session features an extended musical family that includes Billy Preston on the electric piano and Bobby Womack on guitar.
BRAND NEW KEY by Melanie rockets to #2 from #9 becoming this weeks strongest Top 10 single. SHAFT drops to #6 and Michael Jackson drops too, one point to #5 with GOT TO BE THERE. Two new songs enter: Don McLean's AMERICAN PIE vaults sixteen places up to #9 from #25. All new material makes up the Top 10, except #10, first week in, for David Cassidy with a remake of CHERISH a #1 record [3 weeks] written and performed by The Association in 1966.

Top 40:

^SUPERSTAR [REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE] - The Temptations #18 up 4 from #22

Biggest mover on the chart:
AMERICAN PIE - Don McLean sixteen places from #25 to #9

New to the Top 40: Light week: Four records, British and States acts split it evenly.
Highest Debut:
I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING [IN PERFECT HARMONY] - New Seekers #28 up 16 from #44 - 3rd week [2nd Top 40 hit]

HEY BIG BROTHER - Rare Earth #38 up 8 from #46 - 4th week [5th Top 40 hit]
DAY AFTER DAY - Badfinger #39 up 12 from #51 - 3rd week [3rd Top 40 hit]
KISS AN ANGEL GOOD MORNING - Charlie Pride #40 up 5 from #45 - fifth week [*first time artist] [One Hit Wonder]

Hot 100:

Debut:
1st week: MAKE ME THE WOMAN YOU COME HOME TO -Gladys Knight and the Pips- #83 debut
1st week: YOU MAKE YOUR OWN HEAVEN AND HELL RIGHT HERE ON EARTH - Undisputed Truth #87 debut

2nd week: ^SUGAR DADDY - Jackson Five - #45 up 27 from #72
2nd week: ^WAY BACK HOME - Jr. Walker & The All Stars -#79 up 6 from #85 -
5th week: ^SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles #53 up 5 from #58
off:

A good week for:
Teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony
Very rare these days for two versions of a brand new song to be charting neck and neck and as strongly as the two current versions of I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING [IN PERFECT HARMONY] with the American Hillside Singers at #26 [2nd week Top 40] and the British based New Seekers version close by at #28 [first week Top 40]. Both are doing well, but only one will go Top 10. Next week's edition will give this rivalry a little more attention.

*****
Also with two versions on the Hot 100 is SHE'S ALL I GOT, the original by Freddie North [see chart #40] which scratched the Top 40 and is still at # 51 this week for a decent 3 month chart run and now joined at #91 by Johnny Paycheck's #2 country version [ blocked from #1 by Charlie Pride's KISS AN ANGEL GOOD MORNING which debuts Top 40 this week] as it crosses onto the Hot 100. Meanwhile ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU, #8 again this week by Sonny and Cher, is at #18, up from #23, by Ray Sanders on the Country chart. Sonny and Cher's version is now #1 on the Easy Listening chart for its 4th week.
Also on the Country chart, slipping one to #3, is Jerry Lee Lewis with a split 45. While Sides A and B are doing well on the Country chart, other formats are responding specifically to his rapid fire version of ME AND BOBBY MCGEE, the B side. It is inching its way up the Hot 100, and if it makes it to the Top 40, it'll be Jerry's first time to do so in ten years, since back in 1961 with his take on Ray Charles' WHAT'D I SAY, which was Jerry Lee Lewis' only Top 40 charter of the sixties. He is charting country with a title that seems prophetic, asking WOULD YOU TAKE ANOTHER CHANCE ON ME, and so far it is seemingly possible as Lewis moves up seven places to #66 from #73 with this spirited version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfkCHmC1ToU

Seems fitting to close out our 1971 record reviews with a version of the song that was released at the very start of 1971 by Janis Joplin, who had recently died shortly after recording BOBBY McGEE ; it then climbed the chart to #1 for two weeks last March.

*****
Charting for the first time in ten years, another classic act, The Coasters getting a turn with LOVE POTION #9 [#85]. That Leiber Stoller song was originally written with them in mind, amongst their string of other tunes, YAKETY YACK , POISON IVY , etc. of the late fifties , early sixties, but it somehow went to The Clovers instead. This will be The Coasters last Hot 100 entry, [peak: #76], but they will continue performing this and their many former hits forever thereafter.

*****
Rare Earth: A distinct act for Motown in many ways primarily by being a performance group made up of musicians which sets them apart from the singing groups on the roster [Commodores are still a year away.] But what most distinguishes the group is their being the only Motown artists to have a label named and centered around them:

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...2W/s-l225.webp

As 1971 comes to a close, Rare Earth is proving itself as one of Motown's biggest hopefuls. Their single HEY BIG BROTHER has broken into the Top 40 and the group has a two-record live album newly released in perhaps Motown's most elaborate packaging, a fold out designed as a backpack containing the vinyl:

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...b0/s-l225.webp


The coveted banner ad across the bottom of this week's cover of Billboard has been acquired by Motown to promote the new release. The four sides are recorded from 3 venues and include one studio song at the very end of side 4; all their hits are in longer versions with one entire side being their edited version of GET READY at 23:33 whittled down from the actual live performance of almost an hour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K94ljpjkChY

Rare Earth came to be in Detroit in 1960 as originally The Sunliners until 1968's change to Rare Earth. The band has and will continue to suffer from persistent personnel changes with Ray Monette and Gil Bridges being the two members from the IN CONCERT album that continue with the group into the 2000s. Gil is the ultimate member, there from the beginning, recording and performing consistently through 2021 when he passed on Dec 16th.

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:

https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=bPNkgQft498:

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eLhvsSM

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.