Originally Posted by
johnjeb
Although all sources indicate that SWBT was released on October 14, 1969, it didn't debut on Billboard's Hot 100 until November 8th and a week later, November 15th, on Billboard's Soul chart. It debuted on Record World on November 8th, as well, but a debut date of November 1st on Cash Box. It would seem that the record had a release date of October 14th but not an actual physical release. The song was performed on Hollywood Palace October 18th.
SWBT charted for 16 weeks:
50 [[November 8, 1969) , 34, 20, 11, 9, 3, 2, 1 [[December 27, 1969), 3, 2, 4, 4, 9, 15, 19, 29 [[February 21, 1970)
So, it really wasn't that slow a climb but certainly not as fast as their biggest hits. I've always been suspicious that the song might have been purposely held for #1 as the last song of the decade. It's also interesting that the song dropped to #3, then went back to #2 before continuing it descent.
I did not have access to AM radio at the rural university I attended so I didn't know how the song was being received. I saw the Hollywood Palace performance but did not hear the song again until I was home for Christmas break.
I saw the group September 26 and October 3, 1969. They did not sing SWBT.
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