ABC Wednesday Archives - Page 29 of 91

O is for #101 on the Billboard charts

The ONLY B-side of the Beatles first 21 regular Capitol/Apple releases not to chart in the Top 100.

I have the book Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100, 1959-2004, one of many Joel Whitburn tomes in my collection. This one notes the songs that did not quite make it to the list of the Hot 100 singles that were most popular. Some of these were regional hits, others B-sides of chart-toppers.

In the book, there’s a list of the songs that made it to #101 on the Billboard charts in the US, but no higher, rather like Moses not quite to the promised land. There were 402 songs during the period, excluding August 1985 to November 1992, when the Bubbling Under chart was discontinued.

Some songs I recognize, with which YOU may also be familiar.

Links to all:

Earth Angel – the Penguins. 2 weeks starting 1 Feb 1959. This was a cheat in that in 1955, it had gotten to #8 (and #1 for 3 weeks on the R&B charts); this was the reissue.

I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It The Blues, Pt 1 – Stevie Wonder. 31 Aug 1963. I first heard this on a hits compilation.

I’m Down – the Beatles. 7 Aug 1965. The ONLY B-side of the Beatles’ first 21 regular Capitol/Apple releases not to chart in the Top 100. B-side of Help! (#1 for three weeks.) This is a live take because I couldn’t find a studio version.

Baby Driver – Simon & Garfunkel. 19 Apr 1969. B-side of The Boxer (#7). I saw Paul Simon solo in 1991.

Today I Sing the Blues – Aretha Franklin. 1 Nov 1969. A cover of a Sam Cooke song.

Gypsy – Van Morrison. 27 Jan 1973. Not to be confused with Gypsy Queen.

Barbara Ann- The Beach Boys. 9 Aug 1975. ANOTHER cheat, as the original release went to #2 for 2 weeks in 1966.

Baretta’s Theme – Sammy Davis Jr. 22 May 1976. Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow, theme to a TV show starring Robert Blake.

Accidents Will Happen – Elvis Costello. 14 Apr 1979. I saw him live a few years ago.

It’s Different For Girls – Joe Jackson. Two weeks, starting 8 Dec 1979. I saw him live in the late 1980s.

Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie. 25 Oct 1980. The return of Major Tom.

Try Jah Love – Third World. 1 May 1982. I really thought the last four, plus the U2 song were bigger hits, as I heard them on the radio a lot.

Atomic Dog – George Clinton. Three weeks, starting 16 Apr 1983.

Two Hearts Beat As One – U2. Two weeks, starting 9 Jul 1983.

White Lines (Don’t Do It) – Grandmaster & Melle Mel. 2 weeks, starting 17 Dec 1983. But it did get to #47 on the R&B charts. I own this 12″, which is a couple of minutes longer than the single.

Skylark – Linda Ronstadt. 12 Jan 1985. From Lush Life, one of the three Nelson Riddle LPs that I have on a 2-CD set.

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

L is for Lanes of Traffic

“When there’s no bike lane, you’re supposed to ride on the sidewalk.”

1. In July, traveling north on that stretch of Interstate 90 in New York between the Pennsylvania border and Buffalo, closer to the former, there are four lanes of traffic, two in each direction.

The Wife is driving and is in the right lane. Another car is in the left lane, slowly passing us. Suddenly, a motorcycle darts between us! Another motorcycle is already ahead of the other car.

Then the motorcycles, in turn, proceed to drive between not one, not two, but FOUR pairs of cars, in about three minutes. I was happy no one got hurt.

2. I am riding my bicycle down my street. I am as far right as I can be, given the fact there is a string of parked cars. I can sense that there’s a car that wants to pass me, but there’s oncoming traffic, and this is not an option.

We catch a red light, and we both stop. I can pull to the right because there’s no car that close to the intersection.

The driver says, “There’s no bike lane.”

“OK”

“When there’s no bike lane, you’re supposed to ride on the sidewalk.”

“NO, sir!”

“That’s the law.”

“You are INCORRECT, sir. Check your drivers’ manual. There’s a section on bicycles in there.”

Seriously, I used to carry around the booklet from DMV for such interactions. In my state, it is ILLEGAL for me to ride on the sidewalk, unless I’m under 14. (Note: I’m not.)

Apparently, this is a problem elsewhere.

3. Still, I LOVE riding my bicycle in the city, because I often find change on the ground, where the driver’s side door might be. I’ll stop for even a nickel, but not for a penny. Though if I stop for a mixture of coins – it has happened – I’ll get the pennies as well.

4. August: I was waiting for a bus, when a young man, probably in his twenties, asked me if I could “spare some change” so he could ride the bus. I told him that I could “spare a 50-cent change card” that I happen to have. (The fare is $1.50, and if I put in two $1 bills, I get the change card.)

His eyes narrowed as he said, teeth clenched, “Have a nice day.” I don’t think he was being sincere.
***
Now I Know: Slow and Steady Wins the Lottery

The Calculus of Bad Driving

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

K is for Kris Kristofferson

“He’s a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction”

I happened to get an issue of Rolling Stone magazine this year, and there’s a story called Kris Kristofferson: An Outlaw at 80, about how “one of the greatest songwriters of all time (covered by Johnny Cash… Elvis Presley and some 500 others)” was experiencing an “increasingly debilitating memory loss.” It turns out it wasn’t Alzheimer’s or dementia, but Lyme disease.

His first album, released as Kristofferson in 1970, was rereleased, with a nicer cover, a year later, as Me and Bobby McGee, named for the posthumous #1 song by Janis Joplin that he wrote. Some of the songs on that album include Help Me Make It Through the Night, For the Good Times, and Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, all hits for other people.

