On The Charts - July 1973

 Continuing the review of songs that were on the Top 40 (US) charts 50 years ago (1973).  We're on to July, and 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 July1973, based on the average chart position (US charts) over the 4 weeks in the month:

• Will It Go Round In Circles - Billy Preston - 2.25
• Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce - 2.5
• Kodachrome - Paul Simon - 4
• Shambala - Three Dog Night - 4.5
• Yesterday Once More - Carpenters - 4.75
• Give Me Love - (Give Me Peace On Earth) - George Harrison - 6.25
• Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple - 7.5
• Playground In My Mind - Clint Holmes - 9
• Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - Bette Midler - 11
• Diamond Girl - Seals and Crofts - 11.75

Only 2 songs topped the charts in July, 1973.  Billy Preston's "will It Go Round In Circles" held the top for the first 2 weeks, followed by Jim Croce's "Bad Bad Leroy Brown".  Another great month at the top of the charts, another in a great year.  I only own 8 of the top 10, though, can you guess which I don't have?

There were 56 individual songs on the Top 40 over the course of the 4 weeks in July, which is back in line with the average, after a low June.

22 songs made their Top 40 debut in July, which is a little above the average for the year.  Here they are, with their debut rank:  

• Touch Me In The Morning - Diana Ross - 29
• The Morning After - Maureen McGovern - 29
• Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney And Wings - 29
• Uneasy Rider - Charlie Daniels - 30
• Get Down - Gilbert O'Sullivan - 31
• Feelin' Stronger Every Day - Chicago - 32
• I Believe In You (You Believe In Me) - Johnnie Taylor - 32
• Delta Dawn - Helen Reddy - 32
• Here I Am Come & Take Me - Al Green - 33
• Where Peaceful Waters Flow - Gladys Knight And The Pips - 34
• If You Want Me To Stay - Sly and The Family Stone - 34
• How Can I Tell Her - Lobo - 35
• Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye - 36
• Brother Louie - Stories - 37
• Why Me - Kris Kristofferson - 37
• Soul Makossa - Manu Dibango - 37
• Angel - Aretha Franklin - 38
• Are You Man Enough - Four Tops - 38
• Goin' Home - The Osmonds - 39
• Swamp Witch - Jim Stafford - 39
• Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose - Dawn - 39
• The Plastic Man - The Temptations - 40

Some solid songs here, which will be climbing the charts over the next month...

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

Southside Bridge, Fading Light, Chartleston, VW

 

When we lived in Charleston (in the 60's) this was the primary way between the South Hills (where we lived) and downtown.

According to the internet, this bridge was constructed in 1936, and rehabilitated in 1990...  The building at the south end is the train station, the north end dumps directly into downtown.

1973 In Music - June'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 June, I counted 21.  That's pretty much typical, after May's really short list.

Here they are, with peak position noted:

• Drinking Wine Spo-dee O'dee - Jerry Lee Lewis - 41
• I Knew Jesus (Before He Was A Star) - Glen Campbell - 45
• Only In Your Heart - America - 62
• Music Everywhere - Tufano and Giammarese - 68
• It's Hard To Stop (Doing Something When It's Good To You) - Betty Wright - 72
• I'm A Stranger Here - Five Man Electrical Band - 76
• What A Shame - Foghat - 82
• Cosmic Sea - The Mystic Moods - 83
• California Saga (On My Way To Sunny Californ-i-a) - The Beach Boys - 84
• Don't Let It Get You Down - The Crusaders - 86
• Bad Weather - The Supremes - 87
• Giving It All Away - Roger Daltrey - 87
• Your Side Of The Bed - Mac Davis - 88
• Come Live With Me - Roy Clark - 89
• Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music - The Spinners - 91
• A Little Bit Like Magic - King Harvest - 91
• Outlaw Man - David Blue - 94
• Working Class Hero - Tommy Roe - 97
• Cum On Feel The Noize - Slade - 98
• I'm Leavin' You - Engelbert Humperdinck - 99

Kanawha Valley Building - Black White or Color?

While we were doing a self-paced walking tour of Charleston, WV, my wife pointed out an interesting view of the Kanawha Valley Building...  So I took a photo!

Later, when processing the file on my iPad, I decided the color version worked better.  But I planned to try a black and white a try when I got back to my desktop and "better" software.  And I rather like the BW version too.

Which do YOU prefer??

- - -

- - -

Kanawha County Courthouse, Charleston, WV

Kanawha County Courthouse: Originally built in 1892, with additions in in 1917 and 1924. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

 

Kanawha Valley Building, Charleston, WV

We spent a few days recently in Charleston,  WV, and had a really nice time.  I plan to have several posts here showing off some of the photos, hope y'all enjoy.  I was born in Charleston, and lived here throughout the 1960's.  

