Rant #2,289: I Heard It Through the Grapevine For Once In My Life the Love Child was the Wichita Lineman and it was Stormy

Today is December 28, the final Friday in the 2018 calendar year.

I won't ever rate this year very highly in my list of "Best Years of My Life" (don't worry, there are no more "Best of" lists in our future here right at the moment), but 2018 is what it is and will soon be was what it was.

Good riddance.

But let's go back 50 years, to this exact date, December 28, 1968--what were you doing and what were you listening to on your AM radio?

Back at my house, we were probably listening to WABC, the AM powerhouse that back then, you could even pick up as far away as in Florida--that is how far its reach was.

That was a much different time than now, but I don't think 1968 itself would go down as one of out better years, as it was, of course, the year that we lost Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King.

But whatever the case, we listened to music to bathe our grief, lift us up and make us feel good, even in the midst of a terrible year.

So here is what we were listening to exactly 50 years ago, the top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, when being in the top 10 on this chart actually meant something.

Coming in at No. 1 was Marvin Gaye's classic "I Heard It Through the Grapevine. This song had been around for a few years before it hit with Gaye, as a song originally done by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. And, of course, who could forget Gladys Knight and the Pips' version? Gaye gives one of the best vocal performances of his career with this song, and how sad is it that he, like Kennedy and King, had his life ended by gun violence?

The second most popular song in the country 50 years ago was "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder, which meant that two Motown songs topped the chart this week. This tune was just another great song from this musical genius, who was all of 18 years old when this song hit the big time.

Coming in at No. 3 was "Love Child" by Diana Ross and the Supremes, so we have to update what we said, the top three songs on the chart came out of Motown, not the top two. Ross and the girls didn't do too many "political" songs, but this one was one of them, and it is one of their best.

The fourth top song on the chart, and the first non-Motown tune, was "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell. The ace guitarist was at his hottest as a performer at this time, having hits with Jimmy Webb songs, hosting his own TV show and getting his feet wet on the silver screen. This song is a certifiable classic, one of the best country/rock/adult contemporary hits ever.

Rounding out the top five songs on this week's list was "Stormy" by the Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost. Yes, this is an atmospheric hit from the same people who brought us "Spooky," and it stands as one of the most mellowest of hits from this turbulent decade.

At No. 6 was a song for the that time and that place if there ever was one. "Abraham, Martin and John" by Dion musically told of us the journey the three people in mind in the song had taken, and the journey we, as a country, had taken with them. It was as heartfelt a song that ever reached the Hot 100, and Dion's vocals are absolutely magnificent.

Song No. 7 on the chart was another Motown tune, this one a concoction where Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations met on a very popular TV special and conquered our aural senses. "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" put the top two Motown singing groups together on one record, and we went for it lock, stock and barrel. It also features what I believe is one of Ross' best vocals.

In the eighth position on the chart is one of the few "fun" songs on the upper reaches of the Hot 100 for this week, Johnnie Taylor's "Who's Making Love" from Stax Records. Stax's music appealed to both blacks and whites and was grittier than Motown's was, and this is a good example of that, one of the label's biggest hits.

Coming in at No. 9 was Bobby Vinton's "I Love How You Love Me." I was never much of a fan of Vinton's, but his run of hits had mass appeal during this period, and it is a good counterpart to the previous song on the chart: one gritty, the other pappy, to say the least.

Rounding out the top 10 was yet another Motown tune, "Cloud Nine: by the Temptations. I mean, what a great song this is! Mixing soul and psychedelia, this tune might just be the best song the guys ever recorded. I saw them at Westbury Music Fair during the summer when this song was just breaking, and the love that this tune projected to the audience has stuck with me forever!

The highest debuting single on the Hot 100 for this week was "Daddy Sang Bass" by Johnny Cash. Although still more country than rock or pop, Cash, like Campbell, was expanding his audience at the time with a weekly TV variety show. This song, which was written by Carl Perkins and featured background vocals by the Statler Brothers, came in at No. 64, but only got up to No. 42 on the chart a few weeks later.

Teh biggest mover on the chart--the song that moved up the most places from the previous week's chart to this one--was "Hey Jude." No, not the Beatles' former No. 1 song, but a cover version by Wicked Wilson Pickett, featuring Duane Allman on guitar. The singer was covering a number of songs to chart success 50 years ago, putting his own spin on songs like "Sugar Sugar" and "Abraham, Martin and John" ("Cole, Cooke and Redding"), but this was the first of these covers, and it moved up from No. 90 last week to No. 43 this week, a jump of 47 places. The single eventually lost steam, and only got up to No. 23.

So there you have it. While the world was still in mourning over the deaths of Kennedy and King, we were trying to put an end to our grief listening to Motown and to Dion's epic tune about those we have lost.

It wasn't a great time in our country's history, but the music was absolutely incredible, serving to soothe our country and make us feel a bit better about ourselves and our future.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.