Billboard's Hot 100/ Top 40 Motown Chronicles - 1972 Pt. 1

[Boogiedown]

Billboard's Hot 100/Top 40
Chart #4

January 22, 1972
87 records reviewed this week.

Motown has not hit a stride going into 1972. Their main bright spot is a record breaking into the Top 10, however one other drops out. No new records from the label break the Top 40 or the Hot 100, the four same songs on the Top 40, three inching up slightly. Seven songs on the Hot 100, one less than last week.

The Top 10:

Mostly a log jam. The 4 top records are locked into place, repeating their positions of last week: AMERICAN PIE by Don McLean is at #1, Melanie's BRAND NEW KEY is #2 , Al Green's LETS STAY TOGETHER is #3 and SUNSHINE by Jonathan Edward's is #4, while Dennis Coffey's SCORPIO is #6 again as is The New Seekers TEACH THE WORLD repeating at #8. CLEAN UP WOMAN is the only song to advance within, rising from #10 to #8. Three new records enter: DAY AFTER DAY by Badfinger inserts itself into the middle of the mire at #5 up 9 from 14. YOU ARE EVERYTHING by The Stylistics enters the Top 10 at #9, finally, taking three months to do so. The Jackson Five arrive just in time to replace brother Michael's GOT TO BE THERE after many weeks on the Top 10 with SUGAR DADDY up two to #10 from #12, which keeps the long run of Motown singles in the Top 10 continuing.

The Top 40:

GOT TO BE THERE - Michael Jackson
^HEY BIG BROTHER - Rare Earth #19 up just 1 from #20.
^MAKE ME THE WOMAN THAT YOU GO HOME TO - Gladys Knight -#30 up 2 from #32.
Biggest Mover On The Chart:
WITHOUT YOU by Nillson 15 place leap from #36 to #21

Short list of debuts. All songs getting second chances in way or another.

PRECIOUS AND FEW Climax - #34 up 9 from #43 [remake, first to chart][One Hit Wonder]
JOY - Apollo 100 .#35 up 14 from #49 [remake, first to chart][One Hit Wonder]
DON'T SAY YO DON'T REMEMBER - Beverly Bremers #37 up 9 from #46 [re-release][1st Top 40]
HURTING EACH OTHER - Carpenters #38 up 38 from #76 [ remake , first to chart][6th Top 40]

The Hot 100:
10 Debuts, two by proxy:

#68 DOWN BY THE LAZY RIVER -The Osmonds
#77 SOFTLY WHISPERING I LOVE YOU - English Congregation
#78 WE'VE GOT TO GET IT ON AGAIN - Adrissi Bros.
#80 MOVE 'EM OUT - Delaney & Bonnie
#84 WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW - Roberta Flack
#86 I WROTE A SIMPLE SONG - Billy Preston
#87 NICKEL SONG - Melanie
#90 I GOTCHA - Joe Tex
#94 LOVE AND LIBERTY - Laura Lee [Hot Wax HDH Label]
#95 GIMME SOME MORE - The J.B.s
#96 SWEET BABY - Donnie Elbert
#98 YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME - Gayle McCormick [Top 10 1962 Smokey Robinson song]
#99 -SLIPPIN' INTO DARKNESS - War
#100 - STANDING IN FOR JODY - Johnny Taylor

No Motown debuts :

3rd week :^ FLOY JOY - Supremes -#48 up 29 from #77
6th week: YOU MAKE YOUR OWN HEAVEN RIGHT HERE ON EARTH - Undisputed Truth #72 again.
7th week: ^WAY BACK HOME - Jr Walker & The All Stars #52 up 16 from #68.

Off:
SATISFACTION - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
40th Hot 100 hit peaked at #49 with a 9 week run. The third single from the group's current album, ONE DOZEN ROSES. They'll be in the studio soon recording their last Smokey album featuring two more Hot 100 charters.

*****
A very good week for:
George Harrison
his project for Bangla Desh is now the #2 best selling LP in the country, wonderful news for generating money for the desperate people of the Southern Asia region. All proceeds being directed there, none of the volunteering performers from the concert are getting any type of pay.

It also is a good week as the Harrison produced Badfinger single catapults to #5.
Which also makes for a good week for Badfinger and Bad band member Pete Ham, who wrote DAY AFTER DAY as well as another release that is turning into a massive hit. Nillson has culled a song from their 1970 LP and it is this weeks biggest mover on the Top 40: WITHOUT YOU, sometimes pointed to as an early 'power ballad'.

****
Also a very good week for:
Instrumentals.
There are two on the Top 40, repeating at #6 , its peak , is Dennis Coffey's SCORPIO. Recorded in Detroit but not Motown, like so many times prior for guitarist Coffee on many late sixties hits for The Temptations, Edwin Starr, etc.. SCORPIO is orchestrated by Coffey with Mike Theodore, they will in the future be charting disco successes such as the #1 DEVIL'S GUN ]



and debuting at #35 is JOY [JESU, JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING] by Apollo 100, a British ensemble, and after a two hundred year wait, there is now a Top 40 hit composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.



*****

This week Billboard attends this concert:

Talent In Action:

DAVID T WALKER
TOMMY SHAW
Ash Grove , Los Angeles

One of Motown's most respected session guitarists and now an artist in his own right with a debut album on Ode, young David T.Walker gives a live show that' s the ultimate in polished, mass-appeal soul musicianship. He is a virtuosoof both guitar fingering and electronics. His standing-ovation opening set at the Ash Grove was a hypnotic trip of almost raga-like
textures. The show was opened by Tom-my Shaw, one of the Ash Grove's stable of pioneer blues men and a sturdy practitioner of the genre.Walker played with two enticing percussionists, his brother Clarence McDonald

on electric piano and organ and the redoubtable Charles Larkey on bass. The guitarist doesn't attempt to sing, except for his spectacular unisonguitar-vocals runs and he keeps his chatter down to a minimum.
But he is easily able to project a likeable personality by his movements and expressions while playing.

NATER

Like Dennis Coffee, Walker's guitar work can be heard on ample Motown recordings including ones by The Jackson Five, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye