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

[Boogiedown]

Billboard's Hot 100/Top 40
Chart #7
February 12, 1972

75 records reviewed this week

Should anyone at Motown be getting a little worried? The label's downward slide on the charts continues. Their highest ranking single is in the Top 30, but just barely: The Supremes FLOY[D] JOY at #30. Below it, a Motown hit now on its way out, The Jackson's SUGAR DADDY at #32, these two are all the label has showing in the Top 40. Below that, another sinker, MAKE ME THE WOMAN THAT YOU GO HOME TO - Gladys Knight and the Pips, now out of the Top 40 at #42. Then a vacant stretch by the label extends until #93 where the Four Tops score with A SIMPLE GAME. Four records total on the Hot 100, two of them climbing but neither are soaring.

The Top 10:

Bye Bye Miss AMERICAN PIE , Don McLean is no longer #1 after four weeks stationed there, Al Green gets a turn with LET'S STAY TOGETHER [although with no bullet] after an eleven week climb up the Hot 100. It's the Top 10's only soul record again this week, but it's the most popular one. [CLEAN UP WOMAN repeats at #11]. Six others in the Top 10 are bulleting upward, including this week's only debut, DOWN BY THE LAZY RIVER by The Osmonds, in at #7 from #12. Out and trading places, SUNSHINE by Jonathan Edwards to #12 from #7.

The Top 40:

^FLOY JOY - Supremes - #30 up 3 from #33
the week's highest charting Motown record
SUGAR DADDY - The Jackson Five - to #32 a dive from #16

Biggest mover on the chart:
SWEET SEASONS -Carole King a 19 point leap to #16 from #35

Just three new songs [a rarity], two from Americans , one Canadian:

Highest debut:
THE WAY OF LOVE - Cher #29 up 13 from #42 - [7th Top 40 hit]

HEART OF GOLD - Neil Young#39 up 23 from #62 - [2nd Top 40 hit]
I CAN'T HELP MYSELF [SUGAR PIE HONEY BUNCH] - Donnie Elbert #40 up 4 from #44 [2nd To 40 hit]

The Hot 100:

Eight new records, none from Motown , no proxies.
Highest Debut:
#61 - TALKING LOUD AND SAYING NOTHING - James Brown

#66 - NO ONE TO DEPEND ON - Santana
#71 - ROCK AND ROLL LULLABY - BJ Thomas
#74 - BABY WON'T YOU LET ME ROCK AND ROLL YOU - Ten Years After
#80 - HANDBAGS AND GLAD RAGS - Rod Stewart
#88 - ROUNDABOUT - Yes
#89 - GLORY BOUND - The Grass Roots
#90 - STEP OUT - Mamas And Papas

Motown Debuts:
none

2nd week: A SIMPLE GAME - Four Tops - #93 up 4 from #97
9th week: MAKE ME THE WOMAN THAT YOU GO HOME TO - Gladys Knight and the Pips - #42 down 15 from #27

off:
9th week: WAY BACK HOME - Jr Walker & The All Stars
- last week #57 this week off, with a 9 week run for the single, but just couldn't break through. 25th career single for Autry Dewalt Mixon Jr. born in Arkansas, schooled in Indiana, where in high school he picked up the saxophone which would become his trademark. Junior has already moved on with a new album, MOODY JR., released in December and the next single comes from it. It will chart shortly and will do better, but not by a lot.

****
A very good week for:
Short Song Titles, three words or less

Seventeen songs on the Top 20 have titles of three words or less, the exceptions being:

#5 - NEVER BEEN TO SPAIN - 3 Dog Night
#7 - DOWN BY THE LAZY RIVER - Osmonds
#19 - DROWNING IN THE SEA OF LOVE - Joe Simon

There are four 45's with one-word titles, four with two-word titles, nine with three-word titles.

*****
Also a very good week for:
Donnie Elbert. After 15 years of trying , he is suddenly Hot 100 hot, with two songs charting upward:
I CAN'T HELP MYSELF [SUGAR PIE HONEY BUNCH] -a Four Tops hit remake debuts in the Top 40 at #40, and at #92 moving up 2 from #94 in its fourth week is SWEET BABY released by Donnie's former label All Platinum.

*****
Motown in this week's Billboard:
The SOUL SAUCE column by Ed Ochs opens with a Motown focus
as well as choosing a Motown song as best of the week.

Soul Sauce:
BEST NEW RECORD OF THE WEEK:
"TAKE A LOOK AROUND" THE TEMPTATIONS

By ED OCHS

SOUL SLICES: "Motown Madness" occurs when the Supremes, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves [Check out the Motown women]!] and Four Tops shoot past the J-5 just as the Temps ["Take a Look Around"], Undisputed Truth ["What It Is"] and Originals ["Someone Who Cares"] ignite Jr. Walker's "Walk In the Night" and Gladys Knight's next hit "Can You Give Me Love With a Guarantee." Madness, you say? MoWest's first for the year, "I Want to Be Humble," by the Devastating Affair, won't relieve the hit pressure and Posse, an Eddie Kendricks group on VIP, boasts a Kendricks sound phenomenon "Feel Like Giving Up." And although the newies are fresh from the latest crop of LPs, the Temps and Undisputed disks have been remixed, if not reproduced and rearranged, for single play. Breathless? That seems to be about normal when "Motown Madness" is in the air. Well, maybe next year. Complaints and compliments should be sent to Gordon Prince, who Soul Sauce thanks greatly for the information.. . .

The last couple of lines there a bit curious.

*****
Isaac Hayes continues his chart stronghold with two Top 5 chart toppers. BLACK MOSES, his latest LP, is #1 on the SOUL LPs chart and the SHAFT ST rebounds there to #4 from #5. Both are double LPs totaling eight sides of music, but with few hits. Hayes' cover of the J5's NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE charted before SHAFT in 1971, peaking at #22 on the Top 40 and #5 Soul and will be BLACK MOSES' only charting cut. Heard on both his albums are The Bar-Kays , and with no album to support it, they have released a one-off 45 playing off the SHAFT theme:



Repeating at #54 for a second week of a slow nine week climb, SON OF SHAFT will peak at #53 [#10 R&B].

*****
Mentioned last week , Rufus Thomas with DO THE FUNKY PENGUIN, up 2 to #45, is the most senior chart member at age 54.
Dropping off the Hot 100 this week from #54 are runners up, The Bunkers , Archie and Edith, Carroll O'Connor [age 47] and Jean Stapleton [age 49], newcomers to the chart each, with the runaway hit sitcom, ALL IN THE FAMILY’s theme song. THOSE WERE THE DAYS drops off the Hot 100, just shy of making it to the Top 40, peaking at #43.
After a rough start, with a rating of # 34 it’s first season, ALL IN THE FAMILY has caught on an now one year in, the show is America’s favorite and it will hold the # 1 title for a total of five seasons. The ‘husband and wife’ open each episode with a fresh rendering of the theme from behind the piano, sung before a live audience.



The charting single has added lyrics and times at 2:36.


"… songs that made the hit parade..."