_______ 55 Years Ago This Week Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Anyone Who Had a Heart," Dionne Warwick (14 weeks) "For You," Rick Nelson (11 weeks) "Hooka Tooka," Chubby Checker (14 weeks) "Out of Limits," The Marketts (14 weeks) "Southtown, U.S.A.," The Dixiebelles w/ Cornbread & Jerry (8 weeks) Re-entering the chart: "My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut," Donna Lynn Recent and new on the chart: "Stay," The Four Seasons (Feb. 15; #16 US; originally a #1 for Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs in 1960) "Ain't Nothing You Can Do," Bobby Bland (Mar. 7; #20 US; #3 R&B) "Money," The Kingsmen (#16 US; #6 R&B; originally a #23 [#2 R&B] for Barrett Strong in 1960; Strong's version is #288 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) "You're a Wonderful One," Marvin Gaye (#15 US; #3 R&B) "Twist and Shout," The Beatles (#2 US; originally a #17 [#2 R&B] for The Isley Brothers in 1962) Total Beatles songs on the chart: 7; and of course, holding the top three positions was a big deal for about five minutes there.... _______ Going by the calendar dates, the end of the episode took place two years before the beginning of the episode....
_______ 55th Anniversary Cinematic Special Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Directed by Stanley Kubrick Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens Released January 29, 1964 Nominated for 1965 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Peter Sellers), Best Director (Stanley Kubrick), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern) Yes, this is one of those films I'd never actually sat and watched, though I do remember seeing parts of it on TV once years back, and of course I've been exposed to it in bits and pieces through pop cultural osmosis. It was of such note that I couldn't let it pass as potential 55th anniversary business. This scene is the source of a very famous movie quote: The War Room was designed by Ken Adam, who's also well known for his classic Bond film sets, including Fort Knox, the iconic SPECTRE volcano lair, and the supertanker interior from The Spy Who Loved Me, which was so large that they had to build a new sound stage for it. Peter Sellers's portrayal of President Merkin Muffley (one of his three roles in the film) is one of banality and incompetence in the face of Armageddon: Not exactly an inspirational figure. This scene includes my own favorite quote from the film: The great irony of the film is that ultimately, everyone comes through in the nick of time...the disaster should have been averted, save for a series of freak circumstances that results in just one bomber getting through...and in their own way, the crew of the bomber are also coming through, only in their case, coming through works at cross-purposes to what everyone else is trying to accomplish, leading to the film's iconic apocalyptic climax: I did not know until I was reading up a bit prior to watching the film that James Earl Jones was in it! This was loosely adapted from a serious novel using the same premise, and it shows. Much of it really could work as a "straight" story with just a little tweaking. The most over-the-top aspect of the film is the titular character, who really isn't in it that much: I'm glad that I took the opportunity to check this one out--It definitely contributes to the sign-o-the-times vibe, coming as it does so soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis. (It was originally slated to be released in late '63, but was delayed because of JFK's assassination; and on that note, Kong's line about a weekend in Vegas was dubbed over from the original "weekend in Dallas".) _______
You can't keep a good song down. I didn't know The Four Seasons covered this, but I like it no matter who does it. Kinda bland, Bobby. The original is definitely better. Kinda bland, Marvin. Always makes me think of somebody opening a bottle of Pepsi after shaking it. Of course, a twist-off cap would be an anachronism. Then why didn't Friday just prevent the poor guy from getting shot to begin with? What is his real agenda?! I've seen it straight through once, as far as I can remember, and that was back in the 70s. I don't know, he's looking pretty good to me right now. I'm surprised nobody has done a Dark-And-Gritty remake.
