1973 In Music - August'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 August, I counted a whopping 50.  That's more than triple the normal (since I started logging)

Here they are, with peak position noted:

• Roll Over Beethoven - Electric Light Orchestra - 42
• Watergrate - Dickie Goodman - 42
• There's No Me Without You - The Manhattans - 43
• Soul Makossa - Afrique - 47
• Never, Never, Never (Grande, Grande, Grande) - Shirley Bassey - 48
• Over The Hills And Far Away - Led Zeppelin - 51
• Finder's Keepers - Chairman Of The Board - 59
• I'd Rather Be A Cowboy - John Denver - 62
• Tequila Sunrise - Eagles - 64
• Darling Come Back Home - Eddie Kendricks - 67
• Lord, Mr. Ford - Jerry Reed - 68
• It's Forever - The Ebonys - 68
• Didn't I - Sylvia - 70
• Blockbuster - The Sweet - 73
• He Did With Me - Vicki Lawrence - 75
• My Merry-go-round - Johnny Nash - 77
• Think - James Brown - 80
• There You Go - Edwin Starr - 80
• Friend Of Mine - Bill Withers - 80
• Roland The Roadie And Gertrude The Groupie - Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show - 83
• Sunshine - Mickey Newbury - 87
• Black Byrd - Donald Byrd - 88
• You Were Always There - Donna Fargo - 93
• Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) - Commander Cody - 94
• L.a. Freeway - Jerry Jeff Walker - 98

There's some real classics there, somewhat surprising.  Just goes to show....

Hang On

Some songs from my collection:

• Hang on Sloopy - Rick Derringer (The McCoys)
• Hang on to a dream – Emerson Lake and Palmer
• Hang on to your ego – the Beach Boys
• Hang on to your life – the Guess Who
• Hang on to yourself – David Bowie
• Hanging on a limb – Neil Young
• Hanging onto the good times. – Little Feat
• Hanging on the telephone - Blondie
• Let’s hang on - Ace
• You keep me hanging on - J.J. Cale
• You keep me hanging on - the Supremes (Vanilla Fudge / Wilson Pickett)

Hen House - Before and After

 I was taking the wife-mobile in for emissions testing today, and the closest place to us is Pontoon Beach, IL.  The Hen House restaurant is right at the Rt. 203 intersection with I-270.  Or at least was, as it's closed now, and starting to deteriorate.  I never ate there, but did make a phone call from there when my pickup truck broke down on the way home from the airport (in the '90's)...  Before cell-phones.

Anyway I had to stop and take a photo with be best camera I had with me, my iPhone.  Tweaked on my iPad, using Snapseed Edit:

And the straight from camera version:

Rotate, crop, convert to B&W (with orange filter), a couple of other minor tweaks (call it secret sauce).

On The Charts - August 1973

 Continuing the review of songs that were on the Top 40 (US) charts 50 years ago (1973).  We're on to August, well into the second half of the year!  

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

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

• Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney And Wings - 2.25
• The Morning After - Maureen McGovern - 2.75
• Brother Louie - Stories - 3.75
• Touch Me In The Morning - Diana Ross - 3.75
• Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce - 5.75
• Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye - 8.25
• Get Down - Gilbert O'Sullivan - 10.25
• Uneasy Rider - Charlie Daniels - 10.5
• Feelin' Stronger Every Day - Chicago - 10.75
• Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple - 11.25

Three (3) songs topped the charts in August, 1973.  Maureen McGovern's "The Morning After" held the top spot for the first two weeks, followed by 1 week for Diana Ross's "Touch Me In The Morning".  Stories' "Borther Louis" reached #1 for the last week of the month.     A pretty eclectic month in the top 10, some great, some good, some...  well, not my favorite.  In fact, I only own 7 of the top 10 songs.  

There were 53 individual songs on the Top 40 over the course of the 4 weeks in August, which is pretty much average.

16 songs made their Top 40 debut in July, which tie January for the fewest chart entries for the year.  But some especially notable sogs that we'll see near the top soon.  Here they are, with their debut rank:  

• Loves Me Like A Rock - Paul Simon - 27
• We're An American Band - Grand Funk - 29
• That Lady (Part 1) - The Isley Brothers - 31
• I Was Checkin' Out She Was Checkin' In - Don Covay - 32
• Why Me - Kris Kristofferson - 32
• Gypsie Man - War - 33
• Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting - Elton John - 34
• Theme From Cleopatra Jones - Joe Simon - 34
• Nobody Wants You When You're Down And Out - Bobby Womack - 35
• My Maria - B.W. Stevenson - 35
• A Million To One/Young Love - Donny Osmond - 36
• You Light Up My Life/Believe In Humanity - Carole King - 37
• There It Is - Tyrone Davis - 38
• The Hurt - Cat Stevens - 39
• Future Shock - Curtis Mayfield - 40
• I'll Always Love My Mama (Part I) - The Intruders - 40

So that's it, look for the post later this month of songs that dropped off the Hot 100 in August without having made the Top 40!

Chihuly Part 3

  This summer, the Missouri Botanical Garden has been doing an exhibition of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures at the garden.  We've visited 3 times in the past month-ish.  Once with each grandkid, and once for the "after dark" session.  We've enjoyed all three times.  Here's some photos, groups by each visit...

Third visit:

Chihuly Part 2

 This summer, the Missouri Botanical Garden has been doing an exhibition of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures at the garden.  We've visited 3 times in the past month-ish.  Once with each grandkid, and once for the "after dark" session.  We've enjoyed all three times.  Here's some photos, groups by each visit...

Second visit:

Chihuly Part 1

This summer, the Missouri Botanical Garden has been doing an exhibition of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures at the garden.  We've visited 3 times in the past month-ish.  Once with each grandkid, and once for the "after dark" session.  We've enjoyed all three times.  Here's some photos, groups by each visit...

First visit: