Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

M is for musical crossovers of the 1960s

Ode To Billie Joe did better on the soul charts than the country charts?

skeeterdavisIn the back of the book Across the Charts, Joel Whitburn lists the 48 songs that were musical crossovers, which charted in the Top 10 in three of the four Billboard music charts (US) between 1960 and 1969: Hot 100 (HT), rhythm & blues (RB), country (CW), and adult contemporary (AC).

Three of them hit #1 on three charts:
I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You by Ray Charles (RB for 10 weeks, HT for 5 weeks, AC for 5 weeks in 1962)
Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean (AC for 9 weeks, HT for 5 weeks, CW for 2 weeks in 1961)
*the treacly Honey by Bobby Goldsboro (HT for 5 weeks, CW for 3 weeks, AC for 2 weeks in 1968).

Only one song made the Top 10 in all FOUR charts, The End of the World by Skeeter Davis, which was #1 AC for 4 weeks, #2 CW for 3 weeks, #2 HT, and #4 RB in early 1963.

Of the four dozen songs that made it on three charts, three each are by Ray Charles, Roger Miller, and Dionne Warwick; two each by Jimmy Dean, Glen Campbell, and Stevie Wonder.

LISTEN to a sampling:

The End of the World by Skeeter Davis HERE or HERE

I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles HERE or HERE

Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean HERE or HERE

A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash (#1 CW for 5 weeks, #1 AC for 2 weeks, #2 HT for 3 weeks in 1969) HERE or HERE

Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell (#1 AC for 6 weeks, #1 CW for 2 weeks, #3 HT in 1968/9) HERE or HERE

Walk Right In by the Rooftop Singers (#1 AC for 5 weeks, #1 HT for 2 weeks, #4 RB in 1963; also #23 CW) HERE or HERE

Harper Valley P.T.A. by Jeannie C. Riley (#1 CW for 3 weeks, #1 HT, #4 AC in 1968) HERE or HERE

Roses Are Red by Bobby Vinton (#1 HT for 4 weeks, #1 AC for 4 weeks, #5 RB in 1962) HERE or HERE

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In by the 5th Dimension (#1 HT for 6 weeks, #1 AC for 2 weeks, #6 RB in 1969) HERE or HERE

Make the World Go Away by Eddy Arnold (#1 AC for 4 weeks, #1 CW for 2 weeks, #6 HT in 1965) HERE or HERE

I’m Leaving It Up To You by Dale & Grace (#1 HT for 2 weeks, #1 AC for 2 weeks, #5 RB in 1963) HERE or HERE

Ramblin’ Rose by Nat King Cole (#1 AC for 5 weeks, #2 HT for 2 weeks, #7 RB in 1962) HERE or HERE

Can’t Get Used to Losing You by Andy Williams (#1 AC for 4 weeks, #2 HT for 4 weeks, #7 RB in 1963) HERE or HERE

Puff (the Magic Dragon) by Peter, Paul, and Mary (#1 AC for 2 weeks, #2 HT, #10 RB in 1963) HERE or HERE

England Swings by Roger Miller (#1 AC, #3 CW, #8 HT in 1965/6) HERE or HERE

Walk On By by Dionne Warwick (#1 RB for 3 weeks, 6 HT, #7 AC in 1964) HERE or HERE

Ode To Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry (#1 HT for 4 weeks, #7 AC, #8 RB in 1967; also #17 CW) HERE or HERE (This did better on the soul charts than the country charts?)

abc18
ABC Wednesday – Round 18

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

“We’ve waited too long. ” – ML King, Jr., 1966

MLK.foolFrom CBSnews.com:

In an interview with Mike Wallace in 1966, Dr. King continued to stress the path of non-violence, despite a summer of violence. Race riots were taking place across the country, and rifts in the civil rights movement were widening.

Militant leaders – like Stokely Carmichael and his call for “black power” — demanded that the movement part from Dr. King’s gospel.

“The mood of the Negro community now is one of urgency, one of saying that we aren’t going to wait. That we’ve got to have our freedom. We’ve waited too long.

“So that I would say that every summer we’re going to have this kind of vigorous protest. My hope is that it will be non-violent.”

King: from Montgomery to Memphis. A powerful three-hour 1970 documentary of the public life of Martin Luther King, Jr. here. A “lost” film restored.

Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated April 4, 1968.

Movie Review: Hello, My Name Is Doris

Hello, My Name Is Doris has a hint of recognition of people I know in real life.

dorisSince I really like Sally Field, the Wife and I decided to see her new starring vehicle, Hello, My Name Is Doris, at the Spectrum Theatre, on a Monday matinee. The IMDB description is refreshingly succinct: “A self-help seminar inspires a sixty-something woman to romantically pursue her younger co-worker.”

Doris had put her life on hold before that seminar by Willy Williams (Peter Gallagher), which she attended with her best friend Roz (the ever solid Tyne Daly). Her boss Sally (Natasha Lyonne) had recently introduced the staff to the new art director, John (Max Greenfield), who is half her age. He also has a nice girlfriend named Brooklyn (Beth Behrs).

With the assistance of Roz’s granddaughter (Isabella Acres), Doris becomes tech savvy enough to discover John’s hangouts.