_______ 50 Years Ago This Week A union that lasted 29 years, broken only by breast cancer. Had she lived, I have no doubt that they'd have been celebrating their 50th this week. R.I.P., Linda. Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Hang 'Em High," Booker T. & The MG's (18 weeks) "I Do Love You," Billy Stewart (13 weeks total; 3 weeks this chart run) "Worst That Could Happen," The Brooklyn Bridge (12 weeks) New on the chart: "Kick Out the Jams," MC5 (#82 US) "I'll Try Something New," Diana Ross & The Supremes and The Temptations (#25 US; #8 R&B) "Don't Give In to Him," Gary Puckett & The Union Gap (#15 US; #13 AC) "Time Is Tight," Booker T. & The M.G.'s (#6 US; #9 AC; #7 R&B; #4 UK) "It's Your Thing," The Isley Brothers (#2 US; #1 R&B; #30 UK; #420 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) "Hair," The Cowsills (#2 US; #19 AC) And new on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 21, featuring Jeannie C. Riley Mission: Impossible, "The Bunker: Part 2" The Avengers, "Pandora" Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 23 Ironside, "Puzzlelock" Star Trek, "All Our Yesterdays" Adam-12, "Log 12: He – He Was Trying to Kill Me" Get Smart, "Greer Window" Hogan's Heroes, "The Return of Major Bonacelli" _______ I don't know what the story is behind the Four Seasons also having multiple singles on the chart on more than one label, but I don't think it's a coincidence that one of the labels involved is Vee-Jay. It's alright, but sounds kind of old-fashioned for its time. Definitely! As is this cover, not yet available in America. Kinda classic Marvin! If Friday travels back in time, he transforms into his evil alter ego, Joe Monday! Which says less about him and more about you-know-who.
Indeed. Kind of a rare thing. I think the same would have been true of John and Yoko. Just kind of a party song, but I like some of that guitar stuff. Not their best work, but I could listen to Diana Ross all day and all night. I was thinking that it's kind of bland, but then it got to the the punchline. Long intro... oh, wait, it's one of those things with no words. Now we're talking. Ah, another all-time Hippie classic. What's that, some cover band? Well, it's not bad.... I'd love to see Friday give one of his five-minute speeches on the subject of temporal paradoxes. "Sure you think it would be a good idea to go back in time and kill Hitler, son, we all do...." The world has become a Kubrick satire.
_______ 50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1) _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 21, episode 20 Originally aired March 2, 1969 As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show Well, this is an underwhelming bit of Best of business...all we have from 50 years ago this week are two songs by Paul Anka...who had some half-decent youth-oriented pop hits in the late '50s, and then became Paul Anka. A perfectly decent performance, but squarely in the Easy Listening / trad pop category. Paul returns later in the Best of episode to do the more uptempo but, to my ear, less enjoyable "It Only Takes a Moment". Also in the original episode according to tv.com: _______ Mission: Impossible "The Bunker: Part 1" Originally aired March 2, 1969 The scientist in question is Dr. Erich Rojak (Milton Selzer). As leverage, the baddies are holding his wife, Anna (Lee Meriwether). Complicating matters to fill this out as a two-parter, an assassin from another, rival nation, Alexander Ventlos (Ray Baxter), is after Rojak and shares some skills with Rollin, allowing him to take the place of the security officer overseeing Rojak, Captain Praedo (Jack Donner, a.k.a. Tal from "The Enterprise Incident"). There's a brief bit of Rollin posing as a famous surgeon sans a disguise, though that didn't pay off in any way this episode. Cin goes brunette and Rollin makes masks of her face and Lee Meriwether's. You can see where this is going, right? The IMF rigs up a special effects display to make it seem like Colonel Ziegler (David Sheiner)'s convoy is being ambushed by automatic weapons fire, giving Jim the opportunity to bond with the Colonel under fire in his role as a newly assigned security officer. Brunette Major Cin shows up and Major Jim exposes her as an impostor and likely confederate of Ventlos, for whom Major Jim has developed a method of detection: a chemical solution hand stamp that registers on a Geiger counter-like device. Secure on the inside, Jim puts Barney's remote control UFO (demonstrated in the briefing, of course) in a ventilation shaft for purposes unseen this episode. In another bit of Part 2 setup, Colonel Z shows Jim how the door to Rojak's lab can only be opened by one of three voices. They make it seem like this is an automated system, but for some reason this involves printing out a transparency of the voice print and manually viewing it on a lit panel without even a display of the correct voice print against which to compare it. Cin is taken to Stat