1973 In Music - May's Almost Made the Charts

 Continuing my look at songs that dropped off the charts during the month, but never made the Top 40.  And for the May, I counted 11.  That's notably fewer than any month this year, the next closest is April with 16/  

Here they are, with peak position noted:

• Cindy Incidentally - Faces - 48
• Who Was It? - Hurricane Smith - 49
• If We Try - Don McLean - 58
• Dancing To Your Music - Archie Bell and the Drells - 61
• Always - Luther Ingram - 64
• Everything's Been Changed - The 5th Dimension - 70
• People Are Changin' - Timmy Thomas - 75
• Am I Black Enough For You - Billy Paul - 79
• Only Love - Bill Quateman - 86
• Dueling Tubas - Martin Mull and Orchestra - 92
• Let Me Down Easy - Cornelius Brother and Sister Rose - 96

Cindy Incidentally is the only one of these I have, originally from a multi-artist compillation.  But I now have the associated Faces album.

Little Flowers

Nice walk recently at Beaver Dam State Park.  There were lots of wildflowers, I especially liked these two:

Red Cloumbine

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Bluejacket

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Green and Red

 During a recent visit to North Carolina, I squeezed in an afternoon walk on a wet day.  The rain had faded to a persistent mist, not too unpleasant.  I snagged a couple of phone photos;

Little White Flower

My phone ap couldn’t figure out what this is…. Free shout out to anybody who can identify it!

 

Slithering…

 Anybody know snakes?  Or more to the point, snakeskins?  I came across this snakeskin not long ago, along the trail at Glen Carbon Green Space North.  I have no clue what type of snake it housed.

Green Way

 

A little “slice of life”, or Eye Of The Beholder (though there doesn’t seem to be an EOTB challenge active right now)…. Always keep your eyes open, look high, look low, look around.

Exposed!

 On one of my “normal” walking routes, I pass this power pole.  Several weeks ago, I noticed that the door was open, which didn’t seem like a very good thing.  After a recent wind storm, the door was torn off and laying on the ground…. Some googling tells the XM3-hp is a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for broadband power networks.  It is clearly NOT part of the electric power grid, though it is a shared pole.  Looks like 3x car-type batteries below the UPS/controller.  But any way you look at it, having that “stuff” exposed to the elements can’t be good. There’s no indication I could find as to which of the network companies it is, or how to report the issue.  I guess a couple good storms blowing rain into the box and we’ll find out.  

On The Charts - May 1973

  Continuing the review of songs that were on the Top 40 (US) charts 50 years ago (1973).  We're on to May, and 33% through the year!  

All of the 1973 music posts can be seen HERE, btw.

Following the normal format, here's the Top 10 songs for May 1973, based on the average chart position (US charts) over the 4 weeks in the month:

• Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree - Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando - 2
• You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Stevie Wonder - 3
• Little Willy - The Sweet - 4
• Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group - 5.5
• Drift Away - Dobie Gray - 6.5
• Daniel - Elton John - 7.75
• Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel - 8.5
• The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence - 10.25
• Wildflower - Skylark - 11
• The Cisco Kid - War - 11.25

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon..." was #1 for the first 2 weeks of May, and the last 2 weeks of April, for a 4-week run at the Top.  I rather dislike this song, probably because it was SO inescapable at the time.  Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" was #1 for the third week of May; a little surprising, I would have expected it to be on top longer than 1 week...  And the month ended with Edger Winter's "Frankenstein".  Back in the days when instrumentals weren't rare, and occasionally hit #1!  Other than "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" it's a really great Top 10.  I own 8 of the 10 songs.

There were 59 individual songs on the Top 40 over the course of the 4 weeks, which is slightly higher than the previous months of 1973.  

Here's the songs that made their Top 40 debut in May 1973:

• Steamroller Blues/Fool - Elvis Presley - 30
• Will It Go Round In Circles - Billy Preston - 30
• Long Train Runnin' - The Doobie Brothers - 30
• Playground In My Mind - Clint Holmes - 32
• Right Place Wrong Time - Dr. John - 34
• Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) - George Harrison - 34
• Super Fly Meets Shaft - John & Ernest - 35
• One Of A Kind (Love Affair) - The Spinners - 35
• It Sure Took A Long, Long Time - Lobo - 36
• I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby - Barry White - 37
• And I Love You So - Perry Como - 37
• Teddy Bear Song - Barbara Fairchild - 37
• I Can Understand It - The New Birth - 38
• Hearts Of Stone - The Blue Ridge Rangers - 38
• No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper - 39
• Give It To Me - The J. Geils Band - 39
• Let's Pretend - Raspberries - 40
• Close Your Eyes - Edward Bear - 40
• Blue Suede Shoes - Johnny Rivers - 40

A few gems, and a lot that I don't even remember.

So that's it, look for the post later this month of songs that dropped off the Hot 100 in Maywithout having made the Top 40!

R.I.P. Gordon Lightfoot

 

Last night (5/1/2023), shortly before I shut down for the night, I saw a blurb on Facebook that Gordon Lightfoot had passed away.  After verifying with a couple other sources, I shared the original link, then posted a Youtube of the first Lightfoot song I thought of.  Nope, not "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".  Rather, his #1 song from 1974:  "Sundown".  

Gordon Lightfoot was a big star in Canada, where he was born (not for from Toronto), with his first Canadian hit in 1962.  He'd had 1/2 dozen Canadian Top 40's before he cracked the US charts in 1970 with "If You Could Read My Mind", which hit #5 on the Hot 100, and topped the US country charts.

Still, he didn't break big until 1974, with Sundown, which started a run of 4 big hits in 2 years:

• Sundown - #1
• Carefree Highway - #10
• Rainy Day People - #26
• Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald - #2

All very solid songs. I didn't own any Lightfoot albums back then, but I certainly knew the hits.  Later, I acquired his "Summertime Dream" album when I got married, which I have dubbed to digital.  

I noted that "Sundown" was the song that first popped into my head.  His 1st (US) hit, it peaked right about my 14th birthday, the summer before I started High School.  It spent 18 weeks on the charts, 11 in the Top 40, and 7 in the Top 10, making it a notable part of my life soundtrack at a key time.  That said, it is the only one of those mid 70's hits that I don't currently own.  That will have to change.

Anyway, rest in peace, Mr. Lightfoot, and thanks for the music, and the memories it brings!