The Kanawha Valley Building, completed in 1929, was home of Kanawha Velley Bank until 1976.  The bottom 3 floors were the bank, the upper floors were other businesses.  This was the tallest building in the state of West Virginia, except for the top of the capitol dome. My father worked in this building, so it's a big part of my memories.

- - -

 

 

Missed it by "that" much....

A trio of Oxeye Daisys, with a bee. I was really happy with this one when I snapped the shutter, but when I finally saw it on a computer screen, it's obvious the middle flower is out of focus. Not enough depth of field, I wanted the one in the background to be blurred, while the others would be sharp. Oh well, nobody's fault but mine. grrr.

Color Or Black And White?

 From our recent trip to Southwest Virginia.  Taken from the parking lot at Shot Tower State Park, Max Meadows, VA.  These are both SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera), the B&W version is using the in-camera film simulation on the Fujifilm XT-3

Which do you prefer?

- - -

On The Charts - June 1973

Continuing the review of songs that were on the Top 40 (US) charts 50 years ago (1973).  We're on to June, and 50% 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 June 1973, based on the average chart position (US charts) over the 5 weeks in the month:

• My Love - Paul McCartney And Wings - 1.2
• Pillow Talk - Sylvia - 4.4
• I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby - Barry White - 4.8
• Playground In My Mind - Clint Holmes - 5.2
• Daniel - Elton John - 6.8
• Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group - 8
• Give Me Love - (Give Me Peace On Earth) - George Harrison - 8.2
• Will It Go Round In Circles - Billy Preston 9.4
• Right Place Wrong Time - Dr. John - 11.4
• Long Train Runnin' - The Doobie Brothers - 12.2

McCartney's "My Love" topped the charts for the first 4 weeks of June 1975, and was knocked off by George Harrison's "Give Me Love", making an all-ex-Beatle month.  Both super songs, iconic, even.  This is a really great month at the top of the charts. I own 9 of the 10 top songs.

There were 55 individual songs on the Top 40 over the course of the 5 weeks, which is a quite a bit lower than the previous months of 1973.  That simply means that the songs were sticking around that June.

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

• Kodachrome - Paul Simon - 28
• Natural High - Bloodstone - 30
• Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce - 31
• Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett And The Crypt-Kickers - 31
• Misdemeanor - Foster Sylvers - 32
• Money - Pink Floyd - 33
• Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple - 35
• Shambala - Three Dog Night - 36
• You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) - The Stylistics - 36
• Daddy Could Swear, I Declare - Gladys Knight And The Pips - 38
• Behind Closed Doors - Charlie Rich - 38
• Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation - The Dells - 38
• Yesterday Once More - Carpenters - 38
• Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - Bette Midler - 39
• So Very Hard To Go - Tower Of Power - 39
• Satin Sheets - Jeanne Pruett - 39
• I'll Always Love My Mama (Part I) - The Intruders - 39
• Diamond Girl - Seals & Crofts - 40
• Back When My Hair Was Short - Gunhill Road - 40
• Doing It To Death - Fred Wesley and The J.B.'s - 40
• Time To Get Down - The O'Jays - 40

Some pretty impressive songs here, which will be climbing the charts over the next month...

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

Quilt Shops and Photo Ops

 Back in July of 2020, I started a second Instagram account, Quilt Shops and Photo Ops, to document the overlapping hobbies of my wife and I.  Over the next 13+ months, we were moderately active, with a range of photos taken on road trips, and/or sewing/quilting related.  Then life intruded, with job changes, family issues, etc.  Anyway, that IG went stagnant.  My other account, lsqrd42 never stopped completely, but did slow down for a bit.

Anyway, life eventually settled out, and work situation has been adjusted, and we're back to doing some of the things we were talking about 2 years ago.  So, about 6 weeks ago, I decided to restart QSPO.  The traffic (so far) has been modest (to be polite), but that's OK, it was pretty modest before.  On the other hand, if you wanted to give it a look (or a follow!), I sure wouldn't mind...

Now the web site?  We should probably pull the plug on that.  It never really got off the starting line, and I don't see that happening at this point...  Anyway, check out QSPO, let me know your opinion!

Portrait or Landscape (or 16x9)?

 A couple pictures from our recent trip to Wytheville, VA.  These are from Big Mountain Lookout, along Rt. 52 between Wytheville and Bland, VA.  First a vertical (Portrait) version.  then a wide (landscape) version.  Finally a 16x9 crop of the landscape.

What say y'all?

- - -

- - -

These are all phone-photos, didn't have my "real" cameras with me at the moment.

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

- - - 

Bluejacket

 - - -

 

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!