Securit HDQ, where Mrs. Rojak is being held. Stakeout Painter Willy sneaks in, frees Mrs. R, and has Cin--who was wearing the mask of her own face over the mask of Lee Meriwether's--take her place. The episode ends on a fairly weak cliffhanger of Willy and the real Mrs. R escaping via a winch up an incinerator shaft while the fire is being lit below them. I hadn't been noticing them much lately, but this one's chock full of Gellerese signs. _______ The Avengers "Who Was That Man I Saw You With?" Originally aired March 3, 1969 (US); March 19, 1969 (UK) Early in the episode, Tara's engaged in an infiltration exercise to test the security of a computerized missile defense system, wearing what's supposed to be camouflage makeup, but it looks a little too minstrel show...and it's not like she was threatening to blend in with anything in the brightly lit complex. On a different note, if she's supposed to be making repeated attempts at the security, it doesn't make a lot of sense for the director there to explain how each security measure that stops her works. And FWIW, the security measures that foil her attempts were designed by Steed. It's a bit ludicrous how easily and fully some planted circumstantial evidence spotted by another agent turns Mother against Tara. And for some reason Mother doesn't seem to know about Tara's infiltration assignment, as he considers it suspicious that she's requisitioned cameras, which she's been using on that assignment. Steed cleary does know about her assignment, but doesn't bring it up in her defense. And Mother's version of house arrest involves having an agent sitting in her apartment twitching at her every move with a gun drawn. Tara doesn't help matters by allowing herself to be so easily implicated. Does she always go wherever anonymous phone callers tell her to? (That's a rhetorical question....it's proven to be a common method of setting up our protagonists on this show.) The description writer spoils a brief twist that occurs well into the episode in which Tara--free of her minder and on the run--plants similar circumstantial evidence against Steed just to convince him that she was framed. Steed brings an elderly lip-reader to Mother (who's operating out of a dungeon this episode) to prove that the enemy agents Tara was filmed talking to were saying innocuous things to her like asking for directions. The episode's main villain is about as pretentious as Mother. At his lair he sits in an area roped off like a boxing ring constantly being primped--getting facials, pedicures, etc. He also seems to be under the impression that once that defense system is taken down, an attack on Britain will be imminent. I'm pretty sure that's not how nuclear deterrence works. In the middle of the episode, Steed lifts a house of cards that he'd built as if it's glued together, but Tara tries and it collapses. Then in the coda, he creates a champagne fountain by stacking several glasses one inside the other and pouring into the top glass. He should have been on Sullivan. _______ Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Season 2, episode 22 Originally aired March 3, 1969 Gladys and James Garner: Various female cast members trying to shake hands with James Garner becomes a recurring gag throughout the episode. After James walks offstage with Chelsea in a suggestive manner... Dick Smothers: Hey, Tommy, I finally figured out why this show is so popular. You see, the straight man has a mustache and his partner's a dumbbell. And you know, they do satirical material and they're always in trouble with the censors. Tommy Smothers: Why didn't we think of that? Another new segment, We Can't Top This. The New Discovery of the Week: The First String Quartet of Beautiful Downtown Burbank. James Garner introduces the News segment: A book-themed Cocktail Party: The Fickle Finger of Fate goes to the Winchester Rifle Company: The closing Joke Wall, featuring James Garner: _______ Their wedding's next week...this is Paul and Linda's moment. I included this because its album is on the Rolling Stone albums list. Vital stats: Kick Out the Jams MC5 Released Feb. 1969 Debut: Mar. 8, 1969 Peak (#30): May 10, 1969 RS500: #294 It's noteworthy as an example of a retroactively designated genre known as proto-punk. I chose to bypass it because punk isn't really my thing and definitely isn't what I'm looking for in '60s music. I like plenty of the earlier garage rock that also gets lumped under the "proto-punk" label, but the 1969 variety is getting a bit hardcore for my ear. Pretty meh for a combo consisting of two of the greatest Motown groups. What's that? I'm not hearing or seeing it. That the singer wants the woman to whom he's singing is pretty obvious from the get-go. To repurpose a couple of lines from Peter, Paul & Mary: They've got a good thing goin' / Where the words don't get in the way. Now we're funkin'! The '60s aren't going down without a fight. Now I'm picturing Jack Webb as a starship captain....
