Issue #173 - Boss Jock Charlie Tuna with Irene Lovelock, winner of the “Laugh-In Jackpot.”
Steppenwolf glides into the No. 1 spot on the Boss 30 with “Magic Carpet Ride.” Although they only charted on the KHJ survey twice, they reached No. 1 both times.
9 comments:
Laura Nyro's original "Stoney End" is a hitbound, two years before Barbra Streisand's cover would go to No. 1 on the Boss 30. I really liked Nyro's original at the time and was disappointed that it didn't eventually get on the chart.
Don't forget, Nyro's version of 'Wedding Bell Blues" went top 5 on the Boss 30 in late 1966. It was so big, at least on the West Coast, the 5th Dimension weren't sure that their take on it would be popular (it became a national #1 in 1969). I heard Marilyn McCoo say as much once.
I think Ray has noted that Nyro's "Wedding Bell Blues" was the highest-charting Boss 30 hit to not reach the Billboard Hot 100.
For those interested, below are the songs that made the Top Ten on KHJ that didn't make the Billboard Hot 100. The KHJ peak is followed by the Billboard peak in parenthesis:
Wedding Bell Blues - Laura Nyro - 3 (103)
Born Free - Matt Monro - 4 (126)
She's Looking Good - Rodger Collins - 5 (101)
Nobody - Three Dog Night - 5 (116)
The Flower Children - Marcia Strassman - 6 (105)
She's Not There - The Road - 6 (114)
Alone Again Or - Love - 7 (123)
Love Heals - Colours - 9 (106)
Born On The Bayou - CCR - 9 (Did not chart)
"Alone Again Or" hit No. 99 on the Hot 100 two years after the fact. "Pinball Wizard" by Elton John hit No. 7 on KHJ in 1975 but I don't believe it was released as a single in the U.S.
And all of those are pretty good songs. I wonder what KHJ heard in them to put them on the playlist, even as the station knew that they were getting little national attention.
I wonder what happened in 1970 for "Alone Again Or" to finally get a bit of national airplay, two years after it had come out.
I remember being surprised in 1975 that Elton's version of "Pinball Wizard" could make the Boss 30. Not even the most popular album tracks by, say, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were charting in the '60s heydey. Later album tracks that made the KHJ 30 included "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder and "More Than a Woman" by the Bee Gees.
I knew "She's Looking Good" became an L.A. favorite--over at Reelradio there's an aircheck of Ken Levine, using his nom de radio of Beaver Cleaver, playing that song on his KTNQ (10Q) Saturday night show in November 1977 (with an outro only Ken could do...describing Collins as "Soul Brother Number Four Thousand").
That last one's me...
Steve:
In those days, KHJ wasn't watching Billboard or other stations...they knew the other stations were watching them. They really believed they could make a hit...and in a lot of cases, they did.
Survey errata:
"Girl Watcher" by the O'Kaysions has the "Weeks on Boss 30" listed as 9. It should be 7.
"Keep On Lovin' Me Honey" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell has the "Weeks on Boss 30" listed as 1. It should be 2.
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