We still await Bob's corresponding countdowns on Sundays to return.
Billboard's Hot 100 Top 40
Chart #24
June 12, 1971
A bit of calm from the Motown machine , one record working its way up the Top 40 , one dropping within , one clinging at the very bottom. Three records charting in the Top 40 , six titles on the Hot 100, no songs in the Top 10. By proxy though , Motown can celebrate a #1 record, as the H-D-H owned label, Hot Wax, has its first #1 song . While no new Motown songs premiere this week, one does by proxy, a cover of a Jobette owned tune.
The Top 10:
Honey Cone pull it off: A #1 hit their first time on the Top 40, and the first [and only] for the Holland-Dozier -Holland studios with WANT ADS [Might this be the last #1 record ever recorded in Detroit?] Honey Cone bump off The Rolling Stones in a similar way The Supremes had in 1965 with I HEAR A SYMPHONY , leaving the Stones lamenting , GET OFF OF MY CLOUD. The Rolling Stones BROWN SUGAR drops one to #2. It's family week on the Top 10. The Carpenters siblings are at #3 up two from #5, Donny Osmond represents at #7 for a second week with YOUNG AND INNOCENT. And two new family songs enter : TREAT HER LIKE A LADY , Cornelius Bros And Sister Rose, a strong move to #8 from #15, and The Partridge [TV] Family crack the top with I'LL MEET YOU HALFWAY #9 from #11.
Two bow out: Lobo's ME AND YOU AND A DOG NAMED BOO from #10 to #12 and The Jackson Five's NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE dips to #14 from #8.
The Top 40:
NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE -The Jackson Five - #14 down from #8
^NATHAN JONES - The Supremes - The group enters the top half of the chart: to #19 up from #21
REACH OUT I'LL BE THERE - Diana Ross - #39 second week at #39 - somehow manages another week on the Top 40 , just barely.
Biggest mover On The Chart:
Two singles tie: both move up 14 notches:
INDIAN RESERVATION - Raiders from #25 to #11
FUNKY NASSAU - Beginning Of The End from #40 to #26
Off The Chart:
A significant departure this week : Smokey Robinson And The Miracles now leave The Top 40 with I DON'T BLAME YOU AT ALL after an 8 week run and a peak of #18. This is their last Top 40 appearance together as they now also leave each other as a group, Smokey deciding to go solo. The split hinders both divisions , as neither Smokey nor The Miracles will find their way onto the Top 40 again until both do in 1974. The split is said to be amiable, with no blame at all, but The Miracles will never record another Robinson penned tune, and only one brief impromptu reunion will ever happen , for the Motown 25th Anniversary TV special. I DON'T BLAME YOU AT ALL was the group's 27th Top 40 charter over the course of fifteen years. They first come on in 1960 with a #1 song, SHOP AROUND, and except for 1962, they chart every year thereafter and depart with a single in the Top 20. Not a bad run.
New To The Top 40:
Highest debut:
DON'T PULL YOUR LOVE - Hamilton , Joe Frank, and Reynolds -#30 up from #47 [* First Time Artist]
NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE - Isaac Hayes #33 up from#45 [3rd Top 40 hit]
ALERT FLASHER/BROKEN - The Guess Who #34 up from #41[Tenth Top 40 hit]
PUPPET MAN - Tom Jones - #37 up from #42 [16th Top 40 hit]
A very good week for Clifton Davis . If you're going to write one hit record in your life, let it be one like NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE, a song so good its in the Top 40 in two spots by two artists at the same time , first the original by The Jackson Five and now joining them is the song as performed by Isaac Hayes. This is a bit of an unusual situation. Hayes has released a cover of a song by another act while the song is still in the midst of its run. This is quite different from waiting until the song has had its run , which is the typical protocol. Isaac Hayes apparently sees no need to wait, so we are witnessing a very rare occurrence where a cover charts at the same time as the original.
NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE's title is prophetic, in a few years it'll return again on the top 40 in a very reinvented way.
*****
This week instead of ten songs on the Top 10 , we suddenly have 12. Billboard has decided that both the Aretha Franklin and Carol King records are two-sided hits and have added the B-sides on their chartings. Aretha is now in the Top 10 with double-sided remakes : Simon And Garfunkel's BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS and : a song made popular back in 1969 by Dusty Springfield: BRAND NEW ME. The song is a product of the developing Philly sound spearheaded by Gamble and Huff which is about to explode on these charts. BRAND NEW ME was written by Kenny Gamble, Thom Bell, and Jerry Butler, whose version was released ironically as the B side of his 1969 single WHATS THE USE OF BREAKING UP.
Carol King is the composer of both: IT'S TOO LATE and: I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE, the latter of which is the intended A side. DJs surprised King's Ode label when they began flipping it to the slower song which then took over.
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