With Jack Webb as the Captain, Spock could have remained his original grinning, shouty self for contrast. _______ 50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2 of 2) _______ Ironside "A Drug on the Market" Originally aired March 6, 1969 The episode opens with Ironside having a candlelight dinner in the Cave with an old friend, recently widowed Karen Martin (Betsy Jones-Moreland). (Seems like we've seen them pull this angle more than once before.) We learn that her brother, Avery Corman (Ray Danton), is now running her husband's lab. The date ends badly when Ironside discovers that she's carrying a small handgun in her purse and she doesn't want to answer his questions about it. We soon see her hearing or imaging distorted voices in her car telling her that she has four days left, causing her to scream while a cabbie watches and drive into a hydrant. At the hospital they find a high amount of barbiturates in her bloodstream, such that the Chief thinks the pills she's been taking have been switched. He learns that she's been getting threatening phone calls. After she returns home, she's seemingly attacked in an incident involving a scalding hot shower. Her brother has a merger in the works that relies on a new drug being approved, and he doesn't want nosy cops like Ed catching wind of either from Dr. Braven (Fred Beir). The investigation finds that the switched capsules Karen's been taking were manufactured by his lab, and she's threatening to turn over evidence of fraud on his part because his drug his fatal side effects, and she thinks that he's the one trying to make her look crazy because of this. Another incident happens, in which she gets a phone call accompanied by a recording of the voice playing and lights turning on and off uncontrollably. She runs outside to be frightened into fainting by a man who seems to be pretending to fall dead from being stabbed in the back. However, we learn in the aftermath that the man's body was found, and that he was the gardener. Karen tells Ironside about what she has on her brother, but finds the evidence missing from her safe. Team Ironside investigates that angle only to find that nobody known to have used the drug has suffered harmful side effects. A final incident involves Avery breaking into the house and Karen shooting at her with a gun left lying around by Judith Corman (Victoria Shaw), whom I initially assumed was supposed to be Avery's wife, but maybe it was supposed to be another sibling using the maiden name, which would make sense of an earlier line from Avery about how Braven was bird-dogging his sister, which gave me the initial impression that he was talking about Karen. Whoever the hell Judith was supposed to be, I suspected her early on due to her being conspicuously friendly and helpful to Karen while also being omnipresent around the house (where most of the incidents were taking place) and having unlimited access to Karen's life. And it turns out that the real culprits are Judith and Braven, who wanted to manipulate Karen into murdering Avery so that they'd be the ones to benefit from the merger, and who killed the gardener for reasons that can be guessed at, but were left confusingly unspecified. _______ Star Trek "The Savage Curtain" Originally aired March 7, 1969 Stardate 5906.4 See my post here. _______ Adam-12 "Log 152: A Dead Cop Can't Help Anyone" Originally aired March 8, 1969 The episode opens in the locker room with Reed eating up Wells's "war stories". On patrol, he and Malloy get a call for a 415 family dispute, probable gun involved. Barry Williams's mom (not yet Florence Henderson) is being threatened by her boyfriend. Wells rushes into the situation, busting down the door and getting shot at. In the aftermath, MacDonald chews out Malloy because it was supposed to be his call, and Pete doesn't tell him what really happened, obviously not wanting to point the finger at Wells. The next call is a 288 possible kidnapping in progress. Reed and Malloy quickly find the car described already pulled over (after an edit, which makes it unclear if they pulled it over), and the boy runs out. Reed frisks and cuffs the man who was driving, then learns that the boy is his son, who's been acting up because he doesn't want to get a haircut! The man understands the situation when they explain that given what they knew going in, he could have been a molester. The officers then get a call to direct traffic at the location of a broken signal, and we skip to the locker room, where Malloy gives Wells a good, Fridayesque chewing out over the earlier incident and his overall attitude. The next call if for all units in the vicinity of One-Adam-47 (Wells's unit), 415 man with a shotgun. Reed and Malloy pull up to see Wells rushing up to the house and taking a