His second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I, featured Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again), a minor hit for Roger Miller, and got to #26 on the pop charts for Kristofferson. It also contains my favorite Kris Kristofferson lyrics, from The Pilgrim, Chapter 33:

He’s a poet, an’ he’s a picker, he’s a prophet, an’ he’s a pusher
He’s a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he’s stoned
He’s a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction
Takin’ ev’ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home

His biggest single recording was Why Me, which got to #16 in 1973, from his fourth album, Jesus Was a Capricorn. He also recorded with his second wife Rita Coolidge.

Kris Kristofferson is also an actor, appearing in several films, before becoming a Movie Star in A Star is Born, with Barbra Streisand.

Now that he has most of his memory back, he’s listening to the old songs again, “to get reacquainted with his life’s work. ‘It just takes you back like a picture of something would,’ he says. ‘I was also interested in seeing if they still sounded good to me,’ he continues. ‘I’ve been pleasantly surprised, particularly with this one.’ He points to his third album, Border Lord. ‘I can remember at the time being so disappointed at the reception it got.’

“His wife [since 1983, Lisa] sits to his left and looks at him, beaming at his recall. ‘To me, the song is what matters, not necessarily the performances,’ he says as he moves a napkin to examine a picture of him in his twenties, looking disheveled in his meager Nashville bedroom. ‘Just the words and melody – that’s what moves your emotions.'”

“‘I may have some more creative work in me,’ he finally admits, then concludes on a characteristically impassive note. “But if I don’t, it’s not going to hurt me.'”

LISTEN TO:

“Blame It on the Stones”
“To Beat the Devil”
“Me and Bobby McGee”
“Best of All Possible Worlds”
“Help Me Make It Through the Night” which gets ‘lie’ and ‘lay’ right and wrong in the same song
“The Law Is for Protection of the People”
“For the Good Times”
“Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”
“The Silver Tongued Devil and I”
“Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”
“The Pilgrim, Chapter 33”
“Nobody Wins”
“Why Me”

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

J is for scientist Joseph Henry

Joseph Henry created a program to study weather patterns in North America, a project that eventually led to the creation of the National Weather Service.

Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797 – May 13, 1878) was born in Albany, New York, to William and Ann Henry, two immigrants from Scotland. “In 1819 he was persuaded by some influential friends to pursue a more academic career, he entered Albany Academy, where he was given free tuition. He was so poor, even with free tuition, Joseph Henry had to support himself with teaching and private tutoring positions.”

Henry excelled academically. He “discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance,” which I shan’t attempt to explain, but it’s a big deal.

“The SI [international standard] unit of inductance, the henry, is named in his honor. Henry’s work on the electromagnetic relay was the basis of the practical electrical telegraph.”

After teaching at the precursor of Princeton University, and excelling as a scientist, he became the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, always working “tirelessly to support the field of American science.”

“Henry focused the Smithsonian on research, publications, and international exchanges. The system of international exchanges begins in 1849, with the Smithsonian providing a clearinghouse function for the exchange of literary and scientific works between societies and individuals in this country and abroad. Also by 1849, he created a program to study weather patterns in North America, a project that eventually led to the creation of the National Weather Service.”

The Albany (NY) School District science fair is named after Joseph Henry.

See the glass window? I view it almost every week, as it is a Tiffany creation, found in the Assembly Hall of First Presbyterian Church of Albany. Mr. Henry was baptized in the church, albeit in an earlier building.

Here is a memoir of Joseph Henry by Simon Newcomb, read in 1880, shortly after his death in his quarters in the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, DC.

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

I is for interstate highway

I was actually stunned to see I-99 near Painted Post, west of I-81, and well west of I-87 and I-95.

2016 is the 60th anniversary of the interstate highway system in the United States.

Back in 1919, a young lieutenant colonel named Dwight Eisenhower traveled with a truck convoy “to road-test various Army vehicles and to see how easy or how difficult it would be to move an entire army across the North American continent.

“Averaging about 6 miles an hour, or 58 miles a day, the trucks snaked their way from Washington, [DC]… to California. Generally, it followed the ‘Lincoln Highway,’ later known as U.S. 30, arriving in San Francisco 62 days and 3,251 miles later. The convoy made a lasting impression on the young officer and stoked in him an interest in good roads.”

“On June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the…bill [which] created a 41,000-mile ‘National System of Interstate… Highways’ that would… eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams, and all of the other things that got in the way of ‘speedy, safe transcontinental travel.’ At the same time, highway advocates argued, “in case of atomic attack on our key cities, the road network [would] permit quick evacuation of target areas.”

From here: “Although the Interstate System accounts for about 1.1 percent of the Nation’s total public road mileage, it carries 24 percent of all highway travel.”

One of those odd factoids I knew: “The numbering system used for interstates is intended to be the mirror opposite of the U.S. highway system, so drivers won’t be confused about whether to take Highway 70 or Interstate 70. For example, I-10 runs through southern states east-west (as all major even-numbered interstates do; odd-numbered interstates run north-south), while Highway 10 runs through northern states. Because I-50 would run through the same states as Route 50, the number will never be used.”

On vacation, we were traveled on Route 17, which is becoming I-86. But I was actually stunned to see I-99 near Painted Post, west of I-81, and well west of I-87 and I-95. It was a pork-barrel project of some Congressman, including the illogical numbering.

The large problem with the interstate highway system today is how to pay to repair roadways and bridges. The traditional source, the federal Highway Trust Fund, relies on the 18.4-cent federal gas tax, which has not grown with inflation. But there is no political will to do something about it.

ABC Wednesday – Round 19