For those of you holding your breaths for news of a possible upcoming Christmas show- PLEASE, breathe! This week, I didn't even get the countdown done until when I usually type the show- I flat forgot on Wednesday! I've delayed, cancelled, been sick, etc, but never just forgot before. And since 0430 AM is not the time to get going about it, it got moved up... but at least it won't affect you, since I'm still typing ahead, albeit much later than usual, and with a Sun King Wee-Mac in hand...
At any rate, I finally got through combing a playlist of 31 songs to trim it roughly in half, and then present you the top ten- although, if I shared the top 15 here, you'd be hearing 5 brand new songs (to me)! As it is, you will be getting one new top ten- with attached story- and the bizarre story of how Australia BOMBED my top three songs I wouldn't Turn off from this week in 1976!
Okay, so let's start with the "attached story". Some of my blog friends still play "Battle Of The Bands once or twice a month- where they put competing non-hit versions (usually) of the same song (again, usually) up for a fan vote. And last trip around or so, one of them introed me to this cover- and M10 history was made- From 2020, this is Dark Side Of Light at #10...
Just to finish fouling up Elvis's maniacal plans for the possible Christmas Party, I forgot that once we returned to the other end of the M10 2.0 we'd be doing 1976 rather than 1977 (the cutoff being the last week of September, so now the 100th would fall the week we hit... 1969... and in a blow against my counting ability, it would be THANKSGIVING week, not Christmas! And so a Christmas party would actually hit on week 104 or 105, which would put us in 1965 or 64... Ooh, right in the thick of Beatlemania! I sense big conflict here, so don't anyone say anything to Elvis quite yet... I think I'll just have legal send him a note tomorrow...
...and HOPE I counted right this time!
Speaking of counting right, I counted 10 songs for my list of Songs I Wouldn't Turn Off this week, and neither this week in 1976's Canadian #1 (Chicago's If You Leave Me Now, which missed by the narrowest of margins) nor the Australian #1 (ABBA's Dancing Queen- a song I've never really grasped the worldwide appeal of- in its 5th of an 8-week run on top) made my list. (And neither did Cashbox's #1 here this week- Steve Miller's Rockin' Me!) And that seems appropriate in part because NONE of the three songs I picked to top my list even made the top 50 in Australia!
Now mind you, my friends down under made it up to me by charting a couple of songs on my list HIGHER than they ever got here, to wit:
ELO's Living Thing (#10 here, #2 in Australia)
Burton Cummings' Stand Tall ( #10 on Billboard, but #5 on Cashbox and in Australia).
Anyway, my three picks-
#3 was this week's #16 on Cashbox- it would peak at #5 here, 6 in Canada, but #71 in Australia- Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr with Nadia's Theme (The Young And The Restless . (Linked up so Jo-Anne can hear what she missed!)
#2 was this week's CB #6- where it peaked- and topped out at 11 in Canada, but #52 in Australia- Daryl Hall and John Oates with She's Gone .
And my top song I wouldn't turn off this week- CB has it at #30 on its way to #1, Canada peaked it at #6, but Australia stiff-armed it to #94....
...Boz Scaggs with Lowdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And now, the rest of that top ten, so I can get a shower before morning....
9- Up one for Hozier and Carlile and Damage Gets Done...
8- This week, 8 last week, and 8 weeks on for Whitney with Kansas...
7- Down 2 for Buck Meek and Didn't Know You Then...
6- And holding for Duran Duran and Black Moonlight...
5- Up 4 for a-ha's unplugged Take On Me...
4- And holding from here on out: Amira Elfeky's Coming Down here...
3- Aiden Bissett's Ultraviolet here...
2- Jason Isbell's Save The World here...
And at the top for a third week...
....Talk and Wasteland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I certainly hope next week will be on time and less stressful... oh, wait, no chance of that, I have to get legal to send that letter to you-know-who....