shot, while his partner is pinned down by fire. Malloy hangs jackets over the windows on one side of the car and pulls up on the lawn in front of Wells, he and Reed lying low in the car and dragging Wells into the vehicle while being fired at. Once Wells is out of the line of fire, Malloy takes charge of the other units arriving, giving orders over the PA. Mac shows up, has Malloy get the gas rifle ready, and warns the shooter over the PA. The shooter tosses his rifle out the door and surrenders. Back at the station, Mac compliments Malloy and Reed on their handling of the situation and says that Wells will be out of commission for a month. The officer drop by the hospital to visit him and comfort his upset wife (Barbara Baldavin) outside the room. They proceed to have a brief, friendly talk with Ed, but excuse themselves as he starts to tell one of his stories, leaving the other men in the ward at his mercy. _______ Get Smart "Leadside" Originally aired March 8, 1969 There's no particularly clever spoofery of Ironside going on here. The villain, a cultured art thief whom Max has defeated in the past thanks to dumb luck, is wheelchair-bound and in headquartered in the back of a moving van, where his chair rolls forwards and backwards as the van stops and goes at traffic lights. Paul Carr plays Norman, one of his two henchpeople. One gag has Leadside running into a room to his waiting char, and we learn that he can run but he can't walk or stand still. Norman falls out Max's apartment window during a fencing duel between Leadside and Max in which he's pushing the wheelchair back and forth. The Chief: Nothing new yet...on that dragnet. Larabee: Well that's my favorite show! _______ Hogan's Heroes "The Big Dish" Originally aired March 8, 1969 The beginning of the episode has Hogan making an overnight flight to London for a meeting with the Allied brass about the new radar system developed by Steele's character, Lady Valerie Stanford. When Hogan meets with her where she's staying in town near Stalag 13, she tells him that she has German friends being held hostage and hints that she has a surprise in store for the Germans. But back at the Stalag when the test is to be conducted, she attempts to implicate Hogan. He has the prisoners sabotage the radar and then convinces Hochstetter that she's a British agent. Hochstetter (offering Klink his Luger): If you have one ounce of brains left you vill take this and blow zem out! At one point, the group chants "We know nothing, nothing!" in unison as they usher Schultz out of the barracks. Hogan trying to call off an Allied bomber strike makes me think about the possibility of a 12 O'Clock High crossover.... Diiiiisss-missed! _______ I hadn't noticed that!
Not exactly the greatest artist of all time, but he somehow managed to have Top 40 hits in three decades. Okay, either she was looking pretty puffy at this point or Rollin's mask-making technique really does involve sorcery. It seems to have been a pretty popular plot in those days. You would think that would be standard procedure for their agency, whatever it is. Not that it would prevent spies from talking in seemingly innocuous code phrases. We should really be referring to the Avengers universe as the Fetish-Verse. Why not? Rollin and Cinnamon were on Laugh-In. Sorry. Ditto. Maybe I drifted off because it was boring, but I thought the execution was funny. "Don't give in to him-- give in to ME." Still aren't, just fighting on more fronts now. CGI could make this happen. What I'd really like to see is a TOS-era series with Lloyd Bridges as the captain and Martin Landau as the first officer, since they were both considered for those roles. Gardening is a profession with a surprisingly high mortality rate. Geez, people, why don't you just hike up the price of the medicine and bleed the insurance companies, like everybody else does. Another plot that should have gotten its own episode. Very exciting for Adam-12. I wonder if all this was a bit of a poke at other, more action-oriented shows. This is a really sick show.
I neglected to mention that the ones posted above will be the last Top 30 hits for both Booker T. & The M.G.'s and The Cowsills. The Easy Listening crowd still had some pull in those days. Gotta give Grandma something to listen to besides those dirty hippies. This didn't phase me at all given M:I lifelike mask logic as established thus far. I was thinking that, but Steed and Tara need all the breaks they can get working for a pompous, semi-competent buffoon like Mother. And Greg Morris "sang" on this week's Sullivan, though it didn't make Best of. More on that when I get to the weekly write-up. I hadn't been thinking in those terms when watching it, but now that you mention it, that seems like a very good possibility.
