Top 5: Get It From the Bottom

One of my favorite posts in the history of this blog appeared three years ago this week, about the darkness audible on Top 40 radio in the fall of 1969 via the WLS chart from the week of November 10. There are other ways to look at the same week, of course—how dark could it [...]

We’re Number 98

Over the weekend, we started looking at the 20 records that peaked at Number 98 on the Hot 100 between 1955 and 1986. In this installment covering the last 10, we pick up in 1967.
“Walkin’ Proud”/Pete Klint Quintet (10/21/67). This group, from Mason City, Iowa, packed ‘em in around the Midwest in the 1960s, and [...]

Life Goes On

(Edited to add WNEW.com link.)
When I was a kid, I didn’t miss a lot of school days because of illness, but I remember the slightly disorienting feeling of coming back after being gone. It was clear that the world had continued operating normally without me—and I was always a little surprised. Now that I’m older [...]

Top 5: Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?

I haven’t got a good opening paragraph for this post, so let’s just go with some Top Fives, from 16, 24, 32, 40, and 48 years ago this week.
Cash Box, week of October 30, 1993:
1. “Just Kickin’ It”/XScape
2. “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)”/Meat Loaf
3. “Dreamlover”/Mariah Carey
4. “All That She Wants”/Ace [...]

Top 5: It Only Takes a Minute

I’ve been a DJ for most of my life, whether it was the imaginary radio station in my bedroom when I was 11, college radio, the years I spent getting a full-time paycheck, or the more recent years I’ve done my four and hit the door. Even during the nine years I was out of [...]

Soul Heaven, Disco Inferno

Picking up the trail from this earlier post, here are a few more singles that reached no higher than Number 99 on the Hot 100. As was the case with songs that peaked at 100, there were lots of them in the 1960s, fewer in the 1970s, and none come the 80s.
“She’s My Girl”/Bobby Shafto [...]