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

[Boogiedown]

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.



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 :



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.