Most interesting to me is the interior of the bomber. Many aspects of the B-52 were classified at the time, and only a few, un-detailed publicity photos of the inside had been published. Working from the exterior and what little was publicly available, Adam created an aircraft set that was so close to accurate that the Air Force assumed he had to have gotten some inside information, and he was paid a visit by the FBI. The ground combat scenes on the air force base have a great vérité feel. Only a few minutes of the film, but ahead of its time. The bomb run is pretty intense and could be plugged in to a totally serious movie. The incoming missile is never actually seen but the countdown as it zeroes in is very effective. This is maybe the movie I have seen the most times in my life, and the performance that I always enjoy the most is Sterling Hayden's. The way he goes from the order-barking general to the calm, strangely sincere nutjob is perfect, and nicely understated in contrast to Strangelove and Turgidson. His insane heart-to-heart with Mandrake is the high point of the movie for me.
Yeah, I read about that. I also read that they didn't let Slim Pickens see the rest of the script, so that he'd play his role more straight. I wanted to include one of his clips, but choices had to be made. But hey, new day, new post...here are the Fandango Movie Clips from the cutting room floor: Hayden as the General in his relatively straight moments sort of reminded me of Robert Lansing as General Savage on 12 O'Clock High.
True enough, but it's also one of those things that added to the variety that was in Top 40 music of the day. I wonder how many layers are possible. It also makes me wonder if we've ever seen the real Rollin.... Steed should just stage a coup. I guess the quotation marks explain why.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chameleon_(comics) Maybe that's why the series ended when it did. I'm assuming that the Sullivan performance was done in the same style as the studio version that I found...spoken word against lush strings. ETA: Beatle Brunch on Sirius's Beatles Channel was playing a block of Linda-themed songs this morning in commemoration of the anniversary.
I remember seeing the Searchers first (and maybe only) Sullivan appearance. I remember the lead singer who was the band's drummer trying his best to send the girls in the audience into a frenzy, and alas, failing. However I did like Needles and Pins. Very Beallesque. I was a HUGE Sly fan back then. Still like them a lot especially from this period. Ha ha! Was getting ready to post this. The Jackson 5 didn't hit until 1970 I believe, maybe '69, long after Sing a Simple Song had left the upper reaches of the charts. If I'm not mistaken, Sly released There's A Riot Going On in about 1970 as well.
The only solid relationship among the Beatles. Dysfunction was the third wheel in the unions of the other three. So close to the end of TOS' production, and they continued to create truly otherworldly alien creature designs/costumes, which is ironic, as The Next Generation--a series that was allegedly more technically sophisticated was just as known for its overuse of "bumpy forehead" make-up applications as anything else about the show, but TOS always pressed forward with innovations that are impressive some 50 years later.
The verse with the Jesus references was conspicuously omitted from the Cowsills' bubble-gummish cover version.
^^ I didn't even notice that. No? Or a little too much variety? Could be. Or... a Skrull! Probably would have been a better ending for The Avengers than it was for The Prisoner. Ah, he Shatnerized it.
50 years ago this week...looks like even America's favorite beagle had Moon Fever. And alas, this doesn't appear to have made it into The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show. "I Want You Back" will be entering the chart, and the Jackson 5 debuting on Sullivan, late in '69, but the single will peak at the top in early 1970. I was resisting going there before, not wanting to open the can of worms, but I guess it's better to say it before their wedding week: My ex made a pretty convincing argument that John and Yoko's relationship was unhealthy and that, had he lived, he might have eventually gotten out. I'd read about that...just listened to the original Broadway cast recording on YT to hear the difference. Hey, it's up to you if you want me to visualize you swinging in my Grandma's kitchen to the sound of WSBT radio on the AM. But Chameleon not only has the double-mask thing going on, but the mask underneath looks like it wouldn't allow for much expression through it and doesn't even have a pronounced nose. So how does he presumably get lifelike expression through a mask on top of that? Well, I was saving this for the weekly show write-up, but since it's out of the bag already... "Soul Legend" my ass!