Bubbling Under #3: #101 or less

Goin’ Down

George Martin
George Martin
Here’s a third list from the book Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100, 1959-2004. These are more songs that I own that didn’t get above #101 on the primary US singles charts.

My Male Curiosity – Kid Creole & the Coconuts, #110 in 1984, from the movie Against All Odds, starring Rachel Ward and Jeff Bridges
20th Century Man – the Kinks, #106 in 1972
A Whiter Shade of Pale – Annie Lennox, #101 in 1995
Straight Shooter – the Mamas and the Papas, #130 in 1967, B-side of Twelve-Thirty (#20)
Hey Girl – the Mamas and the Papas, #134 in 1967, B-side of Glad to Be Unhappy (#26)

George Martin and His Orchestra

All are from The Beatles’ A Hard Days Night soundtrack on United Artists
And I Love Her, #105 in 1964, B-side of Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) (pop #53)
I Should Have Known Better, #111 in 1964/
A Hard Day’s Night, #122 in 1964

Waterfalls– Paul McCartney, #106 in 1980

Roger Miller

Roger is such a GOOD name
It Happened Just That Way, #105 in 1965, AC 26; B-side of One Dyin’ And a Buryin’ (#34)
I’ve Been A Long Time Leavin’ (But I’ll Be a Long Time Gone), #103 in 1966, CW #13; B-side of Husbands and Wives (pop #26)
Me and Bobby McGee, #122 in 1969, CW #12

Why Do Fools Fall in Love – Joni Mitchell with the Persuasions (live), #102 in 1980
Goin’ Down – the Monkees, #104 in 1967; B-side of Daydream Believer (pop #1)
Nights in White Satin, #103 in 1968; longer edit made #2 in 1972
Gypsy – Van Morrison, #101 for two weeks in 1973
Bright Side of the Road – Van Morrison, #110 in 1979

I Used to Be A King – Graham Nash, #111 in 1971
Open My Eyes – Nazz, #112 in 1968, featuring Todd Rundgren!
Over You – Aaron Neville, #111 in 1960, RB #21 (spelled as Arron Neville, co-written by Allen Toussaint )
I Love L.A. – Randy Newman, #110 in 1983, an MTV staple in the day

You Can’t Do That – Nilsson, #122 in 1967
Everybody’s Talkin’ – Nilsson, #113 in 1968; rerelease reached #6 in 1969 thanks to its use in the movie Midnight Cowboy
Wedding Bell Blues – Laura Nyro, #103 in 1967
It’s Gonna Take a Miracle – Laura Nyro with LaBelle, #103 in 1972

Outside of a Small Circle of Friends – Phil Ochs, #118 in 1968
Looking for Clues – Robert Palmer, #105 in 1980
Alive – Pearl Jam, #120 in 1996, #107 in 1998
American Girl – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, #109 in 1994; first released in 1977, when it did not chart

See Emily Play – the Pink Floyd, #134 in 1967
29 Palms – Robert Plant, #111 in 1993
Steam Heat – Pointer Pointers, #108 in 1974
Suspicion – Elvis Presley, #103 in 1964
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear – Elvis Presley, #105 in 1978, originally #1 pop in 1957

Louie Louie – The Pretenders, #110 in 1981
Uptown – Prince, #101 in 1980
Peach – Prince, #107 in 1993
Me and the Boys – Bonnie Raitt, #109 in 1982
Right On – Rascals, #119 in 1971

We’ll finish next time.

March rambling #1: wipe out cancer in a decade

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Louisville doctor says the breakthrough treatment could wipe out cancer in a decade. Even better, one of the subjects in the story is my friend Eddie, the Renaissance Geek!

Keefknight Cartoon: Colon. One of my brothers-in-law died from colorectal cancer in 2002, at the age of 41.

Why I Left the Right: How Studying Religion Made Me a Liberal.

The White House Welcomes Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church. See this powerful documentary in full (60 minutes).

The Disappearing Soldier.

Kintsugi: The Art of Embracing Damage.

K Troop: The story of the eradication of the original Ku Klux Klan.