Meanwhile, Doris is being pressured by her brother and sister-in-law (Stephen Root, Wendi McLendon-Covey) to sell the house she shared with her late mother. They encourage/nag her to see a therapist (Elizabeth Reaser) to deal with her problem with clutter.

I really need to try harder to avoid the reviews for movies I might be interested in seeing, even the 85% positive ones from Rotten Tomatoes. One review suggested that Doris Miller was just a stereotype of a wacky older woman. I thought she was far more nuanced that that, though she DID have ONE cat.

Another critic said that John should have figured out that Doris was romantically interested in him. I don’t believe that AT ALL. Doris had been, in many ways, all but invisible.

Doris was working in a dead end job, staying in town to take care of her mother, whose funeral pretty much starts the film. She was cast in the caretaker role for years, delaying her own dreams.

I recommend Hello, My Name Is Doris. There were some laughs, and a couple groans, but more than that, a hint of recognition of people I know in real life in the title character.

Paul Simon and religion

Paul Simon will be releasing a new album in the spring of 2016.

paul simonTerrestrial friend Dan, the proprietor of the Albany Weblog, scratched his chin:

Roger, it recently occurred to me that many of Paul Simon’s songs from the Simon and Garfunkel era were very religious and strongly flavored with his Catholicism, but after he went solo that overt religious bent seems to have mostly disappeared. Usually we see religion creep in to his or her work as an artist grows older, not the other way around. What do you think?

Well, everything I know about Paul Simon suggests that he was not Catholic but, rather, a secular Jew. Indeed, in Hollowverse: “Simon was raised Jewish and his mother was devout, celebrating all of the Jewish holidays and regularly going to Synagogue. However, his father wasn’t nearly as devout as his mother.”

He followed his father’s example. Still, he refers to himself as a Jew in the title song of the album Hearts and Bones.

In How Can You Live In The Northeast, he seems cynical about ALL religion.

How can you be a Christian?
How can you be a Jew?
How can you be a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu?
How can you?

Weak as the winter sun, we enter life on earth.
Names and religion comes just after date of birth.

I suspect you haven’t heard his 2011 album So Beautiful or So What, which is filled with religious, and even specifically Christian references. Christianity Today put it on its Best Album list. In this PBS interview from early 2012, Simon said, “For somebody who’s not a religious person, God comes up a lot in my songs.”

The question got me thinking about Paul Simon and religion more generally. One’s music/art can surely be shaped by the majority culture. Here’s a list, obviously incomplete; links to the titles go to the lyrics.

Simon & Garfunkel

Go Tell It On The Mountain from Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964) – a cover of a traditional song
LISTEN here or here

Blessed from Sounds of Silence (1966) – a variation on the Beatitudes
LISTEN here or here

Bridge Over Troubled Water, the title track (1970) – “When you’re weary, feeling small…”
LISTEN here or here

Solo Paul Simon

Have A Good Time from Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) – more cheeky with the intentional poor English: “God bless the goods we was given…”
LISTEN here or here

Slip Slidin’ Away (1977) – “God only knows, God makes his plan. The information’s unavailable To the mortal man.”
LISTEN here or here

Spirit Voices from The Rhythm of the Saints (1990) -“And all of these spirit voices Sing rainwater, sea water. River water, holy water. Wrap this child in mercy – heal her. Heaven’s only daughter. All of these spirit voices rule the night.”
LISTEN here or here

Wartime Prayers from Surprise, 2006- “But when the wounds are deep enough And it’s all that we can bear We wrap ourselves in prayer.”
LISTEN here or here

How Can You Live In The Northeast from Surprise, 2006
LISTEN here or here

These all from So Beautiful, or So What (2011)

Getting Ready For Christmas Day – “Ready, getting ready, For the power and the glory and the story of the Christmas Day.”
LISTEN here or here

The Afterlife – “After you climb up the ladder of time The Lord God is near Face-to-face in the vastness of space”
LISTEN here or here

Love Is Eternal Sacred Light – “Evil is darkness, sight without sight A demon that feeds on the mind.”
LISTEN here or here

Paul Simon will be releasing a new album in the spring of 2016.

April Fools, but apparently real signs

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Did I read that sign right?
TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW
In a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT
In a London department store:
BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS 
In an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN
In an office:
AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD
Outside a secondhand shop: 
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING – BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?
Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS
Spotted in a safari park:(I sure hope so)
ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR
Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN’T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR
Notice in a farmer’s field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.
Message on a leaflet:
IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS
On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR – THE BELL DOESN’T WORK)
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Proofreading is a dying art, wouldn’t you say?
Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible!!! They put in a correction the next day.
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
Really? Ya think?
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Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Now that’s taking things a bit far!
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Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
What a guy!
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Miners Refuse to Work after Death
No-good-for-nothing’ lazy so-and-so’s!
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Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
See if that works any better than a fair trial!
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War Dims Hope for Peace
I can see where it might have that effect!
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If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
Ya think?!
———————————————————————–
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
Who would have thought!
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Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
They may be on to something!
————————————————————————
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
You mean there’s something stronger than duct tape?
———————————————————-
Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
He probably IS the battery charge!
———————————————-
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Weren’t they fat enough?!
———————————————–
Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
That’s what he gets for eating those beans!
—————- ———————————
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Do they taste like chicken?
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Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Chainsaw Massacre all over again!
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Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Boy, are they tall!
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And the winner is…
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
Did I read that right?
Ramblin' with Roger
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