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 [...]

In No Man’s Land

I should start keeping track of the number of e-mail solicitations I receive each week asking me to review new music. It’s a lot, and most of them I ignore. For one thing, this is not the sort of blog that deals much in new music, and even if it was, many of the solicitations [...]

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 [...]

Never Jump Into a Pile of Leaves With a Wet Sucker

It’s 50 years this week since Charles Schulz introduced the Great Pumpkin in his Peanuts comic strip, and it’s 43 years tonight since It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was first broadcast on CBS. Every time I watch the show, I wonder how much of it goes sailing over the heads not merely of today’s [...]