Agrippa Hull, Thaddeus Kosciusko, and how Thomas Jefferson didn’t hold up his end of the agreement.

Nancy Reagan rejected Rock Hudson’s plea for help with AIDS treatment sent just months before his death.

Seattle Seahawks Kam Chancellor Wanted to Buy a Gym and Gym Employees Called the Cops on Him.

Formerly freewheeling Aubrey McClendon, now deceased.

Disney is screwing American families.

I was a telemarketer for four months back in 1977. If you hate telemarketers, you’ll love this robot designed to waste their time.

Dan Van Riper: Some crappy-looking old junk from my buildings.

Actor George Kennedy, RIP, who I remember from Cool Hand Luke, Earthquake, the Naked Gun movies, and a whole lot of episodic TV.

Making rubber bands and bagels. There’s a point in the processes where the two batters looks very much the same. Seriously.

shaft
TIME Magazine names male author Evelyn Waugh on female most-read list. (HT to Shooting Parrots.)

Why It Hurts So Much to Step On a LEGO. “Resistance, shiny hardness, and mega-strength.”

Study: Chocolate Makes You Smarter. Of course.

The long and tangled history of Alfred E. Neuman, of MAD magazine.

Russ Heath’s Comic About Being Ripped Off By Roy Lichtenstein.

Music

Billboard: George Martin, and Beatles – She’s Leaving Home, Strings Only (1967) and Dustbury’s favorite George Martin production, other than Beatles material.

The five best soul albums of all-time, according to St Paul & The Broken Bones

When I was in college, I played that first Emerson, Lake and Palmer album a lot. I could do a fair representation of the Moog ending of Lucky Man, sans instrument. Also, listen to Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression. Now Keith Emerson, ELP Keyboardist, Dead at 71.

With “A Group Called Smith”, Gayle McCormick was best remembered for her release in AUGUST of 1969 of Baby It’s You. She lost her battle with cancer and passed away in ST. LOUIS, on MARCH 1st, 2016 at age 67.

Joe Cuba – Bang Bang. #63 in 1966.

I think Rossini’s overture to William Tell is underrated because it’s so familiar.

George Martin

George Martin got Paul to agree to put a string quartet on the song Yesterday.

george-martinBeatles producer George Martin, who died this week at the age of 90, had been on my mind recently. The family went to not one, but two programs of Deconstructing the Beatles at the end of February.

One show was about the making of the album Rubber Soul, and the other concerning just three songs: Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, and A Day in the Life. Re: the latter, Scott Freiman described, among other things, how Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick meshed two disparate versions of John Lennon’s song Strawberry Fields together, by “speeding up the first version and slowing down the second.”

It was one of 10 Great Beatles Moments We Owe to George Martin, though there were undoubtedly more. “Martin served as expert and conspirator, taskmaster and mad scientist, friend and father figure throughout the band’s studio life. He shaped their songs in ways that are seldom appreciated but impossible to forget.”

When I was watching CBS News This Morning, some “expert” from Rolling Stone told that Strawberry Fields story but identified the song in question as Penny Lane. Maybe it was an 8 a.m. brain freeze; Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields WERE on the same single. But then CBS played a snippet of Penny Lane, which suggested that they were told in advance by the said expert to cue the song actually written by Paul.

The expert also said it was their songwriting prowess that appealed to Martin, when in fact it was their personalities that first convinced him that they would be successful, long before they showed any evidence of musical brilliance.

Earlier that morning, I heard National Public Radio identify George Martin as the Beatles manager – arrgh.

Paul McCartney described how George Martin got Paul to agree to put a string quartet on the song Yesterday. Later, in his solo career, Paul brought in his proposed songs for the Tug of War album, and Martin’s reaction was something like “that’s nice…where are the real songs?”, which took McCartney aback, but prompted him to write better material.

George Martin: the man who changed pop forever (with a little help from his friends)

Top 10 George Martin Non-Beatles Records

Brian Wilson and George Martin in studio at Brian’s home in LA playing with God Only Knows.

Coverville 1116.

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